The Palace of Eternal Life is acclaimed as one of China's "Four Great Classical Dramas", along with The Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan and Romance of the Western Chamber.

Hong Sheng [zh], one of the period's most famous playwrights and poets, was born in 1645 in a shack outside Hangzhou City in the Qing Dynasty.

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.

His chief play contains political overtones that were interpreted as disloyal to the Manchu regime, with the result that he was expelled from the Imperial Academy and a large number of his associates were dismissed from their government posts.

[7] Despite the play's veiled references to the turbulent early Qing period, the Kangxi Emperor highly praised The Palace of Eternal Life when it was performed in Beijing in 1689.

When Lady Yang becomes the Emperor's favorite consort, he gives her as love tokens a gold hairpin and a casket adorned with gold-leaf flowers.

A frontier general, An Lushan, is sent to the capital for an offense, but Yang Guozhong obtains a pardon for him, and he wins a promotion and a princely title for himself.

A military man, Guo Ziyi, who has come to the capital to receive an appointment, witnesses from a wine house window the extravagant pomp and splendor enjoyed by the Yang family and An Lushan.

Guo is appointed a powerful military commissioner and resolves one day to repay his debt to the imperial court in deeds.

Chang E, the Moon Fairy, wishing to pass on the beautiful music of the Rainbow-skirt Feather-jacket Dance to mortals, summons Lady Yang's soul to her in a dream and teaches it to her.

Aided by the Spinning Damsel, the Taoist reaches Penglai, where Lady Yang gives him half the gold hairpin and part of the casket to take to Xuanzong as tokens of renewed love.

There the two lovers are blissfully reunited, match the halves of the hairpin and the casket, and thanks to the Spinning Damsel's efforts are commanded by the Jade Emperor to dwell forever as man and wife in paradise.

[9] After the finalization of the play, the Ju He Theatre Troupe of Beijing's performance of the work caused a sensation in the capital, and was even recommended by the Kangxi Emperor.