Chinese literature（3）
Part One: Yuan Qu
• In Chinese literature, Yuan Qu consists of
Sanqu and Zaju. Qu became popular
during the late Southern Song Dynasty,
and reached its highest popularity in Yuan
Dynasty, therefore it is often called Yuanqu.
Sanqu was a new poetic style popular in
Yuan dynasty.
Both sanqu and ci are lyrics written to fit a
particular melody, but sanqu differs from ci
in that it is more colloquial, and is allowed
to contain chenzi ("filler words" which are
additional words to make a more complete
meaning).
Zaju is a drama form, reflecting the reality of the
society and received warm welcome by the
people at that time. Zaju opera was the first
new force suddenly rising, whose emergence
marked the maturity of Chinese opera.
1.1 The category of Yuan Qu
Zaju
Yuan Qu:
Sanqu: 1)Santao
2)Xiaoling
There are two direct origins of Zaju in Yuan
Dynasty: one is a storytelling and singing
art form from the Song Dynasty to the Jin
Dynasty-Zhu Gongdiao; the other is a
playlet form that focuses on making funZaju of Song Dynasty and performers'
scripts of the Jin Dynasty.
• Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty is evolved by
inheriting characteristics of performers'
scripts of Jin Dynasty, combining many
features of Zhu Gong Diao and absorbing
elements from other folk crafts. After its
formation, Zaju quickly became popular in
northern China.
Sanqu can be further divided into xiaoling and
santao, with the latter comprising of more than
one melody.
Xiaoling is made up of a single piece of music.
The lines are not uniform in length, but have
certain format. Santao comprises over two
pieces of music of the same gong diao. Some
sanqu works are elegant and graceful, and
some bold and incisive.
1.2 Four Great Yuan Playwrights
Guan Hanqing : sobriquet "the Oldman of the Studio" (齋
叟 Zhāisǒu), produced about 65 plays, mostly in
Vernacular Chinese of the time, but nowadays only
fourteen of his plays are extant, including:
The Injustice to Dou E /Snow in Midsummer (感天动地窦
娥冤)
Saving the Dusty-windy /Saving the Prostitute /Rescued by
a Coquette (赵盼儿风月救风尘)
His works reflected the spirit of a fighter and
encouraged common people to fight against
oppression . The characters in the plays were
upright, courageous and rebellious. The Injustice
to Dou E was his masterpiece.
The Injustice to Dou E tells a tragic story of young
woman named Dou E and has been listed as
one of the ten great classical tragedies in China.
Ma Zhiyuan
courtesy name Dongli (东篱), a Chinese poet
and celebrated playwright
Among his achievements is the development and
popularizing of the new sanqu (散曲) lyric
form of poetry. The poem "Autumn Thoughts"
(秋思) from the book '东篱乐府' is the most
widely known of his sanqu poems.
Autumn Thoughts
Dry vine, old tree, crows at dusk,
枯藤老树昏鸦,
Low bridge, stream running, cottages,
小桥流水人家。
Ancient road, west wind, lean nag,
古道西风瘦马,
The sun sinking west,
And one with breaking heart at the sky’s edge.
夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯。
Zheng Guangzhu
Representative work: Qian Nu‘s Soul Fleeing
with Her Lover （Chinese: 倩女离魂）
Bai Pu
Representative work: Pei Shaojun and Li
Qianjun (Chinese: 墙头马上）
Part Two：Ming-Qing Novels
• The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the
prosperous periods in the history of Chinese
novels. From the Ming Dynasty, novel as a
literary form fully displayed its social
functions and literary values. The Qing
Dynasty was the period when classical
Chinese novels started to fall after reaching the
zenith and transit to modern novels.
• Novels of the Ming Dynasty can be mainly
divided into two categories, namely vernacular
short novels and full-length novels. By
subjects and contents, full-length novels of the
Ming Dynasty can be generally divided into
four types, namely historical novels, novels of
gods and spirits, secular novels and legal case
novels.
• Novels of the Qing Dynasty were mainly
created by literati. Although the literati
borrowed ideas from historical and legendary
materials, most of the works were based on the
reality. They fully embodied the authors'
wishes and became more and more mature in
structure, narration and figure depiction.
It was in this period that the four great Chinese
classical novels were written, namely,Journey
to the West, Water Margin , Romance of the
Three Kingdoms and A Dream of Red
Mansions.
Journey to the West
It was written by Wu
Cheng'en of the Ming
Dynasty. It is based on the
true story of a Tang Dynasty
monk who made a perilous
overland trip to India to fetch
back the Buddhist scriptures.
Journey to the West, which
depicts the story of Monk
Tang and his disciples going
west to seek for Sutra.
• The influence of Journey to the
West being so wide and lasting is
largely because it models the
Monkey King, the Pig Marshal,
Monk Tang and Monk Sha, etc.
into vivid figures with
independent personalities and
infectious power. Of these, the
most talked about and best
known is the Monkey King. He
is an omnificent humanized
monkey, mischievous and cute,
knowing precisely whom and
what to love or hate.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
• Luo Guanzhong, the author of Romance of the Three
Kingdoms, based his novel on both folk tales and
historical records of the conflicts between the
kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu , established by Cao
Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, respectively. Written in
the early Ming Dynasty, it was the first historical
novel to appear in China.
Water Margin
It was written at almost the same time as Three
Kingdoms, was written by Shi Nai'an. It is
based on folk tales about a band of rebels led
by Song Jiang at the close of the Northern
Song Dynasty. There are 108 heroes and
heroines in the novel, which is a savage satire
on official corruption and feudal oppression.
A Dream of Red Mansions
It also named Tale of the Rock, has 120 chapters,
of which the first 80 were written by Cao Xueqin,
and the remaining 40 by Gao E. With the tragic
love story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu as the
main theme, the novel describes the decline of
four feudal noble families. The novel is a
treasure house of information about the way
aristocratic families lived in the Qing Dynasty.
Strange Tales of Liaozhai
• Strange Tales of Liaozhai is
a well-known collection of
short stories written by Pu
Songlin of the Qing Dynasty.
The work is called "the No.1
book about vixen spirits and
ghosts". It is said that Pu
Songlin ran a teahouse
outside his home, offering
tea free of charge to passersby, from whom he gathered
material for the novel in
return.
Strange Tales of Liaozhai contains a total of 491
short stories, all of which are fascinating and
colorful, with vivid character portrayal. A lot of
the stories are about the worlds of human
beings, ghosts and spirits.
• The most well-known
stories include Xiao
Qian, Xi Fangping,
and The Painted Skin
etc. These stories are
extremely popular and
widely spread
Through the stories of vixen spirits and ghosts,
Strange Tales of Liaozhai indirectly reflects
the social contradictions and people's thoughts
and wishes of the 17th century China.
Assignments
1 What are the historical reasons for the
formation of Yuan Qu?
2 Please describe the artistic style of Yuan
Qu and its main writers.
3 What’s your favorite one in the Ming-Qing
Novels ? State some reasons.