This discussion focuses on a tragic heroine Du Liniang in the novel The Peony Pavilion(1598) written by Tang Xuanzu (1550-1616). For several centuries from the Ming and to the Qing dynasty, The Peony Pavilion moved many readers and audiences for many years, particularly female audiences at the final scene when they learned about the tragic fate of Du Liniang. In this presentation, Professor Zou will delve into Du Liniang’s character, a woman who lived under the extremely strict constraint on her living space and spiritual world, both from ideological pressure and constraints on her body. Professor Zou explained that Du Liniang is not a “being” because she is alienated from the real word until she enters a condition of boundless life (death) and starts to have a song of her own, a song that signifies “being.”

*Image: Du Liniang and her “being” in three zones

Biography

ZOU Yuanjiang is Professor of Philosophy and a supervisor of doctoral degree candidates at Wuhan University. Professor Zou is the director of the Chinese Aesthetic Society; President of the Hubei Academy of Aesthetics; Chinese Opera Society Executive Director; Vice President of Tang Xianzu Research Association; and Tang Xianzu Research editor in chief. He has published more than 150 papers in leading journals and a number of monographs, including Emotion and Dream in Tang Xianzu, and Aesthetic System of Mei Lanfang’s Acting. He has received central government grants to lead four research projects, and has been invited to give lectures in Leeds University, Newcastle University, Aberdeen University , University of London SOAS, Paris Diderot University, University of Paris West Nanterre La Défense, University of Franche-Comté, University of Trier, University of Bonn and Waseda University in Japan.