Peony Pavilion Synopsis

The Peony Pavilion:

Du Liniang, the heroine of the story, was born beautiful and sentimental. She was in the prime of her life, when she was in the throes of love, but she was confined by her family's feudalism, and could not be free and in love. One day, Du Liniang when the governor's father Du Bao hired an old Confucian Chen most Liang to teach her lectures, the pedantic old man for the first time to explain the "Classic of Poetry" "Guan Guan Ju", touched the heart of Du Liniang's love.

A few days later, Du Liniang to the back garden to return to the spring, because of sleepiness fell asleep on the bed, not long to see a scholar with a willow branch to ask her to compose poetry, and then held her to the Peony Pavilion achievement of rain and clouds of love. When she woke up, she realized that it was a dream. She went to the Peony Pavilion in search of her dream, but she did not see the scholar, and she was very depressed. Gradually, this love has become a disease of the heart, and finally the medicine is not healed even so died.

Du Liniang's father at this time was promoted to the Huaiyang Pacification, before his departure, his daughter will be buried in the back garden under the plum tree, and repaired into the "Plum Blossom Ancestral Temple" a, will be an old Taoist nun to guard. And Du Liniang died, the soul came to hell, the judge asked her to the death of the reasons, to find out the marriage book, there is her and the new scholar Liu Mengmei marriage, they will be allowed to release her back to earth.

At this time, the scholar Liu Mengmei went to Beijing to take the examination, on the way to the wind and cold, sick in the plum blossom nunnery. After recovering from his illness, he met with Du Liniang's spirit in the nunnery, and the two of them were in love and lived a married life as if they were glued to each other. Soon, this matter for the old Taoist nun noticed, Liu Mengmei and she broke the secret love, and she secretly invited people to dig up the tomb of Du Liniang, Du Liniang was able to see the light of day, and come back to life as in the beginning. The two then did a real couple, came to Kyoto together, Liu Mengmei took the entrance examination.

After the examination, Liu Mengmei came to Huaiyang, and found the Du Fu was interrogated by the Du governor interrogation, Liu Mengmei claimed to be the son-in-law of the Du family, the Du governor was furious, that this Confucian is simply talking about dreaming, because his daughter died three years ago, how can be resurrected now, and heard that his daughter, Du Liniang's tomb was unearthed by the Confucian, and therefore sentenced him to death by decapitation.

While being interrogated and tortured, the court sent a man accompanied by Liu Mengmei's family to find the Du residence, reported that Liu Mengmei won the first prize, Liu Mengmei was able to get away. However, the governor still did not believe that his daughter would be resurrected, and suspected that the scholar is also a demon, so he wrote a book and asked the emperor to judge. The emperor passed Du Liniang to the public hall, in the "Demon mirror" in front of the inspection is really true person, so the decree to let the father and son husband and wife are recognized, and with the return to the first marriage. A life and death, death and life of the marriage of the story so as to make a happy ending.

Expanded Information:

"The Peony Pavilion Returns Its Soul" (or Peony Pavilion for short), is also known as "Dreams of Return" or "Dreams of Return". Dream" or "Dream of the Peony Pavilion") is a legend (play) written by the Ming dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu and published in 1617, the forty-fifth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty.

The play depicts the story of Du Liniang, the daughter of an official family, who fell in love with Liu Mengmei, a scholar in her dream, and died of her love. She was transformed into a spirit to look for her real lover, and the ghosts and human beings fell in love with each other, and finally came back to life, and finally tied up with Liu Mengmei for eternity. The play is written in elegant language.

The play is one of the outstanding works in the history of Chinese opera, and is one of the four major classical dramas in China, together with Cui Yingying to the Moon, The Story of the West Wing, The Touching Sinus E Foe, and The Palace of Eternal Youth.

The Peony Pavilion is characterized by a distinctive romanticism, in which the author enthusiastically endows "love" with the power to transcend life and death. Du Liniang experiences the three realms of reality, fantasy and the underworld, which is obviously the product of the author's fantasy. The author uses the artistic contrast of the three realms to express his ideals and thoughts, and uses the dream and the underworld to contrast the cruelty of reality.

Du Liniang's dream is so tender and colorful. What she wakes up to is her mother's nagging and bleak dullness. Although the Judge in the underworld is hideous, after all, he checked the marriage book for her and let her out of the city of the dead, reflecting a kind of human flavor. After the return of the soul to face the father instead only cold and stiff. These are very good reflection of the author of the critical power of science.

At the same time, the work presents the color of light and weirdness, the flower god, the land, the magistrate of the hell, the ghost pawns, and the characters in reality are structured into the twofold world of reality and spirituality, which profoundly depicts the essence of the feudal society. In the end, the ideal of love, which is impossible in reality, is realized, reflecting the author's strong idealism.

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