Jing Shen is associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Adaptations of earlier writings, the representations of identities (whether those of characters or the playwrights' own), the newly developed self-reflexivity in drama, and metatheatrical statements in various forms are all important concerns that Jing Shen weaves through her masterful readings of plays by six major dramatists of China's crucial seventeenth century-when traditional culture underwent the shattering trauma of subjugation by non-Chinese armies from the north. Throughout she demonstrates her deep knowledge of China's literary tradition by revealing the complex intertextual relations of each play. Professor Shen's richly detailed study firmly places these dramatic masterpieces in their historical, cultural, and even personal contexts to provide a vision of late imperial Chinese theater significantly more nuanced than achieved by any previous study in any Western language.

• Chapter 1 ProloguePart 2 Part I: ContextsChapter 3 Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 4 Chapter 2: Playwrights and Their CirclesChapter 5 Chapter 3: History and Criticism of Traditional Chinese TheaterPart 6 Part II: The Appropriation and Conversion of Chuanqi Fiction in Ming PlaysChapter 7 Chapter 4: Huo Xiaoyu zhuan in Zichai jiChapter 8 Chapter 5: Liushi zhuan in Yuhe jiPart 9 Part III: Textual Constructions of (Gendered) SubjectivitiesChapter 10 Chapter 6: The Poetic Constructions of (Gendered) Identities in Lü mudanChapter 11 Chapter 7: An Ironic Perspective on Love Poeticized in Fengzheng wuPart 12 Part IV: Plays-Within-PlaysChapter 13 Chapter 8: BimuyuChapter 14 Chapter 9: Taohua shanChapter 15 Final Conclusions16 Appendix: Plot Summaries

Jing Shen is associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Adaptations of earlier writings, the representations of identities (whether those of characters or the playwrights' own), the newly developed self-reflexivity in drama, and metatheatrical statements in various forms are all important concerns that Jing Shen weaves through her masterful readings of plays by six major dramatists of China's crucial seventeenth century-when traditional culture underwent the shattering trauma of subjugation by non-Chinese armies from the north. Throughout she demonstrates her deep knowledge of China's literary tradition by revealing the complex intertextual relations of each play. Professor Shen's richly detailed study firmly places these dramatic masterpieces in their historical, cultural, and even personal contexts to provide a vision of late imperial Chinese theater significantly more nuanced than achieved by any previous study in any Western language.

• Chapter 1 ProloguePart 2 Part I: ContextsChapter 3 Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 4 Chapter 2: Playwrights and Their CirclesChapter 5 Chapter 3: History and Criticism of Traditional Chinese TheaterPart 6 Part II: The Appropriation and Conversion of Chuanqi Fiction in Ming PlaysChapter 7 Chapter 4: Huo Xiaoyu zhuan in Zichai jiChapter 8 Chapter 5: Liushi zhuan in Yuhe jiPart 9 Part III: Textual Constructions of (Gendered) SubjectivitiesChapter 10 Chapter 6: The Poetic Constructions of (Gendered) Identities in Lü mudanChapter 11 Chapter 7: An Ironic Perspective on Love Poeticized in Fengzheng wuPart 12 Part IV: Plays-Within-PlaysChapter 13 Chapter 8: BimuyuChapter 14 Chapter 9: Taohua shanChapter 15 Final Conclusions16 Appendix: Plot Summaries

Jing Shen is associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Adaptations of earlier writings, the representations of identities (whether those of characters or the playwrights' own), the newly developed self-reflexivity in drama, and metatheatrical statements in various forms are all important concerns that Jing Shen weaves through her masterful readings of plays by six major dramatists of China's crucial seventeenth century-when traditional culture underwent the shattering trauma of subjugation by non-Chinese armies from the north. Throughout she demonstrates her deep knowledge of China's literary tradition by revealing the complex intertextual relations of each play. Professor Shen's richly detailed study firmly places these dramatic masterpieces in their historical, cultural, and even personal contexts to provide a vision of late imperial Chinese theater significantly more nuanced than achieved by any previous study in any Western language.

• Chapter 1 ProloguePart 2 Part I: ContextsChapter 3 Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 4 Chapter 2: Playwrights and Their CirclesChapter 5 Chapter 3: History and Criticism of Traditional Chinese TheaterPart 6 Part II: The Appropriation and Conversion of Chuanqi Fiction in Ming PlaysChapter 7 Chapter 4: Huo Xiaoyu zhuan in Zichai jiChapter 8 Chapter 5: Liushi zhuan in Yuhe jiPart 9 Part III: Textual Constructions of (Gendered) SubjectivitiesChapter 10 Chapter 6: The Poetic Constructions of (Gendered) Identities in Lü mudanChapter 11 Chapter 7: An Ironic Perspective on Love Poeticized in Fengzheng wuPart 12 Part IV: Plays-Within-PlaysChapter 13 Chapter 8: BimuyuChapter 14 Chapter 9: Taohua shanChapter 15 Final Conclusions16 Appendix: Plot Summaries