Tang Xianzu
| Tang Xianzu | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 湯顯祖 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 汤显祖 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tang Xianzu (traditional Chinese: 湯顯祖; simplified Chinese: 汤显祖; September 24, 1550 – July 29, 1616), courtesy name Yireng (義仍), was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty.
Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level positions. He successfully participated in the Provincial examinations at the age of 21 and at the imperial examinations at the age of 34. He held official positions in Nanjing, Zhejiang province, Guangdong province etc.. He retired in 1598 and returned to his hometown where he focused on writing.
His major plays are collectively called the Four Dreams, because of the decisive role dreams play in the plot of each one. All of them are still performed (in scenes, or in adapted full versions) on the Chinese Kun opera (kunqu) stage. Generally considered his masterpiece, the Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion) has been translated into English several times; each of the other plays has been translated once.
Works
- The Purple Flute (Chinese: 紫簫記; pinyin: Zǐxiāo Jì)
- The Purple Hairpin (Chinese: 紫釵記; pinyin: Zǐchāi Jì), see 紫釵記 (粵劇) by Tong Dick-san (唐滌生)
- The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: Mǔdān Tíng)
- Record of Handan (Chinese: 邯鄲記; pinyin: Hándān Jì)
- Record of Southern Bough (Chinese: 南柯記; pinyin: Nánkē Jì)
Works available in English
- The Peony Pavilion (trans. Cyril Birch). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
- The Peony Pavilion (trans. Wang Rongpei). Changsha: Hunan People's Press, 2000.
- A Dream Under the Southern Bough (trans. Zhang Guangqian). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003. ISBN 7-119-03270-4.
- The Handan Dream (trans. Wang Rongpei). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003.
Studies available in English
- Peony Pavilion Onstage : Four Centuries in the Career of a Chinese Drama (Catherine Swatek). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Chinese, 2003.
References
- Xu, Shuofang, "Tang Xianzu". Encyclopedia of China (Music and Dance Edition), 1st ed.
Further reading
- Owen, Stephen, "Tang Xian-zu, Peony Pavilion: Selected Acts," in Stephen Owen, ed. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. p. 880-906 (Archive).