It seeks to re-examine the cultural significance of the intervention of the eight-legged essay in the development of the chuanqi drama’s structure.

The structure of the Ming chuanqi drama carries significant importance in its composition. During the late Ming Dynasty, these dramas often comprised thirty or even sixty acts. The organisation and structuring of such lengthy chuanqi drama became a concern for literati playwrights of the time. Previous studies have indicated that the structure of the eight-legged essay affected the construction of literati chuanqi dramas. For instance, the drama criticism of Jin Shengtan and the drama theory of Li Yu, which emerged in the early Qing Dynasty, drew inspiration from the structure of the eight-legged essay. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether the composition of chuanqi dramas during the late Ming Dynasty, before the emergence of Jin’s criticism and Li’s theory, was also inspired by the structure of the eight-legged essay. Furthermore, previous discussions on the relationship between the eight-legged essay and the chuanqi drama structure often highlighted that the four-fold structure, i.e. introduction (qi), elucidation (cheng), transition (zhuan), and conclusion (he), as well as the symmetrical structures presented in chuanqi dramas, were influenced by the eight-legged essay. However, such structural features can be found in various classical Chinese literary genres, indicating that these observations are one-sided and lack scientific grounding. Since the eight-legged essay originates from the exegesis of Confucian classics, the Principal Investigator of this project believes that the structure of the genre is not solely inherited from the “acquired structure” of other literary genres but also constrained by the “innate structure” tailored for “speaking on behalf of the sages.” Considering the historical and cultural context of the late Ming Dynasty, this project selects masterpieces of chuanqi drama composed by twenty representative playwrights of the time as examples. It examines the “innate structure” and “acquired structure” of the eight-legged essay as double filters, aiming to explore whether the intervention of the structure of the eight-legged essay breaks the inherent limitations of the chuanqi drama’s construction. In addition, it seeks to re-examine the cultural significance of the intervention of the eight-legged essay in the development of the chuanqi drama’s structure.