The Peach Blossom Fan

Interweaving a star-crossed romance with the decline and fall of the Ming dynasty in mid seventeenth-century China, The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren (1648-1718) is a masterpiece of world literature. This sweeping historical drama encompasses the pleasures and passions of courtesan culture, the allure and pitfalls of political idealism, the complex twists of court intrigues, and the horrors and trauma of war. While the play traces the fall of the Ming dynasty through the love story of its two main characters-Hou Fangyu, a young scholar, and a courtesan named Li Xiangjun (or,"Sovereign Fragrance")-its cast of characters also includes various scholars and military commanders; a villain who is also a playwright; an ambiguous mediator who is also a painter, a storyteller who becomes a fisherman; a singing teacher who becomes a woodcutter; an officer who becomes a Daoist; and a ritual master who is both onstage and a member of the audience.
As the play takes the readers inside the choices, dilemmas, and emotional turmoil of its diverse characters, it asks probing questions: How and why did the Ming dynasty, almost three hundred years old, come to an end? What is the scope of human agency during historical cataclysms? What forces shape memory and historical judgment? This compelling, readable, and faithful translation of the play includes an introduction on interpretive perspectives and the life and times of the playwright Kong Shangren as well as explanatory notes and a preface for each scene that serve as guides for the reader.

Kong Shangren (1648-1718) was a Qing dynasty dramatist and poet. He was a 64th-generation descendant of Confucius and had a distinguished career as a scholar-official. His fame rested largely on his authorship of The Peach Blossom Fan.
Wai-yee Li is the 1879 Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. Her previous books include The Promise and Peril of Things, Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge, Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature, and, as co-editor with Wiebke Denecke and Xiaofei Tian, The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900 CE).

- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Dramatis Personae
- Prologue: Before the First Scene
- Scene 1: Listening to the Storyteller
- Scene 2: Learning the Songs
- Scene 3: Commotion at the Sacrifice
- Scene 4: Reporting on the Performance
- Scene 5: Visiting the Beauty
- Scene 6: Sleeping in Fragrance
- Scene 7: Rejecting the Trousseau
- Scene 8: Bustle at the Riverside Pavilion
- Scene 9: Soothing the Troops
- Scene 10: Writing the Letter
- Scene 11: Delivering the Letter
- Scene 12: Leaving the Old Quarters
- Scene 13: Lamenting the Emperor
- Scene 14: Blocking the Malefactors
- Scene 15: Welcoming the Emperor
- Scene 16: Setting up Court
- Scene 17: Resisting the Matchmaker
- Scene 18: Fighting for Precedence
- Scene 19: Pacifying the Conflict
- Scene 20: Moving the Garrison
- Extra Scene 20: Idle Chat
- Additional Scene 21: Solitary Chants
- Scene 21: Flattering the Powerful
- Scene 22: Guarding the Tower
- Scene 23: Sending the Fan
- Scene 24: Denouncing the Revelers
- Scene 25: Choosing the Actors
- Scene 26: Tricking the General
- Scene 27: Meeting on the Boat
- Scene 28: Inscribing the Painting
- Scene 29: Arresting Revival Society Members
- Scene 30: Returning to the Mountains
- Scene 31: Drafting the Impeachment
- Scene 32: Offering Sacrifice at the Altar
- Scene 33: Meeting in Prison
- Scene 34: Blocked at Banji
- Scene 35: Declaration to the Troops
- Scene 36: Fleeing from Calamity
- Scene 37: Seizing the Treasure
- Scene 38: Drowning in the River
- Scene 39: Finding Refuge in Temples
- Scene 40: Entering the Way
- Sequel to Scene 40: Lingering Notes
- Bibliography