Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu - Essay Example

The Peony Pavilion: The Peony Pavilion is a play written by Ming Dynasty's Tang Xianzu. It is the most famous of all Kunqu operas and considered as the Romeo and Juliet of China. Kun, an art form that combines dance, poetry and flute accompanied by fine and sophisticated costumes and make up, is the one of reasons of Peony Pavilion's popularity and position that it has enjoyed so far. It is drama that plays with intense emotions, desires, and dreams, so strong are they that they can overcome death. ("Peony Pavilion") Peony Pavilion is a story about Du-liniang , a sixteen year daughter of government official. She is bored of her life, totally uninterested and dispassionate about it. Her maid suggests her to abandon her dull studies and to take a walk in the garden. In the garden she falls asleep and has a beautiful dream about her lover. In the dream, she makes intense love to him but on waking up she is unable to remember much of her dream. She even tries to look for her lover, but all in vain. This further disappoints her and she starves her self to death. Before dying, however, she paints a beautiful picture of herself and requests that it must be placed next to her grave. Her mother decides to bury her under a plum tree. After her death, she goes to hell where she tells the judge about her story. Impressed by her beauty and touched by her tale, the judge orders to let go of her. She is even told that her marriage with her lover is predestined. After release, her ghost wanders in the garden where her body is buried. On the other side, Liu Mengmei is young improverished scholar who has taken up the journey to the capital to give his civil service examinations. He also dreams of a young girl who informs him that she could bring him happiness and prosperity.On his way , he visits the garden where Du Liniang is buried. He discovers her picture next to her shrine, and falls in love with her. The Ghost appears and they both make refined love to each other, After that, Du convinces Lui of her state, that she is mere ghost and also convinces him to exhume her by digging up her grave so that her soul and body can reunite. With the help of Flower Goddess, the reunion of flesh and soul takes place and they formally get married. In the last section of the story, Du presses upon her husband to convince her parents that she is back to life. However, that brings her husband the wrath of her father. He is accused of and punished for grave robbing. In the mean time the results of his civil service exams are out and he has cleared them. On this account, he is granted pardon by the Emperor. On the other hand, Du convinces her father , with much effort, that she is back to life and that love is so powerful that even death succumbs to it. This final section contains some of most sweetest and hilarious pieces of Kunqu operas.(Hsien-Tsu) Though the story has an deus ex machina ending which means that it is very brupt in the end. Certain characters and twists in the plot are introduced to bring out the desired result, a happy ending for all in this play.Nonetheless , the story is a great masterpiece of creativity in many ways. The kunqu form of art adds to breathtaking power of the play, specially its three poems , "Travelling in the Garden", "The Dream Interrupted" and "Searching for the Dream" are marvellous in its expression of emotions and drama in form of music and dance. The play is basically written criticize and defy the concepts of Neo-Confucianism that was prevalent in the 16th century China. The latter placed high value and emphasis on proper behaviour and etiquettes. It demanded a complete suppression of feeling, dreams and desires and a display of rigid , unemphathic manners. As we know , that those who suffer most under such repressive cnditions are women who are asked to suppress their desires to an inhumane and unbearable extent. This political philosophy argued that mind and reason are of highest importance and cause of human happiness and success. However , Xianz in his play tried to attack the cruelty of this philosophy by placing high value to emotions , dreams and desires. In the entire first section, Xianz focuses on Du Liniang's emotions. He highlights her loneliness and her desire to be loved and this desire is so strong that it manifests itself in her dream. And on waking up , when she discovers that her desire she thought has finally been fulfilled was a just a dream , she is overtaken by disappointment and depression and pines away in this pain. This shows how important are emotions and desires and what can happen if they remain unfulfilled and dream-like. It also exhibits the human need for love. Though she should have been happy because she had materialistic treasures of beauty and wealth , yet her unhappiness, loneliness and unfulfilled need for love were obvious and intense enough to take her life away. Among all the emotions and needs , the desire and need of sexuality has been given a special place in the drama. The most probable reason for this could be that , it is among the most important , life and self-determining desire yet unforuntately, it is one of most ignored and neglected. In fact, any discussion on sexuality and desires of sex was and is still considered taboo in many places. And unsatifised sexual desires were one of main reason or culprits of young girl's merciless death. Moreover, it is not on finding of her lover that she comes back to life or presses upon him to open up her grave so that she can reunite with her body, but only after making love with her lover that she expresses her desire to reincarnate,which emphases on the importance of these desires and need to satisfy them. On the other hand, we can also say that the lover , Lui Mengmei only ensures her to make the courageous attempt to open up her grave, after making love to the ghost. Further, he feels so fulfilled, happy and satisfied after meeting and making love to his young love , that he even bears all punishment for her at the hands of her father. Lui informs his father-in-law of the power of love in the following lines . "I kissed her so that her heart could start beating again. By lying with her I gave her my life essence and brought her back to life." The expression of human 's intense yet hidden emotions has been one of reasons of play's unequalled popularity and success which is confirmed by anthropologist Lindy Li Mark in the following words ""Here comes a play that portrays women's feelings - especially sexual feelings - so sympathetically that it became an instant hit."(Lam) Further, in his criticism of Neo-Confucianism, known as Daoxue in China, he shows that love has the power to last for three lifetimes, suggesting that love is above and beyond all limitations imposed by the society. The emphasis on the intensity of love tells us about the prevailing rigidity of Daoxue and growing frustrations towards it, in those times. He has ridiculed about the deep rooted rigidity and inflexibility in Daoxue followers in the last part when Du Bao , father of Du Liniang, refusing to believe his own eyes when his daughter appears alive in front of him in the court. He refuses to accept her as his daughter because his rigid mind cannot conceive the idea that love has brought her back to life. Like all stories of those times, the supernatural elements played an important role in these plays. For example, when Du Liniang and Lui Mengemi were making love in the garden, flower fairies covered them and shielded them from the rest of the world. Later, in the play the Flower Goddess helps to bring Du Liniang into life. Though these plays were very close to reality, in fact they depict the conditions of their times in several ways, there is always an element or elements of supernatural nature. The character of Du Li-niang is a very interesting. Du is her last name while "Li" means beautiful and "Niang" means girl. Li-Niang's character carries within her the embodiment of many features common to all women. For this girl, like all women, emotions have great significance in her life, especially that of love. In fact, it is the determining feature of her personality and eventually her life. Her entire life is controlled by the emotion of love. While the lack of love, takes away her life, the return of love brings her back to life. Her entire personality is a manifestation of repressed emotions and desires, as a result she has lost interest in her life and finds pleasure and relief in dreams where her repressed emotions get a chance to fully come to live and be fulfilled. (Yi) Besides that, the character of Du Liniang was very unconventional in many ways. For example, she dares to go to flower garden which was considered to be an immoral act. Therefore, for the first time she doesn't inform her parents that she is going out to a flower garden. On arrival, she falls for the flowers, and is awed tofind an unusual connection between flowers and herself.. She says: "Now bursting with color, blossoming everywhere, one day they will wither and tumble! Beautiful moments and lovely scenes-what do they matter Who will see the beauty in this house" which not only indicates to the transient life and beauty of flowers but that also of Du Li-Niang. Besides it also points out to her desire to be free and liberated, and go in search of her lover. Freedom and desire to go by her wishes are among some of her repressed feelings. But still we see that throughout the play, even under most rigid conditions, she goes by her wishes. In the first act, she gives up her life because it is unfulfilling and unsatisfying for her. She does not force herself to live for her parents or society. She also makes her sadness manifest and does not care to put up her a happiness faade to hide her sadness from the world. Later, in the hell, she is able to convince the underworld judge of her undying love to the extent that he permits her to return to the mortal world. Only after the reunion with her love and after satisfaction of her desires, she is truly happy and is expressive about it. All these acts show how powerful, independent and rebellious her nature and personality is. ("A Countdown of the best of Chinese Love stories of all times") There has been another feature in her personality that has come out in many ways including in the above dialogue. We find that there is an inherent sadness or melancholy in her personality, which might have been a feature common to all women of those times because of excessive limitations and societal pressure to behave in a certain manner. Lack of freedom, lack of expression, repressed emotions, and suppressed sexual desires -all led to a permanent sadness and unhappy attitude towards life. However, the powerful character of Du Liniang has been the source of hope for Chinese women for the following generations. Young girls imitated the heroic personality of Du Liniang believing that such a behavior would lead to a happy ending like hers. In conclusion, one can say that there were several reasons for the popularity and fame of Peony Pavilion. Some of them were as follows: Tang Xianz 's criticism of Neo- Confucianism, his emphasis on authentic emotions and desires, especially women's sexual desires, and importance of satisfying them, a well -balanced combination of love, tragedy, happiness and humor, supernatural elements, the powerful, sensitive, free-spirited personality of Du Liniang, the power of love etc. However, whatever may be the reason for its success, Peony Pavilion is a timeless love story that has and will continue to capture its audience with its powerful yet simple plot. Bibliography: 1) "Peony Pavilion." Wikipedia. 13 Mar 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peony_Pavilion 2) Hsien-Tsu, Tang. "Peony Pavilion: The Return of Soul." 13 Mar 2007 http://www.chinapage.com/peony-pavilion.html 3) Lam, Andrew. "The deaths and lives of The Peony Pavilion." California Magazine. July/August 2006. 13 Mar 2007 . 4) 4)Yi, Ho. "Looking for the quitessence of love." Taipei Times 14 Aril 2006 pg.13. 13 March 2007 . 5) "A Countdown of the best of Chinese Love stories of all times." Sinorama Feburary 2007 pg.2. 13 March 2007 . Read More