The Peony Pavilion

by Cao Shan

Du Liniang has a dream in which she meets a young scholar and promises to marry him. When she wakes up, she yearns for her lover and falls ill; after a while she dies of lovesickness. The young scholar in her dream was Liu Mengmei, who later made his way to the capital to take the imperial examination. He meets Du Liniang's soul in Plum in Blossom Nunnery and agrees to help her return to life by reuniting her soul with her body. They are successful and live happily ever after.

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in January I decided that I should read at least one Chinese book a month and I started with this one, which I only just finished. I think it was a bit too ambitious, at least to read it that quickly (It was about 200 pages long)! The book is dual language, English and Chinese. I found I had to read the English first. The Chinese was very literary, it had a lovely style, but because of that was quite difficult. Having the English was nice though as it made it much easier to recognise the new vocabulary words, of which there were quite a few. The story of the Peony Pavilion is one of my favourites and I did quite enjoy this version of the story. Unfortunately my favourite part, Du Liniang in Helll, was only about 2 pages of the 200, in the opera it comprises a large part of the middle third. However, there was a brilliant moment when Liu Mengmei and his friend were sitting around lamenting that it was so depressing that they were so well educated and yet found it so difficult to find any work. I think part of my problem with reading this so slowly meant that the story dragged out quite a bit and I found myself getting bored, particularly as it’s a story I know so well. I think for the moment I need to stick with shorter stories. This weekend I bought 4 new Chinese language books in China town that I think will keep my interest better. I managed to read two thirds of one on Sunday afternoon. So I think those will keep me busy for the next few weeks and hopefully get me more excited about studying Chinese again.

[Redminidriver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read but a little long

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Snowflower and the Secret Fan much more. This book was ok.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unforgettable love story.