Public Lecture | Xie Bailiang: The Eternal Peony—Tang Xianzu and Hong Sheng’s Views on Love

Mr. Xie Bailiang, Ph.D. from Sun Yat-sen University, professor, doctoral supervisor, head of the Department of Dramatic Literature at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Opera, and director of the China Opera Criticism Base.

 

Doctor of Philosophy from Sun Yat-sen University, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Head of the Department of Dramatic Literature at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Opera, Director of the China Center for Opera Criticism, Vice Chairman of the China Chapter of the International Association for Theatre Critics, Beijing Municipal Outstanding Teacher and Leading Figure, and a recipient of the State Council Government Special Allowance. He has authored extensively in such fields as the General History of Chinese Tragedy, the General History of World Tragedy, the Aesthetics of Drama, and Contemporary Opera Literature, publishing over 600,000 characters of scholarly articles in journals including Chinese Social Sciences. He has also served as chief editor of nearly one hundred volumes in the “Biographies of Chinese Opera Artists” series. Furthermore, he has composed numerous operas; his works—including “The Red Pearl Chronicle,” “Ballad of the Locust Flower,” and “Madame Jian”—have each been awarded funding from the National Arts Fund on four separate occasions.

    

“Am I But a Commoner?” by Xie Bailiang, published by the Central Compilation & Translation Press.

“A History of Contemporary Chinese Opera Literature” by Xie Boliang, published by Higher Education Press.

“A History of Chinese Tragic Literature” by Xie Boliang, published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.
 

The conception of love in “The Peony Pavilion” is one of eternal devotion that transcends life and death—where, as embodied by Du Liniang, life can yield to death, and death can give way to life. “The Palace of Eternal Life,” in turn, presents itself as a vibrant reimagining of “The Peony Pavilion,” posing the poignant question: “In the annals of love from ancient times to the present, how many romances are truly sincere to the very end?” The love between Emperor Tang Minghuang and Yang Guifei is an exquisitely mature and profound bond that, once the constraints of imperial status are set aside, endures through countless lifetimes, forever united as a pair. To interpret the views on love held by Tang Xianzu and Hong Sheng is, in essence, to engage in a deep appreciation, heartfelt contemplation, and incisive reflection upon the Chinese nation’s enduring ethos of romantic love.

 

“The Peony Pavilion” and “The Palace of Eternal Life”: Two Pinnacles in the History of Chinese Drama

 

“The Peony Pavilion” is a legendary play (script) written by the Ming‑dynasty dramatist Tang Xianzu, first published in the forty‑fifth year of the Wanli era (1617). The work tells the story of Du Liniang, the daughter of a high‑ranking official, who falls deeply in love with the scholar Liu Mengmei in her dreams. Overwhelmed by her passion, she dies of heartbreak and becomes a spirit, seeking her beloved in the mortal world. Their love spans life and death, and in the end, she is brought back to life, ultimately uniting forever with Liu Mengmei. This play stands as one of the most outstanding works in the history of Chinese opera, and together with “The West Chamber,” “The Injustice to Dou E,” and “The Palace of Eternal Life,” it is regarded as one of China’s four great classical dramas. Its literary style is refined and its language exquisitely elegant.

 

 

Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), a native of Linchuan in Jiangxi, was a renowned dramatist of the Ming dynasty. His courtesy name was Yiyi, and he went by the art names Hairuo and Ruoshi, also using the pseudonym Qingyuan Daoren. He gained early fame, passing the provincial examination at the age of twenty-one and the imperial examination at thirty-four. He held various official posts, including Doctor at the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, Chief Clerk of the Jianshi Office, and Senior Official in the Department of Sacrificial Rites under the Ministry of Rites. After submitting his memorial “On the Ministers and Censors,” which sharply criticized court politics, he was demoted to the post of County Magistrate in Xuweng, Guangdong. Two years later, he was transferred to Suichang, Zhejiang, where he curbed the power of local tyrants, showed deep concern for the people’s hardships, and implemented many beneficial policies. At the age of forty-nine, he resigned from office and returned to his hometown, devoting himself entirely to dramatic creation. Deeply influenced by the “Left‑wing Wang School,” Tang opposed the Cheng‑Zhu Neo‑Confucianism and criticized the literary trend of imitating antiquity, striving instead for the liberation of individuality. His greatest achievements lie in the field of drama; his major works include The Peony Pavilion, The Purple Hairpin, The South Chamber, and The Handan Dream, collectively known as the “Four Dreams of Yumingtang” (also called the “Four Dreams of Linchuan”). His poetic and prose writings are preserved in the Complete Works of Yumingtang, among other collections.

 

Portrait of Tang Xianzu
 

The depiction of love in “The Peony Pavilion” attains a level of intellectual depth and a distinctive mark of its era that surpasses anything found in earlier romantic dramas. The author explicitly presents this rebellious love as a gateway to the liberation of thought and individuality, going far beyond the narrow confines of opposing parental authority and arranged marriages. Through her characters, the play portrays young men and women risking life and death for love; beyond its rich romanticism, it imbues love with an extraordinary power to overcome all obstacles and transcend even death itself. This fresh ideological thrust is conveyed through innovative characterizations—one of the most notable achievements of “The Peony Pavilion.” Undoubtedly, the creation of Du Liniang stands out, adding a luminous figure to the pantheon of Chinese literary characters. The defining trait of Du Liniang’s personality is her unwavering determination in the pursuit of love: she dies for love and is reborn through it. Her death is both a genuine consequence of the realities faced by young women of her time in their quest for love and, at the same time, a means by which she transcends the constraints of her world.
 

The Ancient Edition of “The Peony Pavilion”

 

Following its debut, The Peony Pavilion earned high praise from contemporary dramatists. The Ming‑dynasty zaju playwright Lü Tiancheng remarked: “It is truly thrilling and breathtaking, with ingenious twists at every turn and innovations in every scene—truly worthy of enduring through the ages!” Meanwhile, the Ming‑era opera theorist and critic Shen Defu wrote in his Guqu Zayan: “With the performance of The Dream of the Peony Pavilion, it has been passed down from house to house, recited by all; it has even caused The West Chamber to lose some of its luster.”

 

“The Palace of Eternal Life” is a legendary play (script) written by the early Qing dramatist Hong Sheng, comprising fifty acts in total. The first half recounts Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan’s love story, their solemn oath at the Palace of Eternal Life, the outbreak of the An–Shi Rebellion, the events at Mawei Pass, and Yang Yuhuan’s tragic death in the desert. The second half draws largely from unofficial historical anecdotes, depicting how, after the rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong longs for his beloved concubine, dispatching emissaries to heaven and earth in search of her spirit; meanwhile, Yang Yuhuan, too, deeply misses Xuanzong and repents for the sins she committed in life. Their sincere devotion moves the heavens, and with the aid of the Weaving Maid Star and others, they are finally reunited in the Moon Palace.
 

Portrait of Hong Sheng

Hong Sheng (1645–1704) was a dramatist and poet of the Qing dynasty. His courtesy name was Fangsi, and he went by the pseudonyms Baiqi, Baicun, and Nanping Qiaozhe. Of Han ethnicity, he was born in Qiantang—present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Coming from a family of high officials, he studied at the Imperial Academy in Beijing from 1668. Despite ten years of repeated attempts at the imperial examinations, he never passed, spending his entire life as an ordinary scholar. His magnum opus, The Palace of Eternal Life, took ten years to complete and underwent three major revisions before its publication in 1688, which caused a sensation throughout society. The following year, for staging The Palace of Eternal Life on the anniversary of Empress Xiaoyi’s death, he was impeached, imprisoned, and stripped of his status as a student at the Imperial Academy; he subsequently left Beijing and returned to his hometown. In his later years, he settled back in Qiantang, living in poverty and hardship. In 1704, while Cao Yin was mounting a full‑scale production of The Palace of Eternal Life in Nanjing, Hong Sheng was invited to attend; on his way back to Hangzhou, he fell into the water after becoming intoxicated in Wuzhen and died. Together with Kong Shangren, Hong Sheng is celebrated as “Hong in the South, Kong in the North.”
 

The Ancient Edition of “The Palace of Eternal Life”

“Changsheng Dian” is both a romantic love drama and a historical play, characterized by grand spectacles, a large cast of characters, and a complex, twisting plot. While chronicling the unwavering love between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty and Yang Guifei, it also devotes considerable space to the An Lushan Rebellion and the broader socio-political context of the time. This dual‑threaded structure interweaves the lovers’ story with momentous historical events and a vast social backdrop. Beyond critiquing the emperor’s misrule and imparting the moral lesson that excessive joy may give way to sorrow, the work underscores the anguish of love lost amid tumultuous times, thereby amplifying the poignant sense of individual fate at the mercy of overwhelming historical forces. The script is steeped in lyrical sentiment, with the author skillfully employing elegant, flowing, and poetically rich arias to depict the shifting emotional and psychological states of the characters under varying circumstances. In sum, “Changsheng Dian” is a work that centers on the theme of love while simultaneously conveying political admonitions and a profound sense of historical melancholy.

In his “Quhua,” the Qing‑dynasty dramatist Liang Tingzhen wrote: “Hong Chousi of Qiantang composed the ‘Changsheng Dian,’ which has stood as a towering masterpiece in the art of opera for millennia. With an exceptionally fine subject, he crafted a work of monumental scope, leaving scholars and gifted artists alike to bow in admiration.” The Qing‑era composer Ye Tang remarked: “Its lyrics are exquisitely ornate, and its musical scores are delightfully harmonious; yet its spirit and artistic sensibility fall far short of those of Linchuan.”

The Inheritance and Development of “The Palace of Eternal Life” from “The Peony Pavilion”

In the very first scene of The Palace of Eternal Life, the aria declares: “In the realm of love, past and present, who can truly be said to hold it to the end? Yet if sincerity remains unbroken, loyalty shall bloom as twin blossoms.” This passage evokes Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion. In the Preface to The Palace of Eternal Life, the author likewise endorses the traditional view that this play is “a lively version of The Peony Pavilion.” From these two points, it is clear that Hong Sheng inherited Tang Xianzu’s humanist spirit; the celebration of love in The Palace of Eternal Life was undoubtedly deeply influenced by The Peony Pavilion. Both works are unified by a profound reverence for “love,” elevating it to the ultimate aim of human existence. Thus, we may say that, as two celebrated classical dramas of romantic sentiment, The Palace of Eternal Life and The Peony Pavilion share a remarkably evident lineage in their intellectual and cultural heritage.

In the second half of The Palace of Eternal Life, it is written: “It moves gold and stone, bends heaven and earth, shines bright as the sun, and endures in the annals of history. Behold how loyal subjects and filial sons—everything springs from emotion.” There is no doubt that the “emotion” Hong Sheng seeks to portray is far more expansive; nor, as some scholars have suggested, does it merely refer to human feelings in general. Rather, it focuses on and interweaves two distinct yet interconnected sentiments: the love between men and women, and the steadfast devotion to loyalty and filial piety. As Hong Sheng himself explained, his aim in composing this play was “to use another’s cup to quench my own bitter sorrows.” It is easy to see that, intentionally or not, the author lays bare profoundly deep and wide-ranging socio‑political themes. On the surface, the narrative recounts the An Lushan Rebellion, yet throughout it echoes the social realities of the late Ming and early Qing periods—and, moreover, reveals the author’s own emotional currents: a yearning for his lost homeland, the anguish of national ruin, and a sense of rise and fall. One might say that The Palace of Eternal Life is a historical drama that “uses the emotions of partings and reunions to express the feelings evoked by the rise and fall of dynasties.” In this work, Hong Sheng transposes what would ordinarily be private, domestic affections into a vast historical setting, expanding the scope of the story and complicating the relationships among the characters—yet without leaving the reader feeling disjointed; instead, the effect is one of heightened vibrancy and liveliness.

In light of the two points just outlined, it is easy to see why there is the view that The Palace of Eternal Life is a lively, boisterous version of The Peony Pavilion.
 

Stills from Bai Xianyong’s youth‑oriented production of “The Peony Pavilion”

In The Peony Pavilion, there is the resounding declaration: “Love knows not whence it springs, yet once kindled, it burns deep and unyielding. The living may die, and the dead may live; but if life cannot coexist with death, and death cannot be brought back to life, then such love falls short of true passion.” Thus, The Peony Pavilion stands as a play that celebrates the supreme power of human emotion, a work that portrays how “love” breaks through and transcends “reason.” Through the intimate world of the opera stage, Tang Xianzu unveils the grand theater of life, depicting Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei’s love as it moves from dream to reality, allowing the drama to freely explore, in artistic form, the realms of indifference, ordinary affection, and consummate passion. As the embodiment and representative of “love,” the protagonist Du Liniang fully articulates the author’s central artistic vision: what reason deems impossible, love makes possible.
 

Stills from Bai Xianyong’s youth‑oriented production of “The Peony Pavilion”

In “The Palace of Eternal Life,” in order to extol the love‑between‑the‑hairpin‑and‑box bond of Li and Yang, the author devotes considerable literary effort and painstaking care to narrating the entire arc of their romance. Beginning with the moment when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei pledge their vows, the play moves through a transitional phase marked by sacrifices made for love, and concludes with their reunion in heaven, thus weaving the whole narrative together with love as its unifying thread. In particular, the evolving emotional trajectory of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei—progressing from initial affection to the emperor’s one‑sided longing, and then to the anguish, desolation, and resentment that follow her loss—is rendered with extraordinary depth and poignancy, profoundly moving the audience. The play’s structure eloquently conveys the author’s reverence for genuine, heartfelt emotion, celebrating a love that remains undiminished through life and death, and thereby reviving the late Ming era’s ethos of valuing sentiment.
 

Still from the Youth Edition of “The Palace of Eternal Life” by the Northern Kunqu Opera Troupe

“The Palace of Eternal Life” is set against the backdrop of the An Lushan Rebellion, narrating the love story of Li and Yang—marked by their cherished hairpin and box—and reflecting the author’s reflections on life and love. By re‑enacting the historical realities of the Tianbao era—when the ruling class practiced nepotism, indulged in extravagant luxury, and wallowed in sensual pleasures, thereby plunging the people into misery and bringing about the ruin of the state and the destruction of families—the play conveys the author’s intention to “leave a warning for posterity,” expressing his profound hatred for traitors and those who betray their principles to beg for mercy, as well as his admiration for loyal ministers and virtuous generals. Throughout the entire work, the author pours out his anguish at the fall of the nation, his longing for his lost homeland, and his poignant sense of the rise and decline of history.

“The Palace of Eternal Life” inherits the “supreme sentiment” ideal of “The Peony Pavilion,” yet it does not merely imitate in a mechanical manner; rather, it engages in a creative imitation, offering a distinct interpretation. In “The Peony Pavilion,” Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei’s love unfolds as a journey from dream into reality, whereas in “The Palace of Eternal Life,” the love between Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Tang Minghuang moves from reality into the realm of dreams. Through “The Peony Pavilion,” Tang Xianzu sought to use “emotion” to counter “reason”; by contrast, Hong Sheng employs “The Palace of Eternal Life” to articulate his aspiration to integrate “reason” with “emotion.”