Once established in the late eighteenth century, Beijing's own regional theatre form continued to develop and flourish. The emphasis on poetry and scholar-beauty romances in the Kunqu style was challenged with an increase in the Jingju tradition's employment of martial and popular literature.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi) is one source often drawn upon for play material. This great epic, attributed to Luo Guanzhong, (c. 1330–1400), concerns the struggle for power from the end of the Han (c. 206 bc–220 ad) through the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). The new subject matter changed the dramatic focus to male characters and incorporated the use of acrobatics to portray the battles, further shifting the form's emphasis from literary to performative.