Amoor rather than wed the Khan of the Tartars, there breathes an air of autumn delicately in keeping with the simile from Nature just observed in the name. The prominence of Nature in the Chinese drama may indeed be readily conceived from the fact that Chinese critics, dividing the subjects of dramatic composition into twelve classes, specify as the second and ninth of these classes, "Woods, springs, hills, and valleys," and "The wind, the flowers, the snow, the moon." A few illustrations may be selected from the plays of the Youen Collection translated by M. Bazin.[1]
In Tchao-meï-hiang ("A Maid's Intrigues") the following words, partly sung, partly spoken, are put into the mouth of one of the female characters. "With gentle sound our gemmed sashes wave in the wind; how softly trip our little feet like golden creepers o'er the grass! Above, the moon shines brightly as we tread the dark green moss. … Lady, see, how crimson are the flowers; they show like pieces of embroidered silk. Look on the green
- ↑ The Chinese drama is at present known to European readers chiefly through the translations of Sir J. F. Davis, M. Stanislas Julien, and M. Bazin, made from the Youen-jin-pé-tchong, or "Hundred Plays composed under the Youen," princes of Genghis-Khan's famous family. Earliest among European translations from this dramatic anthology came the Orphan of the Tchao Family, made in 1731 by Father Prémare, a Jesuit missionary, and published in 1735. Voltaire, twenty years later, adapted the subject of this Chinese play to the French stage; but three quarters of a century were to elapse before European scholars manifested any zealous interest in the theatre of China. At length the Heir in Old Age and the Sorrows of Han were translated by Sir J. F. Davis; and, in 1832, the History of the Chalk Circle, and (in 1834) a new and full translation of the Orphan of the Tchao Family, were added by M. Julien. But not till 1838 was any considerable knowledge of this Eastern drama placed within reach of European readers. In that year M. Bazin published his Chinese Theatre, which not only contained four plays never before translated, but was accompanied by an excellent preface, describing the general character of the Chinese stage under the Youen dynasty. In 1841 M. Bazin put students of Chinese literature under new obligations by publishing his translation of the Pi-pa-ki. The study of the Chinese drama in Europe does not, however, seem to have made any farther progress.
