Abstract:
There has always been dispute over Ding Richang’s action to ban publications and plays and confiscating “librettos with lewd expressions” as governor of Jiangsu in the 7th year of the imperial title of Tongzhi. An investigation of the bibliography to be banned and destroyed and his motivation for the action, public opinions and effects shows that Ding’s biases against folklore was originated from his worship for NeoConfucianism and his mind of respecting the right but belittling the “evil”. Moreover, the perception of evaluating a person by his merits and demerits and Yu Zhi’s statements of advocating charity, both of which were popular in the day, offered timely response and powerful support to Ding’s action of banning and destroying “librettos with lewd expressions”. Besides, an overemphasis on folklore’s influence on the situation of the late dynasty mirrored a turn from advocating charity and controlling conventions to respecting the right but belittling the evil in the late Qing Dynasty’s banning plays in southern China.
