The Palace of Eternal Life

The Palace of Eternal Life
Written by	Hong Sheng

The Palace of Eternal Life (simplified Chinese: 长生殿; traditional Chinese: 長生殿; pinyin: Chángshēng diàn; Wade–Giles: Ch'ang-sheng tian), also translated as The Palace of Eternal Youth, is a play written by Hong Sheng (Chinese: ) in the Qing Dynasty. He absorbed certain material from the long narrative poem The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (Chinese: 长恨歌) written by Bai Juyi and the Zaju (Chinese: 杂剧) Rain on the Paulownia Tree (Chinese: 梧桐雨) written by Bai Pu. The Palace of Eternal Life is acclaimed as one of the China's "Four Great Classical Dramas", along with The Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan and the The Story of the Western Wing. The performance is focused on the everlasting love story of Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty (Chinese: 唐明皇) and his favorite consort Lady Yang (Chinese: 杨贵妃).

This story has been translated into English and published by the Foreign Languages Press.

Hong Sheng, one of the period's most famous playwrights and poets, was born in 1645 in a shack outside Hangzhou City in the Qing Dynasty. He graduated from the Imperial Academy in 1668 and then returned home the following year. At the age of 18, he began to write Incense Pavilion (Chinese: 沉香庭) which was later renamed and known as Dance Seduction (Chinese: 霓裳舞). Finally, the old drama of Dance Seduction was successfully rewritten as The Palace of Eternal Life after being revised several times when he was 27, which became a masterpiece afterwards and was widely played. In the year of 1704, on his way back from Nanjing to Hangzhou, Hong Sheng accidentally fell into the river when drinking wine on a boat and died by drowning in Wuzhen.

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