金圣叹批评本西厢记

by Wang Shifu, 金圣叹 (Annotator), 王实甫

金圣叹版《西厢记》是继《水浒》之后，罗辑思维推出的第二本金圣叹批评本“才子书”。

金圣叹的眼光非同寻常。

要知道，他生活在400年前，明末清初。

那个时代一般读书人的观念里，戏曲完全登不了大雅之堂，更何况“公子落难、小姐养汉、丫鬟捣蛋”的《西厢记》，那根本就是一本“淫书”。

金圣叹却赞叹：“《西厢记》不同小可，乃是天地妙文。”

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2015

About the author

Wang Shifu, (born c. 1250, Dadu [now Beijing], China—died 1337?, China), leading dramatist of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), which saw the flowering of Chinese drama.

Of 14 plays attributed to Wang, only three survive, of which Xixiangji (The Story of the Western Wing, also published as The Romance of the Western Chamber) is widely regarded as the best northern play of the period. The work is an amplified zaju (a then-popular theatrical form) containing several of Wang’s innovations—such as giving singing parts to all, instead of only one, of the important characters. Despite the rigid conventions of the stock actor, Wang also succeeded in creating a convincing character in the maid, Hongniang; the dialogue is also excellent. With five acts, the Xixiangji is several times the length of a regular zaju, foreshadowing the chuanqi, the dominant dramatic form of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1664–1911/12) dynasties.