ABSTRACT
The classical drama of China reached its peak during the thirteenth century, a rather late period in comparison with other ancient dramas such as Greek tragedy or Sanskrit theatre. China’s educated elite, knowing and seeing so many genres of performing arts then and before, had probably lost their ability to envision the Yuan zaju opera with a fresh mind or in the large. They never produced anything comparable to Aristotle’s Poetics or Bharata’s Natyasastra.
