元代戏曲中女性婚龄及明人改动考释

Research and explanation of the female marriage age in Yuan Dynasty operas and the changes in Ming Dynasty

现存元代戏曲普遍将适婚女子的年龄定为“一十八岁”,受情节影响提前或延后婚嫁的女性,其婚龄围绕18岁上下浮动。明人在整理元代戏曲时,为完善剧中情节或丰富人物形象,往往从自我意识出发,改动原作中的女性婚龄。“及笄”“二八”本是明人塑造女性角色时的惯用套语,却被窜入元代戏曲中,这类套语仅表示女子正处佳龄,并非年龄的确指。元代戏曲中的女性婚龄变化,反映出元明两代戏曲的婚龄观念变迁。学者在探究相关戏曲问题时,应注意不同时期不同文体间婚龄观念的差异。

Existing dramas in the Yuan Dynasty generally choose t the female marriage age as “18 years old”. Women who get married early or late due to the plot have their marriage age fluctuated around 18 years old. In order to improve the plot or enrich the image of the characters in the dramas of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming people often changed the marriage age of the women in the original works from the perspective of self-consciousness. “Jiji” and “Erba” were idioms originally used by Ming people to portray female characters, but they were introduced into Yuan Dynasty operas. Such phrases only indicated that a woman is in a proper age, not a real age. The change of marriage age in the operas of the Yuan Dynasty reflected the changes in the concept of women’s marriage age in the operas of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Scholars should pay attention to the differences in the concept of marriage age between different styles in different periods when exploring related opera issues.