The Height of Kunqu (The Palace of Eternal Life, The Peach Blossom Fan)

Kunqu, also called Kun opera, began as the Kunshan tune popular around Kunshan, Suzhou. In the Jiajing reign of the Ming, Wei Liangfu and others refined the Kunshan tune, after which Kunqu gradually became a national form of drama, with works such as Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion. Kunqu gathered the strengths of southern and northern music, with delicate, flowing singing and graceful stage movement, and is called the "ancestor of a hundred operas", with a deep influence on Peking opera and many regional operas. In the early Qing it reached its height and was popular both at court and among the people; the most famous works were Hong Sheng's The Palace of Eternal Life and Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan, their authors being ranked together as "Hong of the South, Kong of the North". Hong Sheng (1645–1704), from Qiantang, Zhejiang, took over ten years and three drafts to complete The Palace of Eternal Life in 1688; centered on the love story of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei, it reflects social and political life around the An Lushan Rebellion, celebrating true love while criticizing the rulers' dissipation that ruined the state. Kong Shangren (1648–1718), from Qufu, Shandong, a 64th-generation descendant of Confucius, completed The Peach Blossom Fan in 1699; through the love story of the Restoration Society scholar Hou Fangyu and the Qinhuai courtesan Li Xiangjun, it reflects the fall of the Southern Ming Hongguang regime, in the author's words, "using the feelings of parting and reunion to express the sense of rise and fall". The two plays caused a sensation and were staged everywhere. After the Qianlong reign, local operas arose, a contest between "Huabu" (local operas) and "Yabu" (Kunqu) took shape, and Kunqu gradually declined.