The Peony Pavilion

The story of Peony Pavilion

synonym

Peony Pavilion (the representative work of Tang Xianzu, a dramatist of Ming Dynasty) generally refers to the story of Peony Pavilion's resurrection (a play written by Tang Xianzu, a dramatist of Ming Dynasty)

The story of the Peony Pavilion is a legend (script) written by Tang Xianzu, a dramatist of Ming Dynasty. It was published in 1617.

The play describes the story of Du Liniang, a famous official, who fell in love with Liu Mengmei, a scholar in her dream. She died of grief and turned into a soul searching for her lover in reality. People and ghosts fell in love with each other and finally came back to life. Finally, she and Liu Mengmei were united.

The play has elegant diction and beautiful language.

The drama is one of the outstanding works in the history of Chinese opera. It is known as the four major classical dramas in China together with Cui Yingying waiting for the moon in the west chamber, Dou E's injustice and Changsheng Palace (on Cui Yingying waiting for the moon in the west chamber, peach blossom fan and Changsheng Palace).

content validity

The heroine Du Liniang is naturally beautiful and sentimental. When she arrived at the age of cardamom, it was the early spring of love, but she was imprisoned by the feudal ethics at home and could not get freedom and love. One day, her father, Du Bao, hired an old Confucian, Chen Zuiliang, to teach her. This pedantic old gentleman explained the "Guanguan Dove" in the book of songs for the first time, which touched Du Liniang's heart. A few days later. Du Liniang came back from her spring outing in the back garden and fell asleep in bed when she was tired. After a while, a scholar came with a willow branch to ask her to write a poem, and then he took her to the Peony Pavilion, which made the joy of cloud and rain come true. When she woke up, she knew it was Nanke's dream. After that, she went to the Peony Pavilion to find her dream, but she didn't see the scholar. She was very sad. Gradually, this yearning became a mental illness, and finally the stone died. At this time, his father was promoted to Huaiyang pacifier. On his way, he buried his daughter under the plum tree in the back garden and built a "plum blossom nunnery Temple" to be guarded by an old Taoist. After Du Liniang's death, the wandering soul came to the hell. The judge asked her why she had died. He found out that there was a marriage between her and Liu Mengmei in the marriage book, so he allowed her to return to the world.

At this time, Liu Mengmei, a scholar, went to Beijing to take the exam. She felt cold on the way and was bedridden in Meihua nunnery. After he recovered from the illness, he met Du Liniang's wandering soul in the nunnery. They loved each other and lived as a couple. Before long, the old Taoist aunt noticed that Liu Mengmei broke up with her and secretly asked someone to dig Du Liniang's grave. Du Liniang was able to see the sun again and was reborn. They immediately became a real couple and came to Kyoto together. Liu Mengmei took the entrance examination. After the examination, Liu Mengmei came to Huaiyang and was interrogated by governor Du when she found Du's house. Liu Mengmei claimed to be the son-in-law of Du's family. Governor Du was furious and thought that the Confucian scholar was talking in his sleep. Because his daughter died three years ago, how can she be reborn now? He also heard that Du Liniang's tomb was discovered by the Confucian scholar, so he was sentenced to beheading. At the time of the interrogation, the court sent someone to accompany Liu Mengmei's family to Du's house to report that Liu Mengmei had won the first prize. Liu Mengmei was able to escape, but governor Du still did not believe that his daughter would come back to life, and suspected that the number one scholar Lang was also a goblin, so he wrote a memorial for the emperor to adjudicate. The emperor told Du Liniang to come to the court and verify that she was a real person in front of the "demon mirror". So the decree let the father and son husband and wife recognize each other, and go back to the first marriage. A marriage story of life and death, death and rebirth ends with reunion.

Catalogue of works

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Creative background

Tang Xianzu was intelligent and talented since he was a child. However, he failed the imperial examination four times because of bad luck and offending the powerful. Tang Xianzu had a clear and profound understanding of the drawbacks of the imperial examination system and the ugly face of the powerful oppressing others and malicious revenge. The tribulations on the road of life failed to change Tang Xianzu's principle of sticking to himself and valuing morality, but made him firm The style of ambition and integrity. After the incident of Shangshu demotion, Tang Xianzu made up his mind to bid farewell to officialdom and devoted himself to the creation of opera. Tang Xianzu, who attaches great importance to emotion and righteousness, has always closely linked "emotion" and "ambition", and pointed out that "the emotions of all things have their own aspirations". He began to try to create operas with the theme of love as the core for a long time. The friendly interaction between Tang Xianzu and his friends brought him special emotional experience, which eventually promoted Tang Xianzu to embark on the creative road of "dream for love and play for dream".

In the 28th year of Wanli (1600), Tang Xianzu resigned and returned to his hometown, Linchuan County, Jiangxi Province. This year he was 49. In his life, he heard and heard about the love experiences of some young men and women, which aroused his creative feelings. Soon after returning home, he began to write the story of the Peony Pavilion.

The story of the Peony Pavilion is adapted from the novel Du Liniang's lust reviving.

In the early Ming Dynasty, due to the differences of local languages, customs and traditional music, legendary dramas were composed of a variety of tunes, including a large number of local tunes with different styles. By the middle of Ming Dynasty, the four most popular tunes in Nanqu were Haiyan tune, Yuyao tune, Yiyang tune and Kunshan tune. During the years of Jiajing and Longqing, a group of opera musicians represented by Wei Liangfu improved Kunshan opera comprehensively. In the aspects of banyan, GongDiao, accompaniment, and the use of aura and tonal tone, Kunshan tune was rearranged, creating a fresh and elegant tone style, which was called "Shuimo tune" and "lengbanqu". "The story of the Peony Pavilion" is based on Yihuang tune, which is derived from Haiyan tune.

Personage introduction

Du Liniang

Female, 16 years old, is the only daughter of Du Bao, the prefect of Nan'an County in Jiangxi Province in the early Southern Song Dynasty. He was born beautiful and charming. He was gentle, tough and persistent. He was tender, sentimental and infatuated. I had a tryst with Lingnan scholar Liu Mengmei in my dream. When I woke up, my missing became ill. With the help of Liu Mengmei, Shi Daogu, judge Hu, Peony Fairy and other gods, Xiang Xiaoyu revived, and finally got married with Liu Sheng after many hardships. Although she lived in a boudoir and was influenced by feudal ethics, she had a sense of betrayal to traditional etiquette and a spirit of resistance to cruel reality. She had a strong desire to break free from feudal cage, smash the shackles of Neo Confucianism, pursue personality liberation and yearn for good love. She died because of love and lived because of love. She is not only a tragic character strangled by feudal times, but also a romantic life shaped by art.

Liu Mengmei

Chunqing, formerly known as Chunqing, is a 20-year-old scholar from Lingnan. He is a descendant of Liu Zongyuan, a poet of Tang Dynasty. He is handsome, intelligent, ambitious, but unlucky. His parents died early, and he has no relatives. He only depends on Guo Tuo, the servant of Liu Zongyuan, to manage the orchard and flower garden. Although he lives in a difficult time, he still has a lofty mind and insists on studying hard. He has the ambition to serve his country, but also cherishes the spirit of life Only then did not meet, after suffering, finally realized the ambition, high school champion. Although he is full of the spirit of books, he is also full of the spirit of justice and heroism. He is also full of the spirit of courage and uprightness, and is young and frivolous. He and Du Liniang are loyal to each other because of their dreams. They are infatuated with each other. They risk killing their heads for the rebirth of Li Niang and dig a grave to save others. They have achieved a great love with their brave actions.

Dubbo

Male, more than 50 years old, Du Liniang's father, descendant of poet Du Fu of Tang Dynasty, has successively served as Nanan prefect, Huaiyang pacification envoy, Pingzhang military and national important affairs (equivalent to Prime Minister). He is proficient in both literature and martial arts, and has the unique skill of wearing Yang in a hundred steps. The typical representative of decent personages in the feudal ruling class is rigid in character and rigid in thought. On the one hand, he regarded feudal ethics as natural justice and believed in the doctrines of "preserving natural principles and eliminating human desires"; on the other hand, he was well-known and respected by the emperor and the common people for his clear name and benevolent administration, scrupulous duty, worrying about the safety of the country and the suffering of the common people.

Chen Zuiliang

Male, Du Liniang's tutor, over 60 years old. He is full of benevolence, righteousness and morality. He is also full of words. He is dedicated to teaching this beautiful young girl student to be a model of a good wife and mother.

Appreciation of works

Theme of the work

In the story of the Peony Pavilion, Du Liniang, the daughter of the prefect, who is depressed both physically and mentally, meets Liu Mengmei, an elegant scholar, in her dream in the garden. After waking up from her dream, Du Liniang was melancholy and uneasy, and "she didn't know where she started" became Acacia, which made her illness difficult to recover and finally died. Three years later, Liu Mengmei, the man in Du Liniang's dream, was occasionally painted by a beautiful woman. Li Niang also entered the world as a wandering soul, looking for the marriage in her dream. With the help of others, Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei finally break through many barriers in their love and come back from the dead to get married. In this legendary work, Tang Xianzu describes the deep and touching love between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei. This kind of love deduction represents Tang Xianzu's philosophical thinking and experience of life and love. Du Liniang, who died of deep love, is the embodiment of Tang Xianzu's ideal of love.

In Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion

Chinese PinYin : Mu Dan Ting