中国苦戏与西方悲剧

20 世纪前的中国戏剧很少受到西方文化直接影响，但在 13 世纪中叶至 14 世纪中叶，却自发形成了一次规模可观的悲剧小高潮，其中描写人间苦难的为数不少，如《窦娥冤》《汉宫秋》《赵氏孤儿》，以及《琵琶记》。不断有学者否定此类作品的“悲剧”身份，其主要理据是它们拖着一根欢乐的尾巴。然而，“曲终奏雅”并非中国文化所独有的审美情趣，相同的完美结局在古希腊和 16、17 世纪西方悲剧中屡见不鲜。更重要的是，短小的欢乐尾巴并不影响悲剧作品“令人酸鼻”的整体氛围，故而经常被采用。

Chinese theatre had seen little direct influence from the West before the 20th
century, yet from mid-13th to the mid14th century, the “Middle Kingdom” witnessed a sizable surge of tragedy of its own accord. Many dramas of woe were produced in this historical period, including The Injustice Done to Dou E, Autumn in Han Palace, The Orphan of Zhao, and The Story of Pipa. Nevertheless, the “tragic” status of these plays has been repeatedly questioned mostly because of the happy endings contained therein. In fact, happy ending is not a dramatic phenomenon unique to Chinese culture and there are numerous happy endings in the theatres of ancient Greece and the 16th and 17th century Europe as well. More important to keep in mind is that a happy ending to a tragedy does not necessarily affect the overall mood of the work in question, hence its common occurrence.