明人以雜劇遣懷諷世，始於王九思（1468-1551）《曲江春》，其後徐渭（1521-1593）的《四聲猿》，王衡（1561-1609）的《鬱輪袍》、《真傀儡》，沈自徵（1591-1641）的《漁陽三弄》等，亦皆借劇作以排遣憤世嫉俗之情。逮入清後，則又有尤侗（1618-1704）的《讀離騷》、嵇永仁（1637-1678）的《續離騷》、張韜（1678年在世）的《續四聲猿》、桂馥（1736-1805）的《後四聲猿》等。此類作品特有的劇作審美特質，《盛明雜劇》一書所附數篇序言，蓋已論及。如袁幔亭（1592-1674）云︰「雜劇，詞場之短兵也。或以寄悲憤、寫跅弛，紀妖冶、書忠孝，無窮心事，無窮感觸，借四折為寓言，減之不得，增之不可，作者情之所含，辭之所畫，音之所合，即具大法程焉。」徐翽也說︰「今之所謂北者（按︰此所謂「北」者，指雜劇言），皆牢騷骯髒，不得於時者之所為也。」「牢騷骯髒」四字不唯指作者之憤懣，亦是說此種憤懣之情積在作者胸中，必待去之而後快。總括而言，本文所謂「抒懷寫憤」雜劇，主要是就作品的創作目的與內涵取類，這其中所涵蓋的明清雜劇作家，包括︰康海、王九思、馮惟敏、徐渭、陳與郊、徐復祚、王衡、沈自徵、吳偉業、尤侗、陸世廉、鄭瑜、鄒式金、鄒兌金、王夫之、嵇永仁、廖燕、裘璉、張韜、桂馥等。 　　在中國戲曲的發展歷程中，此一類特殊的劇作，由於受到作者「自抒胸臆」創作動機的引導，往往成為作家「自我呈現」的載體，形成了具有可稱之為「戲劇抒情化」傾向的抒情短劇。這類劇作以「發憤」為動機，在創作過程中將個人的精神鬱悶投向世情中類同的感慨之中，從而激起創作者與欣賞者所可同有的一種情感激盪，並以此種情感的激盪做為藝術表現的核心。而為了在表現中將欲表達之情集中化、深刻化，以達到特殊的審美效果，劇作家嘗試在戲劇結構的設計中，以「取境」之情感凝結與「借事」之情節壓縮手法，創造所謂「不盡」之境，充分發揮短劇「無盡而有神」、「以無結為結」的特點。此種「短而有神」的審美特質，對於劇作家以「寫心」為創作目的，所謂「稱心而出，如題而止」的表現來說，正是可以凸顯出「寫憤」雜劇深刻主觀化、文人化的色彩。此類劇作之濃厚的「抒情化」傾向，與同時期明清傳奇之高度戲劇化發展，適成相反趨勢。寫憤雜劇作家借他人之事來洩一己之憤懣，乃是借戲劇的形式表現來呈現抒情的內涵，易言之，抒情的表現才是戲劇的焦點 明清抒懷寫憤雜劇之藝術特質與成分。所以在此層意義上，人物與情事之所謂「真」，都只在特定的內涵意義上，戲劇人物的完整性並不真正獨立於此抒情的主旨之外。這與在某些戲劇化充分展現的傳奇中，劇作家之「主體性」與劇中人物之「個體性」能予清楚隔離的狀況，截然不同。此項明清寫憤雜劇與傳奇劇類在藝術特質的表現可以有的各自的「適合」，是在許多「名作」中所以可有不同發展趨勢的根本原因，亦是寫憤雜劇之所以蔚成明清戲曲中一獨特劇類之根源所在。

It has been a notable trend for the Ming-Ch'ing tsa-chu writers to express their self-lament and self-assertion by playwriting since Wang Chiu-szu (1468-1551) wrote his play Ch'u-chiang-ch'un. Besides the famous Ming dramatists Hsu Wei (1521-1593), Wang Heng (1561-1609) and Shen Chih-cheng (1591-1641), Ch'ing playwrights like Yu T'ung (1618-1704), Chi Yung-jen (1637-1678), Chang T'ao (ca. 1678) and Kuei Fu (1736-1805) all conveyed their laments of frustration and laid claim on high ideals in their plays. Conducted by the authors' motivation of self-lament and self-assertion, these special plays became vehicles of self-representation for the dramatists. While these plays were featured with the authors' self-expression, they transformed the authors' personal yearning and persistence for self-realization into an earnest wish for meaningful life which was greatly echoed by the reader or audience. In order to intensify these feelings to a sensory, effective artistic form, the dramatists employed the skills of“emotion crystallization”and“plot condensation”in their dramatic design to create a“lingering”poetic state with endless vitality. With the authors' purpose of self-depiction, the lyrical tsa-chu drama's“shortened and animated”quality has highlighted its subjectivity with an intellectual and introspective touch. These plays' strong self-expressive tendency was evidently opposed to the highly dramatized development of the Ming-Ch'ing ch'uan-ch'i drama. By integrating their personal awareness of self-existence into the contrived or historical stories, the tsa-chu authors thus presented subjective lyrical themes through dramatic forms. In other words, since the authors' self-representation is the focus of the whole play, the dramatic characters are usually personification of the author's lyric-self. The Ming-Ch'ing lyrical tsa-chu plays, in this sense, are entirely different from the highly dramatized ch'uan-ch'i plays in which the authors' subjectivity is obviously detached from the dramatic characters' individuality. This difference of introversion and extroversion between Ming-Ch'ing tsa-chu and ch'uan-ch'i drama explains why the subjective lyrical tsa-chu drama became a special type of drama-series for self-representation.