Tang Xianzu (1550- 16 16) lived in the late Ming Dynasty and in Jiajing, Qin Long and Wanli Dynasties. Shakespeare (1564- 16 16) experienced Elizabethan period and James I period. Their era is experiencing great changes in politics, economy, ideology and culture, and the rise of humanism challenges the traditional forces. In China in the late Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming's thought of "Mind Learning" liberated people's thoughts from Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, which triggered the trend of individualism and fraternity in pursuit of freedom. Under the baptism of the European Renaissance, Britain in Shakespeare's time re-examined and evaluated the traditions of the Middle Ages, and gradually established people-centered values. As great dreamers, both Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare tried to realize their dreams in their respective countries. They have gone through completely different life paths, but they have all become immortal dramatists.
In the eyes of his contemporaries, Tang Xianzu was first and foremost a politician, striving to realize his political ideals in the political arena. His integrity was incompatible with the increasingly corrupt society, and he finally quit the officialdom and returned to his hometown Linchuan, Jiangxi Province, to concentrate on poetry and drama creation. Shakespeare is mainly a dramatist, realizing his artistic dream on the stage in London. Compared with Tang Xianzu's political activities, Shakespeare has almost nothing to do with politics. Tang Xianzu was full of hesitation of "ruling the country and leveling the world". After his dream was shattered, he vented his anger in poetry and drama. In contrast, Shakespeare's English stage is both rich and famous. Despite their different circumstances, the two geniuses still have a lot in common.
First of all, their drama works travel through time and space and are appreciated by generations. Contemporary critics have felt the immortal charm of their works. In Qupin, Lu Tiancheng called Tang Xianzu "lazy as a generation of poets, but a thousand-year-old poet". Ben Jonson believes that Shakespeare "belongs to all ages, not to one era". For four centuries, their plays have been read, staged and commented by people. One of the important reasons is that the two masters were able to break through the artistic dogma at that time and go their own way. Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing have different views on meter. Shen Jing is a theoretical authority famous for his temperament research. He believes that the creation of traditional Chinese opera should be "to better coordinate the rhythm rather than the work". It doesn't matter whether the words are beautiful or not as long as they are fluent. Tang Xianzu, on the other hand, focused on "Quyi" and let the passion of creation break through the shackles of meter. "You might as well bend everyone's voice in the world." Shakespeare and hold completely different artistic opinions, which is in the same strain as the dispute between Tang and Shen. Jonson believes that drama creation should strictly abide by the "three unifications", and Shakespeare, as a "natural poet", often breaks through the "three unifications" restrictions. It can be said that the reason why Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare became immortal dramatists is largely because they abandoned the artistic dogma at that time and showed the spirit of the times to the fullest.
Secondly, both drama masters showed optimism in their early works, while in their later works, they showed a pessimistic and disappointed world outlook. The reason is that the society in which they lived once showed a prosperous scene, and then it was turbulent and the people were miserable. When the first two plays were written, Tang Xianzu was dissatisfied with the current social situation, but he still dreamed of being reused by the court one day, making great achievements and full of hope for the future. The last two films were created after he resigned from the imperial court and returned to his hometown, showing pessimism and world-weariness. For Shakespeare, when he first entered the London Theatre, Britain defeated Spain's "Armada" and national self-confidence was unprecedentedly high. Most of the historical dramas and comedies he created during this period were filled with optimistic and unrestrained enthusiasm; In the later period, tragedies and romantic dramas were the main themes, focusing on revealing human greed, sadness and helplessness. The works of the two masters first eulogize the rebellion of humanism and individualism against tradition. With the passage of time and social changes, it began to show the serious consequences of uncontrolled desires. Apart from social reasons, their personal tragedy-the pain of losing their children-is undoubtedly an important reason for their change from optimism to pessimism. Thirdly, they have an important similarity: they all use dreams in their works. Tang Xianzu's four plays all have dreams, which are called "four dreams"; Nearly half of Shakespeare's about forty plays are related to dreams. By expressing dreams, the two masters made their plays more sad, touching, stirring and thought-provoking.
Tang Xianzu said, "Dreams are born of love". Love is the foundation of dreams, and dreams are the expression of love. The connotation of love is quite complicated, and its core connotation is the love between men and women. Love in a broad sense can be divided into "good feelings" and "bad feelings". In this paper, "kindness" mainly refers to the love of young men and women; "Bad feeling" refers to lust and greed for power and wealth, and lust is embodied in lust, incest and bestiality.