本书以古代戏曲典籍所收录的宋元明清时代的具有代表性的成熟鬼戏作为主要研究对象，重点探讨了三个问题：鬼戏中不变的情感内核是什么；鬼戏形态不断变化的动力和规律是什么；鬼魂脚色是如何变迁的，舞台风貌如何。与此同时，还涉及了20世纪以来的鬼戏新形态（鬼魂话剧、鬼片），简要叙述它们在戏剧特性方面有何新特征，继承了什么，革新了什么。这既是古典鬼戏研究的延伸，同时又是鬼戏研究面向未来所不可回避的问题。 （With the most representative mature ghost drama in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasty collected in ancient opera works as main research object, the author mainly discusses three issues: what is the unchanged emotion core in ghost drama, what are the ever changing power and law in ghost drama, how ghost character changes and what are the stage style. Meanwhile, it involves the new form of ghost drama since 20th century (ghost drama and ghost movie) and has a short description of the new characteristic in drama, what they inherit and reform. This is extension of classic ghost drama and inevitable questions in the future study of ghost drama. ）