Talk:Romance of the Western Chamber

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 September 2019 and 4 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Flandre529.

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Note

The story in The Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) directly came from the prose romance The Story of Yingying by Yuan Shen of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).The Story of Yingying is a tragedy about the love, union and separation between Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying in the first year of the Zhenyuan reign in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Several episodes in the story have certain influence on The Romance of the Western Chamber in terms of subject matter, dramatis personae and plots as well.

The Romance of the Western Chamber tells that a young scholar Zhang Sheng went to the capital city to take the highest imperial examination. When he stayed in a temple, he met Cui Yingying, daughter of the then Prime Minister and fell in love with her. At that time, a group of robbers besieged them. Yingying's mother declared that she would marry her daughter to whoever could save them. Zhang Sheng managed to do that with his friend's help. But her mother refused to keep her words because he was poor. However, Yingying and Zhang Sheng loved each other very much. With the help of Hong Niang, Yingying's maid, they broke the traditional barrier.

Since the appearance of this play in the thirteenth century, it has enjoyed unparalleled popularity. The play has given rise to innumerable sequels, parodies, and rewritings; it has influenced countless later plays, short stories, and novels and has played a crucial role in the development of drama criticism.

The theme of the drama is an attack on feudal mores, supporting the longing of young people in those days for freedom of marriage, although it follows the timeworn pattern of a gifted scholar and a beautiful lady falling in love at first sight. According to the orthodox viewpoint of feudal society, love was not supposed to be a basis for marriage, as most marriages were arranged by the parents of the couples, but the happy ending of The Romance of the Western Chamber embodies the aspirations of people for more meaningful and happier lives.

Thus, the biggest difference between The Story of Yingying and The Romance of the Western Chamber lies in their endings -- the former has a sad ending while the latter has a happy ending. What's more,The Romance of the Western Chamber carries a more profound meaning in its clou, and directly suggests to may all lovers in the world be settled down in a family union, with a more sharp-cut theme of attacking feudal mores and feudal marriage system.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Yoki 892 (talk • contribs) 08:01, 25 February 2009

Change title to The Story of the Western Wing

Changed the title from Romance of the West Chamber to The Story of the Western Wing. Both titles are suitable translation of the Chinese title Xixiangji, however, The Story of the Western Wing seems to be the only translated English title that has been published (by the University of California Press in 1995 [1] [2]).--Thomasettaei (talk) 14:10, 27 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Numerous English translations have been published: S.I. Hsiung's 1935 translation (The Romance of the Western Chamber, Methuen Publishing) and Henry H. Hart's 1936 translation (The West Chamber, a Medieval Drama, Oxford University Press) are among the earliest. Story of the Western Wing is not the common name, see [3]. "The Western Chamber" is actually the most common name, but it may be ambiguous, so I'm moving it to the most common unambiguous name, Romance of the Western Chamber. Timmyshin (talk) 04:25, 18 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting

There is something terribly wrong with the thumbnail formatting here, and I'm not sure what.

The only way I'm getting the images to display is by removing the page links in the thumbnail descriptions, which work fine in other pages.

I've tried on multiple device.

The exact same formatting works on other pages- I even tried copying and pasting thumbnail code from the Cat page (which I know works,) editing the filename and description... and it just becomes code on this page when submitted rather than displaying the image.