Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2013

Interactions between the Literati and the Yering: The Emergence of the Banyan Theory of the Ming Dynasty

(Abstract)

 

Guo Yingde and Wang Mengxiao

 

This study takes a perspective from the literati-Yering interactions and sees the Banyan Theory as an important text of socio-cultural phenomena. In this way, we can gain a better understanding of its generation mechanism and cultural functions. In the theatrical world of the Ming Dynasty, the literati played dual roles of “aristocratic civilians” and “civilian aristocrats.” On one hand, the literati class attempted to fine-tune and improve the Yering’s stage performance according to their own cultural tastes, enhance the cultural tastes of theatrical art, and to uphold the cultural traditions of elegance and grace. But on the other hand, they had to take into account the limitations in relation to stage practice such as the Yering’s stage performance and the audience’s demands, and made some compromise to cater to secular cultural interests. In the interactions and negotiations between the literati and the Yering, a new theatrical and cultural form that was intermediate between “profundity and superficiality, delicacy and simplicity, and elegance and popularity” emerged and became dominant.