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A Dream Under the Southern Bough was written in 1600 during the waning years of the Ming Dynasty in

China by Tang Xianzu, who wrote it a mere two years after he had created the masterpiece, The Peony

Pavilion. Dream is an almost Kafka-esque play in which the hero, a discharged army

officer named Chunyu Fen, finds himself in a reverie of entering an ant hole, and marrying the daughter

of the  king of the ants. The king of the ants appoints Chunyu Fen to a high position in his administration.

For twenty years, he pursues an illustrious career, until, following the death of his wife, his downfall is

engineered by a political rival. The king of the ants has Chunyu Fen arrested and later expelled from his

realm. He then wakes  to find that the glories and disgraces he has experienced so acutely were no more

than a dream during an afternoon nap and the revelation that all is empty and meaningless. With social

commentary and political and religious satire, A Dream Under the Southern Bough is one of the best

examples of classical Chinese  drama and one of Tang Xianzu’s most important “Dream Cycle” plays

which has remained a beloved part of the Chinese operatic repertoire.

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