起自遠古的祭祀儀式蘊含著豐富的戲劇發生學的訊息。當戲劇藝術進入成熟期後，中國的戲劇從業者創造出一種特殊的祭祀對象──戲神。戲神名目繁多，為戲神建廟立傳的最早出又最重要的文獻，是明萬曆年間湯顯祖所作的〈宜黃縣戲神清源師廟記〉。湯顯祖借〈廟記〉而發表的藝術見解，是一篇關於戲曲理論和歷史的多角度的綜論。湯顯祖說「情」是藝術行為的原動力，戲曲和音樂舞蹈一樣都是「情」的產物，所以才有神奇的創造功能和感人力量。戲曲一道能開啟人情之大竇，所以能使人快樂地接受教化。湯顯祖考察了戲神清源和田竇將軍的來歷，考察了明代戲曲聲腔演變的史實，闡述了戲曲藝人修養之道。本文力求對以上各方面作出較為切實的解析。

The worship ceremonies contained various information of drama germination. A Theatre God was created by the professional performers while the drama performing styles was shaped and became matured. There are various kinds of the Theatre God with different names, and the earliest records of the Theatre God Temple building notes, which is also the most important historical document available nowadays, is the “Theatre God, Master Qing-Yuan, Temple Notes in Yi-Huang County” written by Tang Xianzu between 1573-1620 in Ming Dynasty. This Temple Notes is a general illustration of Xi-qu (Chinese drama and theatre) theories and history from different aspects of view points, and within this note, Tang Xianzu declared his artistic views. In Tang’s opinion, natural emotions are the motivation of all the arts forms; in addition, why Xi-qu, music and dance have such amazing creative abilities and heart-touching power is that they all comes from natural emotions. Xi-qu, or the “Dao”, can create a way towards human feelings, so that it makes people willing to be educated happily. Tang Xianzu did a survey about the Theatre God, Master Qing-Yuen and General Tian Dou, and he also did some research about the different singing tones used in Ming Dynasty and how these tones evolved, as well as the education and cultivation of Xi-qu performers. In this paper, I would like to present my observation and illustration based on Tang Xianzu’s note.