目連救母故事流傳已久，目連戲的搬演亦已歷時八百多年。明萬曆年間祁門文人鄭之珍根據高腔諸多演出本編纂而成《目連救母勸善戲文》（一稱《勸善記》）。目連戲向被視為勸善文本、戲曲研究之活化石，近年來整理出不少演出版本與相關文獻，而學界從民俗文化、戲曲藝術、戲曲發展史、宗教儀式等諸多角度研究目連戲，本劇研究似成顯學。但是，傳統戲曲文學集中討論如《西廂記》、《牡丹亭》、《琵琶記》、《桃花扇》等主流名作，目連戲主要仍從俗文學、民俗曲藝角度研究，剖析其文本肌理之研究相對較少，利用西方理論解讀者亦相對稀有。雖有學者注意到鄭之珍編纂目連戲結構、進行文學潤飾之功，但筆者發現：除了文人筆觸之外，《勸善記》之研究甚或可以開展出與元明戲曲描容寫真與題畫風潮之對話。因此，本文從鄭本〈羅卜描容〉段切入，借西方讀畫理論（Ekphrasis），解讀此段在作品主題、結構中的功能涵義，並透過本片段所呈現之文字、繪畫符號表意問題，開展與描容寫真相關之讀畫美學論述。本文首先勾勒本劇從佛教經典演繹成文人傳奇之轉折，討論從目連救母故事到《勸善記》所增生之文人筆觸。其次處理〈羅卜描容〉片段之主題結構意義，以開展〈羅卜描容〉片段中蘊含之符號表意欲望與詮釋空間。最後，本文嘗試就〈羅卜描容〉與另一勸善戲文《琵琶記》之五娘描容公婆片段進行比較，並與寫情代表作《牡丹亭》中杜麗娘寫真題畫之片段進行對照，以開展相關的讀畫／語象敘事美學論述。

The stories about how Maudgalyāyana (Mu-lien) liberates his mother from sufferings in hell have been told for thousands of years, and the performances of these tales called Mu-lien Plays (Mu-lien Xi) have lasted for more than eight hundred years since they were turned from Buddhist sutras into folk tales and dramatic performances. In Ming Dynasty, Cheng Chi-chen (1518-1595) compiled and published The Didactic Play of ＂Maudgalyāyana's Deliverance of His Mother＂ (also called The Didactic Tales) in 1582, basing on the various versions of Mu-lien plays and tales up till his time. Mu-lien plays have been treated as didactic texts about Buddhist-Confucian perspectives on filial piety, and have been named ＂the living fossil records of ancient drama＂ because their miscellaneous performances in all dialects have provided living records of ancient Chinese drama. Although recent discoveries have yielded rich records of these texts and various researches have been done on Mu-lien plays, most studies focus on their roles in folk traditions, religious rituals, performing arts, history and development of ancient Chinese drama. Unlike canonical plays which have been extensively studied for their literary merits such as Romance of the Western Bower, Dream in Peony Pavilion, The Lute Story, and Blood Stains on Peach Blossom Fan, as a didactic play, Cheng's text has been marginalized in literary studies of traditional Chinese drama and deserves more close reading and theoretical discussions. Although there have been commentaries on the literary and structural merits of the play, one scene in this didactic text of 104 scenes deserves closer analyses for it is more aesthetic than didactic: in the scene, Lo-pu (Maudgalyāyana) tries to portray his dead mother in a painting and meditates on its impossibilities. Hence, this paper shall first explicate the ekphrastic significance of the scene and its structural significance; then, it shall contrast it with ekphrastic passages in The Lute Story and ＂Dream in Peony Pavilion＂ to explore how these dramatic texts may interact with their contemporary aesthetic discourses.