The-Peony-Pavilion--牡丹亭-英语论文.doc

2015年《中国传统文化》课程论文

姓名：

学号：

班级：

任课教师：

2015年12月

The Peony Pavilion
The Peony Pavilion, or The Return of the Soul at the Peony Pavilion in full written by Tang Xianzu, (1550--1616) a famous playwright as well as known as “the Oriental Shakespeare ” of the Ming Dynasty. He was a native of Lingchuan, Jiangxi. As a man fulled with integrity, he resolutely refused to become an appendage to the bigwigs Zhang Juzheng, who came power at that time, and then resigned from office and returned home at the age of forty-nine in 1598. In his whole life, Tang admired Li zhi, a ideologist who was rejected by feudal formal schools. Thus resistance of bigwigs, exposion of political corruption and individual liberation consist of his creation.
The Peony Pavilion is another love story that enjoy worldwide popularity after Romance of the Western Chamber. It describes a young girl named Du Liniang who starts to have a longing for love at the arousal of the love song from The Book of songs, then when she goes to the garden for relaxation with her maid Chunxiang, she sees Liu mengmei in her dream. After visiting the garden in the spring, Du Liniang becomes lovesick and dies of lovesickness. Three years later, while Liu mengmei is passing by Du Liniang’ tomb on his way to Lin’an to sit for government examination, the soul of Du Liniang shows up and have a secret rendezvous. With the help of Liu mengmei, Du Liniang revives from the death and they get married without parents’permission. After Du Liniang comes back to life, however, her father Du Bao confirmly sees his daughter as an evil spirit and accuses Liu mengmei of robbing his daughter’ tomb. Du Liniang goes to the imperial to make an appeal. Liu mengmei succeeds in the government examination. At the imperial decree, Du Bao gives approval to his daughter’ marriage and the whole family gets reunited.
Then discuss about the characters. First of all is the heroine Du Liniang, actually it is a very special girl, she is hoped to be educated to be a fair lady of good and honest virtue. And her father Du Bao found an experienced and prudent scholar to teache her to read books and explain to her The Book of Songs. While she starts to have a longing for love at the arousal of the love song from The Book of songs. To be honest, in the feudal society girls especially noble girls always are educated with the three obediences and the four virtues and their marriages are absolutely arranged by their parents. In this way, girls rarely condider love or freedom. However, when Du Liniang goes to the garden, seeing the beautiful spring scenery, she feel a pity for herself. She chanted,
You observed my skirt shines with blushing red,
And hairpin sparkles with precious stones.
Do you know
My love of beauty of natural build,
Like prudent spring charm lost to common eyes?
Once revealed,
Fish to the bottom dive,
Wild geese drop from the sky,
The moon conceals her face,
And flowers wink their bashful eyes
For with my becuty, they won’t vie.
(你道翠生生出落的裙衫儿茜，艳晶晶花簪八宝填，可知我常一生儿爱好是天然。恰三春好处无人见，不提防沉鱼落雁鸟惊喧，则怕的羞花闭月花愁颤。)
Du Liniang is such a beauty and herself realize her beauty. So she will naturally compare herself with spring scenery, in the upper poem the readers maybe sense some disapointment from Du Liniang, in the latter poem we can much easier seize her “grieving over spring”. while moving ahead along the path with flower, she was carried away by the peach blossoms and green willow and songs of birds and scent of flowers. Goldfish were swimming freely in the pool, and a swing under a tree was swaying to and fro in the breeze, catching all this, Du Liniang feels that nature beauty as though voicing its loneliness. Then she chants, deeply impressed.
Here the garden is all abloom in pink and red,
Yet all abandoned to dry wells and crumpling walls.
Enchanting sights on a fine day won’t forever last.
Can any household claim undying joy?
Clouds that scud southward at the break of day
Bring back evening showers.
Rosy clouds, verdant cots.
Threads of rain, sheets of wind,
Misty waves and painted boats…
(原来姹紫嫣红开遍，似这般都付与断井颓垣。良辰美景奈何天，赏心乐事谁家院。朝飞暮卷，云霞翠轩；雨丝风片，烟波画船······)
In this poem, it is obvious that miss Du found it hard to free herself from her disturbed mind. She worries that her father just want to find a good marriage for her from among the distinguished families and noble houses. If they let her to marry a good-for-nothing young man from a wealthy family, it just unworthy of her beauty.
Then still in the garden, miss Du has a dream which the headsom Liu mengmei dates with her. Actually Du Liniang is a very brave girl, she dies of lovesick, in other word, if miss Du is still alive, she hardly can resist her free marriage and wait for Liu’coming. Latter when Liu mengmei comes to the Nunnery, Du Liniang shows herself up and tells all to Liu. For her love, she asks Liu to help her revive and what’more, she dare to goes to the imperial to make an appeal, in spite of her father. This beautiful and brave girl always fight for her love no matter what happened. Suppose this story happens in the modern society, we will feel nothing particular. However in the ancient time, seldom girl dare to fight for her freedom or even have the realization of that. Thus we consider Du Liniang is a progressive female in her age. Not only she observes the rules in her age, but also she would strive chang for herself, hence we believe Du Liniang is a lovely girl as well as a symbol for bravity and wisdom.
As for Liu mengmei, in the Nunnery, he finds the portrait of Du Liniang, then he meets the ghost of her. Attracted by the beauty and grace, he falls in love with Du. The distinction of he is that he shows nothing special of the ghost Du Liniang, and love her remaining as before. He is both enthusiastic about pursuing an official position and faithful to love which is shown in that he is whole-heartedly devoted to Du Liniang. Besides, it is he who saves her love one from the dark grave and marries Du after while. At that time,everywhere is spread with chaos caused by war. Liu mengmei makes his way to Huaiyang to seek news for his father -in- law. Though he carries the Du Liniang’ portrait with him and tell Du Bao that himself is the son- in-law of Du Bao. Du Bao is such a hard nut affirming Liu mengmei is a grave-robber so far as to lash Liu as punishment.
In the whole story, Liu mengmei does anything he can do in dreaml and love, he should gets the gratitude from Du Bao for saving his love daughter while at last in the imperial decree, Du Bao still claims his reviving girl is an evil spirit and wants to kill his daughter. But Liu still respect his father-in-law and is willing to rebuild harmonious relationship with his father. From any aspect, Liu mengmei does everything called for by humanity and duty. On the other hand, he is a so outstanding man who get the title “Zhuang Yuan”, (title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination). Without his effort, their marriage is still at risk on account of they have no right and ability aginst Du Bao, who becomes prime minister in the court.
Du Bao is a representative hero of peremptoriness and obstinacy. He deeply influenced by the rules in the feudal society, exhausting his blind loyalty and forgeting family affection. He is overwhelmed with grief misbelieving that his wife mrs Du is killed and his daughter’grave is violated. While when Liu mengmei tells him that his daughter has revives, he feels a little bit happiness or excitement. As we believe in the normal way, Du Bao should have been the most plasant one for his daughter and shows appreciations to Liu mengmei for the help and carrying the good news. But much to our surprise, he expresses what we call positive emotion and claims his reviving girl is an evil spirit and wants to kill his daughter. At beginning of the story, Du Bao is not so bad father, he treasures his daughter as a pearl on the palm and set his mind to educate her to be a fair lady of good and honest virtue. As a matter of fact, any father would do this for their daughter. What’more , his anger about Liu mengmei’grave robbery is understandable. Yet we still can not stand his stubborn with Du Liniang, affection between family members is the treasure in the world, how could he kill his daughter?
No matter how Du Bao overdoes with his daughter, he still devotes all to the court. Such as being appointed in the wartime to the Envoy of Appeasement in charge of the affairs in Huaiyang and is ordered to commence the transference. During the wartime he is racking his brains for fighting against the Jin troops in the city of Huai’an and he is clever enough to send Chen Zuiliang, Du Liniang’teacher, to persuade opposite army into surrendering. At last he has protected his country out of trouble.
The family tutor whom Du Bao engaged for his daughter is called Chen Zuiliang, an old xiucai who is well acquainted with The Four Books and The Five Classics. Though he is well over sixty, he had not passed the provincial examinations, and is rather pedantic. He has no full understanding about The Book of Songs but he explains it in the wrong way to Du Liniang. After Du Liniang’death, Chen Zuiliang fails to find a teaching job to earn a living so he has lived in poverty. While one day when he was on a visit to a friend, he rescues a young scholar from the snow who is on his way to the capital for the highest imperial examintion. This young scholar is just Liu mengmei. Considering that without Chen’sorry for Liu mengmei and helps him to the Plum Blossom Nunnery to put him up for the time being, the meeting between Liu mengmei and Du Liniang will be just a imagination. But still is Chen Zuiliang who misleads Du Bao to believe that his daughter’tomb is robbed. And latter, he is taken in by a manoeuvre to let Du Bao know his wife is slain. The most impressing thing he has done is that he is asked to deliver a letter to the ememy’camp and he makes it.
The last heroine I want to introduce you is Chunxiang, a maid of Du Liniang, also a very lovely girl, In the book The Peony Pavilion, maybe she is not important as Hongniang, the maid of Cui Yingying in the Romance of the Western Chamber, but Chunxiang companies her lady all the time, and always wants her happy. So when her lady feels boring, she lies to tutor and bring the lady to garden. When Mrs Du is in trouble, Chunxiang shares trouble with the old ladies until she finds her daughter.Chunxiang is such a cute girl dedicating with the all family, and in her nature, she pusures happiness, freedom and the meaningful things in the life.
From the whole story, we are able to grasp some thing about author. Tang Xianzu believes pure-hearted love can go beyond life and death. The love story of Du Liniang and Liu mengmei is no longer limited to the narrow meaning of fighting against the dictates of parents and words of matchmakers. Instead the story shows love can be so powerful that it conquer all and go beyond life and death. The author considers the pursuit of free love as “emotion” and the feudal code of ethics as “principle” . The Peony Pavilion reveals the conflict between “emotion” and “principle” and the final victory of “emotion” over “principle”.
Du Liniang, the heroine of the story, is the embodiment of true love and sincere emtion. She is a young girl who loves life, pursues freedom, and has the courage to revolt against conventions. The most significant trait that features her character is the firmness and obsession she evolves in the course of her seeking true love. She dies of love and gets reborn because of love. She never pulls back and continues to fight until she gets ultimate victory regardless of the eeriness and terror of the nether world, the peremptoriness and indifference of her father or the forbidding nature of the imperial court. This has been a great leap forward in comparison with Cui Yingying from Romance of the Western Chamber who has to court on Hongniang’s assistance at many points.
The other characters in the play also have clear-cut personalities. The hero Liu mengmei is both enthusiastic about pursuing an official position and faithful to love which is shown in that he is whole-heartedly devoted to Du Liniang. The peremptoriness and obstinacy of Du Bao, the pedantry of Chen Zuiliang, and the mischievousness of Chunxiang are alao vividly portrayed.
The artistic merit of The Peony Pavilion is outstanding too. First, this play is permeated with a strong tint of romanticism. Tang Xianzu employs romantic techniques in this writing. By creating a series of intense fantastic plots like falling in love in a dream, returning to life after death, getting married to a ghost and etc. He warmly eulogizes the young couple’s strong desire for pursuing free love and an ideal world. Before Tang Xianzu, the love between young couple rarely being loved by dream but in the first sight.
Secondly, in characterization, he attaches a lot more importance to revealing what’s inside his characters’hearts and exploring the subtle and elaborate sentiments of the characters so as to create characters through describing their mental activities. Every single appearance on the stage of Du Liniang, every song and poem she chants and every action she makes all bear rich mental activities. Thirdly, the language of The Peony Pavilion is flowery and beautiful, brimming with poetic charms and a far-reaching artistic conception and leading the readers to endless aftertastes. The whole play adopts the technique of writing lyrics to depict the emotions of the figures as exemplified by the songs “Coy Steps”, “A Black Robe” and etc. in the act “An Uninterrupted Dream”, which are still very popular among people even today.
A historical document has it that “Soon after The Peony Pavilion is presented on the stage, it starts to be sung in every family and chanted in every house, almost overshadowing Romance of the Western Chamber,” and striking an emotional accord with a great number of young men and women. The Peony Pavilion has remained popular on the stage for centuries. It once said a woman named Yu Erniang, a native in Loujiang who falls in love with The Peony Pavilion, she takes a lot of notes on the book and dies of heart broken. And it happens that there is a similar case that the girl called Zhang Xiaoling dies during the performance of The Peony Pavilion on account of her disappointment in the reality.
Nowadays, maybe the young ages pay less attention to the play or the drama than before. While the “Youth Version ” kunqu opera The Peony Pavilion adapted by Mr.Bai Xianyong in the recent years in particular has made the artistic charm of The Peony Pavilion enjoy an even greater ov