Yuan Zaju

It was after long years of development that the Chinese local opera, Yuan zaju, came into being during the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). It is a relatively matured form of opera appropriately integrating music, singing, dancing, performing and speaking.

Snow in Midsummer

The rise of Yuan zaju made the Yuan Dynasty the golden age of Chinese opera. Within less than one hundred years, according to records, there were more than 200 recorded playwrights and more than 700 zaju scripts. Yuan zaju provided image of the social reality of that time from every aspect and expressed the people’s wish of resisting the oppression and pur-suit of happy life.

Guan Hanqing was the greatest and most prolific playwright of the Yuan Dynasty. He created over 60 plays, of which 18 still exist. Most of them reflected on the misery and struggles of women at the bottom of society and highly praised their wisdom and courage. His representative work The Grievance of Dou’e (also translated as Snow in Midsummer) is the best-known of the zaju tragedies. It tells of a kind-hearted young woman named Dou’e, who was falsely accused and thrown into prison by the local authorities, and was finally sentenced to death. On the execution ground, she predicted that blood would be splashing and that it would snow in June with great drought lasting for three years. As expected, all of them came true. With an intense tragical impression throughout the play, the author expressed his indignation and sympathy for the weak in society. Guan’s plays had great influence on the development of drama of later generations. He is not only the greatest drama composer in China, but also one of the cultural celebrities of the world.

Wang Shifu was another renowned playwright of that period. Throughout his whole life, Wang had written altogether 14 plays, of which The west Chamber was considered as the masterpiece in the history of Chinese drama. This play, through the love story of Cui Yingying and Zhang Sheng, highly praised their courage in the pursuit of a free marriage and in the opposition to feudal ethics, conveying that “All those in love shall be wedded.” The main characters such as Cui Yingying, Zhang Sheng and Hong Niang are widely known in China.

Besides that, other well-known playwrights include Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Pu, Zheng Guangzu and Ji Junxiang, etc. Like the Tang poetry and Song Ci poetry, Yuan zaju also holds a very high position in the history of Chinese literature. Many plays of Yuan zaju are still performed on the stage nowadays, and some have been made into films and TV plays, which have exerted a broad influence. In the 18th century, The Orphan of the Zhao Family was introduced to Europe and then converted into a play entitled The orphan of China, catching the global attention.

 

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Author: Amoytrip---Free China Travel Guide--Yuan Zaju
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