The Peach Blossom Fan

A printed edition of The Peach Blossom Fan, dated 1699-1722

The Peach Blossom Fan (Chinese: 桃花扇; pinyin: Táohuā shàn; Wade–Giles: T'ao-hua shan) is a musical play and historical drama in 44 scenes that was completed in 1699 by the early Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren after more than 10 years of effort.[1][2]

The play depicts the drama that resulted in the 1644 collapse of the Ming Dynasty.[3] The play recounts the death of the Ming Dynasty through the love story of its two main characters, young scholar Hou Fangyu (侯方域) and courtesan Li Xiangjun (李香君), the Fragrant Princess.[4] The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature has called it "China's greatest historical drama."[5]

An English translation published by the University of California Press was translated by Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton, K.B.E. with Cyril Birch collaborating.

Background

In the early Qing dynasty, the rise and fall of the dynasty touched many poets and playwrights, especially intellectuals, which pushed them into thinking of the historical lessons taught by the downfall of the Ming.[6] These writers, including Kong Shangren, expressed hatred and regret at its collapse through their works and a sense of historical responsibility. Kong said he wanted to make clear what had made the decay happen.[7] Kong heard stories about the period of Hong Guang (C: 弘 光) from his cousin Kong Fangxun (孔方訓), whose tale of Li Xiangjun inspired him into creating a script.[8] But at that time, it was only a draft because Kong wanted to collect historical details.[9] So during his three year stay in the south, where the story took place, Kong got acquainted with Ming loyalists like Mao Xiang (冒襄), Deng Hanyi (鄧漢儀), Xu Shuxue (許漱雪), Zong Yuanding (宗元鼎), She Chacun (社茶村) and masters of art like Shitao, Gong Xian, and Cha Shibiao (查士標). He also visited historical sites such as Plum Blossom Mountain (梅花岭), Qin Huai River (秦淮河), Swallow Rock (燕子磯), Imperial Palace, and the Mausoleum of the Ming Emperor (明孝陵).[10]

Composition

The play was conceived as a two-part play, as stated in the notes of Liang Qichao.[11] The play has over 40 total scenes. Birch wrote that this length is "not unduly long" for a southern-style (Yangtze Valley) Chinese play, citing the 55-scene length of Peony Pavilion.[12]

The main portion of the play includes exactly 40 scenes. The "Enquiry" (prelude) section is located in the play's beginning. The first portion of the main play forms part one, the upper (上) part. The "Inter-calary" scene is in between the two parts of the main play. The second portion of the main portion of the play forms part two, the lower (下) part. The "Additional Scene" and then the "Sequel", the epilogue, are the final portions of the play.[11]

Plot

In the late Ming dynasty, the reformist Donglin movement reinstituted the "Restoration Society" (C: 復社, P: fùshè, W: fu-she) in Nanjing to fight corrupt officials. Hou Fangyu, one of the Society's members, falls in love with courtesan Li Xiangjun beside the Qinhuai River. He sends Li Xiangjun a fan as a gift and becomes engaged to her. An official called Ruan Dacheng, delivers trousseau through celebrity Yang Longyou (T: 楊龍友, S: 杨龙友, P: Yáng Lóngyǒu, W: Yang Lung-yu) for Hou in order not to be isolated from the royal court. Hou is persuaded into accepting it, but Li Xiangjun rejects the gift firmly, which wins Hou Fangyu's respect.

Because he lacks military provisions, the commander of Wuchang Zuo Liangyu intends to move his army south to Nanjing, which terrifies the court. Considering Hou Fangyu's father had once been Zuo Liangyu's superior, Nanjing officials send Yang to ask Hou for help as a substitute. Hou Fangyu wries a letter to discourage Zuo from moving, but is slandered by Ruan for betraying the country, forcing him to find shelter with Shi Kefa in Yangzhou. Li Xiangjun and Hou Fangyu are separated.

At that time, the political situation runs out of control. News comes that Li Zicheng, the leader of peasant rebellion, had captured the capital Beijing, and that the Chongzhen Emperor had hanged himself. Ruan and Ma Shiying, the local governor of Fengyang (鳳陽督撫), crowns the Prince of Fu (福王) Zhu Yousong as new Emperor and changes the title of the reign into Hongguang 弘光. They persecute Reformists and indulge the Emperor with lust. Governor of Cao (曹撫) Tian Yang (田仰) covets Li's beauty and wants to take her as concubine. At the marriage ceremony, Li resists with death. She knocks her head on a pillar, leaving blood spots on the fan which was given by Hou Fangyu. After that, Yang draws a branch of peach blossoms with Li Xiangjun's blood on the fan, and it is sent to Hou Fangyu to show Li Xiangjun's determination. Jin Fu, author of Chinese Theatre, wrote that the fan and poem symbolize the integrity and determination of Li Xiangjun.[13]

The Qing's army continues to go south, threatening the Ming government. However, the internal conflicts among four generals, who are in charge of strategic posts in north of the Yangtze River, are fierce, and Shi Kefa himself could not retrieve the defeat. Meanwhile, the new Emperor never cares about politics, only losing himself in song and dance. Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng send Li into the court as a gift, catering to the Emperor. Li Xiangjun scolds the evil officials to their faces and is beaten cruelly. Hou Fangyu flees to Nanjing during the chaotic war but was caught and sent into prison by Ruan Dacheng.

Yangzhou falls and Shi Kefa drowns himself into the river. The new Emperor is captured by the Qing army.[14] The end of the play features a Taoist ceremony mourning the loss of the Ming Dynasty. The remaining protagonists decide to seclude themselves instead of serving in the Qing Dynasty.[3] Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun meet each other occasionally at Qixia Mountain. When they are telling their affection, Zhang Yaoxing, a Taoist master, criticized them for the affair, asking "How laughable to cling to your amorous desires when the world has been turned upside down?"[15] (or: "When there are such tremendous changes, you still indulge in love?"[13]). This gives them both a realization. Li Xiangjun thus becomes a nun, while Hou Fangyu follows her step to become a Taoist priest.[14] Cyril Birch, who collaborated on a University of California Press translation of The Peach Blossom Fan, wrote that "There can be no happy ending, given the historical authenticity of the action".[3]

Like other Southern-style plays the play incorporates martial scenes and a love affair central to the plot. Birch wrote that the Hou Fangyu-Fragrant Princess love affair "is brilliantly integrated with the more weighty matter of the plot" and that the martial scenes "perfectly reflect the unhappy progress of the Ming cause and depict in vivid terms the gallant but ultimately futile loyalty or generals like Huang Te-kung and Shih-K'o-fa."[3]

Characters

Portrait of Li Xiangjun by Cui He, circa 1800–1850 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The play involves 30 dramatis personae. Kong Shangren assigned them to five departments. The principal four are the left department (C: 左部, P: zuǒ bu), the right department (C: 右部, P: yòu bu), the odd department (C: 奇部, P: jī bu), the even department (C: 偶部, P: ǒu bu), and the fifth department.[11] These five departments may be re-organized as the"Se Bu" (Color department 色部), "Qi Bu" (Energy department 氣部) and "Zong Bu" (Overall department 總部).

The characters in the left and right departments represent colors or positive modes (C: 色, P: sè). Hou Fangyu represents the left department and Li Xiangjun represents the right department.[11] The left department includes male characters and the right department includes female characters. These characters express the sentiment of separation and reunion, so therefore they are positive characters.[11] The left and right departments are divided into "Zheng Se" (Main Colour正色), "Jian Se" (Neutral Colour 間色), "He Se" (Combinative Colour 合色), and "Run Se" (Supporting Colour 潤色) four sections.

The characters in the odd department, headed by Shi Kefa, and the even department, headed by Zuo Liangyu, are represented in negative moods (T: 氣, S: 气, P: qì) because the characters are participants in political conflicts that create and destroy dynasties, so therefore the odd department characters are negative.[11] "Qi Bu", with a total of 12 characters, perform mostly on the rise and fall of history. It has two parts, the "Ji Bu" (Odd department 奇部) and the "Ou Bu" (Even department 偶部), where the later one consists of "Zhong Qi" (Neutural energy 中氣), "Li Qi" (Criminal energy 戾氣), "Yu Qi" (Residual energy 餘氣) and "Sha Qi" (Evil energy 煞氣).

The other 2 characters in "Zong Bu", Taoist warp star (經星) Zhang Yaoxing (張瑶星) and weft star (緯星) who is the master of ceremonies in Nanjing Tai Chang Temple, runs through the whole play intending to introduce the backgrounds and other complements.

Kong Shangren used the yin and yang principle in organizing his characters.[16]

The protagonists are historical figures.[3] Like many southern Chinese (Yangtze Valley) plays, there are contrasting character groupings. Hou Fangyu and his friends are in one grouping, while the Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng group forms an opposing grouping.[12] Each role-type may control a set of characters.[17] The "painted-face" (P: jing, W: ching) role controls Ma Shiying, Liu Liangzuo, Su Kunsheng, and Zhang Yanzhu.[18] The "comic" (P: chou, W: ch'ou) role type controls Liu Jingting, Cai Yisuo, Zhen Tuoniang, and several attendants and servants.[19]

Birch wrote that the audience is "led to a deep respect for Hou Fang-yü, Liu Ching-t'ing, and Shih K'o-fa, as in their different ways they follow their doomed ideals."[3]

Character list

(in order of appearance)

The Master of Ceremonies of the Imperial Temple in Nanjing. He states that The Peach Blossom Fan "employs the emotions entailed by separation and union, to depict feelings about rise and fall." (T: 借離合之情，寫興亡之感,[...], S: 借离合之情，写兴亡之感,[...])[20]

Hou Fangyu (C: 侯方域, P: Hóu Fāngyù, W: Hou Fang-yü), a young scholar of distinction

Chen Zhenhui (Ch'en Chen-hui), fellow member of the Revival Club
Wu Yingji (Wu Ying-chi), fellow member of the Revival Club
Liu Jingting (C: 柳敬亭, P: Liǔ Jìngtíng, W: Liu Ching-t'ing), a veteran minstrel of renown

Li Zhenli (Li Chen-li), proprietress of an elegant house of pleasure and foster mother of the heroine
Yang Wencong (Yang Wen-ts'ung), painter, poet, and official
Li Xiangjun (C: 李香君, P: Lǐ Xiāngjūn, W: Li Hsiang-chün), the heroine courtesan. Li Xiangjun, the Fragrant Princess, follows her desires on who to love and opposes bullies on the royal court.[3]

Su Kunsheng (T: 蘇崑生, S: 苏昆生, P: Sū Kūnshēng, W: Su K'un-sheng), Li Xiangjun's singing teacher - Su Kunsheng asks Li Xiangjun to perform The Peony Pavilion.[23]

Ruan Dacheng (T: 阮大鋮, S: 阮大铖, P: Ruǎn Dàchéng, W: Juan Ta-ch'eng), corrupt politician, dramatist and poet
Ding Jizhi (Ting Chi-chih), poet-musician
Shen Gongxian (Shen Kung-hsien), poet-musician
Zhang Yanzhu (Chang Yen-chu), poet-musician
Bian Yujing (Pien Yü-ching), professional singing-girl
Kou Baimen (K'ou Pai-men), professional singing-girl
Zheng Tuoniang (Cheng T'o-niang), professional singing-girl

General Zuo Liangyu (C: 左良玉, P: Zuǒ Liángyù, W: Tso Liang-yü), commander of the Wu Chang garrison
General Shi Kefa (C: 史可法, P: Shǐ Kéfǎ, W: Shih K'o-fa), President of the Board of War at Nanjing

Ma Shiying (T: 馬士英, S: 马士英, P: Mǎ Shìyīng, W: Ma Shih-ying), Governor of Feng Yang and Grand Secretary
General Yuan Jixian (Yüan Chih-hsien)
General Huang Degong (Huang Te-kung)

Emperor Hong Guang (Emperor Hung-kuang)
General Liu Zeqing (Liu Tse-ch'ing)
General Gao Jie (Kao Chieh)
General Liu Liangzuo (Liu Liang-tso)
Lan Ying (T: 藍 瑛, S: 蓝 瑛, P: Lán Yīng, W: Lan Ying), a famous painter
Cai Yisuo (C: 蔡益所, P: Cài Yìsuǒ, W: Ts'ai Yi-so), a Nanjing bookseller
Zhang Wei (T: 张 薇, S: 张 薇, P: Zhāng Wēi, W: Chang Wei) or Zhang the Taoist (T: 張瑤星, S: 张瑶星, P: Zhāng yáoxīng), former commander of the Imperial Guard in Beijing
Huang Shu (Huang Shu), Inspector General
Tian Xiong (T'ien Hsiung), adjutant to General Huang Degong
Han Zanzhou (Hsu Ch'ing-chün), a magistrate's runner

Analysis

Cyril Birch wrote that "The world of The Peach Blossom Fan is that late-Ming world of gross corruption, of callousness and cowardice and the breakdown of a long-cherished order. Yet the quality of life revealed in the play is of extraordinary cultivation and sensibility. There is a great poignancy in this contrast".[3] C. H. Wang wrote that the play has an intertwining of the motifs of separation and union of people in love, and the motifs of the decline and ascent of political powers, and that "The parallel structure is not contained within a single plot only" but rather to the entire work.[20]

Creation and conception

C. H. Wang, author of "The Double Plot of T'ao-hua shan," wrote that the author "attempted in this work not only to retell for common theatre-goers a romantic love-story but also to arouse scholars-especially Confucian intellectuals-to consider why and how China so easily lost her strength in the national crises of 1644-45."[20] The play was written fewer than 50 years after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.[20]

Stage performance and adaptations

As soon as Kong finished the script of The Peach Blossom Fan, it was lent out and spread quickly among scholars and aristocrats. In the autumn of the year Jimao, even the emperor sent servant to Kong's house, asking in haste for the complete script.[24] In the next year, General Li Muan set up a therical troupe called Jin Dou to perform the play, which gained huge fame immediately. Each time the troupe performed, actors and actresses were given considerable tips.[25]

The play was a particular favorite of Emperor Kangxi.[26]

Merchants in Yang Zhou once raised 160 thousand gold for the costume in the play.[27]

During the last century, the play has been performed in forms of Peking Opera, Drama, Chu Opera, Gui Opera, Yue Opera, Xiang Opera, Min Opera, Bei Kun, Nan Kun and Huangmei Opera, and it has been adapted into 3 kinds of endings, including one that ends in a happy reunion.[28]

In 1937, when the World War Two broke out, the famous Chinese playwright Ouyang Yuqian altered the ending of the play into "Having cut his hair, Hou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and served its royal court", satirizing the traitor Wang Jingwei of that time.

In 1964, playwright Mei Qian (梅阡) and Sun Jing (孫敬), using Ou's endding, put the drama into a movie script, starring famous actress Wang Fengdan and actor Feng Jie.

Publication

The Peach Blossom Fan was printed during Kong Shangren's lifetime. Several variations in the text appear in subsequent editions of the play.[3]

There was 1982 edition edited by Wang Chi-ssu and others, published in Beijing.[20] The play is presented in four juan (chüan) rather than the standard two parts.[11]

Translations

One edition published by the University of California Press was translated into English by Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton, K.B.E. with Cyril Birch collaborating.[29] Birch wrote that the University of California Press translation is "complete except for a very few places".[3] Portions translated included what Birch described as "the contrasting low punning and bawdy badinage," the scholars' formal compliments and greetings, "high poetry" within the songs, and self-introduction speeches and soliloquies described by Birch as "sometimes rather stiff".[30]

Acton wrote that he and Chen Shih-hsiang hoped that their translation would be published at some point but that they translated the play "for its own sake rather than for publication."[29] Chen Shih-hsiang had been researching early Chinese poetry and Acton had suggested translating The Peach Blossom Fan. Chen Shih-hsiang died in May 1971. At that time there was a manuscript draft with all scenes except for the final seven translated.[29]

Cyril Birch, who had worked with Chen Shih-hsiang at the University of California Berkeley, translated the final seven scenes and revised the drafts.[29] As a guide Birch used the People's Literature Press edition published in 1959 in Beijing. He used the annotations written by Wang Chi-ssu (C: 王季思, P: Wáng Jìsī, W: Wang Chi-ssu) and Su Huan-chung.[3]

Due to the usage of allusions common in plays in the Ming and Qing Dynasties the University of California translation uses footnotes for what Birch described as "many" of these allusions. Birch wrote "many more have been sacrificed to the interests of readability".[30] Birch wrote that in the final scenes, if the closest translation "would have impossibly retarded the movement of the verse" Birch used paraphrasing to follow on the actions of Chen Shih-hsiang and Acton.[30] Birch cited Scene 32 as an example of a place where the translation was abridged.[3] There the Master of Ceremonies' speech's strings of instructions indicating commands such as "Kneel! Rise! Kneel!" were omitted. Birch wrote that "These commands, in performance, would punctuate an elaborate posturing dance, but they make for boring reading."[31]

Reception

Liang Qichao (1873–1929) wrote that this play was "a book of utmost desolation, poignant splendor, and utmost turmoil."[32] He further wrote: "With the refined strictness of its structure, the magnificence of its style, and the depth of its sentiments, I would venture that Kong Shangren's Peach Blossom Fan surpasses the works of all epochs!"[33]

Scholar Wang Guowei (1877–1927), who held the play in great esteem, compared it to the novel Dream of the Red Chamber.[34]

Harold Acton, who co-wrote an English translation, stated that The Peach Blossom Fan is a "highly poetic chronicle play" that is "a vivid evocation of the downfall of the Ming dynasty" that "deserves to be better known to students of Chinese literature and history."[29]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 《洪昇年谱》康熙三十八年（1699年）载：“六月孔尚任《桃花扇》成，遂盛行于世。秋，康熙索《桃花扇》观之，其后孔尚任罢官，世多疑其系以《桃花扇》贾祸。”
  2. ↑ Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, "Kong Shangren". answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/kong-shangren. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 Acton, p. xvii.
  4. ↑ Niu 2004, p. 112: "《桃花扇》是一部以复社文人侯方域与秦淮名妓李香君的爱情故事，反映南明弘光王朝覆灭的历史悲剧。"
  5. ↑ Nienhauser 1986, p. 520.
  6. ↑ Niu 2004, p. 85.
  7. ↑ Kong Shangren 孔尚任, "Short introduction" (小引) to the Peach Blossom Fan: "知三百年之基業,隳於何人,敗於何事,消於何年,歇於何地。"
  8. ↑ 据《桃花扇本末》记载：“独香姬面血溅扇，杨友龙以画笔点之……虽不见诸别籍，其事变新奇可传，《桃花扇》一剧感此而作也。”
  9. ↑ 《桃花扇本末》：“每拟作此传奇，恐闻见未广，有乖信史者，寝歌之余，仅画其轮廓，实未饰其藻采也。”
  10. ↑ Niu 2004, p. 111.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 Wang, C. H., p. 10.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Birch, p. xiv.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Fu, Jin, p. 59.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Niu 2004, p. 112.
  15. ↑ K'ung, p. 296.
  16. ↑ Wang, C. H., p. 11.
  17. ↑ Birch, p. xv.
  18. ↑ Birch, p. xv-xvi.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Birch, p. xvi.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Wang, C. H., p. 9
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Tu Fang, p. 947.
  22. ↑ Fu, Jin, p. 58.
  23. ↑ Shen, Jing, p. 223.
  24. ↑ 《桃花扇本末》："《桃花扇》本成，王公荐绅，莫不借钞，时有纸贵之誉。己卯秋夕，内侍索《桃花扇》本甚急，予之缮本，莫知流传何所。乃于张平州中丞家觅得一本，午夜进之直邸，遂入内府。己卯除夜，李木庵总宪，遣使送岁金，即索《桃花扇》为围炉下酒之物。开岁灯节，已买优扮演矣。其班名‘金斗’，出之李相国湘北先生宅，名噪时流。"
  25. ↑ 《脞语》："孔东塘尚任，随孙司空在丰勘里下河浚河工程，住先映碧枣园中，时谱《桃花扇》传奇未毕，更阑按拍，歌声呜呜。每一出成，辄邀映碧共赏。映碧之子木庵，官总宪，以授“金斗班”演之，名噪都下。每王公借演此班，伶人得缠头费甚钜。"
  26. ↑ 《螾庐曲谈》："或谓玄烨最爱此剧，每观至《设朝》、《选优》等出，辄为喟然。"
  27. ↑ 《梨园佳话》："扬州盐商筹演此剧，曾费十六万金制办衣装砌末。"
  28. ↑ 《南方周末》("Southern Weekend"), 2006年3月30日 (2006.03.30), 第D25版 (D25), 文化 (Culture), 600年昆曲300年桃花扇 (600 years of Kunqu, 300 years of the Peach Blossom Fan), 张英(Zhang Ying)
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 Acton, p. vii.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Acton, p. xviii.
  31. ↑ Acton, p. xvii-xviii.
  32. ↑ “一部极凄惨、极哀艳、极忙乱的书。”
  33. ↑ “结构之精严，文藻之壮丽，寄托之遥深论之，窃谓孔云亭之《桃花扇》冠绝千古矣！”
  34. ↑ 王国维，《红楼梦评论》：“吾国之文学中，其具有厌世解脱之精神者，仅《桃花扇》与《红楼梦》耳。”

References

Further reading

Japanese:

External links

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