Description

The play Mu dan ting huan hun ji  (The peony pavilion) is by Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), a native of Linchuan, Jiangsu Province. Tang achieved the degree of jin shi in 1583 and assumed several posts, but he was demoted as a consequence of a memorial he wrote. Later reinstated as district magistrate of Shuichang, Zhejiang Province, Tang retired from this position in 1598. As a dramatist, he enjoyed great popularity, but his unpublished manuscripts were supposedly burnt by his sons. Four of his plays with the theme of dreams ...