The Peony Pavilion
In "Peony in Love", the opera "The Peony Pavilion" by Tang Xianzu, "The Three Wives' Commentary on The Peony Pavilion", and the theme of love all play important roles. Of the latter, See has said: "I wanted to explore different aspects of love: gratitude love, pity love, respectful love, romantic love, sexual love, sacrificing love, duty love, and finally mother love". See also stated that "The Three Wives' Commentary" had a special influence on her as she researched the large amount of writing done by Chinese women in the 17th century, most of it largely unknown today. "Then I came across "The Three Wives' Commentary" -- the first book of its kind to have been published anywhere in the world to have been written by women -- three wives, no less. With that, my interest turned into an obsession". The three wives of Wu Ren in the novel—Chen Tong (Peony), Tan Ze, and Qian Yi were, in fact, the real women who wrote "The Three Wives' Commentary".