ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the theater’s relation with the life of all social classes and its ability to blur the boundaries of high and popular cultures. It discusses the relations of theater and the court, the literati, and the peasants, all of which complicated a conflicted view relation: theater was an indicator of prosperity and simultaneously a sign of moral corruption. The theater’s relation with the emperors of the Ming dynasty went through a great change from demonstrations of the founding emperors’ virtues to manifestations of the later emperors’ supposed moral corruption. The trope of theater corrupting politics culminated in the Southern Ming court. Despite the theatrical fervor, theater patronage likewise had negative implications for the literati. The eccentric calligrapher and poet Zhu Yunming was notorious for his indulgence in wine, women, gambling, and, of course, theater. The moral problems of theater, likewise, could have significant implications in political feuds.
