Annotated Translation of Peach Blossom Fan (1699), a Classic of the Chinese Stage written by Kong Shangren

FAIN: FEL-282569-22

Wai-Yee Li
President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA 02138-3800)

Preparation of a scholarly translation into English of the Chinese play Peach Blossom Fan (c. 1699) by Kong Shangren, together with explanatory notes. 

Peach Blossom Fan (44 scenes, completed ca. 1699) by Kong Shangren is one of the most important plays in the Chinese tradition. The central dramatic action ties a scholar-courtesan romance to the events marking the fall of the Ming dynasty (1643-1645). The balance and tension between nostalgia and critical judgment sustain probing reflections on the intersections of self and role, reality and illusion, fact and fiction, history and literature. Historical retrospection on a specific period thus leads to the exploration of perennial and universal questions and establishes Peach Blossom Fan as a masterpiece of world literature. The current English translation (1976) takes considerable liberty with the original, contains numerous errors, and has only perfunctory notes. I will produce a new annotated translation that explains historical and literary allusions, includes the paratextual materials from the 1708 edition, and introduces each scene with a brief guide (150-250 words).