A study of Li Kaixian's sanqu

Abstract



Li Kaixian (1502-1568), a scholar-official living in the mid-Ming dynasty, was renowned for his efforts in collecting books, both rare and common, and also for his talents in writing the literary genre called sanqu, a subcategory of the genre qu.

While qu consists of drama and sanqu, nonetheless the attention devoted to the latter has been much weaker than the former within the academic circle. In the case of Li Kaixian, his dramas such as The Tale of A Treasured Sword have been reviewed much more frequently than his sanqu compilations.

To fill up this gap, this thesis attempts to study in depth Li Kaixian?s sanqu. It is organized into 6 major chapters.

The first chapter comes with an introduction reviewing the status of Ming sanqu as a whole and its social-ideological background, including a literature review on the subject. To facilitate a better understanding of Li?s rationales in writing sanqu, the second chapter deals with his life and the themes of his sanqu. The third chapter is an analysis of his thoughts towards the writing of sanqu,

The fourth and fifth chapters mainly provide a critical review on Li?s sanqu, both thematically and aesthetically. The sixth chapter, a tentative evaluation of the status of Li?s sanqu, serves as the conclusion.