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Contents of the Play

Scenes from The Story of the Western Win, painted by Chinese artist Qiu Ying 仇英 (ca. 1494-1552), collected by Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery now [1]

Play I, Burning Incense and Worshiping the Moon

Play II, Icy Strings Spell Out Grief

Play III,Feelings Transmitted by Lines of Poetry

Play IV, A Clandestine Meeting of Rain and Clouds

Play V, A Reunion Ordained by Heaven

Cultural Influences

Since the first performance, "The Romance of the Western Chamber" has become the most popular love comedy in China. Nowadays, it still actively performs in the stage.In the original traditional forms of art performance, such as Kun Opera and Beijing Opera, and other new forms of performance like musical and film. The resourceful maidservant Hongniang in the story is so prominent that evolves from a supporting role to an indispensable main character, becoming the synonym of marriage matchmaker in Chinese culture.In some local plays, even is named by her name, and the story itself is only slightly changed.The Romance of the Western Chamber also had profound influences on other literary works, such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", the first of China's Four Great Classical Novels, and the another famous play The Peony Pavilion in Ming Dynasty. Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu read "Romance of the Western Chamber" together is a very famous plot in the "Dream of the Red Chamber".In the chapter twenty- three, Lin daiyu was surprised to find that Jia baoyu was reading the play because on Qing Dynasty, this is book was forbidden to read. At first, Baoyu tried to hide the book, but he could not hide from her.Later, he expressed his love for Lin Daiyu through the famous sentences from the book.

Artistic achievement

闵齐伋绘刻西厢记彩图卷Painted by Min Qiji (1580-? )in Ming Dynasty

From the 13th century to the 21st century, many scenes from "The Romance of the western Chamber" decorated Chinese porcelain. Various previously not well-understood porcelain decorative themes was identifies and amplifies by it. It verifies some characteristics of porcelain decoration in different periods and considers the period of porcelain in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Through the investigation of some scenes from "The Romance of the Western Chamber", people can better understand the history of Chinese ceramic decoration and the overall characteristics of Chinese narrative art.For example, the image of Yingying burning incense in the garden has reached symbolic expression in Chinese art, which can help identify the ceramic decoration in Yuan and early Ming dynasties. As a reflection of people's interest in the Yuan dynasty, literary and dramatic scenes became popular as decorative patterns on so-called Zhizheng type porcelain, which is the highest quality blue and white porcelain produced during the Zhizheng period (1341-1367).

The performance of “The Romance of the Western Chamber" on porcelain cannot only be confined to the relation with Wang Shifu's drama in the 13th century, they are also related to the early poems, which were inspired by the stories of the Song dynasty, as well as the dramas and story-telling performances of songs in Jin dynasty. These early literary works apparently inspired painters and pottery decorators. The development of "The Romance of The Western Chamber" on porcelain is closely related to the evolution of images and styles in Chinese literature, opera, woodcut illustrations and paintings.

References

Wang, Shifu. “The Status of Wang Shifu’s Story of the Western Wing in Chinese Literature.” The Story of the Western Wing, by Stephen H. West and W. L. Idema, University of California Press, 1995, pp. 3–15.

Shifu Wang, Edited and Translated with an Introduction by Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema (1991). "The Story of the Western Wing". University of California Press.

SONG , Rui-bin. On the Role's Evolution of Hongniang in "The Romance of West Chamber". Jixi University,Jixi,Heilongjiang, May 2009, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23075932.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aaa74969e64dd0379542dc207c7496b1b

WEN-CHIN, H. (2011). ILLUSTRATIONS OF "ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER" ON CHINESE PORCELAINS: Iconography, Style, and Development. Ars Orientalis, 40, 39-107. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23075932