History of Ming and Qing Dynasty Legends

Author: Guo Yingde
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-05-01
Features: This book showcases the entire process of the legendary opera's emergence and decline during the Ming and Qing dynasties, thus presenting a complete life history of the legendary opera. In a broad sense, the legendary refers to various extraordinary stories narrated in folk storytelling. In a narrow sense, the legendary refers to a specific genre of narrative in folk storytelling. The names of ancient Chinese culture are often quite chaotic and quite vague. On one hand, a literary form name usually refers not only to one type of literary form but also to multiple different literary forms; in other words, different literary forms often share the same connotation in terms of name. On the other hand, even when a literary form name refers to a specific literary form, it carries a quite broad connotation; in other words, a culture often has a quite broad and complex extension. In light of this, our research on the history of legendary opera in the Ming and Qing dynasties would be better off not following Confucius' ancient saying "It is necessary to rectify names," but rather starting with the identification of literary forms.