A Study of the Criticism and Adaptation of "The Peony Pavilion" in Ming Dynasty
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Chen, Huey-Jen
Abstract
Abstractn Ming Dynasty the dramatist Tang Hsien-tsu created The Peony Pavilion, which was extremely popular as soon as it was released. It was because its excellent drama language, contents and art skills. Within which, the content whose focus was on affection had great influence on the composing of the Ming and Ching dramas. Because it was well-loved, it received reviews from everywhere. Some drama critics criticized the play, some adaptors adapted it and the first budding drama criticism also joined the discussion. The Peony Pavilion arose great and multiple reviews, in which the criticism and adaptation are the ones which were worth studying. This dissertation is based on the criticisms and adaptation of The Peony Pavilion, and discusses the inner meaning of the criticisms and adaptations by analyzing, explaining and comparing. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this dissertation is divided into five chapters. hapter 1 : The criticism of The Peony Pavilion in Ming dramas. The criticism of this kind focused on the discussion of the narrative and the dramatic rhythm. In the narrative level, critics explored the origin of the play, pointed out the particularity of the plot in The Peony Pavilion. Besides, the rhythm of The Peony Pavilion is the most criticized. The critics considered that Tang, Hsien-tsu failed to understand the rhythm. All in all, although the discussion of the narrative level had touched the materials topic ,and the language, there was few discussion of the plot and the portray of the characters.hapter 2:The critical concepts presented in the criticism of The Peony Pavilion. First: the interpretation of the love concepts in The Peony Pavilion. Second: the analysis of the plot and structure. Third: the criticism of the creation of the characters. Basically, the criticism of The Peony Pavilion in Ming Dynasty was still restrained by its form. It was still within the field of narrative literature but the essence of drama was not fully discussed.hapter 3: The adaptation features and flaws of the adaptation. The merits and flaws of the adaptations of the The Peony Pavilion. Shen, Jing’s Ton Mong Ji and Xu ,Ri Xie’s Shuo Yuan Shan Ting Mu Tan Ting, while the existence of Lu Shih kai Peng is doubted. Shen Jing’s adaptation modified the rhyme and rhythm; Xu Ri-Xie’s adaptation had little change in the words but just shorten the length. Besides, The Fragmented highlight, which was also a form of adaptation, had already been performed in Ming Dynasty. Its goal is to simplify the plot, reduce the repertoire, and enhance the stage effect. hapter 4: The adaptation and criticism of Tsang Mao-Hsun’s Hwan Hwen Ji. The focus of this adaptation are on the rhythm and the plot. Tsang,Mao-Hsun adapted The Peony Pavilion for the sake of the stage performance.hapter 5: the adaptation and criticism of Feng,Menglong’s Romantic Dream not only revised and changed the plot and repertoire but replaced with his own verses, which made his adaptation different from the original. His adaptation was also focused on rhythm and plot structure. Feng,Menglong’s contribution is to fully recognize the of stage effect drama and to view stage performance as final destination. Therefore, his hints for performance had been seen in the criticism, and stage decoration and costumes are also mentioned, which had reached the field of directing. he criticism and the adaptation of The Peony Pavilion played an significant part in the development of drama theory history. Related studies about The Peony Pavilion all held similar perspectives, which was to thoroughly understand the essential characteristics of dramatic play, to reveal the importance of stage performance and the emphasis on the narration of the dramatic play. All in all, the criticism and the adaptation of The Peony Pavilion made people know more about its art achieve and contributed to its classic position in Chinese drama literature.
Subjects
Ming Dynasty
Tang Hsien-tsy
Peony Pavilion
Criticism
Adaptation
Type
thesis
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