William Dolby

Translation of Chinese dramas of the first Golden Age of Chinese theatre by William Dolby, pulled together and finally self-published in one volume in 2003. This work represents the 12th of 33 of the Chinese Culture Series.

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In the China of 13th century AD, within the bustling, roaring capital city (then known as Ta-tu, the Great Metropolis, Cambaluc or Khanbalik, now as Peking or Beijing) of the Mongol Great Khan, Khublai, who was also the Chinese emporer Shih-tsu, by far the world’s mightiest ruler, there matured China’s first great drama-form, the Yüan dynasty Variety Play (Yüan tsa-chu). It included tightly plotted themes of war, love, guile, honour, treachery, spirituality, immortality, domestic rumpuses, court-room tension and detection, and many others, and was part of a flourishing dramaturgy that eventually came to exercise a powerful influence even on the Western world, inspiring Voltaire and Brecht, and being performed by Oliver.

This book contains translations of a number of Yüan dynasty Variety Plays by various playwrights, some translated for the first time ever in any Western language.

1. Kuan Han-Ch'ing: China's first Playwright
2. Bring on the Wine and other Poems by Li Pai
3. Chinese Poetry Through The Ages: an Anthology
4. Chinese Short Stories - Spanning 2000 Years
5. History of early Chinese Ch'ü-aria Poetry
6. Sayings of Confucius and his Students
7. Ma Chih-yüan's Complete San-ch'ü-aria Poems
8. Wang Shi-Fu, Author of China's Most Famous Play
9. West Wing Chantefable by Tung Chieh-yüan
10. Sir Old, the Chinese Classic of Taoism
11. Peking Opera
12. Yüan Dynasty Variety Plays
13. Mr Ma and son in London
14. Songs Classic: China’s earliest poetry anthology
15. Classical Chinese textbook
16. Three Hundred T'ang Dynasty Poems
17. Yüan Dynasty Variety Play dramas: 100 stories
18. Chinese Folk-tales
19. Chinese Humour: an Anthology
20. Gold-producing Mansion
21. Chinese Riddles
22. Chinese Elliptical Idioms (hsieh-hou-yu)
23. West Wing, China's most famous drama
24. Washing Silk, a drama by Liang Ch'en-yi (1520-ca.1580)
25. Chinee Drama Poems
26. Chinese Prose: Biographies, Prefaces, Anecdotes ...
27. Chinese Myths
28. Chinese Prose: Biographies, Prefaces, Anecdotes ...
29. Lasting-life Palace-hall by Hung Sheng (1654-1704)
30. Chinese non-drama aria-poems, an anthology (VOLUME ONE)
31. Chinese Poetry Through the Ages
32. Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, Proverbs and Sayings
33. Anthology of Chinese non-drama aria-poems (VOLUME TWO)