Tang Xianzu

Tang Xianzu (1550–1616) was a dramatist and man of letters of the Ming dynasty, a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi. His courtesy name was Yireng, and he styled himself Hairuo and Ruoshi, also using the alias Qingyuan Daoren. He passed the metropolitan examination during the Wanli reign, served as magistrate of Suichang, and later resigned to return home and devote himself to writing. His plays The Purple Hairpin, The Peony Pavilion, A Dream under the Southern Bough, and The Handan Dream are collectively known as the Four Dreams of Linchuan, among which The Peony Pavilion is the most celebrated. It tells of the death-defying love between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei in graceful language and deep feeling, and has long flourished on the stage. Drawing on traditional stories while striking out in new directions, his plays take qing, or feeling, as their core and blend literati refinement with popular theatrical tradition, exerting a profound influence on later drama; he is thus known as the “Shakespeare of the East.” The library holds 22 of his works, including several editions of The Peony Pavilion and the chuanqi plays collected in Sixty Plays.