Peony in Love Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wu Ren

Wu Ren was the son of one of Peony's father's friends. Peony's and Ren's fathers had vowed that their families would be joined together even before Ren and Peony were born. Ren was a poet and was what Peony described as 'man-beautiful'.

Answer: The Peony Pavilion

"The Peony Pavilion" was Peony's favorite work and her father directed a version of it in their family gardens during the time of her sixteenth birthday. "The Peony Pavilion" is an actual play that was written by Tang Xianzu during the Ming Dynasty. The play tells the story of a lovesick maiden who is later brought back to life by her dream lover.

Answer: She met a man in her family's garden.

During the first night of the play, Peony became overwhelmed by emotion and she took a walk through her garden. When she got to the Riding-the-Wind Pavilion, she met a man that she had been looking at through the crack in the screen where she was seated at the play.

She knew that if anyone found out that she'd been alone with a man who wasn't a family member, especially a stranger, she would be in big trouble. She and the man talked of the play and he asked that she meet him again the next night.

She didn't know it at the time, but the man was actually the one she was engaged to marry.

Answer: A dried peony

Peony had fallen in love with the man that she met in her garden during the play. They met each other for three nights. On the third night, the man had caressed her skin with a peony when they met in her family's Moon-Viewing Pavilion. After the play, Peony became lovesick because she did not want to marry a stranger.

She loved her 'poet' and wanted to marry him. What she did not know was that her 'poet' was actually Wu Ren, the man she was to marry. By the time her father gave her the peony and she realized who her husband was to be, it was too late and she had already starved herself to the point of death.

Answer: The Viewing Terrace

The Viewing Terrace was a place for ancestors and the souls of the dead to look upon the earthly realm to see what was happening with the living. During her stay on the Viewing Terrace, Peony was visited by other lovesick maidens who had died as a result of starvation after becoming obsessed with "The Peony Pavilion".

She was also visited frequently by her grandmother. It was actually through her grandmother's bargaining and bribing of the judges that Peony was allowed to stay on the Viewing Terrace.

She was a hungry ghost and was supposed to wander the earthly realm since her ancestor tablet had not been dotted and two parts of her soul could not go to their proper places.

Answer: Tan Ze

Tan Ze was the daughter of Commissioner Tan, a very important and powerful official. Peony first met Tan Ze during the production of the play when Tan Ze was only nine. Ze was a very selfish and spoiled child, and was even hard to deal with after she married Ren. Peony decided to try and get Ren to feel her through Ze, and she manipulated Ze to do things with Ren and to help her finish her commentary on "The Peony Pavilion". Ze ended up starving herself to death and losing her son because she was jealous of Ren's love for Peony.

Answer: Qian Yi

Qian Yi was the sickly fifth daughter of a poor farmer who worked for Peony's father. Accompanied by the soul of her mother, Peony went to the farm. She convinced Madame Qian to bind Yi's feet so that she could have a better future than the one that awaited her.

The spirits of Peony and her mother helped Madame Qian until the time for Peony's mother's soul to go to its rightful place. Peony stayed with Yi's family and refined her skills as a ghost so that she could help the family. When Yi was old enough, Peony ensured that she would marry Wu Ren and become Peony's second sister-wife. Yi made a great wife for Ren and made both Ren and Peony very happy.

Answer: Yes

During Yi's pregnancy, the family, the doctor, and the diviner feared that something would happen to Yi just as it had happened to Ze. One day, when they were bothering Yi and trying all kinds of useless remedies on her, Peony screamed, "Why don't you just order a ghost marriage and leave her alone?" Peony had been protecting Yi and the baby and she wanted no harm to come to them.

She did not realize that Yi had heard her spirit, and Yi suggested to Ren that he have a ghost marriage with Peony to keep the others calm. Ren was finally married to Peony through a ghost marriage and Peony's tablet was given a special place in his home.

Answer: She appeared in a dream with him and Yi.

Yi took Peony's tablet out of the dummy made for Peony and Ren's ghost marriage, but she did not realize that the tablet had not been dotted. It was then that Peony decided she should pay a visit to her second sister-wife so that Yi could learn about her.

She appeared in Yi's dream and Yi thought she was Liniang, the heroine from "The Peony Pavilion". Before she could tell Yi that she was not Liniang, Ren appeared. Ren woke up and roused Yi from her sleep. He told her that the woman was not Liniang.

He knew that the only way that Peony could appear in a dream was if she were a ghost because her ancestor tablet had never been dotted. He went to the dummy, pulled out the tablet, cleaned it, and discovered that it was not dotted. After he dotted the tablet, Peony's two soul parts could go to their places and she took her place as his first wife.

Answer: Qing

Peony's father had been an imperial scholar before the Qing Dynasty began. The Ming Dynasty fell in 1644 and the Manchus took over. After the Manchus took over, he and many other men gave up their imperial positions and stayed home to pursue other things. He shaved his forehead and wore clothes styled after that of the Manchus so that no harm would come to him or his family.

This novel is historical fiction, and the names of several of the characters are those of real people: Tang Xianzu, Wu Ren, Tan Ze, Chen Tong, and Qian Yi. Chen Tong's real given name is not known--Tong was a name given to married women when they shared the same name as their mother-in-law. There really was a book published in 1694, and it was a collection of the writings of Wu Ren's three wives--Chen Tong, Tan Ze, and Qian Yi. The name of the book appeared as "Wu Wushan's Three Wives' Collaborative Commentary of The Peony Pavilion". The names of his wives appeared on the title page, though many could not believe that women, especially wives, were capable of writing such commentary.