The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: Mǔdān tíng; Wade–Giles: Mu-tan t'ing), also named The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion, is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598, and the plot was drawn from the short story Du Liniang Revives For Love. It depictes a love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, overcomes all difficulties, transcending time and space, life and death, and finally get together. Different from the short story, in Tang' s play, it is a dynamic integration of the legendary and the reality in Ming Dynasty. Scenes of love in dreams, Du Liniang's revival, or any supernatural element seem absurd in play, but it reflects the sprout of humanism, through protagonists' strong desire and unremitting pursuit of free love, and uncovers the degeneracy of the society under feudalism at that time. The play was originally written for staging as Kunqu opera, one of genres of traditional Chinese theatre arts, and first performed in 1598 at the Pavilion of Prince Teng. With its sophisticated plot, magnificent dramatic structure and well-depicted characters, The Peony Pavilion has become the most popular play of the Ming dynasty, especially the well-depicted character, Du Liniang, which became one of the female representative in ancient Chinese drama. Most audience and contemporary critics made a high estimation on the play. It has become one of the most classics in traditional Chinese theatre art, and Kun theatre troupes can not consider their repertoire complete without this play. Tang Xianzu was one of the greatest dramatists and writers in Ming Dynasty, and The Peony Pavilion can be regarded as his most successful masterpiece in his life. It is also one of drama in Tang's famous collection Linchuan is meng (The Four Dreams in the Jade Tea Hall), the other three plays are Zichai Ji (The Purple Hairpin), Nanke Ji (A Dream Under the Southern Bough) and Handan Ji (The Handan Dream). Both the play and its dramatist get a high reputation on Chinese and international stages, and the study on Tang Xianzu has become a popular subject today. The play has a total of 55 scenes, which can run for more than 22 hours onstage. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

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