The great Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) wrote four great legends that share the theme of dreams. These legends are collectively known as The Four Dreams at Linchuan (after Tang's birthplace) or The Four Dreams at Yu Ming Tang (after the name Tang gave his studio). Tang's legends, like many works of Kunju opera, are based on preexisting sources, such as short novels or stories. For example, Tang's Zi Chai Ji (The Tale of the Violet Hairpin) was rewritten from an unfinished story, Zi Xiao Ji (The Tale of the Violet Flute). The Peony Pavilion, widely acknowledged as Tang's masterpiece and the finest of all Chinese legends, is likewise based on a Song Dynasty short story.

In Chinese literary history, the term Chuanqi, or "legend," refers either to the short novels of the Song Dynasty (960-1280) or the drama created or rewritten by scholars after the great Song Dynasty play Pipa Ji. The Chuanqi of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) developed from a Southern style of drama that arose in the Song Dynasty. This style favored a play of great length with a large cast and many scenes. It brought a new level of sophistication and complexity to the art of Chinese opera.

Tang Xianzu wrote the libretto of The Peony Pavilion to preexisting, established melodies. The score was arranged and further refined for each production of the piece, but the music for these early productions has been lost. In 1792, during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, a new, complete score for The Peony Pavilion was notated, the work of a great number of creators over the years, who again based their work on traditional melodies. The present production is based on the 1792 score, the earliest manuscript source.

The Peony Pavilion was especially appreciated by women, and hand-copied manuscripts of the play were widely read. In the seventeenth century, a woman named Fang Xiaoqing, who was trapped in an unhappy marriage, became engulfed in sadness after reading The Peony Pavilion. She so identified with Du Liniang that she herself lost all will to live. Upon her death, Fang's story was in turn played out on the stage in another opera. Other women, too, pined away in sympathy with Du Liniang, and the deaths of these women constitute another legend that has grown up around The Peony Pavilion.

Tang Xianzu delayed taking the highest imperial examination - he didn't want to be associated with the corrupt Prime Minister, who finally left office when Tang was 34. Once he passed the exam, Tang held various government posts for fifteen years. Even before his public service, he had been recognized as a brilliant intellectual. An outstanding thinker and literary critic, he stood against rigid adherence to antique literary conventions and championed new styles of expression. His works include essays, short stories, and articles, as well as several thousand poems. His short stories in particular mark the beginning of a new literary style. It was as the writer of The Peony Pavilion, however, that Tang attained his greatness.

Because of its enormous production demands, the complete Peony Pavilion has very rarely been staged. Only three excerpts, Scene 10, "The Dream Interrupted," Scene 12, "in Pursuit of the Dream," and Scene 14, "The Self-Portrait" are commonly performed today.

-Xu Shuotang

http://www.lincolncenter.org/toc.htm (2003)