Peony Pavilion

Author: Tang Xianzu / Huang Zhuszan (Annotations)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The Peony Pavilion is the masterpiece of the great Ming Dynasty composer Tang Xianzu, when the author's thoughts and art had fully matured. The Ming Dynasty storytelling novel Du Liangni's Love and Rebirth provided the basic plot for The Peony Pavilion. In the play, certain original lines from the storytelling novel are preserved in the spoken parts of the scenes Awakening Dream, Seeking Dream, and Mourning Sorrow. In the novel, after Du Liangni is resurrected, a marriage based on social status is successfully arranged. However, in the opera, Tang Xianzu undertook a creative transformation, blending the mythological story with the realities of Ming Dynasty society, giving it a strong anti-feudal and anti-traditionalist tone and embodying the brilliant ideal of pursuing individual freedom. The heroine, Du Liangni, is one of the most beloved young female characters in classical opera. Her birth and social status dictate that she should become a virtuous wife and mother who adheres to the "Three Obediences and Four Virtues." Her life lesson is the first poem of the Book of Songs, Quanju. Traditional interpretation considers it a praise of the virtues of empresses and consorts, making it an ideal reading for young women. Yet she intuitively recognizes it as a love song. Encouraged by her maid Chunxiang, she secretly leaves her secluded room. "Without visiting the gardens, how would one know the splendor of spring?" The awakening of nature in spring revives her youthful vitality. She lives in an environment shrouded in feudal etiquette, almost isolated from the world, helplessly witnessing the fading of her youth. Unable to act or resist, she suppresses her passionate feelings in her heart. Tang Xianzu did not follow the conventional approach of earlier novels and plays, where lovers meet in secret in the garden and pledge their love at first sight. Instead, he arranges for Du Liangni to meet her lover in a dream after her garden visit, followed by a scene of her Seeking Dream in the garden again. Awakening Dream and Seeking Dream are the eruptions of the passion that has been accumulating in Du Liangni's heart, as well as her active resistance to the real world. The emotional power of The Peony Pavilion lies in its strong romantic ideal of pursuing individual freedom and opposing feudalism. This ideal emerges as the antithesis of the feudal system. All that is good and virtuous belongs to Du Liangni. Tang Xianzu successfully portrays her beauty, but the passages that depict her emotions and ideals are even more captivating. The Peony Pavilion shows that she dies not because of the destruction of love, but because of her futile yearning for love. Through Du Liangni's character, The Peony Pavilion expresses the aspirations of the vast majority of young men and women at the time for individual liberation, freedom of love, and autonomy in marriage, while exposing how feudal etiquette destroys people's happiness and beautiful ideals.