Tang Xianzu and Peony Pavilion

汤显祖与牡丹亭

Tang Xianzu (1550--1616), a famous drama artist of the Ming Dynasty of China, possessed an important position in the domestic and world literary history and is praised as "Shakespeare of the East". As he was born in Linchuan of Jiangxi Province, his four representative works are also called "Linchuan Four Dreams". Among his works, Peony Pavilion is the most well-known.

Tang Xianzu was poor in his whole life, but he left a rich fortune for China's drama. His works such as Tale of Purple Hairpin, Tale of Nanke, Peony Pavilion and Tale of Handan are not only popular in China, but also have been spread to many other countries, such as England, Japan, German and Russia, and are regarded as a treasure of the world drama art. In addition, his monograph Temple Notation of Qingyuan Rabbi as the Drama God in Yihuang County is an important literature on the discussion of drama performance in the history of Chinese drama, playing a role as the pioneer to the study of director. Meanwhile, Tang Xianzu was also a great poet and his poetry anthologies have been handed down.

Peony Pavilion, the representative work of Tang Xianzu, is also the representative work taking love as the subject matter in Kunqu opera. It is a legendary story describing a pair of young people who died for love and relived from love. It was very popular and many people were moved and infatuated with it just after its publication. It is said that quite a few girls were moved by and died for the tragic story in history. In Peony Pavilion, not only the story is affecting and the plot is romantic, but also the wording is very graceful. Some librettos, for example, are still very popular today. So, the work enjoys a rather high artistic level.

       显祖，中国明代戏曲家，在中国和世界文学史上具有重要的地位，被誉为“东方的莎士比亚”。生于江西临川，他的四个代表作也被称为“临川四梦”。他的戏剧作品中，《牡丹亭》是最广为人知的。
     汤显祖一生贫困，但他却给了中国戏剧留下宝贵的财富。他的戏剧作品《紫钗记》、《南柯记》、《牡丹亭》和《邯郸记》不但为我国历代人民所喜爱，而且已传播到英、日、德、俄等很多国家，被视为世界戏剧艺术的珍品。汤氏的专著《宜黄县戏神清源师庙记》也是我国戏曲史上论述戏剧表演的一篇重要文献。对导演学起了拓荒开路的作用。汤显祖同时还是一位杰出的诗人,他的诗歌选集也被一代代流传下去。
    牡丹亭，汤显祖的代表作，同时也是昆曲中以爱情为题材的代表作。它讲述了一对青年男女因爱死而复生的传奇故事。这部作品刚刚出版便大受欢迎，许多人都被故事情节所感动并冲昏了头脑。据说在古时有少部分少女因为其悲惨的故事情节感动而死。在《牡丹亭》里，不仅故事情节浪漫感人，台词也十分雅致。有些歌词直到今天依然很流行。因此，这部作品可谓是艺术的极高境界。