The Eight-legged Essay and the Development of Structure of Chuanqi Drama in the Late Ming Dynasty 八股制藝與明末傳奇結構的發展

The structure of the Ming chuanqi drama carries significant importance in its composition. During the late Ming Dynasty, these dramas often comprised thirty or even sixty acts. The organization and structure of such lengthy chuanqi drama became a concern for literati playwrights of the time. Previous studies have indicated that the structure of the eight-legged essay affected the construction of literati chuanqi dramas. For instance, Jin Shengtan’s drama criticism and Li Yu’s drama theory, which emerged in the early Qing Dynasty, drew inspiration from the structure of the eight-legged essay. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether this also inspired the composition of chuanqi dramas during the late Ming Dynasty before the emergence of Jin’s criticism and Li’s theory. Furthermore, previous discussions on the relationship between the eight-legged essay and the chuanqi drama structure often highlighted that the latter influenced the four-fold structure, i.e., introduction (qi), elucidation (cheng), transition (zhuan), and conclusion (he), as well as the symmetrical structures presented in chuanqi dramas. However, such structural features can be found in various classical Chinese literary genres, indicating that these observations are one-sided and lack scientific grounding. Since the eight-legged essay originates from the exegesis of Confucian classics, the Principal Investigator of this project believes that the genre’s structure is not solely inherited from the acquired structure of other literary genres but also constrained by the innate structure, tailored for “speaking on behalf of the sages.” Considering the historical and cultural context of the late Ming Dynasty, this project selects masterpieces of chuanqi drama composed by twenty representative playwrights of the time as examples. It examines the innate structure and acquired structure of the eight-legged essay as double filters, aiming to explore whether the intervention of the structure of the eight-legged

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)