Caizi jiaren

[3][5] Elements of this theme are also common in Chinese opera, such as Romance of the Western Chamber, which uses the term caizi jiaren in its text, and The Peony Pavilion.

But the genre finally achieved an independent cultural and historical identity in the early Qing, when writers began to use the term caizi jiaren for a group of vernacular novels with twenty or so chapters which had formulaic or standard characters and plots.

By the 18th century, the genre had developed variety as the scholar and the beauty shared the action with fantasy and various other elements (such as judges and courtrooms, monks and nuns, brothels, and illicit assignations, etc.).

[6] Hu Wanchuan (T: 胡萬川, S: 胡万川, P: Hú Wànchuān) writes that the typical caizi jiaren plot is a love story between a beautiful girl and a handsome scholar, both of whose families are socially distinguished and both of whom have an aptitude for poetry and prose.

[4] Song Geng comments that by having one or more of the parents dead, the number of characters is reduced, and "this plotline may also serve to emphasize the extraordinary value and peerless perfection of the scholar and beauty".

[7] Keith McMahon comments that the lovers in caizi jiaren stories of the early Qing "are like stereotyped opposites of the characters in earlier works".

[9] In addition to physical beauty, the two main characters both (especially the girl) also possess many other positive characteristics, such as literary talent, noble birth, virtue, and chastity.

[20][21] Scholars noted the playfulness of the writings, as well as the dynamic portrayal of the sexes and of the gender roles, and the dominance of the female protagonists in these novels.

[24] Hegel elsewhere stated that The Carnal Prayer Mat (Rou putuan) was intended to satirize the imperial examination system and parody the patterns in caizi jiaren novels.