黄燮清为晚清戏曲家代表之一，戏曲创作于其一生有重要的作用，以才子自诩与用世之志贯穿于其戏曲创作之始终。借助于不断的自我塑造以及戏曲的广泛传播，黄燮清之“才”名著四方，然所招致的才名并未对其经世、治世之志真正有所裨益。黄燮清的戏曲创作，由自喻式演绎开始，但很快转向以风世为主旨，且以一生践行之。其戏曲作品之于风教的认同和阐释，是一代文人忧心国事之心的真切表达，具有顺应时代风尚、针砭时弊的意义。黄燮清对戏曲的娱乐、教化、交际功能都努力践行之，其作品的刊刻与传播过程展示了晚清时期戏曲之于社会生活结构的独特作用，也带来了戏曲题材、主题等的变化。黄燮清等晚清文人借助戏曲创作的方式表达对人生、社会和时代的理解，不仅将戏曲之功能发挥到了极致，也带来了戏曲形态的新变乃至其地位的提升。

Huang Xieqing was one of major dramatists in the late Qing dynasty. In his life dramatic writing played a key role， through which he demonstrated his intellectual talents as well as his conceptualization of the genre in question as an expression of pragmatic social aspirations. Thanks to his constant self-fashioning through drama and the widespread dissemination of his works， Huang established his name as a talented dramatist. However， such reputation hardly contributed to his pragmatic aspiration for social development. His works thus transformed from metaphoric manifestations of the self to critical reflections upon society， and continued as such thereafter. The identification and interpretation of social phenomena in his works were earnest expressions of a generation's concern about the country and its people， which not only showcased the Zeitgeist of the era， but also an intellectual's critique of social malpractices. Huang contrived to enable his plays to perform the multiple functions of entertainment， education， and communication. The publication and dissemination of his works at once displayed the distinctive role of late-Qing drama in the structure of social life as well as the transformations of the genre in terms of theme and content. Through their interpretation of life， society， and the epoch in which they lived， the late-Qing dramatists such as Huang not only fulfilled the functions of drama to its greatest extent， but also managed to transform and elevate the status of the genre.