Abstract: The problem about the genre of Chekhov's plays has not reached a consensus in the circle and remained an unsolved artistic mystery. Professor Dong Xiao's The Comedic Nature of Chekhov's Drama seeks to unravel the mystery and to explore the comic nature of Chekhov's plays from Chekhov's own point of view. Dong Xiao treats the plays as an organic whole, proceeds from the exterior to the interior and reveals Chekhov's unique concept of comedy layer by layer. Dong Xiao holds that Chekhov examined the absurdity of the world and life with a cold and transcendent comic eye, which is a reflection of his spirit of freedom, and also a fountainhead of the impact the 20th century drama.

Key words: Dong Xiao, Chekhov's drama, the comic, comic spirit