Xi-xiang-ji (English: Xi-xiang-ji)

Japanese: 西廂記 - せいそうき（英語表記）Xi-xiang-ji

A Chinese play from the Yuan Dynasty, in 21 acts, written by Wang Shifu. The story is about a traveling clerk, Zhang Qing, and the orphaned child of a prime minister, Cui Yingying, who meet at a famous temple in Shanxi Province, and end up marrying after many twists and turns thanks to the help of Yingying's maid, Hongniang. The prototype of this love story is the Tang Dynasty fantasy novel "The Legend of the Yingying" ("Hui Zhen Ji"), which later evolved into a folk tale and crystallized in the Jin Dynasty as Dong Xixiang's "Records of the Western Courts of the Emperor," also known as "Dong Xixiang." Wang Shifu followed the plot almost faithfully to "Dong Xixiang," achieving a wonderful harmony of literary and colloquial language, and made it into an unusually long play for a Yuan play, which generally has four acts per play. It was highly praised by such figures as Li Zhuowu of the Ming Dynasty and Jin Shengtan of the Qing Dynasty as a piece of literature that conveys the truth of humanity, and became one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of Chinese drama.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

中国，元代の戯曲。全 21幕。王実甫作。山西省のある名寺院でめぐり合った旅の書生張きょう (ちょうきょう) と宰相の遺児崔鶯鶯 (さいおうおう) が，鶯鶯の侍女紅娘のはからいで幾多の曲折ののち結ばれる物語。この恋愛物語の原型は唐代の伝奇小説『鶯鶯伝』 (『会真記』) にあり，その後民間の語り物として変形成長し，金代に董解元 (とうかいげん) の『諸宮調西廂記』，いわゆる『董西廂』として結晶した。王実甫は，筋をほぼ忠実にこの『董西廂』にとりつつ，文語と口語のみごとな調和を完成，1本4幕を原則とする元の戯曲としては異例の長編にまとめた。明の李卓吾，清の金聖嘆などにより人間性の真実を伝える文学として激賞され，中国戯曲史上最高傑作の一つとなった。

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