Top Graduate Zhang Xie

Abstract

Top Graduate Zhang Xie is the first extant play in the Chinese Southern dramatic tradition and a milestone in the history of Chinese literature. Dating from the early fifteenth century, but possibly composed earlier, it is the collective work of The Nine Mountain Society, a writing club. The play tells the story of a talented scholar who sets off for the capital to take the imperial exams. On the road, he is robbed by a bandit but finds his way to a nearby temple where he meets a young orphaned girl who nurses him back to health. Zhang Xie, in gratitude, marries her but soon regrets it, and this sets in motion a series of harrowing events. Top Graduate is, in essence, a story of love, ambition, and betrayal, and a critique of the scholar’s ideal, the education system, and the ethical values this system was intended to instill. But lurking in the background is a preposterous farce, a penchant for puns, and an ingenious play on the conventions of theater.