Let's talk briefly here.
The earliest prototype of The West Chamber was Yingying Biography written by Yuan Zhen in the Tang Dynasty, which was very famous at that time and opened the story of China's talented people and beautiful women. But at the end of the story, Zhang abandoned Yingying, and the story was not perfect. Lu Xun's evaluation of Zhang Sheng in the history of China's novels is "whitewashing peace and then falling into evil interest"
Later, there was
During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the ending of Dong Jieyuan's The West Chamber (not a typical Yuan Zaju) changed greatly, and Zhang Sheng and Yingying merged into one, forming a comedy ending. Then came Wang Shifu's The West Chamber, "All shall be well, jack shall have Jill", which became the most popular ending in the West Chamber. Generally speaking, the ending of The West Chamber refers to this. However, the contradiction between the two young people in the story also involves karma and gratitude, and love is not pure.
Wang Shifu's "The West Chamber" really reached its peak, with beautiful writing and five books with a grand structure of 2 1 fold. The story removed the original idea of karma. The script is better. The main contradiction has also shifted to the two young people and the old lady. This play has a great influence. There are 49 kinds of Deming periodicals.
The Romance of the West Chamber had a great influence in the Ming Dynasty and spread widely. There are many adapted versions of this story, such as Fan Xiang, Jin Xiang and Dong. They all changed the story and had different endings. Zhang Sheng came last, and Yingying finally married Zheng Huan. A certain Zhang Sheng took a fancy to the matchmaker and was jealous. After many twists and turns, both of them became beautiful and got married. Some Zhang Sheng realized that something was wrong and finally repented that he was going to heaven ... and so on. But they are all clumsy and vulgar. So it is rarely accepted.
The fifth part of The West Chamber, that is, the one describing the finale, was controversial in the Ming Dynasty. People think that it is not written by the same author as the first four, and its artistic level is greatly inferior. Therefore, many people think that The Romance of the West Chamber should end in the fourth part, ending with "Caoqiao Store dreamed of Yingying", so Zhang had a dream on his way to Beijing to catch the exam and repeated the scene ahead. The first version to make such a change was Six Fantasies in the West Chamber, which ended with A Dream on the Grass Bridge. Later, Jin Shengtan, a famous critic, insisted on the fourth book when commenting on The West Chamber, but he did not delete the fifth book and still kept it. Since the Qing Dynasty, The Romance of the West Chamber has been the most popular one. So this ending is also very influential.
However, the above is only for literary books. Judging from the performance of The West Chamber, it has been impossible to perform it since the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. The widely circulated performance is Li Rihua's Romance of the South. Although this book changes Wang Shifu's The West Chamber on the system of Qu Bai and He He, there is not much change in the story content, and the ending is still happy. Therefore, The Romance of the West Chamber performed on the stage in the future is still a happy ending, just like Wang Shifu's Romance of the West Chamber.
The West Chamber has also been adapted into many local operas, but the happy ending is the same. Tian Han wrote a Peking Opera "The West Chamber", and many northwest tunes were used in the lyrics. The ending turned out to be that Zhang Sheng came last, and the old lady was not allowed to get married. Yingying and Zhang Shengsui left together, which was quite anti-feudal, and I am afraid it was also a reflection of the ideological trend at that time.
Generally speaking, The Romance of the West Chamber was developed into a novel in Ming and Qing Dynasties on the basis of Tang legends and Yuan zaju.
It is very similar to other stories. (Water Margin also has Yuan Zaju)