Who Is Fragrance in Peony Pavilion.
The beginning: A Story About Smell and Fate Have you ever read a story that was so deep and beautiful that it stuck with you for a long time?
One of these stories is Peony Pavilion, A Chinese famous book that was written by Tang Xianzu more than 400 years ago. A simple but powerful question is asked in the play:
Who is “fragrance” in Peony Pavilion? The play is known for its dreamy scenes, beautiful language, and moving characters.
Fragrance is more than just smells in this story. It turns into a sign of feelings, fate, and love that lasts. A young woman named Du Liniang is in the middle.
Her trip is as delicate, sweet, and memorable as the smell of flowers. Find out what smell really means and why Du Liniang is the most important person in this story.
Setting the Scene: The World of Peony Pavilion:
First, let’s go back to the time and place where Peony Pavilion was made. Tang Xianzu wrote this Kunqu opera in the late Ming kingdom, around 1598.
Kunqu opera is a style of Chinese theater that is known for its beauty, singing, and artistic moments.
The story takes place mostly in a garden and has scenes of dreams, death, and rebirth that flow into each other.
The peony flower is a strong sign in Chinese society. This word means beauty, love, and royalty. There are peonies in the scenery,
The clothes, the words, and even the symbols. But the word “fragrance” in the title takes us further than just the smell of the flower. It takes us to a deeper level of knowledge of love.
Meet “living fragrance” Du Liniang.
The main character is Du Liniang, who is also known as “fragrance.” She comes from a rich family and is eager to learn about the world.
She smells like the play because of these things: Dreams and Waking Up Liniang walks into a flower-filled yard one day.
She sees a figure, falls asleep, and has a very real dream. A beautiful young guy named Liu Mengmei meets.
Her in her dream, and she falls in love with him right away, even though they have never met. She can’t catch her breath because of how strong their love is.
Love More Than Reason When she wakes up, everything seems dull. She knows a lot about Liu Mengmei, but she can’t remember his name.
It hurts her heart. She feels so weak and sick because of how strong the feeling is. This illness affects more than just the body.
Her love for someone she met in a dream starts to fade away. Fragrance as Light Inside
A smell is often a symbol of inner traits in Chinese art,
Like ease, kindness, and spiritual beauty. Why do we like Du Liniang so much? Because of her smell. Her heart stays strong even.
when she is sick. She is more than just pretty. She is the sweetness of desire, the purity of true feeling, and the strength to follow her heart.
Fragrance in Symbolism: More Than Just a Nice Smell
In Peony Pavilion, smells are more than just pleasant; they have value. a. Smell = Inside World
Fragrance is like a secret field for your soul,
Where your hopes, dreams, and inner ideas grow. It’s not just physical love that Du Liniang feels in her dream.
She finds a part of herself she didn’t know existed: the desire to love deeply, regardless of what her family or society says is right.
Smell = Freedom of Expression It’s safer and more open in Liniang’s yard than in the strict world outside. That garden is where her scent grows.
That’s the part of her that wants to be free to love deeply, worry, and feel. Her family wants her to get married well and follow the rules,
But she can’t hide how she really feels. Scent = New Life and Love That Lasts Forever Even after she dies from wanting Liu Mengmei,
Her spirit won’t go away. She comes back to Liu in his dreams, and her scent is still in the yard and in his heart. She comes back to life when.
Liu finds her grave and tells her he loves her. Her scent makes her feel better, and it connects her to life after death.
Liu Mengmei: The One Who Keeps Her Scent
The young scholar Liu Mengmei who shows up in Liniang’s dream is the next person we meet. In a quiet, polite way, Liu is interested in Liniang.
He doesn’t just want to marry her; he wants to know her mind and respect her heart. He feels her very much when he finds her tomb and reads her poem.
It’s like she is there with him. “Her scent drifts to me across time,” he says. Liu goes to the temple and begs and prays to the gods until Liniang comes back.
This is love that won’t let go. In this place, scents connect spirits, bringing dreams to life.
Cultural Diversity: Why Smell Is Important
Let’s look at how Chinese ideas of love and beauty are linked to scents. Order from Confucius vs. Romantic Feelings.
In the Confucian world, young women had responsibilities like family, marriage, and work. On the other hand, love breaks that order in Peony Pavilion.
A wonderful, unrestrained smell like fragrance becomes a sign of feelings that don’t follow the rules. People are moved by Du Liniang’s love to think about.
What is more important: duty or desire. Literary History Tang Xianzu got ideas from writers who came before him, like Li Bai and Du Fu.
He used vivid images, strong emotions, and words that made you feel things. Tang’s works are full of scents because he thought that real life affected people on.
A physical, mental, and even spiritual level. In Peony Pavilion, smell is a way to get to deeper thoughts.
Beauty for the stage Kunqu has style and poetry. Both the music and the dance are slow and emotional. The scent is just right.
The singers make the smell come alive, even if there isn’t a real one in the room. The viewers can “smell” the feelings.
It makes you think, not literally. It keeps you thinking about the play long after the curtain falls.
Why scents are still important today
You might be wondering if an opera from 400 years ago is still important. Of course. Feelings Everyone Has.
Over time, things like love, hunger, and fantasy have stayed the same. To this day, people still understand and feel Liniang’s journey from reality to dream,
Her pain, and her bravery to love without fear. Voice of a Woman She says what she thinks. Sleep makes her feel bad, and she wants those feelings to last.
Even after she dies. In a world where women didn’t have many words, she found one that stood out: smell. She said, “How I feel is important.”
Cultural Beauty That Passes Every year, Peony Pavilion is put on dozens of times in China and other places around the world.
Its dreams reach new people through translation and movies. What’s left? A smell that makes you feel something and doesn’t change over time.
A Quick Walk Through the Story: Smell at Work
Let’s look at how smell shows up in each of the five steps of the story.
1. Dream and Garden
One night, Du Liniang goes to sleep in a peony yard. In her dream, she meets Liu Mengmei. They fall in love right away. Smell gets stronger.
2. Waking up and getting sick
Liniang wakes up with a heart full of love that hasn’t been met. Her disease is bodily, but it has emotional roots. She keeps the scent inside her.
3. The Garden of Death
She dies because she can’t live without Liu. Still body. Love lives on, though. The smell of her fills her room and yard.
4. Liu’s Trip
When Liu gets to Du’s family farm, she reads her poem at her grave. He can smell her scent. During his prayers, he begs for help.
5. The Return of the Sweet Soul
She goes back to the temple alive. They meet in the real world. Their love, which smells wonderful, takes shape.
The poem, song, and dream live on after they get married and start a family.
What We Can Learn from the Pretty Heroine
Here are some things that current people can learn: What’s inside matters. Wants, dreams, and goals that we keep to ourselves are just as real and important.
As the rest of the world. Love changes you. Sometimes it heals you and sometimes it moves you. It has the power to mentally or spiritually wake up the “dead.”
Your story can go through time. We can still smell and hear Du Liniang’s words after many years.
The End: Fragrance as a Human Spark
Who is the person who smells good in Peony Pavilion? The girl is Du Liniang, and she is a spirit and a thinker. Her love is more than a story;
It’s a feeling that blooms like a flower. Soft, strong, and easy to remember, like a nice smell that stays with you long after the flower is gone.
This book is for people who want to read heartfelt love stories that take you to dreams or show what real love can do.
It tells us that real feelings can change the world, and a scent that lasts a short time can last a lifetime.
