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The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu
Tang Xianzu (1550–1616) is acclaimed as the 'Shakespeare of the East' and widely regarded as China's greatest playwright, yet his work has not reached Western readers in its entirety.
The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu represents a literary this is the first English-language collection of the revered dramatist's most important works to be made available outside China.
Translated over two decades, the collection showcases the playwright's major pieces, including The Purple Flute , The Purple Hairpins , The Nanke Dream , The Handan Dream – and The Peony Pavilion .
The Peony Pavilion is the playwright's most celebrated work and has drawn comparisons to Homer's Odyssey , Virgil's Aeneid , Dante's Divine Comedy and John Milton's Paradise Lost .
Known for his lyrical use of metaphor, Tang Xianzu weaves the beauty of nature with the tragedy of emotion. His plays offer an extensive exploration of love, and remain at the heart of Chinese culture. This important collection represents an opportunity for a wider audience to discover the profound and poetic works of this classic playwright.
The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu represents a literary this is the first English-language collection of the revered dramatist's most important works to be made available outside China.
Translated over two decades, the collection showcases the playwright's major pieces, including The Purple Flute , The Purple Hairpins , The Nanke Dream , The Handan Dream – and The Peony Pavilion .
The Peony Pavilion is the playwright's most celebrated work and has drawn comparisons to Homer's Odyssey , Virgil's Aeneid , Dante's Divine Comedy and John Milton's Paradise Lost .
Known for his lyrical use of metaphor, Tang Xianzu weaves the beauty of nature with the tragedy of emotion. His plays offer an extensive exploration of love, and remain at the heart of Chinese culture. This important collection represents an opportunity for a wider audience to discover the profound and poetic works of this classic playwright.
- GenresChina
1072 pages, Hardcover
Published March 27, 2018
39 people want to read
About the author
Tang Xianzu
32 books2 followersTang Xianzu (Chinese: 湯顯祖; September 24, 1550 — July 29, 1616), courtesy name Yireng (義仍), was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty.
Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level positions. He successfully participated in the Provincial examinations at the age of 21 and at the imperial examinations at the age of 34. He held official positions in Nanjing, Zhejiang province, Guangdong province etc.. He retired in 1598 and returned to his hometown where he focused on writing.
His major plays are collectively called the Four Dreams, because of the decisive role dreams play in the plot of each one. All of them are still performed (in scenes, or in adapted full versions) on the Chinese Kun opera (kunqu) stage. Generally considered his masterpiece, the Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion) has been translated into English several times; each of the other plays has been translated once.
(from Wikipedia)
Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level positions. He successfully participated in the Provincial examinations at the age of 21 and at the imperial examinations at the age of 34. He held official positions in Nanjing, Zhejiang province, Guangdong province etc.. He retired in 1598 and returned to his hometown where he focused on writing.
His major plays are collectively called the Four Dreams, because of the decisive role dreams play in the plot of each one. All of them are still performed (in scenes, or in adapted full versions) on the Chinese Kun opera (kunqu) stage. Generally considered his masterpiece, the Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion) has been translated into English several times; each of the other plays has been translated once.
(from Wikipedia)
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December 5, 2025
PEONY PAVILION, A MASTER PIECE.
DIVINES FOURBERIES DE LA MORT
– ou –
LOVE’S TOILING LOAD
INTRODUCTION
I have just finished revising the 300-page, large-format text of the complete opera in its recent English translation (Wang Rongpei, 2014). I will now be revisiting the short (two and a half hours) video version, subtitled in English, of the full version (19 hours) presented in Paris in 1999-2000 at La Grande Halle de La Villette. As with the abridged version, I will focus on the love story, which some people compare to Romeo and Juliet. Throughout, I will then examine the English translation and the poetic style chosen by the translator. This poetic style corresponds to the overall poetic style of the Chinese version, but I will not discuss the poetry of the Chinese text. I am simply not qualified to do so. I will conclude with the quality of the singing in this Kunqu opera, an enormous vocal achievement that can be compared to Western operatic singing, since a CD of the opera's arias has been recorded by a Chinese-speaking soprano. To this music and singing is added, of course, the work of the actors and the set design, not to mention the choreography of their movements on a vast stage with practically no scenery, just a few pieces of furniture, tables, and chairs.
I will contact the Festival d'Automne to see if I can access the entire 19 hours of recordings so I can work on the historical and political dimension of the opera, which unfolds against the backdrop of an attempt by the Mongols (who speak an agglutinative Turkic language, while the Chinese speak an isolating tonal language, hence the use of interpreters in negotiations between the two sides) to conquer China with the help of bands of "brigands" from southern China who speak Chinese.
The Chinese, on a similar theme connected to peonies, have just produced a television series in Chinese with English subtitles, a copy of which I just received from the USA. The central theme in this same ancient period concerns the liberation of women within the feudal system of the Chinese Empire through entrepreneurship and commerce (even then!).
This love story is only possible if one considers real space, the virtual space of the dead, and, within real space, the movement from one city to another according to the father's appointments and the attacks of the insurgents. Space is fundamental, and this is a key difference with Romeo and Juliet—a play to which Western critics compare this opera—which takes place entirely (or almost entirely) in the city of Verona. The opera's deus ex machina finale (reminiscent of Tartuffe) creates a forbidden space, like the city of the same name, because the emperor speaks from the wings, from the inside, as indicated in the stage directions (Voice Within). This creates two spatial dimensions that are not present on stage: one virtual (the realm of the dead), and the other "sociopolitical" (the imperial realm). One could speak of the vast stage space constantly traversed by the characters, who move as much as they sing and react, hence the idea that the stage space is the materialization of the actors' mental space.
In China, this opera is staged in a natural setting with bodies of water, parks and gardens, bridges, and various pavilions. See the Chinese landscape in the illustration below, which wonderfully recalls a similar landscape by Renoir. Only a few excerpts of such productions are available on the internet (YouTube). The television series is enhanced with a television or cinematic set. That's a completely different story. The Chinese generally approach dramatic art by intertwining (in this case, in the 16th century) science fiction with nested parallel universes, spaces of depth or external extension, including virtual ones.
Fasten your seatbelts. For the Chinese, love is a vital adventure in the face of life, which always ends in death.
[…]
CONCLUSION IN THE FORM OF A PROMISE
I just rewatched the DVD, and so I'll conclude here with a comment on the style of the show, on the sung and acted vision of this love story. I hope to have access to the complete recording, but 2 hours and 2 minutes compared to 19 hours represents only a small part of the story. And as a final note, I'd like to remind you that throughout, I've shared elements of Wang Rongpei's poetic translation. He is considered one of the best translators of Chinese culture by the Chinese themselves.
The show is breathtaking. I'll only offer here a few personal reactions based solely on the DVD.
The recording is of the production in Paris, at the Grande Halle de la Villette. A 19th-century architectural setting of steel and glass. This venue allows for technically demanding shows with reasonably large audiences.
The set is twofold. It's made of wood produced by Chinese craftsmen. Minimalist, but of extraordinary quality. The stage furniture is purely utilitarian for the various scenes. Nothing is missing, but nothing is superfluous. This wooden set "floats" on a body of water, an allusion to the fact that the Chinese performed these operas in mixed gardens featuring natural elements and water pieces like ponds, lakes, and various canals or rivulets. In Paris, they added four ducks to give the set a more rural, even organic, feel. They show them to you in the "making of" featurette.
The costumes were produced by the Chinese, in hand-embroidered silk. Here too, there is magic. Social hierarchy is shown through specific elements of these costumes, including the actors' (and actresses’) attire. The upper class has very long sleeves that allow for constant interplay of sleeves and hands to bring the sleeves higher than the wrists or down over the hands. It's surprising, but also hypnotic. This isn't only true for the women's costumes, especially since actors, apart from the main characters, can move from one role to another without necessarily adhering to gender or sex conventions. Some costumes belong to artistic genres, not typically considered operatic. This Kunqu opera blends and intertwines quite different genres: dramatic art and music, of course (it is said that there were four hundred traditional musical pieces in the author's time). It is suggested that the New York and Paris productions had more than two hundred musical pieces. These pieces were traditional and were not written down in the 16th century. A "score" was to be created much later, long after the date of composition and creation. The complete work seems to have rarely been performed, and the complete set of fifty-five scenes (not fifty-seven as repeated in the "making of") is based on a similar older production in Shanghai. We should briefly discuss makeup and hairstyles. The makeup sometimes resembles the makeup of certain circus clowns, but these makeups, sometimes extraordinarily complex, have meaning, a purpose: they are masks characterizing the characters who wear them. Many actors perform mime or stage acrobatics, including Liu Meng Mei, as he is being prepared to be hanged by his hands. This requires choreography of these gymnastic movements as well as acrobatic dance. There is even an intervention of puppets. Even the principal actors and actresses must be able to operate in all genres.
It is worth adding a remark here about the mixing of styles. There is comedy at times, burlesque or almost farcical moments, like the scene involving the infernal judge, but there are also dramatic and tragic scenes, although, in scene 55, the play oscillates between the farcical obstinacy of Du Bao, and even Liu Meng Mei, and a tragicomic dimension, which here and there borders on an ideological or religious naiveté regarding death and life with resurrection in between, as if resurrection were a common, even daily, phenomenon. But let's not forget that such views are typical of Buddhism and Taoism. A spirituality that draws on Confucius is also frequently found.
The music is exclusively Chinese, with authentically Chinese instruments. The musicians are not in a pit, but on a side stage in full view of the audience.
Ultimately, the most surprising aspect is the vocal technique. It bears no resemblance to the classical Western voices found in European operas. Instead, it showcases perfectly mastered Chinese singing techniques. Both men and women sing across a much wider vocal range than classical Western opera singers. The men effortlessly transition from tenor, sometimes even baritone, to contralto. Similarly, the women can cover the range of a mezzo-soprano and a soprano, and sometimes even beyond, with true head voices. This music is mesmerizing, and the Chinese language conveyed by it becomes music that carries us away on a distant journey, like the music of a snake charmer. We are the snakes.
But I will return to the conclusion of last year's first installment. For about 25, perhaps 30 years, the Chinese have been engaged in rediscovering ancient forms of culture, and they are using this as a catalyst for social and cultural unity within diversity in China, and for a renaissance of classical, ancient, and modern forms of Chinese art targeting the world beyond China or its provinces. But this is not unique in Asia. Consider the return to ancient forms of culture in the Philippines, some frankly ante- or pre-colonial, encompassing languages, themes, and bodywork as well as costume. It is a renaissance, not a resurrection, because it was never utterly lost, of the traditional handcrafted loincloth as an artistic form of clothing for men. Women, on the other hand, retain traditional handcrafted costumes, but without the same level – far from it – of nudity as men. Currently, it has become a rapidly growing social activity, from primary school children (class projects being mandatory) to university students, and, apparently, even to professional adults in music, dance, and the heritage of old hunter-gatherer communities transitioning to agriculture many centuries ago. The 20th and 21st centuries in Asia are marked by the transformation of these regenerated and revitalized cultural forms into exportable, tourist-oriented cultural products. The resurgence of these cultural forms, which colonialism, as we know, would have liked, and even been able, to destroy, is like revenge from the history of peoples against the mad post-Columbian adventure. It makes you want to live another twenty years to see what it will be like, say in 2050. I will be one hundred and five years old then. I've already ordered the birthday cake. We just need to imagine what, in Livradois-Forez, the « bourrée sans culottes » could be.
You must have understood that I consider this opera a masterpiece, and that the Kunqu opera genre is unique and should bring about a renewal in theatrical and operatic art. A much-needed renewal to creatively address the challenge of Artificial Intelligence. But this AI is an existential and spiritual challenge that we must face and resolve to our advantage. We might, perhaps, have to summon an Infernal Judge to pull us out of the impasse we are digging or burying ourselves into, creating ruts that will completely block us. Fortunately, electric motors cannot be flooded with fuel, gas, or diesel. There is a sense of humor in Kunqu opera that ultimately makes the dramatic architecture thrilling.
DIVINES FOURBERIES DE LA MORT
– ou –
LOVE’S TOILING LOAD
INTRODUCTION
I have just finished revising the 300-page, large-format text of the complete opera in its recent English translation (Wang Rongpei, 2014). I will now be revisiting the short (two and a half hours) video version, subtitled in English, of the full version (19 hours) presented in Paris in 1999-2000 at La Grande Halle de La Villette. As with the abridged version, I will focus on the love story, which some people compare to Romeo and Juliet. Throughout, I will then examine the English translation and the poetic style chosen by the translator. This poetic style corresponds to the overall poetic style of the Chinese version, but I will not discuss the poetry of the Chinese text. I am simply not qualified to do so. I will conclude with the quality of the singing in this Kunqu opera, an enormous vocal achievement that can be compared to Western operatic singing, since a CD of the opera's arias has been recorded by a Chinese-speaking soprano. To this music and singing is added, of course, the work of the actors and the set design, not to mention the choreography of their movements on a vast stage with practically no scenery, just a few pieces of furniture, tables, and chairs.
I will contact the Festival d'Automne to see if I can access the entire 19 hours of recordings so I can work on the historical and political dimension of the opera, which unfolds against the backdrop of an attempt by the Mongols (who speak an agglutinative Turkic language, while the Chinese speak an isolating tonal language, hence the use of interpreters in negotiations between the two sides) to conquer China with the help of bands of "brigands" from southern China who speak Chinese.
The Chinese, on a similar theme connected to peonies, have just produced a television series in Chinese with English subtitles, a copy of which I just received from the USA. The central theme in this same ancient period concerns the liberation of women within the feudal system of the Chinese Empire through entrepreneurship and commerce (even then!).
This love story is only possible if one considers real space, the virtual space of the dead, and, within real space, the movement from one city to another according to the father's appointments and the attacks of the insurgents. Space is fundamental, and this is a key difference with Romeo and Juliet—a play to which Western critics compare this opera—which takes place entirely (or almost entirely) in the city of Verona. The opera's deus ex machina finale (reminiscent of Tartuffe) creates a forbidden space, like the city of the same name, because the emperor speaks from the wings, from the inside, as indicated in the stage directions (Voice Within). This creates two spatial dimensions that are not present on stage: one virtual (the realm of the dead), and the other "sociopolitical" (the imperial realm). One could speak of the vast stage space constantly traversed by the characters, who move as much as they sing and react, hence the idea that the stage space is the materialization of the actors' mental space.
In China, this opera is staged in a natural setting with bodies of water, parks and gardens, bridges, and various pavilions. See the Chinese landscape in the illustration below, which wonderfully recalls a similar landscape by Renoir. Only a few excerpts of such productions are available on the internet (YouTube). The television series is enhanced with a television or cinematic set. That's a completely different story. The Chinese generally approach dramatic art by intertwining (in this case, in the 16th century) science fiction with nested parallel universes, spaces of depth or external extension, including virtual ones.
Fasten your seatbelts. For the Chinese, love is a vital adventure in the face of life, which always ends in death.
[…]
CONCLUSION IN THE FORM OF A PROMISE
I just rewatched the DVD, and so I'll conclude here with a comment on the style of the show, on the sung and acted vision of this love story. I hope to have access to the complete recording, but 2 hours and 2 minutes compared to 19 hours represents only a small part of the story. And as a final note, I'd like to remind you that throughout, I've shared elements of Wang Rongpei's poetic translation. He is considered one of the best translators of Chinese culture by the Chinese themselves.
The show is breathtaking. I'll only offer here a few personal reactions based solely on the DVD.
The recording is of the production in Paris, at the Grande Halle de la Villette. A 19th-century architectural setting of steel and glass. This venue allows for technically demanding shows with reasonably large audiences.
The set is twofold. It's made of wood produced by Chinese craftsmen. Minimalist, but of extraordinary quality. The stage furniture is purely utilitarian for the various scenes. Nothing is missing, but nothing is superfluous. This wooden set "floats" on a body of water, an allusion to the fact that the Chinese performed these operas in mixed gardens featuring natural elements and water pieces like ponds, lakes, and various canals or rivulets. In Paris, they added four ducks to give the set a more rural, even organic, feel. They show them to you in the "making of" featurette.
The costumes were produced by the Chinese, in hand-embroidered silk. Here too, there is magic. Social hierarchy is shown through specific elements of these costumes, including the actors' (and actresses’) attire. The upper class has very long sleeves that allow for constant interplay of sleeves and hands to bring the sleeves higher than the wrists or down over the hands. It's surprising, but also hypnotic. This isn't only true for the women's costumes, especially since actors, apart from the main characters, can move from one role to another without necessarily adhering to gender or sex conventions. Some costumes belong to artistic genres, not typically considered operatic. This Kunqu opera blends and intertwines quite different genres: dramatic art and music, of course (it is said that there were four hundred traditional musical pieces in the author's time). It is suggested that the New York and Paris productions had more than two hundred musical pieces. These pieces were traditional and were not written down in the 16th century. A "score" was to be created much later, long after the date of composition and creation. The complete work seems to have rarely been performed, and the complete set of fifty-five scenes (not fifty-seven as repeated in the "making of") is based on a similar older production in Shanghai. We should briefly discuss makeup and hairstyles. The makeup sometimes resembles the makeup of certain circus clowns, but these makeups, sometimes extraordinarily complex, have meaning, a purpose: they are masks characterizing the characters who wear them. Many actors perform mime or stage acrobatics, including Liu Meng Mei, as he is being prepared to be hanged by his hands. This requires choreography of these gymnastic movements as well as acrobatic dance. There is even an intervention of puppets. Even the principal actors and actresses must be able to operate in all genres.
It is worth adding a remark here about the mixing of styles. There is comedy at times, burlesque or almost farcical moments, like the scene involving the infernal judge, but there are also dramatic and tragic scenes, although, in scene 55, the play oscillates between the farcical obstinacy of Du Bao, and even Liu Meng Mei, and a tragicomic dimension, which here and there borders on an ideological or religious naiveté regarding death and life with resurrection in between, as if resurrection were a common, even daily, phenomenon. But let's not forget that such views are typical of Buddhism and Taoism. A spirituality that draws on Confucius is also frequently found.
The music is exclusively Chinese, with authentically Chinese instruments. The musicians are not in a pit, but on a side stage in full view of the audience.
Ultimately, the most surprising aspect is the vocal technique. It bears no resemblance to the classical Western voices found in European operas. Instead, it showcases perfectly mastered Chinese singing techniques. Both men and women sing across a much wider vocal range than classical Western opera singers. The men effortlessly transition from tenor, sometimes even baritone, to contralto. Similarly, the women can cover the range of a mezzo-soprano and a soprano, and sometimes even beyond, with true head voices. This music is mesmerizing, and the Chinese language conveyed by it becomes music that carries us away on a distant journey, like the music of a snake charmer. We are the snakes.
But I will return to the conclusion of last year's first installment. For about 25, perhaps 30 years, the Chinese have been engaged in rediscovering ancient forms of culture, and they are using this as a catalyst for social and cultural unity within diversity in China, and for a renaissance of classical, ancient, and modern forms of Chinese art targeting the world beyond China or its provinces. But this is not unique in Asia. Consider the return to ancient forms of culture in the Philippines, some frankly ante- or pre-colonial, encompassing languages, themes, and bodywork as well as costume. It is a renaissance, not a resurrection, because it was never utterly lost, of the traditional handcrafted loincloth as an artistic form of clothing for men. Women, on the other hand, retain traditional handcrafted costumes, but without the same level – far from it – of nudity as men. Currently, it has become a rapidly growing social activity, from primary school children (class projects being mandatory) to university students, and, apparently, even to professional adults in music, dance, and the heritage of old hunter-gatherer communities transitioning to agriculture many centuries ago. The 20th and 21st centuries in Asia are marked by the transformation of these regenerated and revitalized cultural forms into exportable, tourist-oriented cultural products. The resurgence of these cultural forms, which colonialism, as we know, would have liked, and even been able, to destroy, is like revenge from the history of peoples against the mad post-Columbian adventure. It makes you want to live another twenty years to see what it will be like, say in 2050. I will be one hundred and five years old then. I've already ordered the birthday cake. We just need to imagine what, in Livradois-Forez, the « bourrée sans culottes » could be.
You must have understood that I consider this opera a masterpiece, and that the Kunqu opera genre is unique and should bring about a renewal in theatrical and operatic art. A much-needed renewal to creatively address the challenge of Artificial Intelligence. But this AI is an existential and spiritual challenge that we must face and resolve to our advantage. We might, perhaps, have to summon an Infernal Judge to pull us out of the impasse we are digging or burying ourselves into, creating ruts that will completely block us. Fortunately, electric motors cannot be flooded with fuel, gas, or diesel. There is a sense of humor in Kunqu opera that ultimately makes the dramatic architecture thrilling.
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