A study of Ma Chih-yuan's san ch'u and tsa chu lyrics.

摘要

The fourteenth century Yuan dynasty brought China's last indigenous literary genre, the ch'u to its florescence. Socio-economic and political challenges posed by the foreign occupation of the Mongols shook Chinese society to its roots. This course of events catapulted the scholar official out of the seat of political power, to the bottom rung of the social ladder.;Ma Chih-yuan, who thrived during the Mongol occupation, has been heralded as one of China's greatest dramatists. His works include seven extant plays and a compiled anthology of san ch'u, non-dramatic lyrics.;This dissertation examines the salient features of his writings with particular focus on his use of language. Stock phrases, colloquialisms, historical allusions and imagery highlight both prosodic conventions and innovations present in his dramatic and non-dramatic lyrics. The evolution of the ch'u genre is traced through its classical antecedents, the role of foreign influences and its relationship to music. Ma Chih-yuan's literary themes are discussed with illustrations from both his dramatic and non-dramatic lyrics. A complete translation of his san ch'u anthology is included in the text with full annotations.;From a literary standpoint, the cessation of the state civil service examinations freed the lyricist to explore the dramatic idiom unhampered by the constraints of earlier classical poetic styles. The end result was a linguistic melting pot unsurpassed in its bold blending of classical and vernacular language.