INTRODUCTION
The Orphan of Zhao (Zhaoshi gu’er 趙氏孤兒) is one of three plays for which the Yuan printing provides only tune titles, lyrics of the songs, and a very few padding words. No stage directions or prose dialogue, however fragmentary, are to be found. The Yuan printing represents The Orphan of Zhao as a regular zaju of four suites of songs preceded by a wedge. All songs are assigned to a male lead who plays four different characters: Zhao Shuo 趙朔 (in the wedge), Han Jue 韓厥 (in the first act), Gongsun Chujiu 公孫杵臼 (in the second and third acts), and the grown-up Orphan (in the fourth act). An extremely heavily edited version of the play is also preserved in Zang Maoxun’s Yuanqu xuan. The extent and nature of the differences between these two versions are suggested by the fact that the Yuanqu xuan edition includes a fifth act, a rarity among zaju. We provide a translation of the Yuanqu xuan version of The Orphan of Zhao following the translation of the Yuan printing.
The Yuanqu xuan version of The Orphan of Zhao has the distinction of being the first Chinese play to be translated into a European language. Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare’s (1666–1736) French translation of the early eighteenth century, subtitled a tragédie chinoise, however, limited itself to the stage directions and prose dialogues—since the dialogues in this play are extremely extensive and detailed, the play lent itself very well to such a treatment. Prémare’s translation exerted a considerable influence on eighteenth-century European drama, culminating in Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine (1755), which was one of the most successful plays of its age. The characterization of The Orphan of Zhao as a tragedy by its French editors helped to ensure a special reputation for the Chinese play in twentieth-century modern Chinese scholarship on traditional drama, starting with the writings of Wang Guowei, who highlighted The Orphan of Zhao alongside Guan Hanqing’s Injustice to Dou E (Dou E yuan 竇娥冤) as rare examples of a Chinese tradition of tragedy. The characterization of these plays as “tragedies,” a term that carries with it all the theoretical baggage of Greek tragedy and the ensuing Western tradition, was roundly rejected by the great comparative literary scholar Qian Zhongshu 錢鐘書 (1910–1988) in 1935.1 Despite his sensible evaluation of the differences between the Chinese and Western traditions of plays of a tragic nature, his article carried little weight in the historical process that canonized these plays—most likely because the article appeared in China in English.
Although Yuan printings of drama provide no authorial attribution, The Register of Ghosts credits a certain Ji Junxiang 紀郡祥 with a play by the same title. Ji’s name occurs in the section of The Register of Ghosts titled “Already Deceased Lords and Poets of the Former Generation Whose Plays Now Circulate in the World,” which would date his activities roughly to the second half of the thirteenth century. The biographical data provided by The Register of Ghosts are limited to the following laconic statement, “A man of Dadu, who was a contemporary of Li Shouqing and Zheng Tingyu” 大都人,李壽卿、鄭廷玉同時.2 Apart from The Orphan of Zhao, Ji Junxiang is credited with the authorship of five other plays. A Formulary of Correct Sounds for an Era of Great Peace lists the same six titles under his name and remarks of Ji’s style, “The lyrics of Ji Junxiang are like plum blossoms in the snow” 如雪裡梅花.3 Now, Ji Junxiang’s song texts may indeed be said to display an unadorned simplicity, but the mood suggested by the phrase “plum blossoms in the snow” better describes the one remaining song suite of an otherwise lost play on the topic of Buddhist enlightenment, Chen Wentu Realizes the Way: A Dream in the Shade of a Pine (Chen Wentu wudao songyin meng 陳文圖悟道松陰夢).4 The description clearly is not a good fit for Ji’s lyrics on loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bloody violence in The Orphan of Zhao.
None of the other titles listed under the name of Ji Junxiang in The Register of Ghosts have been preserved. Their subject matter ranged from contemporary scandal and romance to classical fairy tales and Daoist deliverance plays. We find the same variety of subject matter when we have a look at the ten titles credited to Li Shouqing 李壽卿, who hailed from Taiyuan and had a very minor official career.5 Zheng Tingyu 鄭廷玉, who hailed from Zhangde (in Henan province), was the most prolific playwright of the trio: our sources credit him with twenty-three zaju, six of which have been preserved. In view of the wide variety of their subject matter and the simple style they employ it would appear that these three authors wrote primarily for the contemporary commercial theater of Dadu.6
The action of The Orphan of Zhao is set in the early sixth century BC in the powerful state of Jin. Centered in the area of the modern province of Shanxi, Jin originally held sway over all adjoining regions, but the ruling house gradually lost power as that of the other six great noble clans of the state increased. After lengthy internecine warfare, three clans—Han, Wei, and Zhao—survived to carve up the state of Jin into three independent kingdoms that would continue to play major roles in the political history of China during the period of the fifth to third centuries BC.
The first work to provide a coherent account of the feud between Tu’an Gu 屠岸賈 and the Zhao clan is the “Hereditary House of Zhao” (Zhao shijia 趙世家) in the Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記), by Sima Qian 司馬遷 (ca. 100 BC), who created his text from scattered references in the Zuozhuan 左傳, a set of narrative stories attached to the laconic Spring and Autumn Annals, an annual history of the states of China between 722 and 468 BC. According to Sima Qian, Zhao Dun 趙盾 had dominated the court of Jin during the reign of Duke Ling (r. 620–607 BC), whose ascension to the throne Zhao Dun had engineered. Duke Ling was a cruel man who eventually tried to kill Zhao Dun. Zhao fled the capital, and in his absence the duke was murdered by one of Zhao Dun’s clansmen. Even though many held Zhao Dun responsible for Duke Ling’s death, he returned to dominate the court during the reign of Duke Cheng (r. 606–600 BC). Zhao Dun’s son, Zhao Shuo, who inherited his father’s post, was married to one of the duke’s sisters. During the reign of Duke Jing (r. 599–581 BC), Tu’an Gu, a former favorite of Duke Ling’s and then the commander in chief, set out to exterminate the Zhao clan. Han Jue tried to dissuade Tu’an Gu of this idea but to no avail. Neither did Han meet with success when he tried to persuade Zhao Shuo to flee. Han Jue then retired from public life under the pretext of illness, and Tu’an Gu exterminated all male members of the Zhao clan.
According to the Records of the Historian, the pregnant wife of Zhao Shuo hid herself in the palace. Two retainers of Zhao Shuo’s thereupon conspired to ensure the survival of the clan. When Zhao Shuo’s wife had given birth to a boy, Cheng Ying 程嬰 smuggled the child out of the palace and purchased another baby to replace him. When Tu’an Gu started to search for the Zhao baby, Cheng Ying stepped forward and accused Gongsun Chujiu 公孫杵臼 of hiding the Orphan of Zhao. Gongsun Chujiu’s house was searched, and when the false Orphan was discovered, the baby and Gongsun Chujiu were both slain. Cheng Ying raised the true Orphan in the countryside. Many years later, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Duke Jing, the duke fell ill, and oracles informed him that his illness was due to “a great house left without an heir.” Han Jue thereupon stepped forward and told the duke that the house concerned was the exterminated Zhao clan, of which a single male descendant miraculously had survived. He then brought the Orphan to court and in turn exterminated Tu’an Gu and his clan. When the Orphan, named Zhao Wu, had been reinstated in his hereditary position and had regained his lands, Cheng Ying committed suicide in order to join Gongsun Chujiu.7
Ji Junxiang may well have been the first dramatist to adapt these materials for the stage. It has been suggested by certain similarities between the play and the historical circumstances accompanying the downfall of the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the drama is an expression of Ji’s loyalty to the defunct Song. The imperial family of the Song was also surnamed Zhao, and the Song had at various times lavished great posthumous honors on Cheng Ying and Gongsun Chujiu. Moreover, the last emperor of the Song dynasty, an infant, died in 1279 when, during a sea battle near present-day Hong Kong, the last prime minister of the Song leapt into the sea with the infant tied to his back.8 But it should also be borne in mind that the Beijing area, which had served as the capital of the Jurchen Jin (1115–1234) for almost a century, had never been part of Song territory. The Latter Jin dynasty (936–946) had long ceded it to the Khitan Liao dynasty.9
In Ji Junxiang’s version of the events, the action is concentrated in the reign of Duke Ling and recounts events after a direct confrontation between Zhao Dun and Tu’an Gu. The wedge takes up the story after Zhao Dun has literally been hounded to death. The songs in the wedge are assigned to Zhao Shuo, who has been ordered to commit suicide as a part of the purge of his clan. Before his death he instructs his pregnant wife to ensure the survival of their child should she give birth to a boy in order that he may exact revenge for the clan. The songs of the first suite are assigned to Han Jue, who has been ordered by Tu’an Gu to guard the palace where Zhao Shuo’s wife is staying. Zhao Shuo’s wife entrusts the baby to a physician, Cheng Ying, and then commits suicide. When Cheng Ying attempts to smuggle the baby out of the palace in his medicine box, the plot is discovered by Han Jue, who subsequently allows him to escape with the Orphan and commits suicide in order to cover up any trace of the child.
The next two suites of songs (acts 2 and 3) are assigned to Gongsun Chujiu. In the first of these, Gongsun Chujiu promises to die together with the only-born son of Cheng Ying, whom they agree to substitute for the Orphan. In his second suite of songs in act 3, when Tu’an Gu interrogates Gongsun Chujiu, he denies hiding the Orphan. After a search of his house results in the discovery and murder of the false Orphan, Gongsun commits suicide. The final suite of songs is assigned to the grown-up Orphan, who has been adopted by the childless Tu’an Gu (who believed him to be the son of Cheng Ying) and given the name of Tu Cheng 屠成 (“he who brings Tu to completion”). Just as Tu’an Gu (with the full support of Tu Cheng) is on the verge of toppling Duke Ling to take the throne for himself, Cheng Ying shows Tu Cheng a painting of successive scenes of the feud between Tu’an Gu and Zhao Dun. At first Cheng Ying does not disclose the names of the protagonists of the depicted story, but, after recognizing the characters, Tu Cheng is filled with indignation at the behavior of the villain of the piece. Cheng Ying then reveals to him that he, Tu Cheng, is the sole survivor of the Zhao clan and that his adoptive father is his clan’s archenemy. In the final scene of the play, the Orphan concludes that he must exact revenge and envisions the grisly violence of his future actions.
While the full title of this zaju (Injustice Repays Injustice: The Orphan of Zhao) draws attention to the theme of revenge, the actual revenge never takes place onstage. For Ji Junxiang it was enough that the Orphan had become aware of his true identity and the duties involved. Also, the revenge as envisioned in the final songs of the play was probably simply too grisly to stage. Loyal self-sacrifice is the major theme of the enacted version of the story: the wedge and the first three suites of songs show a series of suicides that increasingly become acts of free choice. But the play also contains a number of references to other cases of sacrificial suicide inspired by the virtuous behavior of Zhao Dun. In the end, the promise of revenge exacted substantiates the meaning of all these acts of truly selfless loyalty.
The Yuan printing of our play, in its references to incidents preceding the stage action, mentions the characters of Chu Ni 鉏麑 and Ling Zhe 靈輒. Chu Ni had at one time been hired by Tu’an Gu to murder Zhao Dun. However, when he had sneaked into the Zhao mansion at night and had observed the reverential seriousness with which Zhao Dun prepared himself for the court audience at dawn, he was overcome with remorse and committed suicide by butting his head against a tree.
The story of Ling Zhe is more complicated. Once, when Zhao Dun made a trip to the countryside, he observed a large man lying on his back beneath a mulberry tree with his mouth open. The man explained that he was a farmhand but that he had such a voracious appetite that no one was willing to hire him. As a result he was starving, but because he did not want to be accused of stealing, he had laid himself down under the tree, waiting for the mulberries to drop into his mouth. Zhao Dun thereupon provided him with a decent meal. Later, Tu’an Gu had trained a dog, the Demon Mastiff (Da’ao 大獒), to attack Zhao Dun in court. When the attack came, Zhao Dun tried to flee, but the duke had earlier arranged to have one of Zhao’s chariot wheels loosened. When it came free, Ling Zhe jumped forward to carry the axle on his shoulder, allowing Zhao Dun to escape for the moment. The stories of Chu Ni and Ling Zhe, and of Tu’an Gu’s attempts on the life of Zhao Dun by using the Demon Mastiff, are recounted in great detail at the opening of the wedge in the Yuanqu xuan version of the play.
The story of The Orphan of Zhao remained popular onstage well into the twentieth century. We know that it was adapted as a xiwen 戲文 (a southern-style drama) at an early moment, and one of the earliest preserved chuanqi 傳奇 plays is also an adaptation of these materials. In later years, adaptations of the story of The Orphan of Zhao came to be known under the title Bayi ji 八義記 (The Story of the Eight Righteous Heroes), which drastically rewrote the story of the Zhao clan. Bayi ji was also the title under which these materials entered the Peking opera repertoire.
Critical discussion of The Orphan of Zhao by modern scholars is usually based on the Yuanqu xuan version of the play. As with many of the scripts in the Yuanqu xuan, the text of this edition directly or indirectly derives from a late script from the Office of Bell and Drum in the Ming imperial palace. While some of the differences between the two editions of The Orphan of Zhao are probably due to Zang Maoxun, the heavy-handed compiler and editor of the Yuanqu xuan, many of them may also have derived from the extensive revisions of the play at court in order to make it suitable for performance in front of the emperor. While the multiple cases of self-sacrifice displayed in this zaju will have encountered no objection, the code of clan loyalty and revenge was unacceptable, and an exceptional fifth act was added to turn the Orphan’s murder of Tu’an Gu from a private (and ferocious) act of revenge into the state-mandated execution of a traitor and rebel, reasserting the state’s monopoly on violence. And whereas Tu Cheng had only been too eager to support his adoptive father in toppling their rightful ruler in the earlier Yuan version, the Yuanqu xuan version turns him into a loyal vassal of the ruling house. Few zaju have been rewritten as drastically as The Orphan of Zhao as it moved from the commercial theater of the Yuan to the imperial stage of the Ming, and from the imperial stage in Beijing to the scholar’s study in Jiangnan: practically every preserved aria has been completely rewritten, many arias have been dropped, and new ones have been added, resulting in an utterly different play.
The difference between the two versions of The Orphan of Zhao is also conspicuous in their portrayal of Cheng Ying. Even though Cheng Ying is present onstage in each of the four acts of The Orphan of Zhao and is clearly the play’s “moral Machiavelli,” Ji Junxiang did not assign any arias to him but had the male lead impersonate such diverse roles as Zhao Shuo (a young prince), Han Jue (a middle-aged general), Gongsun Chujiu (an elderly retired civil official), and the Orphan (a twenty-year-old youth). While this must have made the play a perfect vehicle for a great actor to showcase his versatility, another reason for the author to choose these four persona was that he anticipated that the audience might not be able to fully sympathize with a man who is willing to sacrifice his only male heir in order to save the life of another infant, the single survivor of a noble line to whom he is indebted. Since Ji Junxiang did not assign any arias to Cheng Ying, and since the Yuan printing does not provide any dialogue, Cheng Ying, for all his importance to the plot, is absent from the text of the play in its earliest printing. The Yuanqu xuan version of the play (and most likely the palace script on which we assume it was based), however, pays due attention to the central role of Cheng Ying by assigning him a large number of opportunities to speak—including one passage in ballad verse and many poems—as he first entices Han Jue and then Gongsun Chujiu to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the Orphan. And eventually, twenty years later, he informs the Orphan of his true identity in such a way that the Orphan burns to take revenge. Sima Qian’s historical version stressed Cheng Ying’s selfless devotion by having him commit suicide to join Gongsun Chujiu as soon as the Orphan had taken revenge and been given his ancestral titles and lands. Such a suicide, however, was unacceptable as the conclusion of a play, and the Yuanqu xuan version of the play has Cheng Ying rewarded with a farm and continuous sacrifices by the Zhao clan, which in the eyes of some may compromise Cheng Ying’s morality.
Many modern critics have compared The Orphan of Zhao as preserved in the Yuanqu xuan with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as both plays require a son to take revenge for his father. These critics often compare the decisive Orphan unfavorably with the doubtful and hesitating Hamlet, who is praised as a quintessential modern hero. In contrast to Hamlet, the characterization of the Orphan is often faulted as superficial.10 The act in which Cheng Ying discloses his true identity to his ward, however, shows more psychological realism than these critics are willing to credit. Cheng Ying piques the Orphan’s interest, slowly discloses the full enormity of the injustice his family had suffered, and simultaneously affirms the necessity of revenge. It is only at the height of suspense that he discloses to the Orphan that his adoptive father is also the murderer of the young prince’s own father and entire family. Confronted with that revelation, the Orphan is so overwhelmed that he faints, but as soon as he comes to, he realizes that his own moral compass allows him only one course of action. While the earlier version of the play does not suggest the Orphan will tarry to take revenge, it does not specify how and when that revenge will actually take place—we are left with a vision of the Orphan contemplating revenge and relishing the anticipated violence. After all, if the main theme of the play is self-sacrifice rather than revenge as such, the promise of revenge may well be enough. It is only in the Yuanqu xuan version (in the rather lame fifth act) that the revenge is swiftly enacted, and then only after being legitimized by the authorities.
Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare was the finest linguist among the French Jesuits at the Manchu court in Beijing in the early decades of the eighteenth century.11 He prepared his (partial) translation of The Orphan of Zhao as an example of vernacular Chinese for the benefit of Étienne Fourmont, an influential orientalist in Paris who had developed an interest in the Chinese language.12 It is not clear what made Prémare choose this play in particular, because it cannot have been its status in Chinese critical opinion at the time. It is more likely that the very detailed dialogues made the play very suitable for his purpose. As the only play in the Yuanqu xuan of five acts, with a serious action set in high circles, it must have appealed to Prémare’s notions of a proper tragedy. It will also have helped that the play had no love interest and no comic interludes. The (threatened) murder of innocent toddlers also may have reminded him of the massacre of innocent infants by Herod the Great.
Prémare’s translation started to become more widely known only when it was included as Le petit orphelin de la maison Tchao, tragédie chinoise by Jean Baptiste du Halde in his Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise of 1735, a four-volume compendium of European knowledge of the Chinese world, based largely on materials provided by Jesuit missionaries in China. This was the high tide of chinoiserie and the European (especially French and German) fascination with all things Chinese, and Prémare’s translation was quickly rendered into other European languages. His translation also provided inspiration to playwrights as diverse as Hatchett, Metastasio,13 Murphy,14 and Voltaire. The most important work to be inspired by Prémare’s translation was of course Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine. Voltaire’s other Chinese source of inspiration was the Manchu conquest of the Ming, which in the seventeenth century had inspired a number of European playwrights. The place of action was relocated from a minor dukedom to the capital of China itself, close to the Great Wall; and the time of the action was moved to the eve of the Mongol conquest of the Southern Song (some Chinese critics have praised Voltaire for grasping the true patriotic intent of Ji Junxiang’s play!). Voltaire’s play, which was performed all over Europe in both the original French and in translation, holds a special place in European theater history because it was one of the earliest popular plays in which actors performed in “authentic costume.”15
Prémare had declined to translate the arias in his Yuanqu xuan version of the play because of the different conventions of Chinese and French poetry. The first complete translation of the Yuanqu xuan version of the play, including the arias, was produced a century later by the eminent French Sinologist Stanislas Julien and published in 1835, on the eve of the Opium War. By that time the West’s attitude toward China had changed, and Julien’s work exerted hardly any influence outside academic circles.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Ch’en Shou-yi 1936; Ch’ien Chung-shu 1935; Hsia 1988; Idema 1988; Lau 1985; Leung 2002; Liu 1953: Lundbaek 1991; Shih 1976; Ssu-ma 2006; Trauzettel 1975; Wang 1978; Ward 2010; Yang 2011; Yu 2005–2006.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
| Role type |
Names and family, institutional, or social role |
| MALE LEAD |
ZHAO SHUO, father of ORPHAN |
| MALE LEAD |
HAN JUE, guard |
| MALE LEAD |
GONGSUN CHUJIU, elder statesman |
| MALE LEAD |
ZHAO WU (aka TU CHENG), the ORPHAN |
THE ORPHAN OF ZHAO
[WEDGE]
[ZHAO SHUO sings:]
([XIANLÜ MODE:] Shanghua shi)
The rivers and mountains of Duke Ling of Jin should come to an end,
That traitorous Tu’an Gu holds all power in his hands.
He manipulates the Son of Heaven16 to command the liege lords,
And me he decapitates at the execution ground—
This is the finale to it all—everything for which I’ve worked so hard!
(Reprise)
I’ll wind up without a single tumulus in which to lay my body,
After I gave her my instructions, showers of tears flowed down her cheeks.
I will leave behind no other words
But these: after this child grows to manhood,
Let him take revenge for both the son and the father.
[ACT 1]
[HAN JUE sings:]
([XIANLÜ MODE:] Dian jiangchun)17
Only after he repulsed and matched Qin of the west,18
Established and completed Jin in the east,
Were we safe and secure.
But that traitorous official Tu’an Gu
Destroyed that noble minister19 below the golden steps.
(Hunjiang long)
Duke Ling of Jin is partial to him20 and compliant,
So all the court puts its trust in this kind of person!
The loyal and upright are decapitated in the marketplace,
Sycophants and toadies take their ease in palace bureaus.
Those who earned merit for their ruler gained the harshest sentences,
Those who profit not the citizens enjoy the lord’s grace.
He is so out of control that he abuses the Son of Heaven,
And scares the liege lords witless—
Those who go against him are exterminated to the last man,
Exterminated to the last man: prime ministers at court
And generals in the field.
(You hulu)
Right at this moment, the whole world is in turmoil, the dust of battle rises,
Each now marks out a border on their own—
Trusting slanderous words, Tu’an Gu has sold out the universe of Jin.
The world is in chaos, heroes are rendered powerless—
When will law be just and compliant to Heaven’s will?
That scoundrel mocks the blue above,
And destroys the people below.
Let me interrogate that infinitely azure, high heaven blessed with sun,
Will it, with embarrassed blue face, spare no man?
(Tianxia le)
I am sure that
“It is visited as distantly as upon your sons and grandsons, or as close at hand as yourself.”
He wanted to gobble up the rivers and mountains
And because Zhao Dun would not fall in line, he marked well his hatred.
He came up with a plan, worked his evil design,
Claimed a good minister rebellious,
Obscured the truth, sent up lying memorials to his lord and king, all of which were approved.
(Nezha ling)
Remember how Zhao Dun came to the aid of the people,
And shared his own rice with his guests?
How he shamed Chu Ni into being a man—
Who gave up his life by butting the acacia tree?
And saved Ling Zhe from starvation—
Who repaid the favor by lifting up the axle?
Governing the Hundred Surnames,21 Zhao Dun earned great merit,
Supporting the One Man,22 he showed no selfish whim,
Yet wound up unable to keep body and head together.
(Que ta zhi)
All in vain
He swept away miasma and dust,
Established his merit and deeds.
Unable to rest in peace behind the unicorns23—
His old grave is now a rank tumulus.
The father—neck severed and corpse split in half,
The son and grandsons—suddenly the targets of a vicious and evil heart.
(Jisheng cao)
That child
Will have no escape,
But Tu’an Gu will suffer history’s verdict—
Slanderous ministers are always manipulative in the way of slanderous ministers,
Enemies will always bear an enemy’s hatred,
Sons and grandsons will always assume the lot of sons and grandsons.
From reign to reign they carry their hatred—when will it stop?
Injustice repays injustice—when will it end?
You say you are a household client of Prince Consort Zhao,
I am a retainer-in-waiting of Tu’an Gu.
You say you are hiding a one-year-old unicorn foal,
But it can’t fly out of these ninefold dragon and phoenix gates.25
If I profess no concern
And do not interrogate you. …
Well, those who are favored must repay in kind.
(Jinzhan’er)
I see
On his cheeks the streaks of dried tears,
And at the corners of his mouth, the froth of his mother’s milk.
He turns his little eyes—so he recognizes people!
He’s swaddled so tightly inside the medicine case,
So narrowly cramped he cannot turn and toss,
So miserably short he cannot stretch his limbs.
True it is, “To grow to manhood, one must suffer a lack of freedom;
With too much freedom, one cannot grow into a man.”
(Zui zhong tian)
If I were to offer up this little windfall and scheme for a titled lot,
This would be no more than “pleasing myself to destroy others.”
Three hundred family members beheaded to extinguish the line—
Every leaf of every branch exterminated.
If he sees this little child,
He’s certain to pound his bones to dust, dismember his body,
And leave not even a milk tooth behind.
Why do other’s work by digging out the grass, root and all?
(Coda)
I will “slow slice” my own body,26
Rather than endure torture and interrogation by that lot.
Better I slice my own throat with my three-foot-long Dragon Spring.27
In a moment’s time they will paint his likeness, sketch his shape, search for him long and hard—
So hide yourself in deep mountains and deserted fields.
As soon as this child approaches his first decade,
Then make him practice the military arts, cultivate the civil.
And, when he has finally mastered both military and civil learning,
Let him then mark his hatred for his enemy well,
And search out, too, his benefactors—
When he has killed his enemies, let him not forget those who helped him.
[ACT 2]
[GONGSUN CHUJIU sings:]
([NANLÜ MODE:] Yizhi hua)
A fine man unjustly killed,28
A true pillar destroyed.
How powerful the minister has grown, this Tu’an Gu,
How weak the lord has become, this Duke Ling of Jin
Who now heeds and follows that sycophant and toady—
That traitor, who holds all power over the army—
So that meritorious ministers cannot exert their loyalty.
It makes my breast fill with rage,
Truly my lord and king has fallen into the snare of a child.
(Liangzhou)
From the time he dominated court and country, was ennobled, made prime minister,
It scared me so that I came to this remote village, gave up my post, and returned to the land,
Unwilling to get involved, even if there were others desiring to bring peace and order to the people of the state.
His offices have risen to the highest rank, number one,
His position has reached the level of the Three Dukes.29
He has been enfeoffed with the households of eight districts,
And for salary enjoys a tax harvest of a thousand catties.
He has eyes to see injustice, but is blind to it,
Ears to hear people’s curses, but is deaf to them.
Now he who manipulates the Son of Heaven is promoted in rank and heaped with titles,
The one who harms the Hundred Surnames seeks his salary by paying court,
And he who commands the liege lords receives rewards when asking for merit.
For the while, in dire straits
I’ll suffer deprivation,
And heed not whether I’ll be buried in a unicorn grave after I die.
It’s not that I take pleasure in plowing and sowing,
But I’ve jumped out of a lair of hungry and predatory tigers,
And for the while will nurture my indifference.
You say
Sycophantic ministers have been used at court from antiquity,
And for sure,
“This good thing has always been the same under heaven.”
The more
Myriads of people curse him,
Thousands of people despise him,
The more the One Man values him—
He becomes evermore impure and unfair,
Unfilial and disloyal.
And now
Every citizen under heaven, each and every one, grumbles.
(He xinlang)
Who dares send a sealed letter to challenge the imperial palace?
If Tu’an Gu should look to the east, to the east [the duke] flows,
He has manipulated Duke Ling to the point that his every whim is followed.
He has frightened the two divisions of civil and military officials until they live in constant terror,
And in the ranks of their assemblies they all feign befuddlement.
They hide themselves by holding the tablet of office in front of their chests—
It’s just as if fish paste glued their mouths shut
Or fish bones were stuck in their gullet!
They lower their heads like a mute lost in a dream.
Yes, indeed
“Every single thing that happens in the world
All lies in what is unsaid.”
(Muyang guan)
Before he was born, he had lost all his relatives,31
While still in the womb, his whole lineage had been extinguished.
If he lives until manhood, it’ll be a life of little luck and much disaster.
His father was decapitated at the execution ground,
His mother died prisoner in her cold palace.32
This is no bloodthirsty white-clad minister,
But rather an abandoned black-headed grub.
You say he’s a real man who’ll avenge his father and mother,
But I
Say he’s the very seed of disaster that brought his parents down.
In twenty years you can avenge your noble father,
That will be the time for you to rise to glory.
I must die sooner or later, and then everything will be gone—
My spirit and energy are not what they used to be.
But abandoned, how could this child establish his merit?
In all your insistence you refuse to budge an inch—
Wouldn’t I like to have one more day of life to display my awesome might?
But I find it hard to stand these evening drums and morning bells.34
(Liangzhou)
In this marionette’s booth
Drum and fife manipulate us.
And the flower of youth is dispatched by a finale,
A finale that brings every hero to his end in old age.
“To meet an enemy and take no vengeance is a useless act,”
“No courage counted to see an injustice and not to act,”
“What use are words spoken without trust?”
You don’t have to make more of me than I am,
No real man sorrows over his own death,
Less so me, with white hair flowing free.
(Ma yulang)
Which of the two of us will act the leader, which the accomplice?35
For we’ll both wind up beheaded in the marketplace.
You are in pain because of the grace shown you by the family Zhao—
For you, my brother,
I am filled with the same respect,
As if we were born from the same mother.
(Gan huang’en)
I fear no tip of a three-foot frost-cold sword,
Not even the nine tripods of a state cauldron,36
Execution by a sharp blade,
Being fed poisonous herbs,
Or boiled in roiling oil.
May my heroic soul dissolve into darkness,
And in the somber mists, hazy and vague,
Disperse into sorrowing clouds,
And follow the setting sun,
Aloft on a mournful wind.
(Chujiang yun)
This old rustic
Are both forlorn in the bright moon’s light.
Ethers of enmity rush out, hatred knows no end,
Ten years of the past are rendered useless in a moment.
(Second from Coda)
That one
Is seed of a minister of merit whose portrait should grace the Unicorn Hall.38
I don’t believe one finds dog tracks in front of a tiger’s gate—
After grown to manhood, he will set things right.
To slice Tu’an Gu ten thousand times would be too slight
To avenge all the suffering of a patriarchal line of three hundred.
There will be no need for any mass for the dead—
Wrench out the blood from his breast and let it gush into the sky
As an offering for your father and grandfather.
(Coda)
Relying on the thousand-year lineage, those branches and leaves of the house of Zhao,39
We will prop up the hundred-two40 might of the mountains and rivers of the dynasty of Jin.
In this way,
By displaying his might to the eight directions, he can lead masses of troops,
And, arranging two ranks of scarlet-clad outrunners, he can line up his retinue of chariots.
I think back
To Ling Zhe who held the axle, whose resolve was fierce,
To Chu Ni who smashed his head against the acacia, whose life was so ended,
To the palace officer who guarded the gate, who committed suicide.
Gongsun, who will now sacrifice his life, is old and useless,
The child, who is just newly born, will suffer sword’s point,
Cheng Ying, who gives up his own child, is unshaken in his heart.
In the register of names in the history of the state, we will unjustly be omitted,
But the future will know and value us.
No need to erect a memorial stele amid the densely scattered graves,
But at Beimang Hill41 simply inter my empty casket within its burial mound.
[ACT 3]
[GONGSUN CHUJIU sings:]
([SHUANGDIAO MODE:] Xinshui ling)
All I see is dust rising as they fly over the small bridge,42
Surely it is the rebellious minister who has commandeered the liege lords.
Massed in orderly fashion—his officers and troops array themselves;
Glistening, shimmering bright—their lances and swords stand in rows.
What’s clear to me now is that I die this very morning,
I can escape this painful, brutal abuse no more.
(Zhuma ting)
For me it’s thus:
“The general is old, his soldiers slack.”
With Zhao Dun, I swore brotherhood to the death.
I did say, “The minister is all-powerful, the lord weak.”
And I know my tongue is the very sword that will cut off my own head.
A real man, heroic and brave, makes his pact with heroes and the hardy,
The sage once said, “Those who possess the Way chastise those without.”
[Tu’an Gu] has cut off the descent of the whole house,
O, heaven,
“A hard frost first kills a grass without roots.”
(Chenzui dongfeng)
Don’t think that the soul of a real man will fly in fright to the ninth heaven.
Let Tu’an Gu use a thousand cudgels—
If I confess quickly, he’ll easily get to the bottom of it,
But if I confess slowly, he’ll find my story hard to doubt.43
Every stroke I can bear is a stroke of merit.
If we don’t want him uprooting the tree to trace the roots to their lowest point,
Then I’d better
Suffer as much as I can of being trussed tightly, strung up, and beaten.
(Yan’er luo)
Manipulating me, you got me into this,44
Falling in line with the traitor, you’ve informed on me.
You scare me so,
I can’t still my quivering, shaking, quaking kneecaps,
Or subdue my thumping, racing, jumping heart.
(Shui xianzi)
The two of us decided—I confess first,
As it rises to the tip of my tongue, I choke it back down.
Should I die, don’t think I’ll say even one “Cheng Ying”—
How can I start something I won’t end?
And not just beating,
Even if they prop up nine tripod vats of boiling oil,
I’ve had enough experience not to get ruffled.
If I am to die, I will die well—
Even if you send down a whole storm of hail!
(Chuan bo zhao)
You—
In those days you kept the Demon Mastiff,
That tore at loyal ministers and good generals.
You—
You wanted to usurp the power of the imperial court
And scheme against ministers and officials.
Him—
His whole household, three hundred strong, old and young,
Everyone within his gates was decapitated in the marketplace,
And his whole lineage was completely wiped out.
Now you have searched out this small child
And fly into a pounding rage.
(Qi dixiong)
He has utterly changed
His outward look.
He’ll never show mercy,
His countenance45 is red from the tip-top down.
Over his lion-buckle belt he lifts the brocade battle gown,
And draws his Dragon Spring sword from its sharkskin sheath.
(Meihua jiu)
Ah!
There he lies in a puddle of blood.46
Testimony to the toil of growing up.
He couldn’t escape Heaven’s predestination,
You cannot enjoy the offspring of sons.
Cheng Ying, will you ever raise a son to prepare for your old age?47
I cannot believe you aren’t disturbed.
This child, from his birthing mat just lifted—
Counting today, only ten days hence—
Has been cruelly cut in two by Tu’an’s blade.
(Shou Jiangnan)
Say not the phrase “If the family is rich, the child is pampered.”
I see him48 over there, with an itch in his heart he can’t scratch,
He dares not let a single teardrop fall from his pupils,
Furtively wiping them all away,
As if all his living organs were scalded by boiling oil.
(Coda)
If my dying at sixty cannot be counted as reaching old age,
How young this child who dies in his first year?
We two, who die here in this one place,
Should at least end up with a name that will last ten thousand generations.
And so
I urge you, Cheng Ying, remember well the cruelly slain Zhao Shuo,
And raise this child to manhood,
So he may avenge the injustice of his parents’ murder,
And with a thousand hacks of his own blade, turn that bastard into mincemeat—
I will not lightly let you off!
[ACT 4]
[ORPHAN, as man of twenty, sings:]
([ZHONGLÜ MODE:] Fen die’er)
No need
For the armed troops under my command—
The Son of Heaven, aided by the hundred gods,
Wants my father to call himself “We, This Orphan.”49
To desire these rivers and mountains,
Or steal away the Altars of Earth and Grain,
Is as easy as taking something from the folds of a gown.
On his golden throne or in his simurgh palanquin,
He is as frightened of us as if we were scorpions.
(Zui chunfeng)
I want to
Rebel against our old master Duke Ling of Jin
And aid our new lord, Tu’an Gu.
Let the Crown Equal to Heaven,
The belt of lapis lazuli,
And the gown of coiling dragons
Change to a new master.
Master!
Who cares about a sage lord? A wise minister?
If the father is loving and the child filial,
Who cares that “the worries of the master are the shame of the ministers”?
(Ying xianke)
Why
So many stains of tears wiped away?50
Or such heavy sighs as these?
I had come forward with folded arms only to pay my respects—
You are cranky and cross, your anger has been stirred up,
Mean and nasty, you’ve worked up a rage.
I lower my head and wonder,
Which of my words was off the mark?
(Hong xiu xie)
Painted
In darkest, deepest green—some mulberry trees,51
A clamoring, shouting crowd—a bunch of rustic villagers.
This one here, dripping with blood, supports a cart on his arm,
And this one here dies below the acacia tree.
The point of a sword executes this one,
And this old man,
Turns over an infant with some advice.
(Shiliu hua)
Now this one, mean and nasty, grasps a saber in his hand,
And this one here kneels below the steps.
This infant here loses his life under the point of a sword,
And a woman is slain,
Splayed out in a puddle of blood.
And why is this old man put to death?
This one here, wearing his red gown, is really rotten to the core!
I’ve thought this story over, but don’t have the slightest clue.
It’s painted in such a way that it puzzles me, leaves me confused and depressed.
(Dou anchun)
Whose child is it in this bloody affair?
Whose ancestors are these on the execution ground?
This one has no sons and grandsons to call his own,
And that one can’t save his own father and mother.
Whose family history does this hand scroll depict?
Tell your son everything, from beginning to end:
Did this man here transgress the law and all of its codicils?
Did that man there suffer injustice? Harbor vengeance?
(Putian le)
I want to hear everything from the beginning,
Pull out my blade to come to their aid.
It makes
Sorrow knot in my heart,
Rage pound in my breast.
So
It was my father who was done in,
And the ancestors of my family!
And if we speak of the most desolating and heartbreaking points,
Even a man of iron
Would weep and cry without restraint.
Tu’an Gu,
You were to be emperor and lord,
And I prime minister—
What was heaven thinking?
(Shang xiaolou)
Father, if you hadn’t looked out for me,
And hadn’t raised me, your child,
From twenty years ago,
My head would have been separated from my body
And I would have perished in the wilds outside town.
Tu’an Gu,
That common miscreant,
Uprooted the tree to search for its roots,
Decapitated my whole family, extinguished our house, exterminated our clan.
(Reprise)
Since that bastard is betraying the One Man,
How fitting to exterminate his entire lineage.
Really! All the armies in the empire,
The people who fill the realm,
Were put in the hands of that bastard.
All the time it was you who masterminded it,
You who protected him
And let him abuse the liege lords.
All the time it was you who set him to murder his lord and kill my father.
[(Shi’er yue)]
Thinking about
My father and mother, harboring their injustice—
I’ll grab that toadying traitor,
Make him ride the wooden donkey,52
Cut the bastard’s body to pieces,
And chop his pampered sons and young daughters into a pulpy mess—
I’ll not let a single relative get away!
[(Yaomin ge)]
Today
Someone will do away with you, how does that feel?
And it was you who became the magic amulet that protected the life of the Orphan of Zhao!
So, let the whole family of that bastard—master and servants—be executed.
Just see how smeared with blood my three-foot-long Dragon Spring will be!
In a moment,
In a moment,
What you owed and shorted me on in my previous life,
Will be collected in full today.
(Shua hai’er)
If I meet my blood enemy in the morn,
I’ll block the path of that traitor in the Long Street,53
With Dragon Spring clenched in my hand, I’ll clutch his gown,
And halting his bearlike horse, I’ll just stretch out my gibbon arms,
Jerk his jade-bridled, golden-saddled horse to the ground,
And mangle his golden-flowered, black-canopied chariot.
There’ll be no easy pardon,
“A fierce tiger may hesitate
And be no match for the sting of wasps and scorpions!”
(Third from Coda)
If I do not cleanse this vengeful hatred,
I cannot rid myself of this hated injustice.
I can see my cruelly slain father, the mother who bore me dying in captivity.
If I don’t avenge the hatred of my parents in their graves,
I’ll be ashamed to meet that starving man among the mulberries.54
Have no doubts nor plan too much—
There’s no need to distinguish between strong and weak,
Or delve into right or wrong!
(Second)
That bastard—
I’ll scoop out his eyes,
Rip open his belly,
Pull out his heart and liver,
I’ll cut off his arms and legs,
And break that bastard’s back, cracking and snapping, in a single throw.
So it’s said, “A man without hatred is no man of honor,
A man with no venom is no man at all.”
He cannot be shielded—
I fear no
Guards to the front and runners behind,
No troops to the right or left.
(Coda)
I want to repay the favor of my father and mother, cruelly slain,
Relying on the good fortune of our sagely and enlightened, august emperor.
If the Imperial Guard is willing to protect the Orphan of Zhao,
Then I will act the advocate for our lord and king on his golden throne.
| Title: |
Han Jue saves a hero who risks his life, |
| |
Cheng Ying convinces one jealous of valor and gives up his own child. |
| |
Righteousness meets righteousness: Gongsun Chujiu, |
| |
Injustice repays injustice: the Orphan of Zhao. |
The Orphan of Zhao, the end.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
| Role type |
Name and family, institutional, or social role |
| VILLAIN |
TU’AN GU |
| ADDED MALE |
ZHAO SHUO, father of the ORPHAN |
| FEMALE LEAD |
ZHAO SHUO’s wife, PRINCESS OF JIN |
| EXTRA |
MESSENGER |
| EXTRA |
CHENG YING |
| MALE LEAD |
HAN JUE |
| SOLDIER |
A sergeant in HAN JUE’s squad |
| MALE LEAD |
GONGSUN CHUJIU |
| SOLDIER |
GUARD at TU’AN GU’s office |
| MALE LEAD |
CHENG BO (aka TU CHENG, the ORPHAN) |
| EXTRA |
WEI JIANG, court dignitary of Jin |
| ZHANG QIAN |
Aide to WEI JIANG |
THE ZAJU THE ORPHAN OF ZHAO GREATLY WREAKS VENGEANCE
WRITTEN BY JI JUNXIANG OF THE YUAN
COLLATED BY ZANG JINSHU OF WUXING IN THE MING DYNASTY
WEDGE
(VILLAIN, dressed as TU’AN GU, enters leading foot soldiers and recites:)
Humans have no mind to harm the tiger,
But a tiger has the will to injure humans;
If you don’t exhaust your emotions at the moment,
After the fact your feelings will be stirred up.
I am Tu’an Gu, mighty general of the Jin. Our ruler now seated, Duke Ling, has a thousand each of ministers civil and martial. But those he trusts number only one of each, Zhao Dun, head of the civil ranks, and me, head of the martial. The two of us, civil and martial, don’t get along, and I’ve always had a mind to harm Zhao Dun. But try as I could, there was nowhere to set my hand to it. Zhao Dun’s son is called Zhao Shuo and he is now the duke’s son-in-law. I once dispatched the brave knight Chu Ni to leap across the wall holding his short knife to assassinate Zhao Dun, but who’d figure that Chu Ni would bash his head against a tree and die? Now Zhao Dun had once gone out to the suburbs as the Exhorter of Agriculture and he saw a man dying from hunger under a mulberry tree. He fed him his fill of rice and wine, and that fellow fled without even a single good-bye. Later the state of the Western Rong sent a hound as tribute, a dog they called the Demon Mastiff, and Duke Ling gave him to me. I’ve had a plot to kill Zhao Dun ever since I took possession of this Demon Mastiff. I locked him in an empty room and skipped feeding him for four or five days. Then I strung a straw man up in the rear garden, dressed him in purple robes and a jade belt, an ivory tablet of office, and raven-black boots—just like the way Zhao Dun dresses. I hung a pair of sheep’s entrails inside this straw dummy and brought the Demon Mastiff out. I tore open the purple robes of Zhao Dun, gave the hound his fill of food, and then put him back, as before, into an empty room. Then I starved him again for a few days, and then he attacked the dummy, bit into it, broke open the purple robe, and ate his fill of sheep’s entrails again. After I had trained him this way for a hundred days and I figured that he was ready to use, I went to see Duke Ling. I simply told him that there was a man neither filial nor loyal in our midst who was set on duping the duke. As soon as Duke Ling heard this, he got angry and asked me who it was. I told him, “This Demon Mastiff that was offered up by the Western Rong is a creature of preternatural wonder; he can sniff him out.” Duke Ling was overjoyed and said, “Back in the times of Yao and Shun, the Single-Horned Beast55 gored all the evil people. Who’d have thought that our own state of Jin would possess this Demon Mastiff? Where is it?” I led out that wonder hound, and as soon as it saw Zhao Dun, who was standing in his purple robes and jade belt by the duke’s seat, it attacked and bit him. Duke Ling said, “Tu’an Gu, you let that Demon Mastiff loose. Isn’t this the slanderous minister?” I set the mastiff loose, and it chased Zhao Dun around the hall. But, alas, someone stepped in angrily from the sidelines—that Grand Pacifier of the Force Before the Hall, Timi Ming—and knocked the Demon Mastiff down with his melon-gourd club. Then with one hand he picked the dog up by the loose skin of his head and with the other grabbed hold of his jawbone. And with a single rip, he split the Demon Mastiff in half. As soon as Zhao Dun got out of the door, he looked for the four-horse chariot he came in. But I had already sent someone to unbuckle two of the horses and take off one of the wheels. He got onto the chariot, but he couldn’t go anywhere. Running in from the sidelines another brave warrior held up the wheel with one shoulder and drove the horses on with one hand, opening up the road in front of him and giving Zhao Dun an escape route. And who do you think this person was? Ling Zhe, the guy who was starving under the mulberry. I persuaded Duke Ling in a face-to-face encounter to exterminate all three hundred relatives, noble and base, who filled Zhao Dun’s gates. Only Zhao Shuo, who was in the palace with the princess and was the royal son-in-law, couldn’t be assassinated. I wanted to cut out all the grass and extirpate all the roots so that no sprouts should tendril out. So I faked an order from Duke Ling and sent a minister to deliver the three court measures for dealing with crimes—bowstring, poisoned wine, and dagger—and ordered Zhao Shuo to pick whichever measure he liked to end his life. I told that man to get back here soon and report to me. (Recites:)
Three hundred household dependents: a house already extinguished,
All that’s left is one royal relative: Zhao Shuo.
No matter by which measure he should die,
All the grass will be cut and the roots all dug up.
(Exits.)
(ADDED MALE, costumed as ZHAO SHUO, and FEMALE LEAD [costumed as] princess, enter. ZHAO SHUO speaks:) I am Zhao Shuo, and my office is that of commandant-escort. Who would have thought that Tu’an Gu would be so incompatible with my father and would manipulate Duke Ling to the point that he would assassinate all three hundred household dependents of our clan, whether noble or base? Ah, Princess, listen to the words I leave behind. Your belly now holds our child. If it is a girl, there is nothing to be said, but if it is a little boy, I am going to name it in the womb and give it the baby name of the Orphan of the Family of Zhao. When he is fully grown, let him cleanse this injustice and take revenge for my father and mother.
(FEMALE LEAD, acting out crying, speaks:) Oh, I’m dying with the pain of it all.
(EXTRA, costumed as MESSENGER, leads a retinue on and speaks:) I am bearing the mandate of our ruler, the duke. I am to deliver the three court measures for dealing with crimes—bowstring, poisoned wine, and dagger—and give them to Consort Zhao Shuo and let him pick the one of his choice to quickly end his life. Afterwards I am to lock the princess in her quarters as prisoner. I dare not hesitate or stop; I must deliver this mandate in a hurry. Here I am already at the gate of their residence. (Acts out greeting them, speaks:) Zhao Shuo, kneel. Listen to the mandate of our lord, the duke.
Because your family is disloyal and not filial, because they have deceived the duke and despoiled the law, your entire family, whether noble or base, has been exterminated; yet there remains a miscreant. Pausing to think that you, Zhao Shuo, have a relationship to my own blood, I cannot bear executing you and so have bestowed on you the three court measures for dealing with crimes. You may select one by which to die. The princess shall be locked up in her residence, cut off from her relatives, and forbidden all intercourse with any of them.
Zhao Shuo, the royal mandate may not be countered or delayed. Quickly do yourself in.
(ZHAO SHUO speaks:) It has come to this and there is nothing left to be done. (Sings:)
([XIANLÜ MODE:] Shanghua shi)
All in vain—the loyal goodness with which I repay my lord is ended in a morning,
While that traitorous official, poisonous worm of state, wields power in his hands.
He has without reason employed his snares and plots,
And sent me to have my head lopped off in Yunyang Market.56
Isn’t this the final result of all my energy and effort?
(FEMALE LEAD speaks:) Heaven! Pity our family so abused that they die without a place to bury them! (ZHAO SHUO sings:)
(Reprise)
It will never come to pass that my body will be buried in our ancient tumuli!
(Speaks:) Remember well, My Princess, the words that I spoke to you. (FEMALE LEAD speaks:) I know, I know. (ZHAO SHUO sings:)
I enjoin her as tears stream like rain along her cheeks,
Every sentence I speak becomes a single moment of sorrow.
Wait until that child of mine has grown to manhood
And say, “For the three hundred of us—
Revenge! Take revenge for our injustice.”
(He acts out dying and exits.)
(FEMALE LEAD speaks:) My husband! You’re killing me.
(Exits.)
(MESSENGER speaks:) Zhao Shuo used the short knife to end his life. The princess is locked away in her residence. I must now go and report to our lord the duke. (Recites:)
The very day the Western Rong presented the Demon Mastiff as tribute,
Sealed the inescapable fate of the hundred members of the Zhao family.
Pity the princess still locked away in her room,
Could Zhao Shuo have not decided on the short knife?
(Exits.)
ACT 1
(TU’AN GU enters and speaks:) I am Tu’an Gu. As for the princess—I’m afraid she’s added a boy child who will eventually become a grown-up man. Won’t he become my enemy? I’ve already locked the princess up in her residence, and she should have reached parturition by now. Why hasn’t the person I sent to check on her returned yet? (FOOT SOLDIER enters, acts out reporting, speaks:) I am reporting to you, Grand Marshal, that the princess, locked inside her chambers, has given birth to a boy that she has named the Orphan of Zhao. (TU’AN GU speaks:) So it’s true. She’s called him the Orphan of Zhao. I’ll wait until the first month is up;57 that’ll be time enough to kill the runt. Messenger! Send forth my command, “Send Lieutenant General Han Jue to hold the doors of her residence secure. Don’t check anyone going in but search everyone coming out. If anyone tries to spirit away Zhao the Orphan, their whole family will be decapitated and none of their nine mourning grades58 will be left alive.” Also hang up a notice for me to tell all generals that they had better not contravene or mistake this order lest they bring down the same punishment on themselves. (Recites:)
It was because the princess of Jin grew pregnant,
And the Orphan she bore is my enemy;
Wait I must for the full month and then hack him to death with an iron sword,
Before I can claim that I have pruned the grass and ripped out its roots.
(Exits.)
(FEMALE LEAD, cradling the boy, enters and recites:)
Every vexation under heaven,
Lies upon this heart of mine;
Just like the rain of an autumn night,
Every drop, every sound is sorrow.
I am a princess of the house of Jin. That traitor of an official Tu’an Gu slew everyone, exterminated the house of Zhao without regard to their status. And now for my only begotten son I remember that my husband left a testament as he neared death: if it was a boy, he was to be called Zhao the Orphan. When he grows up to be a man, he’s to cleanse away the injustice done to his parents and repay their enemies. O, Heaven. How can I get this child out of here? Any way I can will have to do. Let me think; there are no relatives left. There’s only our retainer Cheng Ying, whose name was never affiliated with the family. I’ll wait until he arrives—I have an idea.
(EXTRA, dressed as CHENG YING, enters bearing a medicine chest on his back and speaks:) I am Cheng Ying. I was originally an itinerant physician, but when I was a retainer in the house of the consort, I was treated very, very well—better than the average person. But that murderous official Tu’an Gu slew everyone, noble and base, exterminating the house of Zhao. Fortunately my name did not appear on the family register. Now the princess is locked away in her residence and I send her tea and food every day. Even though she has given birth to a boy—he is called the Orphan of Zhao and when he grows up to be a man he’s to cleanse away the injustice done to his parents and repay their enemies—I’m afraid he’ll never escape the clutches of that traitorous butcher Tu. This is all wrong. I hear that the princess summoned me, and I guess that she needs some liquid and herbal medicine.59 So, I’d better go. (CHENG YING acts out greeting her and speaks:) Why did you call me, Princess?
(FEMALE LEAD speaks:) We Zhaos have suffered to death. Cheng Ying, I’ve asked you here for only one reason; I’ve had a son who was given the name of the Orphan of Zhao by a father on the verge of his own death. Cheng Ying, in all the time you’ve been with our Zhao family, we’ve never treated you badly. You must think of a way to hide this baby away so that later, when he’s a man, he can pay back the enemy of the Zhaos. (CHENG YING speaks:) Don’t you know, Princess, that Tu’an Gu knows you’ve given birth to this boy and that on each of the four city gates has hung up this announcement: “If anyone tries to spirit away the Orphan of Zhao, their whole family will be decapitated and none of their nine relations will be left alive.” How can I hide him away? (FEMALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, (recites:)
Is it not said, “Think of kin when encountering an emergency,
Rely on old friends when approaching danger”?
If you rescue this child that I gave birth to,
Then the family of Zhao will have left a single root behind.
(Kneels and speaks:) Cheng Ying, have pity on the Zhaos, whose three hundred souls are vested in this one child! (CHENG YING speaks:) Princess, arise. If I hide this little master away and Tu’an Gu finds out about it and asks you about the Orphan of Zhao, you just tell him you have given the child to me. If my own family should die, so be it. But don’t hope this child will get away alive. (FEMALE LEAD speaks:) Enough, enough, enough. Cheng Ying, I’m telling you to go with an easy mind.
(Recites:)
Cheng Ying, let your heart find no turmoil,
A thousand tears will fall when I finish speaking.
His father died willingly by the point of a knife
(Takes off the belt of her skirt to hang herself, speaks:) Enough! Enough! Enough!
His mother now follows with her own death.
(Exits.)
(CHENG YING speaks:) I never guessed that the princess would hang herself. I’d better not linger or tarry. Let me open this medicine chest and put the little master inside and then cover his body with some fresh herbal medicines. O, Heaven, how pitiful! Three hundred souls of the Zhao family were wiped out and all that’s left is this one little child. I’ll try and get him out safe now. If you have any luck at all, I’ll be successful. If you’re found, you’ll lose your life and the lives of my whole family will be beyond protection. (Recites:)
Cheng Ying, let your heart make a plan:
This family of Zhao is truly worth grieving over.
I just want to get you outside these nine-deep concentric circles of the marshal’s headquarters,
So you can escape those calamities of heaven’s net and earth’s snare.
(Exits.)
(MALE LEAD, costumed as HAN JUE, enters leading foot soldiers, speaks:) I am Lieutenant General Han Jue, an aide under the aegis of Tu’an Gu. He has sent me to guard the doors of the princess’s residence. And why? Just because the princess has borne a child that is called the Orphan of Zhao. He’s afraid someone will steal it away. He told me if I find it in searching people leaving the residence, then the whole family of that person is to be decapitated and all nine relations wiped out. Captain, hold the gate to the princess’s compound securely. Damn, Tu’an Gu, when will we see the end of people like you, who so destroy the loyal and good? (Sings:)
(XIANLÜ MODE: Dian jiangchun)
The enfeoffed states now in tangled confusion,
None is stronger than Jin.
When just so securely settled,
Why such a tyrannical minister as Tu’an Gu?
He simply destroys the loyal and filial grandees of state.
(Hunjiang long)
And just when the winds are fair and the rain seasonal—
In such years of high peace such a man as this is favored!
The loyal and filial have their heads lopped off in the marketplace,
While that traitor and toady takes his ease in the marshal’s compound.
And now he exercises all the power and makes all the fortune—
We cannot say that it is “Half from the lord, half from the minister.”
He, he, he—claws and fangs he has packed into the gates of the court:
Those who resist even a little are cut down, finished one by one.
True it is, he’s a source of evil among men,
He’s no “general to be trusted beyond the gates.”
(Speaks:) I don’t believe that such a deep enmity that knotted Tu’an Gu and Zhao Dun together can ever be undone. (Sings:)
(You hulu)
He wants to cut down the grass, prevent sprouts, cut out the root of disaster,
And makes me hold tight the compound gate.
I, too, am a longtime minister of house and state.
He who hides the child—it is not right to conceal him.
He who slays the child—can his heart bear to do it?
(Continues in speech:) Tu’an Gu, you’re tyrannical. (Sings:)
One day you’ll enrage Heaven above
And vex the people below.
Why don’t you fear the myriad mouths will boil over in competing condemnations?
Or that heaven, showing its blue face, will grant no pardon to man?
(Tianxia le)
Is it not said, “It reaches as far away as sons and grandsons, and comes as close as one’s self”?60
Ai! Such an oh-so-treacherous official,
How could you and Zhao Dun
Have been colleagues for twenty years and yet you still lack any friendly feelings?
But you came up with the plan to work your evil design
And fingered a good minister as an evil man.
And if these two were to be carefully evaluated,
Which one will wind up to be the crueler?
(Speaks:) Officer, watch the gate. If you see anyone coming out of the compound gate, let me know. (SOLDIER speaks:) Yes sir! (CHENG YING runs on in a panic, speaks:) Inside this medicine box in my arms I have the Orphan of Zhao. Heaven, take pity! Fortunately, it is General Han Jue who is guarding the compound gate. He is someone who was promoted by the old minister. The young master and I both may live. (Acts out going out through the gate.) (MALE LEAD speaks:) Sergeant, bring me that man who is holding a medicine box in his arms! Who are you! (CHENG YING speaks:) I am an itinerant physician and my name is Cheng Ying. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Where are you coming from? (CHENG YING speaks:) From brewing up infusions and administering simples in the princess’s compound. (MALE LEAD speaks:) What kind of medicine did you supply? (CHENG YING speaks:) I gave her a postpartum infusion. (MALE LEAD speaks:) And what do you have in this box? (CHENG YING speaks:) Only simples. (MALE LEAD speaks:) What kind of simples? (CHENG YING speaks:) Bellflower, licorice, and peppermint. (MALE LEAD speaks:) What is between the layers? (CHENG YING speaks:) Nothing. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Then you may go. (CHENG YING acts out fleeing. MALE LEAD acts out calling, speaks:) Cheng Ying, come back! What do you have in that box? (CHENG YING speaks:) Only simples! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Is there anything you are carrying hidden in between? (CHENG YING speaks:) There’s nothing hidden in between! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Go! (CHENG YING acts out fleeing. MALE LEAD acts out calling, speaks:) Cheng Ying, come back! You have to be hiding something. When I tell you to go, you’re like an arrow leaving the string. But when I call you to come back, it’s like pulling hair over felt. Cheng Ying, did you think I don’t recognize you? (Sings:)
(Hexi Houting hua)
You were once upon a time an honored guest in the house of Zhao Dun,
But I am definitely a retainer in the service of Tu’an Gu.
You’re hiding that unicorn seed that has yet to reach a month in age!
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying, don’t you see? (Sings:)
How can you get out of this tiger and leopard lair that even the wind can’t enter?
And if I were not the lieutenant general,
I would not subject you to questioning!
(Speaks:) Cheng Ying, I know that you have received many favors of the Zhao family. (CHENG YING speaks:) Yes indeed. One who acknowledges a favor, repays that favor. That goes without saying! (MALE LEAD sings:)
You say “one who acknowledges favor” should “repay that favor,”
But I don’t think you’ll escape with your life even if you wanted:
Front and rear, the gates are guarded,
On earth or in heaven you’ve nowhere to run.
If I bring you back and find out the truth
And go and report, taking the Orphan with me,
To live will be impossible,
To die a certainty!
(Speaks:) Sergeant, move back! Come if I call you, but if I don’t, don’t! (SOLDIER speaks:) Yes sir! (MALE LEAD acts out opening the box and noticing the baby, speaks:) Cheng Ying, you said you had bellflower, licorice, and peppermint, but now I’ve found ginseng!61 (CHENG YING acts out kneeling down in panic and prostrating himself.) (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Jinzhan’er)
I see the Orphan, his forehead covered in sweat
And at the corners of his mouth the froth of his mother’s milk.
He opens wide his eyes, sparkling and bright, and recognizes me.
Quiet and silent inside the box, he seems to swallow his voice,
Closely swaddled, he cannot stretch a limb,
So tightly cramped, he cannot turn over.
True this is: “If one is to grow into a man, one must suffer lack of freedom,
But too much freedom, then one cannot grow into a man.”
(CHENG YING recites in ballad verse:)
Your Excellency, please still your rage and rest your anger,
And listen to me explain the matter from the very beginning:
Because Zhao Dun was the worthiest official of the house of Jin,
Tu’an Gu in his heart was consumed by jealousy and spite.
He had the Demon Mastiff attack a man so loyal and good,
And through the gate of the palace Zhao Dun fled for his life.
Steering that one-wheeled chariot Ling Zhe repaid a favor,
Then disappeared into the deepest mountains, no one knows where.
But Duke Ling heeded and trusted words of a slanderer
And let that traitor Tu do as he liked!
He bestowed death upon the ducal son-in-law, who fell on his sword,
And exterminated nine mourning grades of the family—none was left alive.
He confined the princess to the cold palace
And would not allow any relatives to help.
In conformity with her husband’s last words she called her child “the Orphan.”
But mother and child were unable to remain together.
For barely had she given birth, when her life returned to the shades,
But she ordered me, Cheng Ying, to conceal him and protect him
So later he can eventually grow up and become a man
Who will look after the ancestral graves of the Zhao family.
By lucky chance I have encountered you, General,
And I fully hope that you will draw your sword and come to his rescue.
If you once again cut off and uproot this last little sprout,
Won’t you be finishing them off, the whole family extirpated and gone?
(MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, if I were to take this child and deliver it up, I would live in riches and honor for the rest of my life! But I am a real man who stands on earth with heaven above him—how could I willingly do such a foul deed! (Sings:)
(Zui zhong tian)
If I were to offer him up for the sake of glorious advancement,
Would they not say, “He profited himself by destroying others”?
How sad that none of his three hundred blood kin survive,
So who is left to wipe out this everlasting wrong?
(Continues in speech:) If that Tu’an Gu sees this child, (sings:)
I’m sure he’ll take skin, tendons, and all
To knead him into a meaty paste!
But I have no reason at all
To establish such blind merit!
(Speaks:) Cheng Ying, carry this child on out. If Tu’an Gu asks, I’ll answer myself for it! (CHENG YING speaks:) Thank you, General! (Acts out walking out carrying the box, but returns again and kneels down) (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, I said you’re free to go. Do you think I am playing with you? Get out of here now! (CHENG YING speaks:) Thank you, General! (Acts out going and again returning to kneel.) (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, why have you come back once more? (Sings:)
(Jinzhan’er)
You must be guessing that I am putting you on and am being insincere.
Don’t you know that “the orchid sighs, lamenting that the basil is burned?”62
Go, now, go, a number of times I’ve set you free,
Why do you keep coming back to the gate?
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying! (Sings:)
If you don’t have enough courage to protect yourself,
Who forced you to make yourself the Orphan’s protector?
Isn’t it said, “A loyal minister does not fear death,
Whoever fears death is no loyal minister!”
(CHENG YING speaks:) General, if I get out of this compound and you tell Tu’an Gu, he’ll send another general to run me down and arrest me. There’s no way that the Orphan can survive. So be it! General, arrest me, request your merit and take your reward! I am willing to lay down my life together with the Orphan’s! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, go on and don’t worry! (Sings:)
(Zui fu gui)
You want to preserve the last scion for the sake of the Zhao,
But I feel no closeness to that traitor Tu!
Why would I want to pretend to have human feelings,
Then dispatch a mass of troops to form a whirlwind battle formation?
But if you are loyal, I too can keep my word,
If you are willing to sacrifice your life,
I willingly will slit my throat!
(Qing ge’er)
Really, this is something that cannot be expressed in a single word, in a single word!
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying! (Sings:)
And for you nothing is treasured in your eyes, in your eyes!
Take the Orphan and hide him in the deepest recesses of the deepest mountains,
And there teach and guide him to manhood,
Let him practice martial and civil arts,
So he may take command of the army,
Arrest that traitorous minister—
Crush his head and dismember his body
To repay the souls of the dead!
Then that will not betray our determined steps through the gate of right and wrong,
Or the way we shouldered danger and distress!
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying, go without fear! (Sings:)
(Zhuansha Coda)
It’s better that he gets clarification from my very body,
But how can I put up with being interrogated in front of that traitor?
I will rashly bash my head against the steps to end my own life.
I might not leave a fragrant name to be renowned for all eternity,
But I can still keep Chu Ni company, twin souls of loyal men.
You, you, you be diligent, look after him morning and dusk,
For he is the only life root of the house of Zhao!
And just wait until he has reached manhood,
Before you tell him the tale from the very beginning:
And tell him, he who takes revenge,
To not forget me, his great benefactor!
(Slits his throat, exits.)
(CHENG YING speaks:) Ah, General Han has slit his throat! I’m afraid that when the soldiers find this out, they will report it to Tu’an Gu. So what to do now? I’ll have to flee for my life, carrying the Orphan in my arms! (Recites:)
General Han was truly a soldier loyal and good,
Who slit his throat and perished, all for this Orphan.
Now I can go on ahead without having to worry,
And in Great Peace Village make further plans.
(Exits.)
ACT 2
(TU’AN GU enters leading soldiers, speaks:) “Let nothing bother me, those who are bothered go crazy.”63 Because the princess bore a little one whom she called the Orphan of Zhao, I, Tu’an Gu, dispatched Lieutenant General Han Jue to guard the gates of her compound and to search out any traitors or spies. On the other hand I had announcements posted that if anyone smuggled the Orphan of Zhao out, he and his whole family would be punished by decapitation—none in the nine grades of mourning would be left! I don’t have to worry that the Orphan will fly off to Heaven, do I? But I haven’t seen anyone bring the Orphan to me yet, so I can’t stop worrying. Runner, go keep watch outside the gate! (SOLDIER acts out reporting, speaks:) Marshal, a disaster! (TU’AN GU speaks:) What kind of disaster? (SOLDIER speaks:) The princess hanged herself with the belt of her skirt in her compound, and General Han Jue, who was guarding the gate, has died by slitting his throat! (TU’AN GU speaks:) Why did Han Jue slit his own throat? He must have allowed the Orphan of Zhao to escape! What to do now? “One wrinkle at the tip of the brow, and a new scheme arises in the heart”: I now have no other way but to counterfeit an edict by Duke Ling, according to which all newborn babies in the state of Jin younger than six months but older than one month will be rounded up and brought to me. Every single one I see I will chop to pieces with three strokes of my sword! The Orphan of Zhao will surely be among them. This will do away with any future harm to me. Runner, post announcements ordering that all newborn babies in the state of Jin who are younger than half a year and older than one month must be rounded up and taken to my marshal’s office to await further orders. Anyone who disobeys will be decapitated along with his whole family, and no one in the nine mourning grades will be left. (Recites:)
If I round up all the infants in the state of Jin,
The Orphan, I reckon, will have no place to hide.
Let him be a golden branch, a leaf of jade,64
He will never escape the disaster of death by my sword!
(Exits.)
(MALE LEAD, costumed as GONGSUN CHUJIU, enters leading a servant boy, speaks:) I, this old codger, am Gongsun Chujiu. At the court of Duke Ling of Jin I was a grandee of the second order. Because of my advanced age and because I saw that while Tu’an Gu monopolized power I could no longer carry out the affairs of the lord, I retired from my post and resumed farming. A thatched cottage, dozens of acres of fields, and a hoe upon which I can rest my hand! I am living in Lülü Great Peace Village. I usually sleep at night within my bed-curtains and listen to the bugle blowing in the cold. Now I am leaning against the brushwood gate and counting the lines of geese. How it makes one ponder things! (Sings:)
(NANLÜ MODE: Yizhi hua)
You really have unjustly humiliated a great man,
Completely destroyed a true “roof beam of the state.”
Like a foul and filthy butcher of dogs65
You abused this old codger who “fishes out giant turtles.”66
It was my misfortune to live in the time of Duke Ling, one without the Way,
Who loved that traitor and heaped favor and grace on him,
While the worthy suffered privation and distress.
If I had not pulled my feet out of that rushing torrent,
I probably would have delivered my head to that bustling market!67
(Liangzhou diqi)
He, he, he, in his marshal’s office, flaunts his power, shows off his valor,
I, I, I, in Great Peace Village, have retired from my post to resume farming.
Don’t think there are any more heron ranks and leopard tails to come for me!68
At this very moment his office has topped out at the highest rank,
And he has reached a level equal to the Three Dukes;
He has been enfeoffed with the tax harvest of eight districts
And enjoys a salary of a thousand bushels.
He sees injustice, but his eyes seem blind,
Hears them curse and revile him, but his ears seem deaf.
He, he, he simply lets those who know to toady and flatter lay out tripods of food in rows and double up their cushions;
Those who harm the loyal and good he raises in office, presents with emoluments,
Those who scourge both state and family are all given noble rank according to their “merit”!
They, they, they only think of their present pleasure,
And forget that the higher you climb, the worse the sprain when you stumble.
How can they compare to me, keeping to field and garden, learning to plow and sow?
I have jumped out of that lair of man-eating starving tigers,
And now I am so at ease!
(CHENG YING enters, speaks:) Cheng Ying, you are such a wreck! Young Master, you are in such danger! Tu’an Gu, you are so cruel! I, Cheng Ying, may have dashed out of the city at the risk of my life, but I have heard that Tu’an Gu, informed that the Orphan had escaped, wants to collect at his offices all the babies in the state of Jin younger than six months but older than one. Whether they are orphaned or not, he will personally hack each of them into three pieces. Where should I take the young master now? I’ve got it! I’m thinking of Gongsun Chujiu in Lülü Great Peace Village. He was a colleague of Zhao Dun’s and they were the best of friends. Now he has resigned from his post and resumed farming. That old minister is a loyal and upright person. He’ll be willing to hide him there! Now I have arrived in the village. I’ll put my medicine box under this mat shed. Young Master, sleep for a while, I will come back to look after you after I have seen Gongsun Chujiu. Servant, say that Cheng Ying is here and wants to see your master. (SERVANT acts out reporting, speaks:) There’s a Cheng Ying at the gate. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Invite him in. (SERVANT speaks:) Please come in. (MALE LEAD acts out greeting him, speaks:) Cheng Ying, what brings you here? (CHENG YING speaks:) My reason for visiting you here in Great Peace Village is that I have a special request. (MALE LEAD speaks:) How have the other ministers been doing since I retired from office? (CHENG YING speaks:) Ah, these are not like the times when you were a minister. Now Tu’an Gu monopolizes power and nothing is the same as it was. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Well, then the other ministers should remonstrate with him again and again. (CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, there has always been this kind of traitorous officials. Even in the time of Emperor Yao there were the Four Disasters.69 (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Gewei)
You say from antiquity many have been manipulated by evil ministers,
And that even the age of the Sages was replete with its own Four Disasters.
But who, like this one, is cursed by myriads, hated by thousands, but valued by The One!
He is unjust and unfair,
Neither filial nor loyal—
And all alone he killed the entire clan of Zhao Dun until not one seed is left!
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, fortunately august Heaven has eyes: the seed of the house of Zhao has not yet been destroyed! (MALE LEAD speaks:) His whole household, high and low, more than three hundred souls, have all been exterminated. Even the royal son-in-law suffered the “three court measures” and slit his throat with a dagger. The princess too hanged herself by the belt of her skirt. What seed is left and where? (CHENG YING speaks:) The above-mentioned facts you already know, so I don’t have to explain them. But recently the princess, while confined to her compound, gave birth to a son, whom she called the Orphan. If he isn’t a seed of the house of Zhao, who is? But I fear that if Tu’an Gu finds out, he’ll want to kill him too. If he kills this baby, then truly the seed of the house of Zhao will be destroyed! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Where is this child now? Could someone have rescued him? (CHENG YING speaks:) Since you, Minister, show this inkling of compassion, I dare not hide the truth from you. Before her death the princess handed the child to me, Cheng Ying, and ordered me to take good care of him, so that when he grows up and becomes a man, he can take revenge for his father and mother and wipe out this injustice. When I carried the child out through the gate, General Han Jue wanted to arrest us and report to Tu’an Gu, but after I reproved him, he set me free to go out through the gate. He then slit his throat and died. Now I have no place to hide this child and I came to seek shelter with you. Since you were a colleague of Zhao Dun’s I thought you must have been extremely close. Find a way to pity us and to save this Orphan! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Where is the Orphan now? (CHENG YING speaks:) He’s under the mat shed right now. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Don’t frighten the Orphan but quickly bring him inside! (CHENG YING acts out getting the chest, opening and looking, speaks:) Thank heaven and earth! The young master is still asleep! (MALE LEAD acts out taking him in his arms, sings:)
(Muyang guan)
This child—before he was born he had lost all his relatives,
While still in the womb, his whole lineage had been extinguished.
If he lives until manhood, it’ll be a life of little luck and much disaster.
His father was decapitated on the execution ground,
His mother was confined inside the palace.
How can a white-clad minister carry the stench of fresh blood?
He is just a black-headed grub without a thought of gratitude.70
(CHENG YING speaks:) The whole Zhao family relies only on this young master to take vengeance. (MALE LEAD sings:)
You say he’ll be a real man who’ll avenge his father and mother,
But I say he’s a seed of disaster that brought down his mommy and daddy!
(CHENG YING speaks:) What you don’t know, sir, is that because the Orphan of Zhao was set free, Tu’an Gu is rounding up all the babies in the Jin state, and he is going to finish them all off. Now the reasons I smuggled the Orphan out and want to hide him with you are first, I want to repay Consort Zhao’s fine treatment of me and second, I want to save the lives of all infants of the state of Jin. Now I’m nearly forty-five and have only one son, less than a month old. I want to pretend he is the Orphan of Zhao and have you denounce me to Tu’an Gu by telling him that I am hiding the child. The two of us, father and son, will be put to death on the same spot. You, Minister, may then raise the child at leisure, and when he has grown up and become a man, he may take revenge for his father and mother. Wouldn’t that be the best? (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, how old are you? (CHENG YING speaks:) I’ve turned forty-five. (MALE LEAD speaks:) This child, I reckon, will have to be twenty before he can take vengeance for his father and mother. With another twenty years, you’ll be only sixty-five. But with another twenty years, I’ll be ninety. At that time most likely I’ll be dead. What revenge then would be possible for the house of Zhao? Cheng Ying, if you are willing to give up your child, hand him over to me. You denounce me to Tu’an Gu by telling him that Gongsun Chujiu is hiding the Orphan of Zhao at Great Peace Village. Tu’an Gu will come with his soldiers to arrest me, and I will die together with your son. Then you will raise the Orphan of Zhao to manhood so he can take revenge for his father and mother. This seems a better strategy. (CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, you are right, but how could I impose on you like this? You just dress my child up as the Orphan of Zhao and denounce me to Tu’an Gu, so that we, father and son, may die at the same spot. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, I have given you my word, why do you still doubt me? (Sings:)
(Hong shaoyao)
A little master who needs twenty years to take vengeance,
Will take that long before he is satisfied,
And I worry that it would come to nothing should I eventually die.
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, you are still full of a hearty spirit. (MALE LEAD sings:)
My vigor and energy are not what they used to be.
And if left behind, how could this child achieve success?
You won’t age right away—
You are the one to put yourself out front on behalf of the Zhao family!
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying, you just do as I say! (Sings:)
I will not last through those evening drums and morning bells.
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, you were doing fine at home when I, without any sense of timing, just barged in and turned over this bag of sorrow to you. That’s why I cannot set my mind at rest. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, you’re talking nonsense. I am a man of seventy and death is nothing out of the ordinary. It makes no difference when it happens! (Sings:)
(Pusa Liangzhou)
In this marionette’s booth
We perform to drum and flute,
But it’s no more than acting out a short little dream.
Turn your head quickly to the past and all the heroes have died.
“How can one meet one’s benefactor if grace is still unrequited?”
“No courage counted to see injustice and not act.”
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, you have consented. Don’t break faith! (MALE LEAD sings:)
“To speak but be without trust—then what’s the use of speaking?”
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, if you make it possible for the Orphan of Zhao to survive, your name will be recorded in the history books and you will leave a reputation for all eternity. (MALE LEAD sings:)
There is no need to try to get in my good graces now—
“A real man does not sorrow over his own death,”
How much more so me, my white locks loose and tangled?
(CHENG YING speaks:) Minister, there is yet one other thing. Can you withstand the three investigations and the six questionings once Tu’an Gu has arrested you? You’re bound to finger me. My and my son’s deaths lie within our allotted fate. But it would be a pity if the Orphan of Zhao winds up dead anyway and I have dragged you into this for nothing. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, you are right. When I think of Tu’an Gu and the Consort Zhao … (Sings:)
(Third from Coda)
These two families had become deadliest enemies,
His only aim was to find some trace of the Orphan.
He’s bound to surround Great Peace Village with his troops
As tight as an iron bucket—not a breath of air will get through.
(Speaks:) After Tu’an Gu arrests me, he’ll shout in his loudest voice: “You old geezer, didn’t you see the announcement that was posted three days ago? And yet you stubbornly had to hide the Orphan of Zhao to oppose me! Please, please!” (Sings:)
He’ll only say to this old geezer, “Please, ‘You step into the vat first.’”71
You knew quite well that all of heaven quaked when the announcement was hung!
But you, retired-from-office, back-to-the-fields, single old peasant
Had to poke this scorpion and nettle this wasp in public!”
(Second from Coda)
He’ll use every method, strip me naked, bind me with a rope, hang me upside down, and beat me,
Just to wring out every little detail at the root of this case.
And when my parched skin and decayed old bones can’t stand the pain,
I’m bound by my truthful confession to implicate you—
Of course you, Cheng Ying, are afraid!
(Continues in speech:) Cheng Ying, set your mind at rest! (Sings:)
A single “Yes” from me has always weighed as much as a thousand pieces of gold.
Even if he sends me up the mountain of knives and the peak of swords,72
Never will I be one who “has a beginning but no end.”
(Speaks:) Cheng Ying, set your mind at rest and go on with raising this Orphan, so he may grow to manhood and take revenge for his father and mother, wiping away all injustice. The single death of an old man is not worth mentioning! (Sings:)
(Sha Coda)
He’ll rely on his noble descent from the house of Zhao, a thousand years old,73
And the hundred-two74 might of the mountains and rivers of the state of Jin.
He will display his radiant heroism and lead army troops,
Overawe and suppress all the other states, which will all submit.
He will visit all the dukes and nobles and narrate his bitter experience,
And all the disaster that originally arose below the palace;75
Then tell how pitiably three hundred relatives all tasted the sword
And only a lonely and forlorn little child was left.
Waiting patiently for this morn
To inherit his father’s position,
He will bring up his hated enemy
And his tears will burst out.
He will request a tablet- and standard-bearer to go down into the deepest layers of the palace
And arrest that fiendish official in his marshal’s office.
He’ll cut off his head, dismember his body, and offer it up in sacrifice to his ancestors,
The nine mourning grades will all be executed, none will be spared.
At that time he will show he did not betray you, who risked death to protect the Orphan as repayment to your lord,
And even I will be at peace, buried close to Yao Li’s grave by the side of the road.76
(Exits.)
(CHENG YING speaks:) The time is critical now. As I was going to do before, I will carry this Orphan home and send my own child to Great Peace Village. (Recites:)
Willingly I take the child that I fathered
To secretly exchange for the Orphan of Zhao.
This is what I should do by what is right—
But I lament I have dragged Old Minister Gongsun into this affair.
(Exits.)
ACT 3
(TU’AN GU enters leading soldiers, speaks:) The Orphan of Zhao has escaped me! But I have already distributed announcements to the effect that if no one comes forward with the Orphan within three days, I will round up all the infants in the state of Jin of less than half a year and more than one month in my marshal’s office and execute all of them. Soldier, keep watch in front of the gate, and if there is someone who comes forward with information, report back to me. (CHENG YING enters and speaks:) I am Cheng Ying. I took my child to Gongsun Chujiu yesterday and today I will go to Tu’an Gu to denounce Gongsun. Soldier, report to your master that the Orphan of Zhao has been found. (SOLDIER speaks:) Just wait here. Let me go inside and report. (Acts out reporting, speaks:) I report to the marshal that there is someone who is claiming that the Orphan has been found. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Where is he now? (SOLDIER speaks:) He is outside the gate. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Order him to come in. (SOLDIER speaks:) Come inside! ([CHENG YING] performs greeting rituals. TU’AN GU speaks:) You there, who are you? (CHENG YING speaks:) This humble person is the itinerant physician Cheng Ying. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Where is the Orphan of Zhao now? (CHENG YING speaks:) He is hidden in the house of Gongsun Chujiu in Lülü Great Peace Village. (TU’AN GU speaks:) How did you come to know this? (CHENG YING speaks:) I happen to know Gongsun Chujiu. I went to visit him and to my surprise I saw an infant in the bedroom, lying in a brocaded baby harness on an embroidered cushion. I thought, “Gongsun Chujiu is a man of seventy who had never had son or daughter, so where did this one come from?” And I said to him: “This little one must be the Orphan of Zhao!” Immediately he turned pale and he didn’t know what to say. That’s how I came to know that the Orphan is at the house of Gongsun Chujiu. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Bah! You rascal! Do you think you can put one over me? No enmity existed between you and Gongsun Chujiu in the past and there is no grudge in recent times. So why do you accuse him of hiding the Orphan of Zhao? You must be an accomplice! If you tell me the truth, everything is fine, but if not … Soldiers, sharpen your swords! Kill this guy first! (CHENG YING speaks:) Marshal, still your thundering rage and restrain your tiger- and wolflike might! Allow me to tell you the complete story. Between Gongsun Chujiu and me there exists indeed no enmity or strife. I do this only because you announced that you want all the infants in the state of Jin rounded up in your office to kill them all. First of all I want to save the lives of the infants in the state of Jin. Secondly, at the age of forty-five I have just become the father of a boy who is not yet one month old. I wouldn’t dare not to offer him up, but then I too would be left without posterity! As I see it, if the Orphan of Zhao is found, the living souls in the whole state will be saved from harm, and my child too will be safe. That’s why I came forward. (Recites:)
I beg you, Your Excellency, to still your rage for a while!
This is the one and only reason why I came forward.
Even though I save all the living souls in the state of Jin,
What I really feared was the extinction of the house of Cheng.
(TU’AN GU acts out laughing, speaks:) Aha! Yes, indeed! Gongsun Chujiu once was a colleague of Zhao Dun’s. Of course he’s the one to do a thing like this. Soldier, today I summon the men and horse under my command and with Cheng Ying I will go to Great Peace Village to arrest Gongsun Chujiu!
(All exit.)
(MALE LEAD, [costumed as] GONGSUN CHUJIU, enters and speaks:) I am Gongsun Chujiu. Yesterday Cheng Ying and I discussed how to save the Orphan of Zhao. Today he went to the offices of Tu’an Gu to denounce me. By this time that scoundrel Tu’an Gu must be on his way. (Sings:)
(SHUANGDIAO MODE: Xinshui ling)
All I see is stirred-up dust flying over the small bridge,
It must be that traitor who harms the loyal and good who has arrived.
Precise in their ranks are the officers and troops he has massed,
Shimmering and glistening their lances and swords are arranged in rows.
What’s clear to me now is that I die this very morning,
And cannot avoid a painful beating and torture.
(TU’AN GU enters together with CHENG YING, leading his soldiers, and speaks:) Here we are in Lülü Great Peace Village. Soldiers, surround Great Peace Village. Cheng Ying, where’s the house of Gongsun Chujiu? (CHENG YING speaks:) It’s that one. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Bring that old fella over here! Gongsun Chujiu, do you know your crime? (MALE LEAD speaks:) I am not aware of any crime. (TU’AN GU speaks:) I know that you, old fella, were a colleague of Zhao Dun’s. How dare you hide the Orphan of Zhao? (MALE LEAD speaks:) Marshal, do I have the heart of a bear or the gall of a leopard? I wouldn’t dare hide the Orphan! (TU’AN GU speaks:) No beating, no confession! Soldiers, pick out a big club and thoroughly thrash him! (SOLDIERS act out beating him. MALE LEAD sings:)
(Zhuma ting)
I realize that even though I quit my office to take leave of the court,
I was once renowned for my sworn-to-the-death brotherhood with Zhao Dun.
(Speaks:) Who revealed this? (TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, who informed on you, is right here. (MALE LEAD sings:)
Which one sold me out and informed on me?
None other than Cheng Ying, whose tongue is the sword that will cut off my head!
(Speaks:) You’ve already killed the three hundred souls, noble and base, who filled the gates of the Zhao family and left only this child. Now you want to take his life! (Sings:)
You are just a wild wind to aid the sky-striking eagle,
A severe frost that strikes first the grass with withered roots.77
If now the Orphan is also slain,
Who will take revenge for the injustice done to those three hundred souls?
(TU’AN GU speaks:) Where have you hidden the child, old fella? Confess quickly, so you can spare yourself this torture! (MALE LEAD speaks:) What child do I have to hide anywhere? Who saw him? (TU’AN GU speaks:) So you won’t confess! Soldiers, lay hold of him and beat him soundly! ([SOLDIERS] act out beating him. TU’AN GU speaks:) This old fella is an obstinate bag of bones unwilling to confess. Cheng Ying, you were the one to denounce him. You apply the club on my behalf! (CHENG YING speaks:) Marshal, I am an itinerant physician, my wrists are too weak to even collect simples! How can I apply the club? (TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, if you don’t apply the club, it must be because you fear he will implicate you! (CHENG YING speaks:) Marshal, I’ll apply the club! (Acts out taking a club. TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, I see you cull through the clubs and then take a skinny one. Are you afraid he will implicate you when the pain starts? (CHENG YING speaks:) Then I will beat him with a thick stick. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Stop! First you picked a thin stick. Now you take the biggest one. But if you beat him to death with two or three strokes, you will have no one to testify against you because he is dead. (CHENG YING speaks:) If I take a thin stick, it isn’t right, and if I take a thick one, it isn’t right either. What am I supposed to do? (TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, just take a middle-sized stick. Gongsun Chujiu, you old fella, are you aware that it’s Cheng Ying who will apply the club? (CHENG YING acts out applying the club, speaks:) Confess quickly! (After acting out beating him three times, MALE LEAD speaks:) Aiya! I’ve been beaten all day, but no stick has hurt me like this one! Who’s beating me? (TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying is beating you! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, why are you beating me? (CHENG YING speaks:) Marshal, I’ve beaten this old fart until he has started spouting nonsense. (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Yan’er luo)
Who on earth so thoroughly canes me with the thickest club?
He beats me so painfully that my fine soft skin falls away.
What enmity ever existed between you—cruel Cheng Ying—and me
To make this old man Gongsun suffer such torture?
(CHENG YING speaks:) Quickly confess! (MALE LEAD speaks:) I’ll confess, I’ll confess! (Sings:)
(Desheng ling)
You’ve beaten me until there’s not the slightest crack through which to flee,
And since I have a mouth, I will be wrongly forced into a confession.
It must be that he knew about the Orphan
And pointed me out with certainty!
(CHENG YING acts out panicking.) (MALE LEAD sings:)
This is really hard to endure,
But I still force myself to clench my teeth and suffer.
I secretly steal a peek at him,
And see that he is already so scared his calves are shaking!
(CHENG YING speaks:) Quickly confess and be done with it, lest I need to beat you to death. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Alright! Alright! (Sings:)
(Shuixianzi)
The two of us discussed how to save this little child.
(TU’AN GU speaks:) Of course he would implicate someone! He says, “The two of us.” One of these is you. Who is the other one? If you tell me the truth, I’ll spare your life! (MALE LEAD speaks:) If you want me to tell you who, I’ll tell you! (Sings:)
Aiya! Now I have to swallow those words that sprang to my lips.
(TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, are you part of this? (CHENG YING speaks:) You old fart, don’t wrongly finger a good man! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying, what are you so worried about? (Sings:)
Why would I ever say “Cheng Ying”
And fail to carry out the affair to its end?
(TU’AN GU speaks:) At first you said there were two, so how can you now say there were none? (MALE LEAD sings:)
You’ve beaten me so much I don’t know up from down.
(TU’AN GU speaks:) If you won’t tell me, I’ll beat you to death, old fella! (MALE LEAD sings:)
Even if you beat me until my skin all splits
And my flesh is gone,
Don’t think that I will utter half a word to implicate others!
(SOLDIER enters, carrying child in his arms, speaks:) Congratulations, Marshal! We discovered the Orphan of Zhao in a hole in the ground. (TU’AN GU acts out laughing, speaks:) Bring that little one over here. I will hack him into three pieces with my own hand. You old fella, do you still say there is no Orphan of Zhao? So who is this? (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Chuan bo zhao)
In those days you trained the Demon Mastiff
To attack a loyal official and sink its teeth into him,
Driving him out into the wilds to die.
One slit his throat and died by a steel blade,
Another hanged herself with the belt of her skirt.
You executed a whole household, young and old, of three hundred,
Leaving not half a person alive.
But that still didn’t quell those thoughts growing in your mind!
(TU’AN GU speaks:) When I see this Orphan, I can’t help but get angry. (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Qi dixiong)
All I see is him glance left,
Glance right,
And bellow in rage—
A fiery redness alters his hideous and vicious features.
Over his lion-buckle belt he lifts the brocade battle gown
And draws his Dragon Spring sword from its sharkskin sheath.
(TU’AN GU speaks in a rage:) I’ve drawn my sword. One stroke! Two strokes! Three strokes! (CHENG YING acts out being startled and pained. TU’AN GU speaks:) I have hacked this little seed of disaster into three pieces. Haven’t I achieved my lifelong desire? (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Meihua jiu)
Ah!
I see the child lying in a puddle of blood!
That one weeping and wailing,
This one fuming with rage.
And even I tremble and shake.
Such an evil deed
Could happen only because there is no Heavenly Way.
Ah!
Considering that from the birthing mat this child was lifted
Just these ten days—
How can we forgive his judgment under the sword?
In vain was he born,
For naught his mother’s worry,
What need to “prepare for old age”!
(Shou Jiangnan)
Ah,
Isn’t this a case of “If the family is rich, the child is pampered”?78
(CHENG YING acts out covering his tears.) (MALE LEAD sings:)
I see Cheng Ying, his heart as if scalded by boiling oil,
Not daring to shed a single teardrop in front of others,
But behind their backs wiping them all away.
Without reason he parted with his own flesh and blood merely to see it cut in three!
(Speaks:) Tu’an Gu you traitor, just look! Above there’s a heaven that will not pardon you! My death isn’t of any importance. (Sings:)
(Yuanyang Coda)
I die at seventy, will get no older,
This child dies at one—I know this is young!
We two, who die here in this one place,
Will leave behind a name to be remembered for ten thousand generations.
I urge you, this Cheng Ying who will live on,
Don’t turn your back on that cruelly slain Zhao Shuo!
The proverb says: “Time passes quickly,
Revenge for an injustice follows fast.”
Hack this bastard ten thousand times with a thousand blades
And never, ever let him get easily away.
(MALE LEAD acts out dashing his head, speaks:) I find a proper place to die by bashing my head against the steps.
(Exits.)
(SOLDIER acts out reporting, speaks:) Gongsun Chujiu has died by dashing his head against the steps. (TU’AN GU acts out laughing:) Now that old bastard has died, we can let it lie. (Acts out laughing, speaks:) Cheng Ying, I owe you for this whole incident. If it hadn’t been for you, how would I have ever slain the Orphan of Zhao? (CHENG YING speaks:) Marshal, I harbored no grudge against the Zhao family. But first of all I wanted to save all living creatures in the state of Jin, and secondly I myself have a child who is not yet one month old. If the Orphan of Zhao hadn’t been found, this child of mine also would have had no chance to survive. (TU’AN GU speaks:) Cheng Ying, you’re a man I can trust. Why don’t you become a retainer in my household? I will raise your son to manhood. When he has grown up, he will study the civil arts with you and you can send him to me to practice the military arts. I am already approaching fifty and still have no son. I will treat your child as my adopted son. I’m already advanced in years, but I will hang on so your son can later ask to succeed me in office. What do you think of that? (CHENG YING speaks:) How can I thank you, Marshal, for this extraordinary favor? (TU’AN GU recites:)
Just because the mainstays of the court only glorified Zhao Dun,
My heart unconsciously grew enraged.
Now that I have rubbed out this tiny little sprout,
I will forever be free of future trouble!
(All exit together.)
ACT 4
(TU’AN GU enters leading SOLDIERS, speaks:) I am Tu’an Gu. Twenty years have passed already since I slew the Orphan of Zhao. Now there’s that child of Cheng Ying’s, who is called Tu Cheng79 because I adopted him. I have instructed him in the eighteen kinds of martial arts and there are none he hasn’t grasped or any he doesn’t comprehend. His horsemanship and skills with the bow even surpass mine, and relying on the power and might of my son, I will finalize a plan. After killing Duke Ling I’ll wrest away the state of Jin. I will give all my official posts to my child to fulfill. Only then will my lifetime ambitions have been fulfilled. A moment ago my child left for the training field to practice his riding and shooting. When he comes back, I’ll discuss this with him then.
(Exits.)
(CHENG YING enters holding a scroll in his hand, recites:)
Revolutions of suns and moons harry one to grow old,
Alternations of light and shade chase away one’s youth.
The limitless affairs in my heart
I have not yet dared clearly reveal.
How quickly time passes! It’s already been twenty years since I moved into Tu’an Gu’s mansion. He has raised my child, who has now reached the age of twenty. Officially he is called Cheng Bo. He has studied the civil arts with me and with Tu’an Gu, the military. He is full of clever stratagems and excels at riding and shooting. Tu’an Gu is completely pleased with my child. But there’s no way he can know the inside story! There’s only one thing: the child too has been left in the dark. This year I am sixty-five. In case something should happen, who can explain it to my child so he will know that he must take revenge on behalf of his Zhao family? That’s the reason why I am in a dither, toss and turn, and cannot sleep by day or by night. On this painted scroll I have now depicted the loyal officials and fine generals who earlier died unjustly. In case my child asks me about them, I will explain all of these events of the past to the last detail. Then he cannot but take revenge for his father and mother. I’ll sit here sullenly in this study, and when my child shows up, I will know what to do. (MALE LEAD enters costumed as CHENG BO, speaks:) I am Cheng Bo. My father on this side is Cheng Ying, and my father on that side is Tu’an Gu. During daytime I practice the martial arts, and in the evening I study the civil arts. Now I’m returning from the practice field, so I will go and see my this-side father. (Sings:)
(ZHONGLÜ MODE: Fen die’er)
Leading these army troops under my command,
I show not the slightest inkling of fear for anyone’s murderous intent.
Each day I study and practice strategic writings.
Because of the fact that I
Find joy in battle,
And am capable of facing off enemy camps,
All other states are made to submit and surrender.
My father has no equal in heroic valor,
And I support him, unhesitatingly, with all my heart!
(Zui chunfeng)
I want to support the enlightened ruler, Duke Ling of Jin,
And assist his wise minister Tu’an Gu.
Capable in the civilian, skilled at the martial, I can stand alone against ten thousand,
My father approves,
Approves of me.
Can it not be said, “If horses are sturdy and men are strong,
If the father is loving and the child filial”
There is no fear that “the worries of the master are the shame of the minister”?
(CHENG YING speaks:) I unroll this scroll. How sad! So many wise ministers and heroic men were sacrificed for this one Orphan of Zhao! Even my own child died as one among them. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Soldier. Take my horse. Where is my father on this side? (SOLDIER speaks:) He is reading in his study. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Soldier, report that I am here. (SOLDIER, acting out reporting, speaks:) Cheng Bo is here. (CHENG YING speaks:) Tell him to come in. (SOLDIER speaks:) Come in. (MALE LEAD acts out greeting, speaks:) My father on this side, I’m back from the training ground. (CHENG YING speaks:) Go get something to eat. (MALE LEAD speaks:) As I come out of this gate I am starting to wonder: every day my father on this side is usually happy to see me. But today when he saw me, he was really upset and wept ceaselessly. I don’t know what’s on his mind. I’ll go over and ask him. Who is bullying you? Tell me, you know I won’t let him off! (CHENG YING speaks:) Even if I were to explain it to you, you couldn’t set things straight for your mother and father. Just go and have something to eat. (CHENG YING acts out crying and covering his tears.) (MALE LEAD speaks:) This really is strange! (Sings:)
(Ying xianke)
Why so many tears wiped away?
(CHENG YING acts out heaving a sigh. MALE LEAD sings:)
Or such heavy sighs as these?
I had come forward with folded arms only to pay my respects—
(Continues in speech:) My father on this side, (sings:)
Cranky and cross, your anger has been stirred up,
In a roaring fire, you’ve worked up a rage.
(Continues in speech:) Who has dared bully you? (Sings:)
Here I lower my head to wonder—
(Continues in speech:) Since no one has bullied you, (sings:)
Which of my words was off the mark?
(CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, you do some reading here in this study, while I go to the back rooms for a moment. (Acts out dropping the scroll and makes a false exit.) (MALE LEAD speaks:) Ah, he actually left a scroll behind here. What kind of document is this? Let me unroll it and have a look. (Acts out looking, speaks:) How strange! That one clad in red is leading a vicious dog that’s attacking someone in purple. Then there’s one holding a melon-headed cudgel, beating that vicious dog to death. This one is holding up a one-wheeled chariot with his hands right where the other wheel should be. This one is committing suicide by bashing his head against an acacia tree. What kind of story is this? And no names have been provided either! How am I supposed to understand? (Sings:)
(Hongxiuxie)
What’s painted here are—in darkest, deepest green—a few mulberry trees,
A clamoring, shouting crowd—a bunch of rustic villagers.
This one is holding aloft a single-wheeled chariot grinding away,
This one is raising the melon-headed cudgel by himself,
This one delivers up his body by butting an acacia tree.
And then there’s that vicious dog that keeps on attacking the one in purple.
(Speaks:) Let me have another look. In front of this general are laid out a bowstring, poisoned wine, and a dagger; and he takes the dagger to slit his own throat. And just why does this other general draw his sword to slit his throat and die? And there is a physician who is kneeling, holding a medicine box in his arms. This woman bears an infant in her arms, but it seems as if she intends to hand him over to the physician. Ah! Actually that woman also commits suicide by hanging herself with the belt of her skirt. How sad! (Sings:)
(Shiliu hua)
All I see is one clad in brocaded everyday clothes,
Taking the string of a bow, poisoned wine, and a dagger for his execution.
But why is there another general too, all smeared with blood from his own slit throat?
This one holds up a medicine box while kneeling down,
This one carries an infant to hand over.
How sad this woman of a good family, wearing her pearls and jade—
She hangs herself by the belt of her skirt; but what was her crime?
I have pondered it deeply for quite a while but don’t know what to say,
It’s painted in such a way that it puzzles me, leaves me confused and depressed.
(Speaks:) Let me look carefully. How vicious is the one in red! Here he is again, mercilessly beating a white-bearded old man! (Sings:)
(Dou anchun)
I only see how that red-clad scoundrel
Canes and humiliates the white-bearded one.
This confuses and upsets my seat of emotions,
Fills my lungs and innards with rage.
(Continues in speech:) Should this family be linked to me—(Sings:)
I’m no man if I don’t kill that traitor!
I’d dare set matters right!
The one who’s lying in this puddle of blood, I know not whose relation he is,
Nor who the ancestors of those killed on the execution ground might be.
(Speaks:) In the end I don’t understand it. I’ll have to wait till my father on this side comes back to ask him to explain it all. Then I will be free of doubt and suspicion. (CHENG YING enters, speaks:) Cheng Bo, I have been listening quite a while. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Father, please explain it to me. (CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, you want me to explain this story, but it will concern you! (MALE LEAD speaks:) You just explain it to me very, very clearly! (CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, listen. The history of this affair is very long. At the beginning this one clad in red and this one clad in purple were colleagues in the same court. But, one an administrator and one a fighting man, they did not get along and became longtime enemies. The one clad in red thought, “The first to strike becomes the stronger, the second to strike will suffer.” Secretly he sent an assassin hiding a dagger and who was called Chu Ni to scale a low wall to murder the one clad in purple. Who would have thought that this old minister nightly burned incense to pray to heaven and earth, that his whole heart was intent only on repaying his country, and that he showed not the slightest inclination to favor his own family. That man Chu Ni thought, “If I kill this old minister, I will commit a heinous crime against heaven. I definitely cannot do this. But if I go back to see the one clad in red, I’m sure to die. So be it!” (Recites:)
His hands carrying a keen blade, he hid away in the darkness,
But because he saw such loyalty and goodness he felt remorse.
This shows that the impartial Way shines as clearly as the sun—
That very night Chu Ni butted his head against the acacia tree.
(MALE LEAD speaks:) So the one who died by ramming into an acacia tree was Chu Ni? (CHENG YING speaks:) Yes, indeed. In springtime, this one clad in purple went out to the fields on the outskirts of town to exhort the farmers. Under a mulberry tree he saw a strong man lying on his back and with his mouth wide open. The one clad in purple asked him the reason. That strong man told him, “I am Ling Zhe. Because I eat a peck of rice at every meal, not even the biggest landlord can afford to provide me with food and they all eventually drive me out. I would like to pick some mulberries and eat them, but then they would say that I stole what is theirs. Therefore I’m lying here on my back, waiting for the mulberries to drop into my mouth. And if they don’t drop into my mouth, I’ll have to die of starvation, because I won’t be humiliated by them.” The one clad in purple said, “This man is a hero!” Thereupon he gave wine and food to the starving man. After he had eaten his fill, he left without a word of thanks. But this one clad in purple felt no rage or anger whatsoever. Cheng Bo, this shows the measure of the minister’s virtue. (Recites:)
Because in spring he urged the farmers to begin the plowing,
He toured the outskirts and plains before the dusk.
On whom was the jug of gruel, the basket of food bestowed?
Just to help that one starving fellow beneath the mulberries.
(MALE LEAD speaks:) Ah, the starving fellow under the mulberry tree was called Ling Zhe. (CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, keep his name in mind! On another day, the western barbarians offered a Demon Mastiff in tribute. The Demon Mastiff was a dog—those with bodies four feet tall are called mastiffs. Duke Ling of Jin bestowed the Demon Mastiff on the one clad in red. He really wanted to murder the one clad in purple so he strung up a straw man in his back garden, and dressed it just like the one clad in purple. He hung a set of sheep entrails in the stomach of the straw man. After he had starved the Demon Mastiff for some five or six days, he cut open the stomach of the straw man and let the dog eat its fill. He trained him like this for a hundred days before he went to Duke Ling and said, “At present there must be disloyal and unfilial people in court who harbor the intention to deceive their lord.” Duke Ling asked him who those people were. The one clad in red said, “The Demon Mastiff that you gave me can sniff them out.” The man clad in red led out the Demon Mastiff, while the one clad in purple stood upright in the palace hall. The demon Mastiff took him for the straw man, attacked him, and chased him around the palace hall. That angered someone nearby—the colonel of the guard, Timi Ming. He raised his golden melon-headed cudgel and beat down the Demon Mastiff. With one hand he grabbed the skin on the back of its head and, ripping once, he ripped him in two. (Recites:)
The devilish schemes of the traitorous minister included a thousand evil tricks,
He persecuted the loyal and good until they had no place to flee.
Before the hall there was a heroic man
Who used his terrible hands to rip the Mastiff apart.
(MALE LEAD speaks:) This vicious dog was called the Demon Mastiff. And the one who beat that vicious dog to death was Timi Ming. (CHENG YING speaks:) Yes. When that old minister had gone out through the palace gate, he wanted to mount his chariot. Who could have known that the one clad in red had taken away two horses from the team of this four-horse chariot and had also removed one of the two wheels. When he could go no further, a strong man appeared by his side, lifting the axle with one arm and whipping the horses on with his other hand. The axle ground his clothes until his skin appeared, ground his skin until flesh appeared, ground his flesh until the tendons appeared, ground his tendons until bones appeared, and ground his bones until marrow appeared. Supporting the axle and pushing the wheel, they fled to the wilds. Who do you think this man was? It was none other than that starving fellow under the mulberry tree—Ling Zhe. (Recites:)
When the one in purple fled disaster through the palace gate,
One wheel had been removed from his four-horse chariot.
But Ling Zhe was there to support him with strength off into the wilds
And so repaid the favor of a single meal among the mulberry trees.
(MALE LEAD speaks:) I remember: That was the Ling Zhe who was lying on his back under a mulberry tree! (CHENG YING speaks:) Yes. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Father on this side, that bastard clad in red is quite vicious! What’s his name? (CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, I have forgotten his name. (MALE LEAD speaks:) And what is the name of the one clad in purple? (CHENG YING speaks:) This one clad in purple was surnamed Zhao. He was the chancellor Zhao Dun. He is related to you. (MALE LEAD speaks:) I’ve heard it said that there was such a Chancellor Zhao Dun, but I’ve never given him much thought. (CHENG YING speaks:) Cheng Bo, you have to remember very carefully what I am telling you now. (MALE LEAD speaks:) There’s still more on that scroll. Please go on and explain. (CHENG YING speaks:) The one clad in red exterminated Zhao Dun’s whole household, high and low—more than three hundred souls. The only one left was Zhao Shuo, who was a ducal son-in-law. The one clad in red forged a command by Duke Ling to bestow on Zhao “the three court statutes,” that is, a bowstring, poisoned wine, and a dagger, so he might commit suicide by choosing one. At that time the princess was pregnant. Zhao Shuo’s final words were, “If you give birth to a little boy after I die, you must call him the Orphan of Zhao, so he may take revenge for us, these three hundred souls.” No one expected Zhao Shuo to slit his throat with the dagger and die. The one clad in red confined the princess to her compound, where she gave birth to the Orphan of Zhao. As soon as the one clad in red knew about this, he dispatched the Lieutenant General Han Jue to guard the gates to the compound, for the very purpose of preventing anyone from smuggling the Orphan out. This princess had a trusted retainer, who was called the itinerant physician Cheng Ying. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Father, that must be you! (CHENG YING speaks:) There are so many people in the world that have the same name and the same surname! He is a different Cheng Ying. The princess handed the child over to that Cheng Ying, and then died after hanging herself with the belt of her skirt. That Cheng Ying came with the child in his arms to the gate of the compound, where he ran into General Han Jue. Han discovered the child, but he was persuaded to act by just a few words from Cheng Ying. No one expected that General Han Jue too would draw his sword and slit his own throat. (Recites:)
That physician showed no fear at all,
And smuggled that Orphan out.
He ran smack into that loyal and righteous general
Who would rather die than arrest the pair.
(MALE LEAD speaks:) What a fine man this general was, to slit his throat and die on behalf of the Orphan of Zhao. I will remember that he was called Han Jue. (CHENG YING speaks:) Yes, yes indeed, he was Han Jue. But who would have thought that, after the one clad in red found out about it, he would round up all the infants in the state of Jin who were younger than half a year and older than a month, and bring them to his headquarters, where he could cut them all into thirds with three strokes of his sword and be certain to kill the Orphan of Zhao. (MALE LEAD acts out being enraged, speaks:) The one clad in red was too vicious! (CHENG YING speaks:) He was truly vicious! But it happened that this Cheng Ying also fathered a boy who had not yet reached one month of age. He dressed him as the Orphan of Zhao and brought him to Gongsun Chujiu in Lülü Great Peace Village. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Who was this Gongsun Chujiu? (CHENG YING speaks:) This old minister had been a colleague of Zhao Dun’s. Cheng Ying said to him, “Minister, you take this Orphan of Zhao. Then you go to the one clad in red and report to him that I am hiding the Orphan. We, father and son, will die in the same spot, but you will raise the Orphan to manhood, so he may take revenge for his father and mother. Wouldn’t that be the best thing to do?” But Gongsun Chujiu replied, “I’m already old. If you are able to part with your child and dress him up as the Orphan of Zhao, you should hide him with me, and go and denounce me to the one clad in red. I will die together with your son. And you will hide the Orphan, so he later may take revenge for his father and mother.” (MALE LEAD speaks:) Was that Cheng Ying capable of parting with his child? (CHENG YING speaks:) He was willing to give up his own life, so you can imagine that child was not so important! So he dressed up his own child as the Orphan and brought him to Gongsun Chujiu, and he denounced the latter to the one clad in red. That one subjected Gongsun Chujiu to the three questionings and the six interrogations, had him beaten, trussed, and tossed over the wall upside down. He tracked down the false Orphan of Zhao, and hacked him apart with three blows of his sword. Gongsun Chujiu committed suicide by ramming his head into the steps of the hall. This all happened twenty years ago and now the Orphan of Zhao is twenty years old. If he does not take revenge for his father and mother, then what else can he do? (Recites:)
His appearance is impressive, a seven-foot frame,
He has mastered the civil and martial arts, but now what?
Riding a chariot—where did his grandfather wind up?
A whole household, noble and base—all executed.
In the palace of disfavor his mother hanged herself from the rafters,
On the execution ground his father drew out the knife to die.
Injustice and hatred unavenged until now—
As a man among men he is useless!
(MALE LEAD speaks:) You’ve spoken the whole day about this, but I still don’t get it—it seems like I’m asleep or in a dream. (CHENG YING speaks:) So you still don’t understand? Now the one clad in red is no one else but that traitorous minister Tu’an Gu. Zhao Dun was your grandfather, Zhao Shuo was your father, and the princess was your mother! (Recites:)
Now that each and every thing has been explained in detail:
Do you really not see the beginning and end?
I am old Cheng Ying who saved the Orphan by sacrificing his child,
And that Orphan of Zhao is none other than you!
(MALE LEAD speaks:) So I was the Orphan of Zhao all this time! This makes me so angry! (MALE LEAD acts out collapsing. CHENG YING acts out helping him up, speaks:) Young Master, come to your senses! (MALE LEAD speaks:) This is too much to bear! (Sings:)
(Putian le)
I had to hear you explain it from the beginning,
Before I could understand what happened.
I have wasted these twenty years of my life
And was given this strapping body for nothing.
So my father was the one who slit his throat,
And it was my very mother who hanged herself.
If we speak of the most desolate heartbreaking points,
Even a man of iron
Would cry and holler.
I’ll capture that old scoundrel at the risk of my own life—
I want him to pay for those ministers and officials of our entire court,
And for all the relatives of our extended household!
(Speaks:) If you hadn’t explained it, how would I ever have known? Father, please sit down and accept this obeisance from your child. (MALE LEAD acts out bowing. CHENG YING speaks:) Today I have kept the branches and leaves of the Zhao family tree alive, but I have turned my own family, all of it into naught but mown-down grass and plucked-out roots. (Acts out weeping. MALE LEAD sings:)
(Shang xiaolou)
If it weren’t for the fact that you cared for me, Father,
And for the fact you raised me as your child,
Twenty years ago
I would have already met the blade
And been long buried in some ditch.
What I hate now is that common miscreant Tu’an Gu,
Who sought out every root to uproot a tree
And nearly exterminated my whole family!
(Reprise)
He, he, he had our whole clan executed,
I, I, I will return the favor by butchering nine generations of his.
(CHENG YING speaks:) Young Master, don’t carry on so loudly. I’m afraid Tu’an Gu will find out. (MALE LEAD speaks:) As for him and me: “Once I get started, I’ll finish it up!” (Sings:)
Let him lead on the Demon Mastiff,
Be surrounded by his private guard,
Or employ all his power and tricks—
Just look at this one,
And at that one,
On whose account did they die?
Can I, the son, simply act as calmly as before?80
(Speaks:) Father, don’t you worry. Tomorrow, after I will first go see our lord the duke, then I will personally murder that traitor, together with all the officials and ministers at court. (Sings:)
(Shua hai’er)
If I meet my blood enemy tomorrow morning,
I will block his path, meeting him head-on.
I will have no further need for troops and soldiers,
But will lightly stretch out my gibbon arms,
Jerk his jade-bridled, golden-saddled reins,
Drag him down from his golden-flowered, black-canopied chariot,
And drag him off like a dead dog,
And simply ask, “Where was your human heart?
What is heavenly principle for?
(Second from Coda)
“What made you so excessive in the use of your heroic valor?
Or so vicious in carrying out the righting of wrongs?
It’s unavoidable—every act will be repaid without hesitation or mistake.
In the beginning you questioned old Gongsun under torture,
But today the Orphan of Zhao is still alive.
Don’t think that I will show you any clemency!”
Lightly, ever so lightly I’ll toss him down
And slowly, ever so slowly open him up.
(First from Coda)
I’ll pluck that one big seal of his, as big as a peck measure,
I’ll strip off his layers of gowns, covered with flowers.
With ropes of hemp I will tie him to the general’s post,81
With pincers of iron I will rip out his rotten tongue,
With an awl I will prick out the eyes of the traitor while he’s alive,
With a knife I will chop his whole body to mincemeat,
With a hammer of steel I will pound his bones to smithereens,
And with a sickle of bronze I will chop off his skull!
(Coda)
Even then my roaring rage will not be quenched,
My deep and dark grudge will be left unresolved,
Because for twenty years I, this unfilial son, took him as my father—
It is only today that the ghosts of three hundred wrongly slain
Will find their champion!
(Exits.)
(CHENG YING speaks:) Tomorrow the young master definitively will arrest that old traitor. I will have to follow him to be of assistance.
(Exits.)
ACT 5
(EXTRA, costumed as WEI JIANG, enters leading ZHANG QIAN, speaks:) I, this humble official, am a high court dignitary of the state of Jin, Wei Jiang. Now Duke Dao sits on the throne. A certain Tu’an Gu monopolized all power and killed off the whole household, noble and base, of Zhao Dun. Who could expect that a certain Cheng Ying of the household of Zhao Shuo would hide away the Orphan of Zhao? Now some twenty years have passed. [The Orphan’s] name was changed to Cheng Bo. This morning he has sent a memorial to let our lord and duke know that he wants to arrest Tu’an Gu and take revenge for his father. I now have received a command from our duke, stating that, since the military power of Tu’an Gu is too great and we fear that he may rebel anytime, Cheng Bo is to go ahead in secret to catch him. No one, noble or base in his household—not even a baby tooth—should be left. Upon the successful completion of this mission, he will be further rewarded and enfeoffed. I do not dare to divulge this lightly and will have to deliver this command to Cheng Bo in person. (Recites:)
Loyal officials were butchered,
This deep injustice lasted twenty years.
This morning we will take the treacherous traitor,
And finally know that injustice repays injustice.
(Exits.)
(MALE LEAD enters astride a horse and with drawn sword, speaks:) I am Cheng Bo. This morning I have sent a memorial to our lord and duke letting him know that I want to arrest Tu’an Gu and take revenge for my father and grandfather. This old traitor was really too reckless! (Sings:)
(ZHENGGONG MODE: Duanzheng hao)
There’s no need to put the soldiers in formation,
Or arrange the officers,
Or rouse all the broad swords and long lances.
Today I will wreak vengeance,
And risk my life to execute that gang of traitors.
In short, it’s his life that is over, he’s bound to die!
(Gun xiuqiu)
Here in this busy neighborhood marketplace
We’ll fight it out.
There’s no way I’ll let him off easily—
It’ll be just like a tiger attacking a wooly sheep.
There’s no need for panic,
No need for haste.
I have my martial skills well prepared,
We’ll see if that rascal can defend himself!
I’ll requite this injustice stored up for twenty years,
And seek recompense for those three hundred people who have died!
What does it matter if I lose my own life?
(Speaks:) I will wait for him here in this crowded market. That old traitor will have to pass by sooner or later. (TU’AN GU enters leading soldiers, speaks:) Today I am on my way back from the headquarters to my private residence. Soldiers! Bring out the road-clearing unit and go slowly! (MALE LEAD speaks:) It must be that old traitor who is coming! (Sings:)
(Tang xiucai)
Look at those ranks of brave and mighty point riders,
Those clamoring and shouting followers trailing on either side.
Look how he puffs up his chest
To affect the guise of power.
Here, I spur my horse that runs like flowing water,
Unsheathe my sword that shines like autumn frost,
And go forward to fight it out!
(TU’AN GU speaks:) Tu Cheng, what are you doing here? (MALE LEAD speaks:) You old traitor, I am not Tu Cheng, I am the Orphan of Zhao! Twenty years ago you killed off completely three hundred souls, a whole household noble and base. Today I arrest you, scoundrel, to take revenge for my family’s injustice! (TU’AN GU speaks:) Who told you all this? (MALE LEAD speaks:) Cheng Ying told me so. (TU’AN GU speaks:) This boy’s martial skills are really good! I’m no match for them. I’d better make a clean getaway. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Where are you running to? (Sings:)
(Xiao heshang)
I, I, I display on all eight sides the fullness of my might,
You, you, you are unable to rouse yourself, unable to block me.
Already, already, already he’s so scared his souls are gone with the wind,
Don’t! Don’t! Don’t try to talk yourself out of this.
Right, right, right! I will not negotiate.
Come! Come! Come! In one fell swoop I will lift you from your saddle!
(MALE LEAD acts out grabbing him firmly. CHENG YING enters in panic, speaks:) I’m so afraid something will happen to the young master. I have to follow him and help him out. Thank Heaven and Earth! The young master has arrested Tu’an Gu! (MALE LEAD speaks:) Bind this scoundrel up and let’s see our lord and duke.
(Exit together.)
(WEI JIANG enters with ZHANG QIAN, speaks:) I am Wei Jiang. Cheng Bo has gone to arrest Tu’an Gu. Soldier. Look out at the gate, and report to me when he arrives. (MALE LEAD enters together with CHENG YING, holding TU’AN GU. MALE LEAD speaks:) Father, you and I will go and see our lord and duke. (Acts out greeting rituals, speaks:) Minister! Take pity on the grave injustice suffered by the three hundred souls of my family. Today I have arrested Tu’an Gu. (WEI JIANG speaks:) Bring him here! You, Tu’an Gu, you vicious traitor who murdered the loyal and good, now that Cheng Bo has arrested you, what is there to say in your defense? (TU’AN GU speaks:) Successful, I would have been a king; defeated, I am a prisoner. Now that things have reached this point, I only wish to die quickly. (MALE LEAD speaks:) Minister, set matters right for me! (WEI JIANG speaks:) Tu’an Gu, you may want to die quickly, but we want you to die slowly. Soldiers! Nail this traitor to the wooden donkey and slice him carefully with three thousand slices. Only after all the flesh and skin are gone shall you cut off his head and open up his chest! Don’t let him die quickly! (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Tuo bushan)
Nail that scoundrel to the wooden donkey
And push him to the execution grounds,
Don’t cut off his head or open up his chest,
But slice away until he has become one big pile of meat sauce—
Even that cannot dissolve the anger and frustration that fill my bosom!
(CHENG YING speaks:) Young Master, now that you have avenged this injustice and have reclaimed your own surname, take pity on this lonely old man who is bereft of support. (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Xiao Liangzhou)
Who was willing to abandon his own child to hide one of another surname?
A virtue and grace like yours can never be forgotten!
I will ask a fine artistic hand of extraordinary skill
To depict your true likeness,
To be honored in my family’s shrine!
(CHENG YING speaks:) What virtue and grace do I have that my young master should show me such consideration! (MALE LEAD sings:)
(Reprise)
You never were remiss in the three years of nursing and feeding;
Doesn’t that surpass the ten months of pregnancy?82
Fortunately today you’ve escaped from ten thousand deaths
And your body is in good health.
Even if I would day and night burn incense to honor you,
I could never repay you who raised me as father and mother.
(WEI JIANG speaks:) Cheng Ying and Cheng Bo, kneel down in the direction of the palace and listen to the command of our lord and duke. (Recites in ballad verse:)
Just because Tu’an Gu injured the loyal and good,
In a hundred ways the stability of the court was disturbed.
He caused Zhao Dun and his whole household, high and low,
To all one day suffer disaster, though guiltless.
In those times many held to righteousness,
How could it truly be said that Heaven’s Way grew indistinct.
Fortunately the Orphan could repay his grudge of many years
And separate head and body of that vile minister.
Let him resume his surname, and we bestow on him the name Zhao Wu,
And let him inherit his ancestors’ title and office.
The descendants of Han Jue will become commander in chief,
And Cheng Ying shall be provided a homestead of many acres.
For old Gongsun a grave will be built and a stele erected,
Timi Ming and the others will all be glorified.
The state of Jin today marks a new beginning—
Let us gaze together upon the boundless virtue of our lord!
(CHENG YING and MALE LEAD act out expressing their gratitude. MALE LEAD sings:)
(Huangzhong Coda)
We thank our lord for his grace that rains down on the state of Jin,
And exterminated the entire family of that vile minister.
On the Orphan he bestows a new name,
And makes him heir to his ancestors and thus a minister.
Heroes loyal and righteous are all praised and rewarded,
Those who were military officers are restored to their commands,
Those who are destitute commoners are given sustenance,
Those who had died already are awarded a noble burial,
Those who are still alive receive titles and gifts.
This grace is as broad as heaven!
And who would dare to make polite refusals?
We swear we will sacrifice our lives on the battlefield,
To make neighboring states all give us their allegiance.
In the history books we will leave our names,
For later generations to praise!
| Title: |
Gongsun Chujiu is shamefully subjected to interrogation |
| Name: |
The Orphan of Zhao Greatly Wreaks Vengeance |
