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The Peach Blossom Fan
(tr. Wai-Yee Li)
by
Kong Shangren
general information | our review | links | about the author
| Title: | The Peach Blossom Fan |
| Author: | Kong Shangren |
| Genre: | Play |
| Written: | (1699) (Eng. 2024) |
| Length: | 830 pages |
| Original in: | Chinese |
| Availability: | The Peach Blossom Fan - US |
| The Peach Blossom Fan - UK | |
| The Peach Blossom Fan - Canada | |
| from: Bookshop.org (US) | |
| directly from: Oxford University Press |
- Chinese title: 桃花扇
- Translated and with an Introduction by Wai-Yee Li
- Previously translated by Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton with the collaboration of Cyril Birch (1976)
- This is a bilingual edition, with the original Chinese text facing the English translation
- A volume in the Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature
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Our Assessment:
A- : impressive edition of a significant work
See our review for fuller assessment.
The complete review's Review:
Kong Shangren's play The Peach Blossom Fan, completed in 1699 and published by around 1708, has been available in English in a complete translation (by Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton, with the collaboration of Cyril Birch) for almost half a century -- published first by the University of California Press (1976) and re-issued in a New York Review Books Classics edition (2015) -- but Wai-Yee Li's new translation, published as part of the Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature-series from Oxford University Press, now offers an in almost every way expanded presentation of this literary classic.
For one, it is a bilingual edition, with the original Chinese facing the English translation.
It is also extensively annotated, with footnotes both by Wai-Yee Li and translations of the 'eyebrow comments' (眉批; described by Li as "marginal comments at the top of the page" (though presented here as and in the footnotes at the bottom of the page ...)).
Aside from a general Introduction, each of the play's scenes comes with a short introduction offering summaries of plot and themes, as well as pointing out salient aspects of the scene.
Finally, there is also a companion website to the book, which: "provides access to annotated paratextual materials"; click on the Table of Contents for the good stuff, which includes End-of-Scene Comments made by some of the first readers when Kong Shangren circulated the manuscript.
The Peach Blossom Fan is a mammoth-sized drama -- "a much longer play than what most modern readers are accustomed to" Li notes in her Introduction (though also pointing out that: "its length is typical of its genre, the southern drama (chuanqi 傳奇)") -- with a Prologue, forty-two scenes (forty, plus an 'extra' and an 'additional' scene slipped in halfway through), and a 'Sequel'-scene epilogue.
There is a love story to it -- scholar Hou Fangyu and courtesan Li Xiangjun are the male and female lead roles, devoted to each other but separated for much of the play (they part in scene 12 and are only reunited in scene 40, with Hou then lamenting: "it seemed we had but half a month of blissful union") -- but this is a play that dramatizes the historical events of the time: set almost entirely between 1643 and 1645, it is a chronicle of and commentary on the collapse of the Ming dynasty, the short-lived Southern Ming/Hongguang regime, and the transition to the Qing dynasty.
With the death of the Chongzhen Emperor (25 April 1644):
The imperial carriage has left;The play focuses not on the reassembling, however, but rather the crumbling, as different factions fight for primacy with an enormous toll as a result of the various power-struggles. By scene 35 Shi Kefa is a last holdout against the Qing forces, lamenting about the: "disintegrating realm in its last chapter" (闌珊殘局) (and that it is: "left for me alone to bolster" (剩俺支撐) ...), but his stand, too, is a doomed one
The altar and temple have crumbled.
A broken country will have to be reassembled.
宮車出，廟社傾，破碎中原費整
Born in 1648, Kong Shangren looks back on and dramatizes this decisive period in Chinese history in The Peach Blossom Fan, with many of the real-life figures playing prominent roles in the drama and Kong Shangren presenting versions of many actual historical events of the times. While not strictly documentary -- Kong Shangren adapts and plays with some of the facts, events, and chronology -- he does stay fairly closely to the historical record. (An example of the kinds of liberties Kong Shangren takes comes in scene 34, where military commander Zuo Liangyu realizes it must be his son who commanded Zuo Liangyu's own troops to overrun Jiujiang -- "It must be my son Zuo Menggeng who did this. He's implicated me in treason ! This is the end !" -- and, while prevented from slitting his own throat, nevertheless keels over dead from the shock; in fact, Zuo Liangyu died of (and after a long) illness -- and before his troops confronted those of Huang Degong, unlike in Kong Shangren's dramatization.)
As Li notes in her Introduction: "The Peach Blossom Fan is formally inventive in that it has an elaborate metatheatrical frame" -- beginning with the Prologue, set in 1684, where a Ritual Master recounts how:
Yesterday, at the Garden of Peace, I watched a brand-new play by the name of The Peach Blossom Fan. It's about recent events in Nanjing in the waning years of the Ming dynasty.Not just that -- he reports seeing: "my decrepit self on stage in the role of 'secondary older male'" (更可喜把老夫衰態，也拉上了排場，做了一個副末腳色) (as, indeed, there are several scenes in which he is part of the actual play-action).
昨在太平園中，看一本新出傳奇，名為《桃花扇》，就是明朝末年，南京近事。
The Ritual Master is the only actor on stage in the Prologue -- but a 'Voice from Backstage' helpfully prods him on, too -- including with the question: "May I ask who is the author of this wonderful play ?" Elsewhere, too as Li notes: "Many scenes are built on the conceit of a stage on a stage" -- and the plays of one of the characters (and his eagerness to see them performed) also play a prominent role. Li highlights and emphasizes the: "multiple gestures towards mediation and the 'meta'" throughout, as well -- and the footnoted 'eyebrow comments', which give immediate reaction to the words and action, also serve as a constant reminder for readers.
The play is episodic; as with many Chinese plays of this length, it is not uncommon to select just one or a few scenes for performance. It ranges quite far in the history it depicts -- though Kong Shangren grounds and ties it together well in his use of the main characters and how they figure in the action. The text is also very allusive -- "though not more so than other literati plays", Li dryly notes ... -- and it is here, and with regards to the history and historical figures and events that are presented that Li's extensive and thorough annotations are particularly helpful. While the Chen/Acton translation does also provide explanatory footnotes, they are not nearly as extensive and far-reaching as those in this edition. (By way of comparison: scene one has 12 footnotes in the Chen/Acton translation and 57 in this edition (some of which are 'eyebrow comments' -- arguably more marginalia/commentary than explanatory).)
The fan of the title does play a significant role in the play. When Hou Fangyu 'styles the chignon' of Li Xiangjun -- as translator Li explains: "'Styling her chignon' (shulong 梳攏) refers to a virgin courtesan's first night with a client, after which she will change her hairstyle" --, i.e. when they 'marry' ("to the extent that the arrangement whereby a client formalizes his union with a virgin courtesan can be called marriage", as Li notes), Hou writes a poem on a palace fan (宮扇), explaining: "Let me inscribe it and give it to Xiangjun as the lasting token of our solemn promise" (就題贈香君，永為訂盟之物罷). First Li Xiangjun keeps it close to her, in her sleeve, especially once the lovers are separated (as they are for much of the play). When Li Xiangjun is to be married off to Tian Yang (in scene 22) she is defiant in her absolute refusal, having vowed to remain true to Hou Fangyu; pushed to go along with the marriage, Li Xiangjun: "holding the fan, lashes out in all directions" (旦持扇前後亂打介) -- one character noting admiringly:
How ferocious she is, wielding that inscribed fan like a mighty sword in self-defense !It is in this sequence of events that the fan also comes to be the 'peach blossom'-fan of the title, as it becomes splattered with Li Xiangjun's blood when she "Dashes her head against the floor and passes out" in her fight against being handed over. She is then disappointed to see the fan apparently spoiled by the blood -- but painter Yang Wencong can't help himself and, with a few brushstrokes, makes a full picture of it; now: "This is truly a peach blossom fan" (真乃桃花扇也).
好利害，一柄詩扇，倒像一把防身的利劍。
When Li Xiangjun then is able to send a message to Hou Fangyu she decides that, instead of a letter, since:
All my sorrows and sufferings are on this fan. Let's send it instead.It is Hou Fangyu who then holds onto it until they are reunited -- "I keep it with me all the time" (小生時刻在手). When they are finally reunited they clutch happily at the fan together -- but the local Daoist Zhang Wei is outraged by their misplaced attention and he: "Hurries down the altar, takes the fan from HOU and XIANGJUN, tears it up, and throws the pieces to the ground" (忙下壇，向生、旦手中裂扇擲地介). As he the also makes clear to them, looking at the larger picture:
奴的千愁萬苦，俱在扇頭，就把這扇兒寄去罷。
Alas ! You two deluded worms ! Just look ! Where is the country ? Where are our homes ? Where is our ruler ? Where are our fathers ? How can this bit of romance not be severed ?(They do both see the (Daoist) light and the error of their love-struck, self-centered ways -- there's no and-they-lived-together-happily-everafter for them here ....)
呵呸！兩個癡蟲，你看國在那裡，家在那裡，君在那裡，父在那裡，偏是這點花月情根，割他不斷麼？
Hou Fangyu's travails tie much of the story to the ongoing political upheavals, even as he doesn't really want to be involved in such things. A scholar who "failed to achieve distinction" in the last examinations he took, he is not oblivious to what is going on around him, but rather than actively participating, typically:
Lamenting the past,He hooks up with friends from the Revival Society -- in which he has: "recently made my mark" --, who are similarly more concerned with their own leisurely lives. As one of them sums up early on:
I compose new lyrics.
傷往事，寫新詞
No one to speak of is left, and by now the tide cannot be turned. Let us just enjoy the spring scenery.Ruan Dacheng is the main nemesis of Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun for much of the play. He has ambitions -- and talent -- as a playwright, and seeks the approval of the Revival Society members, but he is also a morally dubious opportunist (and politically active, trying to inveigle himself wherever he thinks he can further his ambitions). He tries to ingratiate himself with Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun by offering the trousseau that the couple can not afford; Hou Fangyu is tempted, but Li Xiangjun categorically refuses it -- making an enemy that repeatedly proves damaging to them. He really bears a grudge -- admitting at one point that: "Thinking back on what happened, even putting her to death wouldn't mollify my resentment" (想起前番，就處死這奴才，難洩我恨。).
中原無人，大事已不可問，我輩且看春光。
For a time, Ruan Dacheng is ascendant. He is: "reinstated in his former position as Overseer of Imperial Affairs" and his ego is further stroked when, after presenting his four plays to the Emperor one of them, The Swallow Letter is selected for performance. In the lead-up, Li Xiangjun is able to confront Ruan Dacheng -- actions which just anger him even more:
How dare you ? Whom are you denouncing ? Grab her and throw her in the snow right away !Only the intercession of Yang Wencong saves her from the worst -- but Ruan Dacheng does have a punishment in mind, having her sent to the Inner Court, where she is to play a (demeaning) role in his play. The Emperor, however, is impressed by Li Xiangjun, and insists she be given the lead in Ruan Dacheng's play ..... (He also gives her a peach blossom fan, though it of course can not replace the one that ties her to Hou Fangyu.)
好大膽，罵的是那個，快快採去，丟在雪中。
A nice scene showing Ruan Dacheng -- now Vice Minister of War -- for exactly what he is has him paraded in his palanquin. He has it stopped for all to gawk at:
Instruct the attendants that there is no need to clear the way. Let the people look all they like. [Waves his fan, looking extremely pleased] I am the dignitary Ruan, who, graced with the imperial gifts of python robe and jade belt, is paying visits in this impressive palanquin.Ruan Dacheng continues to attack Hou Fangyu and the Revival Society, but he does get his comeuppance (as does another malefactor, Ma Shinyin) in the play's conclusion, when he has surrendered to the Qing (and mistakenly believes he has a future there ...)
吩咐左右，不必打道，儘著百姓來瞧。(搧扇大說介) 我阮老爺今日欽賜蟒玉，大轎拜客。
Along the way, there are many scenes and episodes from those tumultuous times that touch on the decisive events (with, as Li notes, Kong Shangren cautious in his treatment of the Qing side of things and focused on those that were defeated). While there is some humor as well -- the only way Su Kunsheng can think of to gain access to Zuo Liangyu is to break the law by singing arias (from Gao Ming's The Story of the Lute) -- the overall sense is, as Hou Fangyu at one point notes: "Calamity is coming, and it is hard to find succor" (禍來難救). So even, also, as the end then approaches, when the Hongguang Emperor has lost almost everything he resignedly admits: "I just want to save my own life. I'm no longer keen to play the role of emperor" (寡人只要苟全性命，那皇帝一席，也不願再做了。). (It is, of course: too little, too late for him.)
Li explains her approach to translation in her Introduction, including that:
I have closely adhered to the original so long as readability and stylistic felicity are not compromised. Allusions present special difficulties: one can either translate the surface meaning or the intended meaning. I have mostly rendered the literal meaning and have put the explanations in footnotes.In staying true to the original, Li, for example, repeats many of the doubled lines that are in the original -- scene nineteen, for example, contains numerous instances, e.g. "I grieve that mountains and rivers are half crumbled; / I grieve that mountains and rivers are half crumbled." --, one of the more striking contrasts to the Chen/Acton translation, where the relevant line is generally only presented once (as: "Mountains and streams slip and slide", in this case).
For an example of how she deals with the allusions, consider, for example, (part of) this footnote from scene 32, glossing: "The grand secretaries Gao Hongtu and Jiang Yueguang showed partiality toward the treasonous faction. Both have been dismissed from office" (內閣高弘圖、姜曰廣，左袒逆黨，俱已罷職了。):
"Showed partiality" is literally "bared their left side." After Empress Lü's death (180 BCE) , the commander Zhou Bo tried to gauge support for her family by issuing an order in the army: "Those on Lü's side should bare their right side, those on Liu's side [that is, the Han imperial lineage] should bare their left side"There are also quite a few songs with rhyming lines, and Li does make an effort to offer rhymes in her translations as well; occasionally these can feel strained, but Li does not force the issue too much, and for the most part her efforts work well enough. (The Chen/Acton translation also takes stabs at rhyming, but there's less follow-through there.) For one example, consider the translation of:
他降字兒橫胸，守字兒難成；這揚州剩了一分景。Li has it as:
Displayed on their chests is the word "surrender"(A footnote here also explains:
What room is there to write the word "defender" ?
Yangzhou is left with a mere fraction of its splendor.
"A mere fraction" is literally "one portion," alluding to these lines in "Remembering Yangzhou" 憶揚州, by the Tang poet Xu Ning 憶揚州 (early 9th cent.): "If the beauty of a moonlit night in the world has three portions, / Two portions, bringing such tenderness and regret, are in Yangzhou." 天下三分眀月夜，二分無賴是揚州.)Meanwhile, the Chen/Acton translation takes the obvious rhyme-opportunity but leaves it at that:
If the word "surrender"Of particular note and interest are also those 'eyebrow comments' that Li includes. While sometimes simplistic -- "Good plot detail" -- or also overly enthusiastic -- "His wit takes off by responding to the situation. Marvelous ! Marvelous !" -- they also offer insights perhaps otherwise lost or overlooked by (especially just-English-speaking) readers, such as regarding one song sequence:
Blocks the word "defender,"
Then Yangchow has few moments left.
Every word and every line possesses the sonorous music of string and wind instruments. The five arias have a coherent order, describing the mind going over past and present, causes and consequences.And some are simply enjoyable reader-reactions, as when a servant jokes about Ruan Dacheng regarding "Softness in the crotch patch" ("Let me touch it to see if it's soft or not"), which Li footnotes:
Ruan's surname is homophonous with a word that means soft. Cf. scene 5, n. 33. EC: "These casual jabs conveying mockery and disdain are very satisfying."Indeed.
The companion website also has additional material that is of interest, though the presentation could certainly use some work .....
Early on, in scene 10, Hou Fangyu looks forward to hearing storyteller Liu Jingting entertain them -- and entertainment is all he's after: "It doesn't matter which dynasty -- just pick something with a lot of exciting action and heroic gusto" (不拘何朝，你只揀著熱鬧爽快的，說一回罷) he tells the raconteur. Liu Jingting however suggests that (especially in the current circumstances ...):
Don't you know, sir, that exciting action is only the roots and shoots of cold desolation, and that heroic gusto is merely the branches and leaves of tiresome entanglements ? It would be better to tell a few stories about the remnants of a broken country or the passions and despair of a few unaccommodated men, so we can shed a few tears.This latter approach sums up The Peach Blossom Fan as a whole well -- though the play offers and weaves together more than just 'a few stories'. (The passage also suggests why Li's translation may be preferable to the Chen/Acton one, which has here for the first part the rather uninspired: "You may not realize that excitement produces depression. Pleasant events are mingled with unpleasant".)
相公不知，那熱鬧局就是冷淡的根芽，爽快事就是牽纏的枝葉。倒不如把些剩水殘山，孤臣孽子，講他幾句，大家滴些眼淚罷。
In the 'additional scene' 21 the Ritual Master is back on stage, reflecting also on theatrical presentation and performance, and among his observations is: "Fine writing proves false, / Glorious triumphs are but a farce" (文章假，功業諢) and while Kong Shangren's great literary skills are certainly in evidence, The Peach Blossom Fan is far from merely prettified 'fine writing'; more significantly, the focus of the play is not on 'glorious triumphs'. In this history of the times, presenting the actions of many of the significant personalities that shaped them, Kong Shangren offers a rawer, darker, panoramic picture -- without neglecting basics of suspense, entertainment, and romance. It does come close to the ideal that the Ritual Master also suggests:
In yesteryear reality was a play;The sheer amount of material covered in the play -- itself considerably longer than plays generally are -- and the many allusions and references make for a text that is difficult to fully come to grips with. (Beyond what I've discussed here, there's also the fact that much of the play is sung, to traditional tunes, another layer to the play (and, especially, its performance).) This edition is very helpful in guiding readers through the allusive (and other) thickets -- but all the paratextual material admittedly also can make it difficult to simply 'read' the play through; those new to The Peach Blossom Fan might prefer starting out with the Chen/Acton translation, which is certainly adequate and comes with less distractions. For more serious study, necessary for any better understanding of this amazing work, this is certainly the version to tackle.
Now the play is just like reality.
當年真是戲，今日戲如真。
The Peach Blossom Fan is a work that deserves and rewards a more thorough reading, and this edition facilitates that. Perhaps too weighty, with all its frills (not least, the original Chinese text), for the entirely casual reader, anyone who wants to engage at all more seriously with this Chinese classic will be well-served (and even readers without much background in classical Chinese literature shouldn't be scared off by the perhaps-scholarly appearance of this edition; it really is perfectly approachable).
- M.A.Orthofer, 5 March 2025
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The Peach Blossom Fan:
- Oxford University Press publicity page
- Companion website
- The Peach Blossom Fan (tr. Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton)
- See Index of Drama books
- See Index of Chinese literature
- See Index of Bilingual editions under review
- See Index of Books Written Before 1900
- See Index of books with multiple translations under review
- Other books in the Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature
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Chinese scholar Kong Shangren (孔尚任; K'ung Shang-jen) lived 1648 to 1718.
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© 2025 the complete review
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