Interweaving a star-crossed romance with the decline and fall of the Ming dynasty in mid seventeenth-century China, The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren (1648-1718) is a masterpiece of world literature. This sweeping musical play and historical drama encompasses the pleasures and passions of courtesan culture, the allure and pitfalls of political idealism, court intrigues, and the horrors of war. While the play recounts the death of the Ming dynasty...