凌濛初是晚明戲曲家，現僅存兩部雜劇和一部傳奇。雜劇《識英雄紅拂莽擇配》和《虯髯翁正本扶餘國》取材自唐傳奇《虯髯客傳》，將小說中主要人物虯髯客、紅拂女和李靖，構成三部劇作描述，意在彰顯豪俠義氣。凌濛初的「紅拂三傳」有別於張伯起的《紅拂記》，剔除風花雪月的文人習氣，藉由北曲雜劇的形式寄託自身抱負。此外，他所評點的《西廂記》，經暖紅室翻刻後，歷久不衰。他的戲曲理論以對「本色」和「當行」探討為主，並評論各曲家看法，在晚明戲曲風潮蓬勃發展下，凌濛初試圖以客觀和理性，對劇作評論作出較為中肯的分析。本文就凌濛初劇作、戲曲評點和理論，結合當時曲風和現況，探討凌濛初在晚明戲曲發展的定位。; Ling Mengchu was the dramatist in the Late Ming Dynasty.Two Psychological Explanations and one Chuanqi only has passed through centuries down to this day.The story of two Psychological Explanations is in the collect material from Legend of Tang Dynasty of Hong Fu Ji. In creat ing or adapting opera novels bearing chivalric types of literature, he paid much at tention to absorbing mat erials from literary sket ches and folk legends in the Song and M ing Dynasties, especially from the t wo w orks of Legends of Sw ordsman and History of Eternit y. His creation and adaptation receive favorable comment s from experts, w hich is quite prominent in opera novels. Through the right handling of elegance and popularity，the aesthetic characteristics of traditional opera are explained well.
