The Peach Blossom Fan

The Season of Love Within a Human Heart

is as Brief as Spring Upon the Earth

This paper will analyze a scene from the play The Peach Blossom Fan (1699) by K'ung Shang Fen (1648-1718). Specifically this will be a scene from the beginning of the play, Part 1, Scene 1, The Storyteller. There will first be a brief summary of the play then a discussion as to how this particular scene fits within the rest of the play. There will then be a discussion on the historical context of the play, its author, and the scene, followed, finally, by an analysis of the scene itself, and a conclusion.

The play, The Peach Blossom Fan, is a love story that also outlines the history of the downfall of the Ming Dynasty as well as the brief existence and downfall of the southern regime of the Ming prince Fu (Lawall 72). The principal characters are Hou Fang-Yu and Fragrant Princess. Hou, a scholar, and Fragrant Princess, a young and accomplished courtesan famous for her beauty and grace, fell in love with each other on first sight. A third major character, Yang Wen-Ts'ung, provides momentum for the story as he both brings together and then pulls apart the two lovers (73). The fan in questions is a present from Hou to Fragrant Princess on their wedding night; he has written her a poem on it. It is the only gift she would accept from him since the other gifts given were paid for by Juan Ta-Ch'eng, suspected of being a traitor, who tried to win Hou's favor by

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s as a bookend to final scene at the end of the play as it refers to the "Dragon King" and the "Phoenix flutes" at in Liu's song at the beginning - referring to the relationship between a man and a woman - and Chang's song at the end, which exhorts the young lovers: Root out passion From these descendents of the dragon and the phoenix. Life is brief as bubble of foam, Short as spark, struck from stone. Let them spend their remnant years Following our doctrine (K'ung Shang-Jen Scene 40, lines 305-312). Historical Context of Play and Scene Historically speaking, the play was written during the Qing Dynasty (1699), but takes place about 50 years before the time period in which it was written, during the Ming Dynasty. According to Lawall, this was highly unusual, as plays tended to be safely placed centuries away from any current political intrigue (72). However, while this is a relatively contemporary play, it has definite traditional forms dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty. As Ebrey has noted, it was during the Tang Dynasty (581-907) when the arts, literature, and other sophisticated modes of learning and communication began to be more prevalent and carry more weight than the previously important warrior mentality

Category: Literature - T