Abstract
In the vernacular stories of the Song and Yuan dynasties, centos of poems or ci-poems not only appear in the beginning of the story as a lead-in, but also widely exist in the rhymed texts of other parts. Judging by its content and form, the performance of centos is closely related to the art form of hesheng (a form of rhyme created upon sighting anything) in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. According to the audience's familiarity with the rhymed text, and the story-teller＇s categorization of knowledge and utilization of techniques, the centos in the story-telling scripts can be classified into explicit and implicit centos. Thus, the performance of centos, based on the story scripts, become a special way to promote refined literature. Drawing on the pervasive verse in the vernacular stories of the Song and Yuan dynasties, centos can be considered as a common feature of the rhymed texts in stories. Technically, all the centos may come from rhymed texts, which, in turn, can be composed by gathering centos.
Keywords
vernacular stories in the Song and Yuan dynasties, rhymed texts, cento, categorizing feature, story- telling function
First Page
81
Last Page
92
Recommended Citation
Ye, Chuyan. 2021. "Cento: The Categorizing Feature and Fictional Function of Verse in the Vernacular Stories of the Song and Yuan Dynasties." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (1): pp.81-92. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss1/8
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