The Scripts part of the database is where you will spend most of your time on the site. This part of the database is where you can find digitized full text copies of the Chinese court drama in our database.

1) Reading Scripts

When you navigate to the Scripts section by clicking on Database and then Scripts, you will find a browsable list of all scripts on the website in alphabetical order.

If you click on the title of a script, you will be taken to the Script info tab. This contains metadata and notes relating to the script you are viewing.

The next tab is Pages. Here you can see a page by page transcript alongside the source images if these exist for this script. You can search by entering text in this box.

The next tab is Transcript. Here you can see the transcription only. For scripts with no source images there is not much difference between these two tabs.

When reading the script in Pages or Transcript view, the highlighted text denotes entity tags. Each type of entity- people, places, objects, and occasions- has a different colour. People are red, places green, objects purple, and occasions yellow. This shows an example of the highlights:

Click on the text to be taken to the Entity page. Here you can search this entity on Wikidata, see what other scripts this Entity is found in, and also see what other related entities are found in the database using the Analytical Groups function.

Returning to the Script tabs, the next tab is XML. This shows you the source XML tagging for advanced users.

The next tab is Divisions. This shows you subdivisions of the script, for example acts or scenes. Clicking here will take you to the appropriate place in the script.

Next, we have Related. This is a very useful tab and contains links to other entries in the database. A Script can be related to Plays, Collections, Keywords, and Entities.

The final tab is Visualise. Any images or videos relating to this script will appear here.

2) Searching Scripts

From the main Scripts interface, you can run full text searches on the scripts. For example, here is a search for 宮廷.

You can do multiple searches at once by clicking on the “+ Add a search” button.

You can choose to search for 宮廷 and 戲曲 or 宮廷 or 戲曲 via the And/Or toggle. You can add up to 6 searches in this way.

Be aware that variant characters will affect the search results!

See the different results for 寿星 and 壽星。

To accommodate this issue, we suggest that you use as short a query as possible and try the search several times with different variants. You can use a series of OR searches to accomplish this, as in this example here.

For most applications we recommend using Full Search. However you can also limit the search to any of these parts of the Script using this menu.

For example, if you are searching for a script with 八 in the title, limit the search to Title (Chinese) here.

First, navigate to the Plays section under Dramatic Texts.

This interface is most useful for when are interested in a Play and wish to find out what versions and alternative titles of this Play are included in the database.

When searching in the Plays interface, be aware that you can only search in the titles of Plays and their associated Collections and Scripts.

You cannot get any results from the full text of a Script. If your search term does not occur in a title it will not be matched.

As an example, a full search for 康衢 in the Plays interface will match the following:

1) Plays with 康衢 in the title, such as Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085; or

2) Plays contained in a Collection with 康衢 in the title, such as Wanbao lüfeng 萬寶屢豐 Q00472 and other Plays from the Collections Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A and Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_B

By limiting the search to Related Data- Scripts, you will only match Plays that contain a Script which has 康衢 in the title.

For example, Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085 would be matched as it contains the Script entitled Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085_01_A.

Wanbao lüfeng 萬寶屢豐 Q00472 and other Plays from the Collections Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A and Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_B would not be matched. They do not contain a Script with 康衢 in the title.

The effect of selecting this option is to exclude Plays that are contained in a Collection with 康衢 in the title. Selecting the search option Play-Title (Chinese) has a similar effect, but we recommend using the Related Data-Scripts option outlined above to cater for situations in which different Scripts of a Play have variant titles.

By limiting the search to Related Data- Collections, you would match Wanbao lüfeng 萬寶屢豐 Q00472 and other Plays from the Collections Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A and Kangqu xinyuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_B. You would not match Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085.

When clicking on a search result, you will be taken to the Play screen, where you can view a list of Scripts and Collections associated with the Play in question.

In addition to Chinese characters, you can also search for pinyin and for full or partial codes.

First, navigate to the Collections section under Dramatic Texts

This interface is most useful for when are interested in a Collection and wish to find out what versions of this Collection are included in the database.

When searching in the Collections interface, be aware that you can only search in the titles of Collections and their associated Plays and Scripts.

You cannot get any results from the full text of a Script. If your search term does not occur in a title it will not be matched.

As an example, a full search for 康 in the Collections interface will match the following:

1) Collections with 康 in the title, such as Kangqu xin yuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A; or

2) Collections containing a Play or Script with 康 in the title, such as Xijiang zhugu 西江祝嘏 Q90423_01_A, which contains the Script Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085_01_A (and the Play Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085).

By limiting the search to Related Data- Scripts, you will only match Collections that contain a Script which has 康 in the title.

For example, Xijiang zhugu 西江祝嘏 Q90423_01_A would be matched because it contains the Script Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085_01_A.

Kangqu xin yuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A would not be matched. It does not contain a Script with 康 in the title.

Likewise, by limiting the search to Related Data- Plays, you will only match Collections that are associated with a Play that has 康 in the title.

For example, Xijiang zhugu 西江祝嘏 Q90423_01_A would be matched because it contains the Play Kangqu le 康衢樂 Q00085..

Kangqu xin yuefu 康衢新樂府 Q90086_01_A would not be. It does not contain a Play with 康 in the title.

When clicking on a search result, you will be taken to the Collections screen, where you can view a list of Scripts and Plays associated with the Collection in question.

In addition to Chinese characters, you can also search for pinyin and for full or partial codes.

The Foreign Records interface is relatively simple.

When you click on a Foreign Record you will be taken to the Info tab. This lists metadata relating to the Foreign Record such as author, source, language, title, and code.

When you click on the Pages tab, you will be taken to scanned images of the Foreign Record if these are available.

When you click on the Transcript tab, you will be taken to the transcribed text of the Foreign Record.

This is searchable via the box on the top left of the tab, and you can also freely copy and reuse the text providing you credit Textcourt appropriately.

The Related tab will allow you to search for other Foreign Records which share a metadata field with this one.

For example, click on Foreign Record Creator to see a list of Foreign Records which were created by the same person, or click on Foreign Record Language to see a list of Foreign Records written in the same language.

Keywords are used to link Scripts which share a theme or characteristic.

You can think of them as being like # tags on social media.

For example, the Keyword Birthday Play 壽戲 links the Scripts in our database which can be classed as birthday plays, while the Keyword Lantern Festival 上元 links Scripts associated with the lantern festival.

You can access Keywords in two ways:

Firstly, you can browse all Script Keywords by navigating to the Dramatic Texts section of the database and then clicking on Script Keywords.
Clicking on a Keyword will bring up a list of Scripts with this Keyword.

Secondly, all Keywords associated with a Script will be listed on the Related tab. For example, this Script has three Keywords.
Clicking on a Keyword will bring up a list of Scripts sharing this Keyword.

“Entity” is the term used for the people, places, objects, and occasions which are tagged in our database. Entities are identified by their entity code. This code links different names for the same entity- for example, in our database we have identified 16 different names for the immortal Lü Dongbin, including 吕岩, 吕嵒, 吕純陽, etc. All these are tagged with the code CN00524, so that all occurrences of Lü Dongbin are retrievable with one search no matter which of the 16 alternative names are used.

Therefore, entities are an extremely useful means of navigating the database. Through entity tagging, you can quickly and conveniently find plays relating to a particular character, time of the year, place, or object. You can access entities in one of two ways.

Firstly, while reading a Script in Pages or Transcript view, Entity tags are highlighted. People are red, places green, objects purple, and occasions yellow. Click on the highlighted link to be taken to the Entities page. Here you can view all the alternative names we have recorded for this entity, any Analytical Groups it belongs to, and most importantly, a list of Scripts that feature this Entity. You can also search Wikidata for more information. Clicking on the name of a Script will take you to a filtered view of the XML for that Script, showing the pages where the Entity appears. You must click on the option “View this page in Pages/Transcript” at the top of each page to get to a more readable screen. It is necessary to navigate via the XML in this way as we need to filter using the Entity code to ensure all alternative names are found.

Secondly, you can navigate to the Entities section of the database. Here you can browse Entities by category and type, and conduct searches of the Entities in the database. This is useful if you are interested in researching a particular person, place, object, or occasion. Clicking on the name of an Entity in this list will take you to the same Entity screen that you arrive at by clicking through from a Script.

Entity tags were applied to the texts in a semi-automatic process that does not have the ability to take account of context. We have checked the texts on the website but it is inevitable that some errors will remain; there are the best part of 100,000 tags in the database! Some things will be tagged when they should not be; other things will not be tagged when they should be. Therefore we recommend that Entity tags are not treated as authoritative ready-made research data; instead they provide a platform on which to draw links between scripts in the database and build further research. Do your own checks into the entity data before using it, and please let us know if you find any errors. We will endeavour to fix them as soon as we can.

Like Keywords, Analytical Groups function like # tags on social media. The difference is that Analytical Groups apply to Entities, while Keywords are applied to Scripts. Analytical Groups are distinguished by the @ sign in Textcourt.

Analytical Groups can be used to retrieve a set of related Entities in one go. For example, we have created an Analytical Group for monks and priests- @僧道. This groups generic characters such as 僧人 as well as named characters who are monks and priests. If interested in research on this topic, it would be impractical and time consuming to find all these character entities individually as you would not be able to know in advance which monks/priests are found in the database. This is where the Analytical Group function is helpful. By looking at the Related Data- Scripts section of the Analytical Group page, you can see which Scripts contain Entities in this Analytical Group. You can also look at Related Data- Entities to see the individual Entities contained in this Analytical Group.

You can also use Analytical Groups in a full text search. By entering @僧道 in the Scripts search interface, you will retrieve a list of Scripts containing entities in this Analytical Group. You can also view the number of occurrences, which is helpful for determining the relevance of a Script to your research interests.

Other than a few exceptions, Analytical Groups were not created in accordance with known research interests. They were created based on the Entities collected during the transcription stage. For example, when we found that we had a number of entities relating to Mt Kunlun, we decided to create an Analytical Group, @崑崙, to link them. This method of creating Analytical Groups was chosen so as to minimise editorial pre-determination of what themes may provide avenues of interesting research. If you are wondering why on earth a particular Analytical Group was created, this is likely the reason.

The same caveats that apply to Entities also apply to Analytical Groups. Analytical Groups should be used as an aid in searching and retrieving information, not as ready-made research data. The main potential issues with them are that Entities are included in an Analytical Group when they should not be, or an Entity is not included in an Analytical Group when it should be. In addition, any errors with the tagging of an Entity in an Analytical Group will affect the accuracy of the data connected with that Analytical Group. Be aware of these potential issues and use this tool with caution in your research. Let us know if you find any errors and we will endeavour to fix them as quickly as possible.