Abstract: Much of the contemporary praise for Kong Shangren's Peach Blossom Fan focuses on the literary merits, but the stage art remains understudied. Kong Shangren's meticulous approach to stagecraft, particularly his adoption of a realistic style, forms an intentional and integral part of his artistic vision. His use of large, realistic props such as boats and carts has a longstanding tradition in xiqu, persisting through the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, unaffected by the advent of virtual performance styles. The realistic scenery, which reached its zenith at the end of the Ming dynasty, was extensively utilized in performances at the Qing court, by literati, and in folk theatre. The realistic style of stage art and performance, like the unrealistic virtual style, has its own tradition. Historically, there was no strict adherence to non-realistic performance nor a rejection of physical stage elements. Criticism of Kong Shangren today stems from a preference for non-realistic art theories. Such theories, not fully representative of xiqu's diverse artistic experiences, tend to marginalize the realistic tradition in xiqu, obstructing academic inquiry, exacerbating the genre's loss of spiritual depth, and widening its gap from modern audiences and the market.

Key words: stage art, realistic tradition, impressionism, virtuality, Kong Shangren