The Peach Blossom Fan
Kong Shangren author Wai-yee Li translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:31st Jan '25
Should be back in stock very soon
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.
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). * The Complete Review *
Offers contemporary readers extensive historical context and cleaner, simpler verses, opening the door to a broader audience.... Li's verses are sharper, neater in the picture they paint, and undeniably smoother on the tongue. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
The combination of Kong's narrative momentum, the variety of his characters and the felicity of Li's translation all combined to make this initially daunting work as accessible as a good historical novel…. The Hsu-Tang Library should also be acknowledged as a rare instance in contemporary publishing where the evident care that goes into the contents is matched by the care taken with the presentation. Li's Peach Blossom Fan offers an opportunity for a reviewer to extol the book at hand as a physical object: in this case, a triple-decker hardcover that is so well constructed you can read it standing up on mass transit, and one graced moreover with an elegant typeface and layout and, like all the other titles in the series, a beautiful cobalt blue dust jacket. * Cha Review of Books and Films *
The new 2024 translation by Wai-yee Li, under the banner of Oxford University Press and part of The Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature, offers contemporary readers extensive historical context and cleaner, simpler verses, opening the door to a broader audience. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Wai-yee Li's translation is impressive and useful in this dual-text edition. It reads well. * Times Literary Supplement *
ISBN: 9780197668689
Dimensions: 242mm x 164mm x 64mm
Weight: 1266g
864 pages