The Critical Transcendence Of Tang Xianzu’s ’The Peony Pavilion’ To Wang Shifu’s ’The Romance Of The Western Chamber’

With the perspection of Harold Bloom’s ’anxiety of influence’ as a theoretical background,this paper discusses the critical transcendence of Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion over Wang Shifu’s The Romance Of The Western Chamber from three perspectives: characterisation,dramatic action and conflict,and dramatic context.In terms of characterisation,the paper focuses on the similarities and differences between the mythological archetypes of the heroine and the aesthetic perspective of truth as beauty.With regard to the evolution of the image of the divine maiden,the paper argues that the image of the divine maiden,symbolizing love and beauty,gradually diverges into two forms: moral criticism,and union with goodness within the constraints of ritual.Tang’s use of the goddess Fu Fei as the mythical prototype of Du Liniang is intended to emphasize that the resistance to reason with love is internal rather than external,and intellectual rather than physical,which transcends the physical action of Cui Yingying,whose prototype is the goddess of Gao Tang.From Yingying’s ’meeting goddess’ to Liniang’s ’portrait of the true-self’,it reflects the transformation of the image of the goddess from divinity to humanity,as well as the process of the modern literature.Tang’s focus on self-describing as a means of expressing self-recognition reflects his insight into the heart and his delicate expression of the divine,which goes beyond the realistic depiction in The Romance Of The Western Chamber.In terms of dramatic action and conflict,Tang Xianzu’s sense of transcendence of Wang Shifu’s The Romance Of The Western Chamber is discussed through the internalised nature of dramatic action and conflict.The dilution and dissolution of external action and conflict in The Peony Pavilion reflects Tang’s critique of and transcendence of the ’theory of outside form’ in The Romance Of The Western Chamber.The enrichment of psychological activity and the intensification of emotional and rational conflict reflect Tang’s concern for the inner world,especially the subconscious.In view of the obvious traces of Ming alterations and the narrative art that contradicts the lyrical character of Yuan opera,this paper argues that by going beyond The Romance Of The Western Chamber which is rewritten in Ming Dynasty,Tang actually returns to the lyrical nature of Yuan opera.In terms of the dramatic context,the main focus is on the way in which Tang Xianzu’s view of context-the situation creates emotion and the situation is made out of emotion-surpasses The Romance Of The Western Chamber.In regards of the narrative mode of ’love in spring and hatred in autumn’,Tang’s use of imagery to construct the mood transcends the way in which Wang follows the natural chronology of ’spring and autumn’.In the case of ’dreaming out of love and dreaming into drama’,the dream in The Peony Pavilion not only represents an exploration of the inner world of the characters,but is also,in a way,a continuation of Wang’s ’A Dream at Caoqiao’in The Romance Of The Western Chamber.At the same time,the composition of the dream enriches the aesthetic concept of ’sorrow as beauty’,an aesthetic ideal in the realm of musical aesthetics,and reflects Tang Xianzu’s view of theatre as fundamental to lyricism.