Bianwen

The form originated in the popularization of Buddhist doctrine through storytelling and pictorial representation and was closely related to oral and visual performance.

Popular stories include Mulian Rescues His Mother, which originated in India but was made into a Chinese legend by the bianwen adaptations.

Their anonymous authors, although literate, were not educated members of the official class, and the tales were intended to be performed by people who could not read or write.

He identifies the following characteristics as the qualifying criteria for bianwen: "a unique verse-introductory (or pre-verse) formula, an episodic narrative progression, homogeneity of language, an implicit or explicit relationship to illustrations, and prosimetric structure.

To be more specific, included but not limited in its sphere of influence are the yuequ (樂曲; musicals), the zhugongdiao (諸宮調; all keys and modes, or medleys), the cihua (詞話; prosimetric stories), the guci (鼓詞; drum lyrics), the tanci (彈詞; strum lyrics), the muyushu (木魚書; wooden fish books), zaju (雜劇; miscellaneous drama), and chuanqi (傳奇).