The Peony Pavilion

Among all the women in the world who have known love, has there ever been one like Du Liniang?

She dreamed of a man and fell ill because of him. Her illness lingered on until, having painted her own likeness and left it to the world, she died. Yet three years after her death, she was able to seek out, in the dark and boundless realm beyond life, the man she had dreamed of, and through him return to life.

Only someone like Liniang can truly be called a person of profound feeling.

Love—none knows whence it arises, yet once it begins, it grows ever deeper. Through love, the living may die, and the dead may return to life. A love that cannot bring the living to death, or restore the dead to life, has not reached its ultimate intensity.

Why should love experienced in dreams be any less real? Are there not countless people in this world who encounter their beloved in dreams?

Those who insist that intimacy must follow the formal sharing of a marriage bed, or that affection must await retirement from official duties before it can be freely expressed, are merely reasoning from the limitations of the physical world.

The accounts concerning Prefect Du bear some resemblance to the stories of the children of Li Zhongwen, Administrator of Wudu under the Jin dynasty, and Feng Xiaojiang, Administrator of Guangzhou. I have modified these accounts somewhat and expanded them into a drama.

As for Prefect Du's arrest and interrogation of the scholar Liu, this likewise resembles the story of Prince Suiyang of the Han dynasty, who arrested and interrogated the scholar Tan.

Alas! The affairs of this world cannot be fully encompassed by worldly understanding. Those who lack true insight invariably attempt to judge everything by conventional reason.

But if reason declares that something cannot possibly exist, how can we know that love will not make it possible?

Written by Tang Xianzu in the autumn of the wuxu year of the Wanli reign (1598).

[Butterflies in Love with Flowers]

(The Secondary Male enters.)

In the midst of bustle, one casts people aside;

In hours of leisure, one seeks a dwelling of peace.

A hundred plans and countless thoughts,

Yet nowhere is there joy to be found.

Through daylight hours, I wear away my heart

Over verses of heartbreaking sorrow;

Of all things in this world,

Only love is hardest to express.

Before the Hall of the Jade Camellia,

Morning succeeds evening.

Red candles welcome distinguished guests,

And splendid landscapes lend their beauty.

Yet those who love must never betray each other:

Upon the Peony Pavilion lies

The path of destiny through three lifetimes.

[Spring in the Han Palace]

Prefect Du Bao, governing from his splendid hall,

Has a daughter named Liniang,

Who delights in wandering beneath the spring sunshine.

She dreams of a scholar bearing a willow branch,

And love brings her mortal suffering.

She paints her portrait to preserve her memory,

Then is buried in sorrow

Beside the Plum Blossom Taoist Convent.

Three years pass.

A young man named Liu,

Whose dream concerns plum blossoms,

Comes here to fulfill a heavenly romance.

She truly returns to life,

And the two become betrothed.

He travels to Lin'an for the examinations,

Just as rebellion breaks out in Huaiyang.

Prefect Du finds himself surrounded by enemies,

And his daughter is seized with fear.

She sends her beloved Liu to investigate,

But he is met with suspicion,

Provoking the anger of the Grand Councillor.

While the lovers endure bitter trials,

News arrives that Liu has won first place

In the imperial examinations.

Du Liniang dreams and leaves behind her painted likeness.

Professor Chen speaks of the pear-blossom spear.

Scholar Liu secretly carries away the maiden restored to life.

Grand Councillor Du cruelly beats the newly proclaimed top scholar.

[Pearl Screen]

(The Male Lead enters.)

From an ancient clan east of the Yellow River,

The illustrious Liu family has descended.

Even among the constellations,

Our lineage stretches through Zhang and Gui.

Yet after so many generations,

It has fallen to a poor scholar,

Beaten by wind and battered by rain.

People say that books bring wealth and honor.

But where are the beauties fair as jade,

And where is the promised gold?

Poverty turns a man's heart to ashes.

For now, I shall cultivate

My noble and boundless spirit.

[Partridges in the Sky]

"Scraping the frost from the backs of mighty sea creatures,

A poor scholar delights in dwelling in the warm south.

With three parts blessing granted by fate,

He preserves the fragrance of a scholarly inheritance.

He knows how to bore through walls for borrowed light,

And how to suspend his hair from a beam to study.

With skill enough to steal secrets from Heaven,

He embroiders brilliant compositions.

Only when he has cut down the cassia branch

From the palace of the moon

Will the world acknowledge

The power of his jade axe."

My humble surname is Liu, and my given name is Mengmei. My courtesy name is Chunqing.

I am descended from the Tang-dynasty Administrator of Liuzhou, Liu Zongyuan. My ancestors settled in Lingnan.

My father held the official rank of Court Gentleman for Ceremonial Service, and my mother was granted the title of Lady of the County.

(He sighs.)

Unfortunately, I was orphaned at an early age and have lived in reduced circumstances.

Fortunately, I have now grown into manhood. I am past twenty, intelligent and ambitious, and confident of success in the three examination sessions.

My only regret is that fortune has not yet favored me, and so I suffer hunger and cold.

Thanks to my illustrious ancestor, Lord Liu of Liuzhou, our family inherited the services of Guo the Camel, who cultivated and grafted fruit trees at the Liuzhou government residence.

Guo the Camel left behind a grandson, also a hunchback, who now accompanies me in Guangzhou. We grow trees and depend upon each other for our livelihood.

Yet this cannot be the final achievement of a man with ambition.

Day after day, I have wandered in a haze of longing.

Then, about half a month ago, I had a dream.

I dreamed that I entered a garden. Beneath a plum tree stood a beautiful maiden, neither tall nor short, as though she were both welcoming and seeing me off.

She said:

"Scholar Liu! Scholar Liu! Only when you meet me will your destined marriage come to pass and the time of your advancement arrive."

Because of that dream, I changed my given name to Mengmei—"Dreaming of Plum Blossoms"—and adopted Chunqing as my courtesy name.

Indeed:

"Whether a dream is brief or long, it remains a dream;

As years come and go, what year is it now?"

[Innermost Feeling]

[Resolving the Three Intoxications]

Though I have changed my name and courtesy name,

Could my charming soul have known the future?

I await the promised day,

Longing desperately for the cassia branch of the moon.

Liu Mengmei will not sell his talent for trifles.

Yet I fear that Chang'e,

Jealous of another's beauty,

May cause the flowers to wither.

Until then, my plum-heart grows sour,

My willow-brows contract,

And I wander as though intoxicated.

[Three Scholars]

With no fireflies for light,

I have bored through every neighboring wall.

Why should the eastern wall

Forbid a man to look beyond it?

One day, the golden willows

Will secretly welcome the spring sunlight,

And the snowy buds

Will burst into blossoms of white jade.

[Urgent Three Shots]

On that day,

I shall ride proudly through Zhangtai,

Where threads of emerald silk

Enclose the queen of a hundred flowers.

Still, I have a friend named Han Zicai, a descendant of Han Yu of Changli, who resides at King Zhao Tuo's Terrace.