{"product_id":"the-peony-pavilion","title":"The Peony Pavilion","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat if a dream awakens a love that the waking world has no place for?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Tang Xianzu’s Chinese opera The Peony Pavilion, Du Liniang grows up under the rules of her father, the strict official Du Bao. A garden visit with her lively maid, Spring Fragrance, awakens her senses. Then a dream brings a love she cannot dismiss when ordinary life returns.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLiniang longs to recover the young man and the feeling her dream reveals. Meanwhile, the scholar Liu Mengmei’s path draws him toward her world. Through garden scenes, songs, ghosts, and family conflict, this romance asks whether private desire can claim a place against public duty—and challenges the boundary between life and death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat you'll discover\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA garden of awakening\u003c\/strong\u003e – Flowers and spring weather stir Liniang’s awareness of beauty, desire, and passing time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA daughter beyond duty\u003c\/strong\u003e – Follow a sheltered young woman whose longing reaches beyond the life her education prepares her for.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLove before waking life\u003c\/strong\u003e – Liniang and Liu Mengmei’s connection asks whether feeling can be true before ordinary life allows it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSongs beside sorrow\u003c\/strong\u003e – Songs carry feelings ordinary speech cannot settle, while comic passages interrupt the sorrow.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA world beyond rules\u003c\/strong\u003e – Servants, officials, religious figures, and supernatural powers surround a deeply personal struggle over love.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerfect for readers drawn to dreamlike love stories, outspoken heroines, and supernatural drama, where private longing meets public conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen the first page now, and follow Liniang into the garden where her world begins to change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of Alexandria Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59534761427292,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1027\/9442\/8764\/files\/07266_en_ebook-front_c27.jpg?v=1792175186","url":"https:\/\/libraryofalexandria.com\/products\/the-peony-pavilion","provider":"The Library of Alexandria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}