英文摘要
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How to interpret Tang Xianzu's own Preface of Peony Pavilion, or Mudan ting Ji Tici (《牡丹亭記題詞》), is the key to read Peony Pavilion. Scholars usually took a part of Tici to illustrate their views, however, no one explained the whole text before. By analyzing the whole text and reinterpreting the relation of qing (情) and li (理), this paper discovers that the Tici has a well-organized system, through which Tang Xianzu presented his metaphysical thought about the relation of qing and li. With qing, Tang Xianzu tried to take the place of li, and he considered that qing could also be transcendent and universal. Du Liniang could die and then come to life because of her youqing (有情) and zhenqing (真情), and furthermore, qing must be acknowledged by people in the society before it could be universal. The structure of Tici is corresponding to that of the play. In it, there are two transformations. The topic of Du Liniang's youqing was transformed into a topic of true or false, or zhen jia (真假) and the topic of qing in dream (夢中之情) was transformed into a topic of real or fake Du Liniang in society. Finally, through these transformations, Du became a symbol of qing.
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