On Kunqu Performance of the Story of the Western Wing: From Kunqiang and Yiyangqiang in Ming Qing Dynasty to Contemporary Drama

• Main Authors: Hung, Yi-Jo, 洪逸柔
• Other Authors: 曾永義
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/47tw6g

博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 國文學系 === 106 === This thesis aims to clarify the factors resulting in the transformations of the Story of the Western Wing from Ming Qing dynasty until now, and thus proposes a new direction for the whole edition of the contemporary drama to develop. Upon released, the Story of the Western Wing is considered as a classic of literature and has been played continuously from Ming Qing dynasty until the modern period. However, it has also been influenced by multiple factors such as the change of script structure, interaction of tunes from various genres of drama, maturity of Kunqu Jiamen, changes of the environment and the taste in beauty, and heritage and creations of actors and so on. All these turned both south and north versions of the Story of the Western Wing from a whole edition into Kunqu Drama Fragments featuring mainly the performance of Jiamen and a drama more of entertainment rather than of lyrical affection. To verify these factors, the first two chapters explore the transformation of the scripts and system of performance of the Story of the Western Wing, respectively. The former inspects the evolution and integration of frequently played repertoires and essence of contents of both south and north version from late Yuan to Qing dynasty to understand the relative stable development of scripts in Qianjia period. Also, the dramas played in the court of Ming Qing dynasty are compared as complementary materials. The latter investigates the development, mentorship of actors and transforming rules of the performing system from Qianjia period to modern period to verify the principles and patterns of change of the onstage performance so as to grasp the essence of performing traditions as a reference of the heritage and innovation for the contemporary drama fragments of the Story of the Western Wing. Based on the above research, the third chapter discusses the divergent tendency of the Story of the Western Wing between scripts and onstage performances so as to elucidate difficulties of success of the Story of the Western Wing as a contemporary Kunqu in whole edition. Furthermore, four contemporary dramas are analyzed in the aspect of the balance between the theme of romance and the performing traditions to discuss the pros and cons and to conclude a new direction for the whole edition of the contemporary Kunqu drama of the Story of the Western Wing to evolve.