Intertextual Translation: Shakespearean Flavour in Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion
Intertextual Translation: Shakespearean Flavour in Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion

Summary/Abstract: This article presents a new mode of translating Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion, the renown Chinese theatrical masterpiece, by referring to Shakespeare’s poetic style. The author of this article compares the two playwrights in terms of their life-views, moral concerns and the view of the other worldliness by identifying some textual affinities. To further explain Tang Xianzu’s humanistic view of life, his transcendental appraisal of intuitive feeling and heterogeneous love, some themes and textual features of The Peony Pavilion are elaborated which are evocative of those of Shakespeare. Based on some close reading of the text, the author is able to demonstrate how an “intertextual grafting” in translation can prove a better means to achieve better acceptability of Tang Xianzu’s play by the English reader/audience.

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