Master Wang, whose real name is Dexin, is from Dingxing, Baoding City, Hebei Province. A famous zaju writer in Yuan Dynasty, he wrote the zaju The West Chamber. Wang Shifu is as famous as Guan Hanqing, Bai Pu and Ma Zhiyuan. His works fully inherited the exquisite language art of Tang poetry and Song poetry, absorbed the lively oral language of the people in the Yuan Dynasty, created a brilliant vocabulary of Yuan opera, and became an outstanding representative of the "literary school" in the history of China opera.
The Romance of the West Chamber originated from the legendary novel Yingying Biography written by Yuan Zhen in Tang Dynasty, but it was adapted from Dong Jieyuan's Romance of the West Chamber in Jin Dynasty. It is almost the same as Dong Xixiang in plot, but it has been further processed, developed and perfected in all aspects, which makes the drama conflict more intense and the characters more vivid, especially in psychological description, which is meticulous, accurate and fascinating.
Introduction to the Existing Manuscripts of The West Chamber
The Romance of the West Chamber is the manuscript written by Wang Shifu, a famous playwright in Yuan Dynasty, which is called Wang Shifu Draft for short. The manuscript is slightly yellowed and worn, and it is filled with 2 1 page ink. It was originally an old collection of the imperial palace in the early Qing Dynasty, with the seal of "Precious Reward from the Sincere House". Wang Shifu's calligraphy is natural and fluent, which shows the author's extraordinary calligraphy skills and literary accomplishment.
The jute paper manuscript is 23.2 cm long and 13.8 cm wide, including 20 pages and 2 residual pages. It is the only Wang Shifu opera script found in China, which has extremely high literature value and art collection value. It is a milestone in the history of China's drama development, and it is a rare original work of Yuan Zaju at home and abroad.