Peach Blossom Fan
Comparative Essay of Asian Literature Prompt: Compare and contrast the types of love and romance as portrayed in The Peach Blossom Fan and Life of a Sensuous Woman. How do the lovers meet? What keeps them apart? How do the stories end? What do such differences say about the cultures that produced these works? In The Peach Blossom Fan, the two lovers, Hou and Li go through a difficult journey. In the beginning, Hou meets this beautiful prostitute named Li and they are eventually married. As the story progresses, Li is faced with a horrible dilemma. She is going to be forced to marry another man. In attempt to remain loyal to Hou she tries to commit suicide. She is saved by a friend, however but Hou was unaware of this. When Li tried
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One man seeks as much love as he can receive, the other wants a long life. The old woman tells them of her life story and her promiscuity is evident. At the very young age of eleven, this woman began to have sensual desires. She met a samurai who worked for an aristocrat. She thought he was different from all the other men who sent her letters; she said “he was of low rank and wasn’t good looking, but his writing, sent me into another world”(Puchner et al.595). She managed to meet him but was eventually caught and she was merely fired but the man lost his life for their relations. She acted as though this incident had a great effect on her. Her words made that hard to believe: “But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about that man” (Puchner et al.595). In the end, the old woman expresses what seems to be shame for her life’s experiences. She says “I just followed my desires wherever they went—and I ruined myself…I certainly have managed to live a long time, but my life, well, it wasn’t what you’d call exemplary”(Puchner et al.596). These two stories have very different situations and are set in different times. The author of The Peach Blossom Fan, Shang ren, set his story in the fall of the Ming dynasty. I believe he used his play as a way to not only remind people of history but as a way to help them cope with the bad
One man seeks as much love as he can receive, the other wants a long life. The old woman tells them of her life story and her promiscuity is evident. At the very young age of eleven, this woman began to have sensual desires. She met a samurai who worked for an aristocrat. She thought he was different from all the other men who sent her letters; she said “he was of low rank and wasn’t good looking, but his writing, sent me into another world”(Puchner et al.595). She managed to meet him but was eventually caught and she was merely fired but the man lost his life for their relations. She acted as though this incident had a great effect on her. Her words made that hard to believe: “But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about that man” (Puchner et al.595). In the end, the old woman expresses what seems to be shame for her life’s experiences. She says “I just followed my desires wherever they went—and I ruined myself…I certainly have managed to live a long time, but my life, well, it wasn’t what you’d call exemplary”(Puchner et al.596). These two stories have very different situations and are set in different times. The author of The Peach Blossom Fan, Shang ren, set his story in the fall of the Ming dynasty. I believe he used his play as a way to not only remind people of history but as a way to help them cope with the bad