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  2. Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
  3. Double Jeopardy: A Critique of Seven Yüan Courtroom Dramas

Double Jeopardy: A Critique of Seven Yüan Courtroom Dramas

Ching-Hsi Perng
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Traditionally, criticism of plays from the Yüan Dynasty (1260–1368) has been dominated by the so-called poetic and socialist schools. Double Jeopardy instead rigorously evaluates a group of plays by aesthetic criteria generated from within the works themselves. It examines seven courtroom plays with special attention to language and the manipulation of dramatic characters—undoubtedly the most reliable indicators of the playwright's strength and craftsmanship in such a stylized art form as Yüan tsa-chü drama.

The analytical method adopted in Double Jeopardy is textual explication of the conventions of genre and the individual characteristics of each play. The innovation and creative vitality of each playwright emerges through close scrutiny of selected conventional aspects of courtroom dramas: the functions and placement patterns of lyric, verse, and prose as well as the custom of a single singing role and its implication for the presentation of dramatis personae.

Because Yüan drama is driven by conventions, Perng demonstrates a method that can be applied not just to judgment reversal plays but to Yüan dramatic criticism as a whole. In pursuing a method of textual explication, Perng provides a basis on which a larger framework of criticism of Yüan drama may be built.

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Abbreviations
  • I. Preliminaries
  • A Historical Survey of Criticism
  • The “Poetic” School
  • The “Socialist” Cult
  • Some Modern Trends
  • Approach of the Present Study
  • The Texts
  • II. Language as Criterion in Yüan Drama Generally
  • The Best of the Class
  • The Mo-ho-lo Doll
  • Injustice to Tou Ngo
  • The Less-Than-Greats
  • The Gold Phoenix Hairpins
  • Rescue of a Filial Son
  • The Chalk Circle
  • The Less Satisfactory Plays
  • Judgment on the Kerchief
  • The Child Shen-nu-erh
  • III. The Manipulation of Characters
  • Conventionality versus Individuality
  • The villain
  • The victim
  • The judge
  • The Case of the Leading Role
  • The Major “Minors”: Three Examples
  • Mrs. Ma and Female Villainy
  • No Ordinary Innkeeper: Hairpins
  • Kao Shan: the “Born Loser” in Doll
  • IV. Postscripts
  • Structure and Theme
  • Summary
  • Appendix: Scenarios of the Judgment Reversal Plays
  • Notes
  • A Select Bibliography
Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program
Citable Link
Published: 1978
Publisher: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-90132-6 (open access)
  • 978-0-472-03799-5 (paper)
Series
  • Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies
Subject
  • Asian Studies:China
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