The Four Southern Operas are the representative works of Southern Opera in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, referred to as "Jing, Liu, Bai, and Sha". They are "The Story of Jing Chai", "The White Rabbit", "Moon Worship Pavilion" and "The Story of Killing the Dog". The collective name of the four southern operas.

"Jingchai Ji" tells the story of the joys and sorrows of the Southern Song Dynasty scholar Wang Shipeng and his wife Qian Yulian.

"The White Rabbit", also known as "The White Rabbit of Liu Zhiyuan", was compiled by talented people from the Yongjia Calligraphy Society and tells the story of the joys and sorrows of Liu Zhiyuan and Li Sanniang.

"Moon Worshiping Notes", also known as "Moon Worshiping Pavilion", tells the love story of two young men and women, Jiang Shilong and Wang Ruilan, Tuoman Xingfu and Jiang Ruilian, during the war in the late Jin Dynasty.

"Killing a Dog", also known as "Killing a Dog to Convince a Husband", plays the story of Yang Yuezhen killing a dog to persuade a husband.

The cultural value of Southern Opera

First, the linguistic value. Southern opera originated from the folk. Most of its authors were calligraphers, and its audience was mostly citizens. This made its language largely influenced by local dialects and had colloquial characteristics.

Second, social historical value. The scripts of Southern Opera reflected the social and historical conditions at that time to a great extent. For example, in the scripts "Zhao Zhennu" and "Wang Kui", the author strongly criticized the alienation of human nature under the feudal system and the consequences it brought to kind women. Persecution and disasters express the dissatisfaction and resistance of the working people against the dark society.

Third, the value of music. According to records, Southern opera uses southern tunes, which are not restricted by palace tunes. The rhyme can be changed at any time, and the pentatonic scale is mostly used. There are seven types of roles: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou, Wai and Tie, and they have created singing forms such as solo singing, duet singing, rotation singing, and chorus singing. In terms of the use of tunes, Nan Opera has formed some fixed serialization habits, creating The form of "North and South combination" was adopted.