祁彪佳在与友人的尺牍中，表达了他希望借阅、品评剧本，编选明代戏曲总集，以阐扬当世之曲的想法。祁彪佳上承王骥德撰作《曲律》“为天地补一缺”、吕天成“有意近俗”的观念，力图穷尽当时所能看到的所有明代剧本，编纂戏曲批评专书《远山堂曲品剧品》。祁彪佳以“剧本”而非“曲家”或“伶人”为中心，对作家作品辨伪求真，进行品评褒贬。囿于音律非其擅长，祁彪佳在当时理论家较多关注的音律、文词之外，尤其重视剧本结构与叙事。在清代李渔系统论及“结构论”之前，祁彪佳已从叙事角度倡言结构为传奇第一要义，具有典型的文人化品评的特色。祁氏戏曲批评有一定的局限性，但也直接反映出晚明曲家从对“曲”的关注到对“剧”的探索。

In his letters to friends, Qi Biaojia expressed his hope to compile a collection of xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty to promote contemporary xiqu-plays with textual criticism of the manuscripts. Qi inherited Wang Jide’s idea of being the first to bridge the gap in the xiqu world and Lv Tiancheng’s “intention to be close to the secular.”Therefore, he tried hard to collect all the xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty available to him, and compiled a monograph on xiqu-plays. Qi focused on manuscripts rather than on the playwrights or actors as his basis of evaluation. As opera music meters and performance were not his expertise, Qi paid more attention to the structure and narrative of the plays. Before Li Yu in the Qing dynasty with his theorization of structure, Qi considered narrative structure as the primary element in dramatic works, and this was a typical characteristics of literati evaluation. Limitations aside, Qi’s criticism can be argued as an indication of transition from the study of the music to the study of the play in the late Ming dynasty.