The Chalk Circle
| The Chalk Circle | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Li Qianfu |
| Characters |
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| Original language | Classical Chinese |
| Subject | Judge Bao fiction |
| Genre | zaju |
| The Chalk Circle | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 灰闌記 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 灰阑记 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | story of the boundary of lime | ||||||
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The Chalk Circle (sometimes translated The Circle of Chalk), by Li Qianfu, is a Yuan dynasty (1259–1368) Chinese classical zaju verse play and gong'an crime drama, in four acts with a prologue. It was preserved in a collection entitled Yuan-chu-po-cheng, or The Hundred Pieces. The Chinese language original is known for the beauty of its lyrical verse, and considered a Yuan masterpiece; a series of translations and revisions inspired several popular modern plays.