![Statue of Ma Zhiyuan, Former Residence of Ma Zhiyuan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Statue_of_Ma_Zhiyuan%2C_Former_Residence_of_Ma_Zhiyuan.jpg)
Ma Zhiyuan (, 1250–1321),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...
Dongli (), was a
Chinese poet and celebrated
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, a native of
Dadu (present-day
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
) during the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
.
[Cihai: Page 1132-1133.]
Among his achievements is the development and popularizing of the ''
sanqu
''Sanqu'' () is a fixed-rhythm form of Classical Chinese poetry or "literary song".Crump (1990), 125 Specifically ''sanqu'' is a subtype of the '' qu'' formal type of poetry. ''Sanqu'' was a notable Chinese poetic form, possibly beginning in the ...
'' () lyric type of
Classical Chinese poetry forms
Classical Chinese poetry forms are poetry forms or modes which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary Chinese or Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese poetry has various characteristic forms, some attested to as early as the ...
. The poem "Autumn Thoughts" () from the book "" is the most widely known of his sanqu poems.
Works
Poems
Ma Zhiyuan's ''sanqu'' poem "Autumn Thoughts" (), composed to the metric pattern Tianjingsha (), uses ten images in twenty-two monosyllables to preamble a state of emotion, and is considered as the penultimate piece in Chinese poetry to convey the typical Chinese male literati's melancholy during late autumn:
: ''Autumn Thoughts''
: Over old trees wreathed with rotten vines fly evening crows;
: Under a small bridge near a cottage a stream flows;
: On ancient road in the west wind a lean horse goes.
: Westward declines the sun; Far, far from home is the heartbroken one.
Plays
Only seven of his 15 plays are extant, of which four have been translated into English:
* ''Autumn in Han Palace'', (Full title: ''Breaking a Troubling Dream: A Lone Goose in Autumn over the Palaces of Han'', ). This play tells the story of Han Emperor
Yuandi and
Wang Zhaojun
Wang Qiang (Wang Ch'iang; 王牆, also 王檣 and 王嬙), commonly known by her courtesy name Wang Zhaojun () was known as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. Born in Baoping Village, Zigui County (in current Hubei Province) in the Western ...
, and is considered the best example of Yuan theatre.
*
''The Yellow-Millet Dream'', (Full title: ''On the Road to Handan, Awakening from a Dream Dreamt While Cooking Millet'', )
* ''
Yueyang Tower
Yueyang Tower () is an ancient Chinese tower in Yueyang, Hunan Province, on the shore of Lake Dongting. Alongside the Pavilion of Prince Teng and Yellow Crane Tower, it is one of the Three Great Towers of Jiangnan. Yueyang Tower became famous ...
'', (Full title: ''Lü Dongbin Gets Drunk Three Times in Yueyang Tower'', )
* ''Tears on the Blue Gown'', (Full title: ''The Overseer of Jiangzhou: Tears on the Blue Gown'', )
* (Full title: )
* (Full title: )
* (Full title: )
See also
*
Chinese Sanqu poetry
''Sanqu'' () is a fixed-rhythm form of Classical Chinese poetry or "literary song".Crump (1990), 125 Specifically ''sanqu'' is a subtype of the '' qu'' formal type of poetry. ''Sanqu'' was a notable Chinese poetic form, possibly beginning in the ...
*
Qu (poetry)
The ''Qu'' form of poetry is a type of Classical Chinese poetry form, consisting of words written in one of a number of certain, set tone patterns, based upon the tunes of various songs. Thus ''Qu'' poems are lyrics with lines of varying longer and ...
*
Zaju
''Zaju'' was a form of Chinese opera which provided entertainment through a synthesis of recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings). Although with diverse and earlier roots, ''za ...
Notes
References
* ''Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui'' (. Ci hai (). Shanghai: Shanghai ci shu chu ban she (), 1979.
External links
*
1270 births
1330 deaths
Yuan dynasty poets
Poets from Beijing
Yuan dynasty dramatists and playwrights
14th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights
13th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights
{{China-poet-stub