Four great Yuan zaju plays of the 1320s

Timeline

1. 1321–1325Dadu · North ChinaIn the early 1320s, performances in the pleasure quarters of Dadu, Hangzhou, Zhending, and other cities thrived. The four-act and one-prologue structure of zaju matured, and the convention of solo singing by the lead male and female roles was widely accepted by audiences and actors.
2. 1322–1327Dadu · North ChinaGuan Hanqing's The Injustice to Dou E, with episodes like 'snow in midsummer,' depicted social wrongs in plain, authentic language, later ranked first among the four great Yuan zaju tragedies, and was repeatedly staged in pleasure quarters across the realm in the 1320s.
3. 1323–1328Zhending · North ChinaWang Shifu's Romance of the Western Chamber, famed for the love story of Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying, with elegant lyrics, was widely transcribed in Jiangnan and North China provinces in the 1320s, standing alongside Guan Hanqing's tragedies as a model of romantic themes in Yuan zaju.
4. 1325–1330Dadu · North ChinaBai Pu's Rain on the Wutong Tree tells the tragedy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei, while Ma Zhiyuan's Autumn in the Han Palace depicts Wang Zhaojun's departure beyond the frontier. Together with The Injustice to Dou E and Romance of the Western Chamber, they form the later 'four great Yuan zaju plays,' their status firmly established by the late 1320s.