Story summary
Samenvatting van Het pioenpaviljoen
- 9 min. leestijd
- 8 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A stranger appears in a governor's daughter's garden dream, and the vision continues to haunt her.
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Het pioenpaviljoen in het kort
Samenvatting: 9 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 3 h 45 min2 h 55 min fast, 4 h 25 min slow
- Lengte
- 53.000 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1598by Tang Xianzu
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Het pioenpaviljoen in short
The Peony Pavilion tells of two young people who love before they meet. Du Liniang, a governor's daughter, dreams of a scholar in the garden and pines away. Liu Mengmei, a poor scholar, dreams of a woman beneath a plum and later finds her portrait.
What Het pioenpaviljoen is about
What if a dream were so strong that a young woman wastes away for the man she met in it, and so strong that the man, who has never met her, hears her call? That is the question behind The Peony Pavilion, a Chinese opera by Tang Xianzu, who died in 1616.
It follows Du Liniang, a governor's sheltered daughter, and Liu Mengmei, a poor scholar who has also dreamed of a woman beneath a plum tree. The author says that feeling comes from nowhere and runs deep, and that true love must reach across life and death. You follow the story from the first dream to the ghostly vow.
Voor wie is het?. This is for readers who love romance with a touch of the supernatural, theatre built from songs and sharp comedy, and anyone curious about classical Chinese drama.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Two dreamers wait at opposite ends of China
The opera opens with a short song that gives the plot in outline, in the old manner of Chinese theatre. Then Liu Mengmei speaks for himself. He is a scholar from a once-famous family who lives in the far south near Canton. He is clever, he is poor, and he is past twenty with no career.
His parents are gone. He studies hard and dreams of the imperial examinations. Then he tells of a dream. In it he entered a garden, where a beautiful woman stood under a plum tree and told him that meeting her would bring marriage and success. Because of this dream, he changed his name to Mengmei, which means dreaming of the plum.
Far away in Nan'an, the governor Du Bao runs his district with a firm and kindly hand. He has one daughter, Du Liniang, and no son. Neither young person knows the other exists. Each is shut in by circumstance, he by poverty and she by rank and rules. Before the lovers ever meet, the play shows that the pull between them comes from something deeper than looks or letters. It gives that something the name feeling.
The story begins with two people who are ready to love long before love arrives.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
A strict tutor cannot keep the spring out
Du Bao decides that his daughter must be properly educated, and so he hires an old village scholar named Chen Zuiliang.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
In the garden, a dream changes her life
One fine morning Liniang dresses with care and, with Chunxiang beside her, walks into the garden for the first time.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
Longing makes her paint herself and fade
Liniang can no longer eat or sleep.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
A poor scholar meets a face in a painting
Meanwhile Liu Mengmei struggles on.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
A ghost comes to him and swears a vow
The scene shifts to the underworld.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
Feeling against reason: what the opera argues
The author's preface sets out the theme.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
Songs, borrowed poems and a mix of moods
The Peony Pavilion is built in fifty-five scenes, and it was written to be sung.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Du Liniang A governor's sixteen-year-old daughter, raised behind walls, who longs for a love she has only dreamed and is ready to risk everything for it.
- Liu Mengmei A gifted but poor scholar from the far south who dreams of a woman under a plum tree and wants fame and a bride.
- Chunxiang Liniang's quick-witted maid, who sneaks her mistress toward the garden and stays loyal to her through every trouble.
- Du Bao The governor of Nan'an, a upright official and devoted father who trusts rules and reason, and who is soon called to defend the frontier.
- Madam Zhen Du Bao's wife, who loves her only daughter deeply and blames the maid when the girl falls ill.
- Chen Zuiliang The old scholar and doctor hired as tutor, fussy and funny, who teaches Liniang and also seeks income, patronage and advancement.
- Nun Stone A Taoist nun who keeps the shrine for Liniang and who helps the young scholar for her own reasons.
- The Judge of the Underworld A stern but fair official of the dead who looks up Liniang's fate and lets her walk among the living.
How it ends (spoiler)
Liu Mengmei and the nun open the grave, and Liniang returns to life. The couple marry and hurry to the capital, where Liu wins first place in the examinations. Du Bao, having defeated the rebels, refuses to believe his daughter lives and has Liu beaten. At last the emperor himself hears the case. The court tests Liniang with a mirror and finds she is human. The emperor orders the family reunited, and Du Bao accepts the marriage.
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Vragen over Het pioenpaviljoen
What is The Peony Pavilion about?
It follows Du Liniang, a governor's daughter, who falls in love with a scholar she has only dreamed of, and Liu Mengmei, who falls for her portrait. Their love crosses the line between the living and the dead.
Who wrote The Peony Pavilion and when?
It was written by the Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, who died in 1616. He wrote it in the late Ming dynasty, and the preface in the text is dated to an autumn in the Wanli reign.
What does the peony pavilion stand for?
The pavilion is the garden spot where Liniang and the scholar consummate their love in her dream. It marks the place where desire begins, and the play returns to it again and again.
Is The Peony Pavilion a true story?
No, it is a made-up tale. The author says in his preface that he took the idea from older stories of ghostly lovers and changed them into his own opera.
Why are the plum and the willow so important?
They match the two lovers' names, since Liu means willow and Mengmei means dreaming of the plum. Liniang's poem about finding a husband not beside the plum but beside the willow ties them together.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Tang, Xianzu. The Peony Pavilion. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-peony-pavilion.
Tang, X. (2026). The peony pavilion. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-peony-pavilion (Original work published 1598)
Tang, Xianzu. The Peony Pavilion. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-peony-pavilion.
@book{tang2026peony,
author = {Tang, Xianzu},
title = {The Peony Pavilion},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-peony-pavilion},
note = {First published 1598}
}
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