1.2 A general view of Wang Shifu and The Romance of Western Chamber
Wang Shifu, a famous dramatist of Yuan Dynasty, is best known for his popular drama Romance of Western Chamber. Being one of his extant three dramas, Romance of Western Chamber is not only regarded as his masterpiece, but also one of the four finest dramas in Yuan Dynasty, together with Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan, and Snow in the Summer. Coincidentally, the story itself also has its originals. It was Wang Shifu who gave a full expression to an extant story that directly came from the prose romance The Story of Yingying by Yuan Zhen of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The remodeling of the story enjoyed unparalleled popularity and has played a crucial role in the development of drama criticism.
The story told that a young scholar named Zhang Sheng went to the capital city to take the highest imperial examination. When he stayed in a temple one day, he met Cui Yingying, daughter of the then Prime Minister and fell in love with her. At that
time, a group of robbers besieged them. Yingying’s mother declared that she would marry her daughter to whoever could save them. Zhang Sheng managed to do that with his friend’s help, while her mother refused to keep her words because Zhang Sheng was poor. With the help of Hong Niang, Yingying’s maid, they broke the traditional barrier and finally married to a couple.
So in this story the role of Hong Niang presented to be the key point and indispensible assistance to Yingying’s decision and fate. From of no importance role to the decisive role, her characteristics of sensibility and bravery to challenge the social rules are successfully created by Wang Shifu.
2. Grice’s Cooperative Principle
Herbert Paul Grice, Oxford philosopher, proposed the second major theory in pragmatics—the theory of Conversational Implicature. With the idea that people cooperate with each other in conversations, Grice (1975) propose the Cooperative Principle. The main content includes: Our talk exchanges are to some extent cooperative efforts, and each participant recognizes in them a common purposes. In other words, we seem to follow some principles when we talk. We call it “the Cooperative Principles”, or CP in short.
Grice suggests that in conversational interaction people work on the assumption that speakers and hearers comply with the rules the CP defines in order to have a meaningful conversation, unless they receive the opposite indications. The CP has observed one regularity in conversation and is used to explain the generation and interpretation of conversational Implicature (Thomas 1995:62).
The Cooperative Principles include the following four maxims:
a. The maxim of Quality:
1) Do not say what you believe to be false.
2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
b. The maxim of Quantity:
1) Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purpose of the exchange
2) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
c. The maxim of Relation:
Make your contributions be relevant.
d. The maxim of Manner:
1) Avoid obscurity of expression.
2) Avoid ambiguity
3) Be brief.
4) Be orderly. 《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中奶妈与《西厢记》中红娘的人物形象对比(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_6697.html