Abstract: The setting of the recitative protagonist is the core of Sanqu's narrative in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, who is a firstperson narrator undertaking responsibility for chanting the progression of story with his vision and position. Similarly, the leading singer (Zhengmo or Zhengdan) of Zaju is also a first-person protagonist who undertakes responsibility for chanting the whole librettos of a play-text, so he should be a recitative protagonist of librettos of Zaju. With a comparison of the librettos of Zaju's text attribute and the play-text forms with those of narrative Sanqu, we find that the play-texts of early Zaju have the same text form as the joint-structure narrative Sanqu, which is an inheritance from the written Zajuci that appeared in the Song Dynasty.

Key words: narrative Sanqu, librettos of Zaju, recitative protagonist, the lead singer, play-text of early Zaju