Love for a Laugh.

• Superior document: Sinica Leidensia Series ; v.158
• Author: Tan, Yanbing.
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : BRILL,, 2023.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Sinica Leidensia Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (181 pages)

"After the strikingly beautiful Peony Pavilion, how could one write about love and the ideal of emotional authenticity (qing) in the chuanqi genre? This book presents a group of creative dramatists who confronted this challenge by giving the romantic theme of chuanqi their unique comic twists. This book demonstrates how their comic articulations bring the qing ideal down to the mundane world of family obligations, political ambitions, commercial interests, and gender frustrations. By highlighting the crucial but understudied role that the comic plays, this book enriches our understanding of the intellectual depth and critical scope of the chuanqi genre"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

The burden of selfish desires : Wu Bing's (1595-1648) comic adaptation of the legend of Xiaoqing in The remedy for jealous -- Love by accident : mistake as a comic device in Ruan Dacheng's (1587-1646) The swallow's letter -- Lazy husbands and diligent wives : ironic unions in Li Yu's (1611-1680) Ideal love matches -- A "glorious" dream of awkward romance : humor and dires in Wang Yun's (1749-1819) A dream of glory.