Du Liniang 杜麗娘 is the main character in Tang Xianzu’s 湯顯祖 (1550-1616) famous romantic tragicomedy play Mudan ting 牡丹亭 [The Peony Pavilion]. The story describes how a 16-year-old gentry woman Du Liniang in her dream meets a handsome literati Liu Mengmei 柳夢梅 in the garden, falls in love and makes love with him, and wakes up and dies of this love. Later in the story, Liu Mengmei reunites with Du Liniang guided by her portrait, and they ends up as a happy married couple. Here, Du Liniang’s romantic relationship (and probably the erotic practices) highly coincides with Su Yingxue’s dream of Huangfu Shaohua.
Language and Culture Center (LCC) at Duke Kunshan University
