What are the Four Great Chinese Operas?

The four great Chinese operas are Wang Shifu's The West Wing; Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion; Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan; and Hong Sheng's The Palace of Eternal Youth .

The Palace of Eternal Youth and The Peach Blossom Fan are two peaks in the development of opera in the Qing Dynasty, and they also have a high status in Chinese opera, and are known as China's four great classical operas together with The Story of the Western Wing and The Peony Pavilion, which have always been y loved by the general public.

1. The Story of Cui Yingying in the West Wing (also known as The Story of the Western Wing, or Wang Xiyang and Beixiyang for short) is a miscellaneous drama written by Wang Shifu in the Yuan Dynasty, around the years of Yuan Zhen and Dade (1295~1307). The play tells the story of Zhang Sheng (Zhang Junrui), a scholar, and Cui Yingying, a young lady of the Sangguo, who, with the help of a maiden named Hongniang, break through the obstacles of Sun Feihu, Cui's mother, and Zheng Heng, and finally become husband and wife.

The play has a strong color of anti-feudalism. The author writes about young people's longing for love, the uncontrollable and reasonable nature of love and desire, and the conflict between the young people's own wishes and the will of their parents; he expresses the concept of love, "I wish that all the people in the world who are in love will become married".

The whole play is a magnificent system, using five books and twenty folds to perform a complete story in a row, which is rare in ancient miscellaneous dramas. The plot of the play is fascinating, the images are distinct and vivid, and the literary style is brilliant and highly poetic.

2. The Peony Pavilion Returning the Soul (abbreviated as Peony Pavilion, also known as Dream of Returning the Soul or Dream of Peony Pavilion) is a legend (play) written by Tang Xianzu, a playwright of the Ming Dynasty, which was published in the forty-fifth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1617).

The play depicts the story of Du Liniang, the daughter of an official family, who fell in love with Liu Mengmei, a scholar in her dream, and died of her love. She was transformed into a soul to look for her real lover, and the ghosts fell in love with each other, and finally came back to life, and finally tied up with Liu Mengmei forever. The play is written in elegant language.

3. "Peach Blossom Fan" is a legendary play written by Kong Shangren, a literary scholar of the Qing Dynasty, which was completed in June of the 38th year of the Kangxi period (1699), and was published in the first edition in the 47th year of the Kangxi period (1708).

The Peach Blossom Fan is a story that takes place in Nanjing at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The play focuses on the sadness and happiness of Hou Fangwei and Li Xiangjun, and shows the social reality of Nanjing at the end of the Ming Dynasty. It also exposes the reasons for the decline of the Hongguang regime, glorifies the national heroes and the grassroots who were loyal to the country, and shows the pain of the Ming dynasty's survivors who lost their country.

4. The Palace of Eternal Youth is a legend (drama) written by playwright Hong Sheng in the early Qing Dynasty,*** two volumes. The play was finalized in the 27th year of the Kangxi reign (1688).?

The whole play **** fifty episodes. The first half of the play is about Emperor Tang Minghuang and Yang Guifei, the oath of the Palace of Eternal Life, the rise of the Anshi Rebellion, the mutiny of Mawei, and the death of Yang Guifei in the yellow sands.

The second half of the book is mostly based on the rumors of wild history. It is written that Emperor Xuanzong misses his consort after the Anshi Rebellion and sends people to search for her soul everywhere; Yang Guifei also misses Emperor Tang Minghuang y and repents for the sins of his own life. Their sincerity touched the heavens. With the help of Vega and other stars, they were finally reunited in the Moon Palace.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Cui Yingying Staying for the Moon A Tale of the West Wing

Baidu Encyclopedia - Peony Pavilion A Tale of Returning the Soul

Baidu Encyclopedia - Peach Blossom Fan

Baidu Encyclopedia - The Palace of Eternal Youth