’s Peony Pavilion – Intertextuality of its Related Texts

Yow Tsz Chung

In 1598, Tang Xianzu, a renowned playwright in the of , has written one of his masterpieces, “” (Mu Dan Ting or 牡丹亭). Peonies have particular implications in the Chinese context. Poems have used peonies very often. In simile, metaphor, or metonymy, peonies have become a sign of beauty and love. The Peony Pavilion is no exception. It talks about how two young lovers, and Liu Mengmei, transcend life and death barriers to pursue their love (Tang, 1886). “Peony” symbolizes the beautiful girl Du Liniang and their passion. What’s more, it may have implied the relationship between beauty and death.

It is common to see novels and films to relate beauty to danger or death. In “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber” (Yi Tian Tu Long Ji or 倚天屠龍記), a famous novel by Louis Cha (1998), Yin Susu used her last words in her life to remind his son Zhang Wuji, who is the main character, that the more beautiful a woman is, the less she could be trusted. In “American Beauty,” a film directed by Sam Mendes (1999), Lester, the main character, usually has sexual imaginations of his daughter’s classmate. In his mind, the girl is covered by lots of rose petals. The same girl has indirectly got him killed. Roses look sharper and more dangerous than peonies in color, but peonies are no less deadly. In “The Peony Pavilion,” Du Liniang died longing for the man she met in the garden. To her, the handsome man is as fatal as he is desirable that one saying in the text goes “death beneath peonies makes a ghost merry” (Mu Dan Hua Xia Si Zuo Gui Ye Feng Liu or 牡丹花下死 做鬼也風流) (Tang, 1886). It sounds romantic, but it is more or less horrific and tragic. It is as horrific as a Japanese soldier cutting himself to death with a Japanese sword and as tragic as Fleur, played by Anita Mui, coming back as a ghost to look for her lover in “Rouge” (Kwan, 2006). Nonetheless, Japanese soldiers refer to Cherry Blossoms or Sakura, instead of peonies, when they end their lives. Sakura is stunning when it blossoms, but it could not last long. Again, beauty and death seem to be twins, as implied by peonies.

1

We have only discussed the name of this Tang Xianzu’s work by now, but we could already observe some enjoyable meanings from it. Being called “The of Chinese Drama” (Cheng, 2020), Tang Xianzu’s “The Peony Pavilion” has become a significant literary artwork even today in the 21st century. Texts adapting “The Peony Pavilion” have appeared on books and big silver screens. The definition of “texts” in this paper goes beyond written texts, implying all sorts of artistic works that contain words, such as songs, operas, films, and novels. All these texts pose significant questions we could ask. For example, how are these texts referring to and not referring to the original text written by Tang Xianzu? After hundreds of years, how does “The Peony Pavilion” evolve? How do the texts adapting “The Peony Pavilion” develop? All these questions could be deduced by one, which this paper will address: What could we find on the intertextuality of the related texts of “The Peony Pavilion”?

To begin with, we should understand what intertextuality is and how it could be applied to our comparisons of various texts. Intertextuality is a concept first raised by Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-French philosopher (Kristeva, 1980). Kristeva (1980) thinks it is impossible to create a text without being affected by existing texts. Therefore, the authors must have either intentionally or unintentionally included other texts when writing their own. The readers of the texts are the same. They could not exclude their experience, knowledge, and perception when reading new texts. As a result, any single text becomes “a permutation of texts” (Kristeva, 1980). It implies that the meaning of a text will change because of two reasons. First, there will be new texts, embodying new meanings, produced over time. Second, the intention and interpretation of existing texts will change over time, along with the “on-going cultural and social processes” (Simandan, 2010). For example, under the COVID-19 situation, new films and articles related to the pandemic are emerging in large numbers. Meanwhile, if we read “The Plague,” written by Albert Camus in 1947, we may now have different understandings or stronger emotions towards the story, given what we have just experienced and learned from the latest conflict in public health. If “any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations, and any text is the absorption and transformation of another” (Kristeva, 1980), this paper will attempt to present a mosaic of “The Peony Pavilion.” From to films, from music to words, from the past to the present, from mainland China to Taiwan, from scripts to novels, from the 16th century to the 21st century, “The Peony Pavilion” has sparked new texts, provides the best illustration of intertextuality.

2

One of the most vivid examples of intertextuality could be found in written works. Pai Hsien- yung, a renowned Taiwanese writer, has written a short novel namely “Walking in a Garden and Waking from a Dream” (You Yuan Jing Meng or 遊園驚夢). This name is originated from the Kunqu (崑曲) version of “The Peony Pavilion.” The novel took the title and quoted some of the lines from “The Peony Pavilion” by Tang Xianzu. Using direct quotations is the most straightforward form of intertextuality. “Garden” and “Dream” are the two elements that appear in both Pai’s and Tang’s texts. In Tang’s script, they refer to the main character, Du Liniang, taking a walk in her backyard garden, and dreaming of her lover after returning to her room (Tang, 1886). In Pai’s novel, he cleverly changed the setting to a banquet taken place in . The “garden” refers to the venue, a grand villa (Gong Guan or 公館) where the main character Lan Tianyu visited and “dreamed” of her past (Pai, 1985). This title used by Pai has two layers of intertextuality. First, it concludes the main plots of the story about the garden and the dream, which refers to the literal meanings of the four Chinese characters “遊園驚夢.” Second, it refers to “遊園驚夢” as a piece of Kunqu, the song that Lan Tianyu sang to earn her husband and the same song Lan Tianyu was asked to sing in the banquet. Furthermore, some lines of “The Peony Pavilion” are directly quoted by Pai (1985) through the mouth of Lan Tianyu, such as below:

Flowers blossom with wells rotten and walls fallen.

Pleasant view but loneliness kills, no one enjoying in this field!

(Yuan Lai Cha Zi Yan Hong Kai Bian Si Zhe Ban Dou Fu Yu Duan Jing Tui Yuan

Liang Chen Mei Jing Nai He Tian Bian Shang Xin Le Shi Shei Jia Yuan

or 原來姹紫嫣紅開遍 似這般都付與斷井頹垣

良辰美景奈何天 便賞心樂事誰家院

Originally in “The Peony Pavilion,” these lines were sung by Du Liniang to express her pessimistic attitude towards the beautiful flowers in her garden. All the blossoming flowers

3

were supposed to be pleasing. However, she noticed the negative side of the view that the wells and walls surrounding these flowers are not lively (Tang, 1886). It is a metaphor to show her situation that she is beautiful, young, and longing for love but trapped by her family at her home. Lan Tianyu in Pai’s novel also experienced a similar struggle. Briefly speaking, she married a man she does not love. By the time she was attending the banquet, she was already old and impassioned when the novel had started. Her face dimmed, and her fame faded. All she could do was to stand aside and watch other young ladies splurge their youth (Pai, 1985). Pai (1985) even wrote that these two lyrics are aphorisms (Jing Ju or 警句). Who is to be warned? Not Lan Tianyu; it was too late for her to seize her beauty. The sign that beautiful things do not last is not new in . “The lament” (Li Sao or 離騷) is one of the greatest poems in ancient China. One of the lines goes “as plants wither, beauties age” (Wei Cao Mu Zhi Ling Luo Xi Kong Mei Ren Zhi Chi Mu or 惟草木之零落兮 恐美人之遲暮) (Xiao, 1989). A song in “Dream of the Red Chamber” (Hong Lou Meng or 紅樓夢) delivers a similar reminder to all “sentient beings” (Zhong Sheng or 眾生):

Rouge and gouache do not stop hair from turning gray.

Bones being buried yesterday do not bother young lovers today!

(Shuo Shen Me Zhi Zheng Nong Fen Zheng Xiang Ru He Liang Bing You Cheng Shuang

Zuo Ri Huang Tu Long Tou Mai Bai Gu Jin Xiao Hong Xiao Zhang Di Wo Yuan Yang

or 說甚麼脂正濃 粉正香 如何兩鬢又成霜

昨日黃土隴頭埋白骨 今宵紅綃帳底臥鴛鴦 (Cao, 1995)

What we pursue so hard may end up in vain, a Buddhist point of viewing life. So far, what we have discussed is personal. Nevertheless, if we look into Pai’s novel to a broader extent, he has applied this conflict of the past and present in the rise and fall of “Kuomintang” (Guo Min Dang or 國民黨), the ruling party of mainland China before 1949. Pai Hsien-yung’s father is a veteran in the Kuomintang who served for many years and won many wars for the party and the country. Pai has a strong feeling towards his father and that era of turmoil. That is why he

4

has also written a book narrating his father and that part of history (Pai, 2012). Pai has complied his “遊園驚夢, together with his other short novels, into a book called “Taipei People” (Tai Bei Ren or 台北人). The entire “Taipei People” talks about the struggle of those who move from mainland China to Taipei after the Chinese civil war. Lan Tianyu is one of them. Her husband, Qian Pengzhi, was a senior general of Kuomintang, who died after the war. Along with her husband’s death, Lan’s social status and wealth disappeared, marking Kuomintang’s loss and the sorrow of these “Taipei people” (Pai, 1985).

On top of the political implication, a famous Taiwanese critic, Ouyang Tzu (1976), has pointed out that Pai also tried to imply the fall of Kunqu, or even traditional Chinese culture, in his “遊 園驚夢.” In the novel, before her marriage, Lan saw her lover Zheng Yan Qing, a young and handsome lieutenant, flirt with another woman. She then suffered a heavy blow so she could not complete the line she was singing, which is “with all these sufferings, I can grumble with no one but God” (Qian Yan, Zhe Zhong Huai Na Chu Yan, Yan Jian, Po Can Sheng Chu Wen Tian or 遷延，這衷懷那處言，淹煎，潑殘生除問天). At the last Chinese character, “天,” Lan lost her voice (Pai, 1985). Ouyang (1976) considered Lan failing to finish performing this song to symbolize the valuable Kunqu culture’s halt. Also, the of Lan Tianyu is “藍田玉,” which is one of the most precious and expensive jades in China. Therefore, the downfall of “Lan Tianyu,” who represents the essence of China as “jade,” implies the disappearance of the Chinese culture, especially the culture of nobility (Ouyang, 1976). We could see how Pai Hsien-yung uses the text of “The Peony Pavilion” to achieve his implications in the personal, political and cultural aspects. By directly quoting the title and content from “Walking in a Garden and Waking from a Dream,” Pai has used the quotations as signposts to connect and highlight his ideas. As Pai (2004) revealed, he wanted his words to dance with the tempo of the captioned Kunqu, so he employed the “stream of consciousness” in writing it. How? He aimed to make the novel as beautiful to the readers as the song is to the audience.

In the two texts, we could observe that using direct quotations is the first form of intertextuality, and indirect reference is next. Other than mentioning the title and lyrics of Tang Xianzu’s work, Pai Hsien-yung has more or less referred to various artistic images portraited by Tang Xianzu in “The Peony Pavilion.” We could compare how Tang and Pai describe the nature of love. In

5

“The Peony Pavilion,” Tang celebrates the power of love and thinks that love could transcend life and death. He wrote, “Love comes from nowhere but lasts forever. Alive could die for it, and the dead could live for it. Those failing to do so is not loving to the fullest extent” (Qing Bu Zhi Suo Qi, Yi Wang Er Shen, Sheng Zhe Ke Yi Si, Si Zhe Ke Yi Sheng, Sheng Er Bu Ke Yu Si, Si Er Bu Ke Fu Sheng Zhe, Jie Fei Qing Zhi Zhi Ye or 情不知所起，一往而深，生者可 以死， 死者可以生，生而不可與死，死而不可復生者，皆非情之至也) (Tang, 1886). Similar wordings could be found in Pai’s novel. When Lan Tianyu recalled the affair with Zheng, she talked to her sister in her imagination that “But that was the only time I feel alive. You know? Sis, he is my destiny” (Ke Shi Wo Zhi Huo Guo Na Me Yi Ci, Dong Ma, Mei Zi, Ta Jiu Shi Wo De Yuan Nie Le or 可是我只活過那麼一次，懂嗎，妹子，他就是我的冤孽 了) (Pai, 1985). This dialogue in her mind shows how powerful love is to her. Again, love and life are equivalent. Without love, Lan was a “walking dead.” In “The Peony Pavilion,” Du Liniang physically died for love despite her resurrection but in Pai’s “Walking in a Garden and Waking from a Dream,” Lan Tianyu’s heart was gone (Pai, 1985; Tang, 1886). It is true that she married a man who loves her so much and gives her a fortune. Unfortunately, neither marriage nor money makes her feel alive. Of course, as the novel tells, she lost everything at last, but even before that, she psychologically died. What is common is that both of them did not doubt the power of love.

Another example of the intertextuality of the two texts is the depiction of having sex. Liu Mengmei, who is supposed to live in the Southern Song dynasty (Nan Song or 南宋) (C.E. 1127 - 1279), asked the beautiful girl he met in the garden, Du Liniang, to take her clothes off (He Ni Ba Ling Kou Song, Yi Dai Kuan or 和你把領扣鬆，衣帶寬) (Tang, 1886). It is a bold invitation to make. Nevertheless, we shall note that Liu is not a kind of rude gangsters who randomly harasses girls he runs into. Instead, he expressed his genuine admiration for Du Liniang. The reaction of Du could tell us the difference. Once she started talking to Liu, Du was “surprised and pleased” but was “too shy to respond” (Dan Zuo Jing Xi, Yu Yan You Zhi Jie or 旦作驚喜，欲言又止介) (Tang, 1886). Afterward, when Liu asked her to talk somewhere else, which more or less has a sexual implication, Du was “smiling” despite her “embarrassment” (Dan Zuo Han Xiao Bu Xing or 旦作含笑不行) (Tang, 1886). All these changes in movement were not spoken out but were supposed to be acted on stage according to the script. Even though we are not discussing the visual performance on stage yet, we could

6

still imagine the two’s harmonious atmosphere. On the other hand, Pai was also daring to attempt a literary way to describe making love. When Lan Tianyu recalled Zheng’s adorable body, the text goes, “Those tree trunks, milky and lovely, were peeling off their barks and showing the young meat naked” (Na Xie Shu Gan Zi, You Bai Jing, You Xi Hua, Yi Ceng Ceng De Shu Pi Dou Xie Diao Le, Lu Chu Li Mian Chi Luo Luo De Nen Rou Lai or 那些樹幹子， 又白淨，又細滑，一層層的樹皮都卸掉了，露出裡面赤裸裸的嫩肉來) (Pai, 1985). Pai used metonymy to represent the firm and sexy male bodies with trees. Coincidentally, in French and Spanish, the two most famous languages which give a “gender” to their nouns, the word “tree” is male or masculine (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020; Collins Dictionary, 2020). “Tree” seems to become a symbol of manly qualities. Not a single word has mentioned “sex,” but with this metonymy, readers could understand Lan Tianyu’s thirst for a muscular and young body, posing a considerable comparison between her lover Zheng and her husband, Qian.

Following the two written texts, we could now move on to compare two Kunqu performances. The first one is a Kunqu film, namely “Walking in a Garden and Waking from a Dream” (You Yuan Jing Meng or 遊園驚夢), the same name as Pai’s novel we have discussed above. This film was released in 1960, starring , arguably the most acclaimed performer in Chinese theaters. The second one is the “Youth Edition of The Peony Pavilion” (Qing Chun Ban Mu Dan Ting or 青春版牡丹亭), produced by Pai Hsien-yung in 2004, decades after the one played by Mei Lanfang. It would not be surprising that there are many changes in the audience’s preference, social values, perception towards love and sex, to name but a few. Therefore, as Kristeva (1980) raised, the new text will embody new messages over the social process. Pai’s youth edition happens to illustrative this change in terms of female status in a relationship. We have talked about a scene where Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei first met and interacted in the garden. In 1960, the focus on Du Liniang, played by Mei Lanfang, was her embarrassment. A particular shot is indicative. When Liu asked Du to “unfasten her belt” (Yi Dai Kuan or 衣帶寬), he tried to grab Du’s hands, but she dodged him swiftly (Xu Ke, 1960). Contrarily, in 2004, when Shen Fengying played Du Liniang in the same shot, she still tried to hide from the man, but the movement was much slower (Pai, 2004). It gives a feeling of dancing and cooperating with the man instead.

7

Figure 1 (Source: CUHK, iQIYI)

As shown in Figure 1, the Du Liniang on the left, played by Mei Lanfang, swung her sleeves in a flash to hide when the man almost caught her (Xu Ke, 1960). On the right, the Du Liniang, played by Shen Fengying, had started swinging her sleeves moments before the man, whose hands are still in the air, reached her (Pai, 2004). Her swing is much broader and occupied more space on the screen, which gives the audience the impression that she also has control over the situation that her hiding is not passively evoked by the man but actively dancing with the man to picture an equal relationship.

Another example to show Du Liniang’s change is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 (Source: CUHK, iQIYI)

On the left, she held her hands and glanced at Liu Mengmei while Liu was touching her and flirting with her (Xu Ke, 1960). On the right, there is a clear difference that they were both

8

gazing at the front, and Du was even holding the sleeves of Liu, showing the satisfaction and joy of having found the loved one (Pai, 2004). She was no longer only feeling shy and touched, but she was engagingly grabbing what she treasures. She altered the preconception that a noble lady must be “decent” by not being aggressive towards what she wants. These are two interesting shots that reflect what changes are taking place in our society, as intertextuality suggested, such as the rise of feminist perceptions that female should have autonomy over their bodies and emotions like male do, and they should not be ashamed for expressing themselves due to their gender (Hannem, 2012; Kristeva, 1980).

Pai Hsien-yung once revealed his idea to produce the “Youth Edition of The Peony Pavilion” is that he wants to “attract the young audience by complying with 21st century’s aesthetic” because “only by gaining popularity among the youth can Kunqu be inherited” (China Times, 2020). What is the 21st century’s “aesthetics”? The way performers talk, dance, and interact cannot go beyond the values behind it. Whether the performance is aesthetical or not depends on the audience’s subjective point of view. If the performance aligns with viewers’ values and preferences, they are more likely to find it more favorable. Therefore, what Pai said is indirectly reinforcing the effect of intertextuality.

In conclusion, we have compared and investigated various written texts and visual performances adopting “The Peony Pavilion.” In the course of the exploration, some related texts are also included to provide a broader room for interpretation even though they are not directly adopting “The Peony Pavilion.” The so-called “adoption” does not need to be black- and-white as all texts are inter-related and “permutated” (Kristeva, 1980). Hopefully, this paper has provided an insight into how intertextuality affects texts by using texts explicitly or implicitly related to “The Peony Pavilion.” The intertextuality we have discussed is not only referring but transforming and evolving among texts. What remains unchanged is the fun and joy the readers or audience could obtain through these beautiful works.

9

Reference

1. Cambridge Dictionary. (2020). Tree: Translate English to French. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-french/tree. 2. Cao, X. (1995). Dream of the Red Chamber. Shanghai: 上海人民美術出版社. 3. Cha, L. (1998). The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House. 4. Cheng, P. (2020). In pursuit of ideals and love: The William Shakespeare of Chinese drama, Tang Xianzu. Retrieved from https://www.thinkchina.sg/pursuit-ideals-and-love- william-shakespeare-chinese-drama-tang-xianzu. 5. China Times. (2020). 青春版牡丹亭 明年演回台灣. Retrieved from https://www.chinatimes.com/amp/realtimenews/20200816000387-263301. 6. Collins Dictionary. (2020). Spanish Translation of "tree": Collins English-Spanish Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english- spanish/tree. 7. Hannam, J. (2012). Feminism (1st ed., Seminar studies in history). New York: Longman. 8. Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. New York: Columbia University Press. 9. Kwan, S. (2006). Rouge. : Fortune Star Entertainment (HK) Ltd. 10. Mendes, S. (1999). American Beauty. United States: Doubleday. 11. Ouyang Tzu. (1976). 王謝堂前的燕子: 「台北人」的硏析與索隱. Taipei: 爾雅出版社. 12. Pai, H. (1985). Taipei People. Beijing: 中國友誼出版公司. 13. Pai, H. (2004). 《牡丹亭．遊園》: 滿園春色的觸動 (CUHK). Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/learn/kunqu/lecture/jZCyD/liu-mu-dan-ting-you-yuan-man- yuan-chun-se-de-chu-dong. 14. Pai, H. (2004). 第六隻手指: 白先勇散文精编. Shanghai: 文匯出版社. 15. Pai, H. (2012). 父親與民國: 白崇禧將軍身影集. Hong Kong: 天地圖書有限公司. 16. Simandan, V. M. (2010). Matrix and the Alice Books. United States: Lulu.com. 17. Tang, X. (1886). The Peony Pavilion. China: 同文書局. 18. Xiao, Y. (1989). The Lament. Taipei: 新文豐出版公司. 19. Xu, K. (1960). 《游园惊梦》 (iQIYI). Retrieved December 24, 2020, from https://www.iqiyi.com/lib/m_202235214.html?src=search.

10