[1] As it spread throughout the empire, it absorbed regional music styles and topolects and eventually evolved into different local genres,[1] among them kunqu.
[2] Of the 2000 plus titles recorded in history, over 600 chuanqi plays are extant and are still performed today, including The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, The Palace of Eternal Life by Hong Sheng, and The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren.
Whereas its precursor nanxi predominantly used southern Chinese tunes, which were pentatonic, melismatic, slow and soft, chuanqi widely incorporated northern tunes which were heptatonic, syllabic, fast and forceful.
After chuanqi came into being in the middle of the Ming dynasty, its popularity spread throughout the various areas of China, each with its distinct traditional musical style and topolect.
The four-line poem which appears before the prologue in nanxi is placed at the end of the first chu in chuanqi.