An Analytical Group functions in the same way as a tag on social media platforms. It applies to Entities and is used to group similar Entities so that Scripts sharing common themes can be easily identified. For example, you can use the Analytical Group @浙江 to find all plays which contain a place name in Zhejiang or a person strongly associated with the province.

Each Script, Play, Collection, and Division in the database has a Code. The Code serves as a unique identifier- given the often unstable titling of court dramas, titles are not suitable for this purpose. You can get along just fine simply treating the code as a unique identifier, but an awareness of what the code means can speed up your navigation of the database. A TEXTCOURT code is made up of several components. It is recommended that you read the entries for Play, Script, Collection, and Division before continuing.

1)

The first letter is either Q or M: Q denotes Qing dynasty, M denotes Ming dynasty.

The next four (for Ming dynasty scripts) or five (for Qing dynasty scripts) digits are a serial number. The serial number reflects the order in which the Play was added to our catalogue and how high or low it is has no significance. The letter + serial number form the unique identifier for this Play. See this example.

2)

We will look first at the first part of this suffix: _01

The two digits after the underscore are to reflect different titles for the same play. In this example, Play Q00032 contains eight Scripts; that is, we have digitized eight separate physical copies of the same court drama. In this case, the physical copies have different titles despite the content being substantially identical.

The versions entitled Diyong jinlian 地湧金蓮 are given the suffix _01, as in Q00032_01_A, while the versions entitled Sanbao yong jinpa enbo puchang 三寶湧金葩恩波溥暢 are given the suffix _02, as in Q00032_02_A.

The fact they share the Q00032 element tells us that the content is substantially identical, while the _01/_02 element tells us that this Play appears under different titles. The title number is assigned arbitrarily: title 01 is not necessarily more important than title 02.

Finally, the last letter is used to disambiguate different Scripts of the same Play where these share the same title.

Again the letter is assigned arbitrarily and the A version is not necessarily more important than the B, C, D, etc. versions. For example, we have digitized six physical texts with substantially identical content all entitled Diyong jinlian 地湧金蓮. They are coded Q00032_01_A, Q00032_01_G, Q00032_01_H, Q00032_01_I, Q00032_01_J, and Q00032_01_K respectively. You may be wondering what happened to Q00032_01_B, _C, _D, _E, and _F! These are Scripts which we have a record of in our catalogue, but are unavailable on the website either due to not being transmitted, or because they are not available for digitization.

To demonstrate how the letter and title number work together, refer to the two texts entitled Sanbao yong jinpa enbo puchang 三寶湧金葩恩波溥暢 Q00032_02_A and Q00032_02_B. The code Q00032 tells us that these texts are substantially identical to the six listed above. The suffix _02 denotes that this is a variant title. The suffix _A and _B denotes differing versions which share this variant title.

3)

4)

A Collection is defined as a number of independent Scripts that were originally presented as a discrete unit under a common title. This may sound complex, but in practice it is likely to correspond your intuitive understanding of what a drama “collection” is! For example, the Script of Dafo shengdian 大佛升殿 (Q00321_01_B) is part of the Collection Bitian xiaoxia 碧天霄霞 (Q90427_02_A), which is a text held by Princeton University. In contrast, the Script of Dafo shengdian 大佛升殿 (Q00321_01_E) is part of the Collection Taiping zaju 太平雜劇 (Q90427_05_A), held in the National Library of China. In short, a Collection corresponds to a single physical text. As in Chinese the term 齣 is applied both to scenes within a play and entire plays, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a long play containing multiple scenes, such as this one, and a Collection containing multiple plays, such as this one. We take a multi-pronged approach to this issue. Generally speaking, the presence of phrases such as 第 X 種 is taken to imply that the text is a Collection, but we also take into account paratexts, the general presentation of the text, and the presence or absence of plot/character continuity when making this classification. Collections are identified by their Codes; see the Codes entry for more information. Browse the Collections in our database here.

The TEXTCOURT Core Database comprises 267 Plays in 362 Scripts. These plays were identified by the TEXTCOURT team as having particular research interest while also being representative of the various types, eras, and genres of Chinese court drama. All Plays in the Core Database are datable to the period 1600-1800. We include Scripts with a later date in the Core Database in cases where there is evidence indicating composition or performance of the Play between 1600-1800. Browse the Core Database here. See the Extended Database in comparison

A Division is an act or scene within a Script. Often these are titled, and the titles and content overlap with the titles of Plays/Scripts. For example, Taiping youxiang 太平有象 is the title of both a Play in its own right (see here) and a Division of Taiping leshi 太平樂事 (see here). Cataloguing Divisions in this way can help reveal textual or thematic relationships between court dramas. Divisions are identified by their Codes; see the Codes entry for more information.

An Entity is a person, place, object or occasion tagged in one of our Scripts. Currently there are over 100,000 occurrences of over 7,700 distinct Entities tagged in our database. This allows different names and orthographies for the same, e.g., person to be linked together across different Scripts. For example, 呂純陽, 呂洞賓, 吕洞賔 etc. all have the code CN00524. This means the user does not have to search multiple variations to find Entities of interest. Given the scale of the project, entity tags were applied to the texts automatically and so despite our best and continuing efforts at proofing and correction you will likely encounter tags that are inappropriate for the context. Please let us know about these and we will endeavour to correct them in future updates. Statistics and other data derived from entity tags can provide useful insights, but should not be regarded as ready-made research data- please be cautious and make sure to check your data. Entity tags are, however, a powerful and convenient way to categorize and query the database. See the Entity Category and Entity Code entries for more information. Browse Entities here.

The Entity Category serves as a means of organizing and rationalizing the large number of Entities in the database. We are aware that some Entities could plausibly fit into more than one Category and that some subjective judgement in the categorization is unavoidable. The Categories found in the database and the criteria employed are as follows:

Place: China (code prefix ZH/green highlight): a geographical place name in China. China’s borders have changed frequently over the years and the decision over whether to put a place name in this Category is based as much as possible on how the place is seen from the perspective of the play it is found in.

Place: Abroad (code prefix HW/green highlight): a geographical place name outside of China. China’s borders have changed frequently over the years and the decision over whether to put a place name in this Category is based as much as possible on how the place is seen from the perspective of the play it is found in.

Place: Mythical (code prefix MY/green highlight): a fantastical place with no tangible geographical location.

Person: Non-generic (code prefix CN/red highlight): a person with a specific identity. They may appear on stage or be mentioned in dialogue. This Category is not limited to humans but also includes deities, spirits, and so on with a specific identity. We consider titles linked to a place as a signifier of a specific identity. For example, 李白, 洞庭公主, 安南國王.

Person: Generic (code prefix CG/red highlight): a person with no specific identity. They may appear on stage or be mentioned in dialogue. This Category is not limited to humans but also includes deities, spirits, and so on with no specific identity. Examples of this category include 侍者，童子，蝦精.

Object: Stage Object (code prefix SO/purple highlight): an object, item of costume, or prop that actually appears on stage. For the purposes of this database, we consider any object mentioned in stage directions or a costume specification to be a Stage Object. We only include Objects that are found in stage directions. For convenience, this category also includes parts of the stage such as entry and entrance doors, different tiers of the stage, and so on.

Occasion (code prefix OC/yellow highlight): an occasion or point in time such as a traditional Chinese festival or solar term, important event such as an inspection tour, an imperial birthday, or a date.

The Entity Code functions as a unique identifier for each entity in the database. It is made up of two parts. The first two letters denote the Entity Category as outlined below. The five digits following this are a serial number. There is no significance to the serial number, which is assigned in ascending order as Entities are added to the database.

CN= Non-generic Person
CG= Generic Person
ZH= Chinese Place
HW= Foreign Place
MY= Mythical Place
SO= Stage Object
OC= Occasion

The TEXTCOURT Extended Database comprises 128 Plays in 176 Scripts. These plays were identified by the TEXTCOURT team as having particular research interest, but there is no evidence that the plays date from the period 1600-1800; they likely date from the mid-late 19th century. They are made available for comparison purposes. Please be aware that the Extended Database Scripts have not been subject to the same degree of spot-checking and entity tagging as those in the Core Database. Browse the Extended Database here.

A Foreign Record is a documentary text produced by non-Chinese viewers of Chinese court drama. For example, the Foreign Record A Record of Drama Titles 戲本名目記, from Korea, contains a list of Chinese court plays viewed by a Korean emissary to China in 1783. Browse Foreign Records here.

Like an Analytical Group, a Keyword functions in the same way as a tag on social media platforms. It differs from an Analytical Group in that it applies to Scripts and not Entities. Using Keywords, you can easily bring up a list of Scripts sharing common themes. For example, this Keyword brings up a list of Scripts that are birthday plays, while this one brings up a list of plays relating to Lunar New Year’s Eve. Keywords are available in Chinese and English. Browse Keywords here

In our database, a Play is a term referring to a court drama in all its physical editions. Unlike a Script, it does not refer to any one specific physical text but is a collective term for all of these texts. For example, the Play Q00032 (most commonly titled Diyong jinlian 地湧金蓮) includes eight Scripts, as can be seen here. This means we have digitized eight different editions of this Play. Plays are identified by their Codes; see the Codes entry for more information. Browse Plays here.

Scripts comprise the main body of our database. In our database, a Script is defined as a digital representation of a specific hardcopy edition of a Chinese court drama. For example, this Script is a digitized copy of the edition of the court drama Dafo shengdian 大佛升殿 (Q00321_01_E) held in the National Library of China, while this Script is a digitized copy of the edition of Dafo shengdian 大佛升殿 (Q00321_01_B) held in Princeton. We do not edit, correct, or collate our transcriptions, and aim for them to be exact digital copies of the original physical texts. Scripts are identified by their Codes; see the Codes entry for more information. Browse Scripts here.