SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
As I go out of the new temple, my tears haven’t yet been gathered in,
As I turn to my travel-palace, how can I forget my pain!
(Says)
This night I,
(Sings)
I shall take my endless weeping inner love-feelings,
And in my night dreams again to you minutely explain.
(Recites)
A few dots of incense smoke issue from the temple door,760 Of “the River Lo Goddess”,761 of “Mount Witch’s love-making cloud-and-rain”;762 My “emerald eyebrowed one” seems to have the same looks as when she was alive,763 As the day dusks, it specially grieves this away-from-home person.
Act Thirty-three: A god’s plea
(Enter Weaving-damsel leading two female immortals and two immortal-mandarin cortege-members)
WEAVING-DAMSEL: (Sings)
My craftwork’s perfected by jade shuttle,
My loom silk’s especially skilled,
To present my brocade,
I call at Heaven’s Steps.764
My jasper waist-ornaments return to my star- “island”,
I guide my phoenix carriage amid the clouds.
Looking back I gaze upon the one thread of the Silver River,
The azure sky in the empty void shines.
Bending over, I look down at the mortal Dust World,
Its mountains and rivers gathered like rice-grains.
(Says)
I’m Heaven’s Grand-daughter Weaving-damsel. Having completed my weaving of celestial brocade, I’m going in to present it to the Supreme God. As I travel my way, I just see a column of resentful breath-energy, soaring-up through the empyrean. I wonder what place it is down in the mortal world?
(Calls out)
Immortal mandarins,
(Immortal mandarins respond)
WEAVING-DAMSEL: (Sings)
Look at that neither fog nor mist,
Resentful breath-energy’s blurred haze:
Might I ask, in the mortal land below,
what place is that?
(Mandarins respond, and look)
IMMORTAL MANDARINS: We submit to your milady: That place in the mortal world below is Ma Wei’s Slope.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Instruct that my cloud carriage be halted a while, and at once command the local land-god of Ma Wei’s Slope to come here.
(Mandarins assent. All crowd round and usher Weaving-damsel to seat herself on a high spot)
(Mandarins face backstage and call out)
MANDARIN IMMORTAL: Where are you, local land-god of Ma Wei’s Slope?
(Local land-god of Ma Wei’s Slope responds. Enters)
LOCAL LAND-GOD: Coming!
(Sings)
I’d just settled down in my temple,
When suddenly I heard a call for me proclaimed in the air;
But that summons to service from up in Heaven,
What task do they have for me on Earth down here?
(Mandarin immortals call.)
MANDARIN IMMORTALS: (Call) Quickly come here, local land-god!
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
They make a row and hullabaloo ceaselessly,
Scaring me into a panic of haste and hassled hurry.
I’ll just have to shake my robe-sleeves hurry-scurry,
Fasten my waist-belt slappety-dashety,
Adjust this flat-crowned cloth-hat shabby-raggy,
And lean firmly on that eye-level walking-staff shoddy-shaky.
(Local land-god meets mandarin immortals)
LOCAL LAND-GOD: Mandarin immortals, for what mission have you called me here?
MANDARIN IMMORTALS: Her Majesty Weaving-damsel is calling for you!
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
I hear tell that all this calling me is from Heaven’s Grand-daughter
Weaving-damsel maid,
But I’ve never gone to Heaven yonder to have charge of ferry or control bridge,
So why have you come to the Slope to ask the way and seek the road?
(Aside)
Ah, I’ve got it,
(Sings)
It’s probably because her carriage in the clouds passed,
And she thought I failed to receive her,
was entirely lax and unfriendly,
(Weeps) (Sings)
And she’s going to dismiss me from this post so lowly.
(Turns and faces the mandarin immortals) (Says)
Take pity on me, won’t you, mandarin immortals. I hold a minor post and my area is impoverished, so I haven’t received you adequately. I’ve made a point of bringing along this string of a hundred paper gold coins765 here, as a gift to you mandarin immortals, hoping that you’ll do me a good turn with Her Majesty, if you will.
(Sings)
My temple’s deserted and chill, and has no demon assessor,766 just look how,
Often my god-table is just covered with dust,
And my dais-foundation is blocked with soil,
And plants in my incense-burners grow.
MANDARIN IMMORTAL: (Laughing) Who wants your Yellow Coins! Her Majesty has something she wants to ask you! Hurry up and go to her! Hurry up!
(They lead the local land-god to meet Weaving-damsel)
LOCAL LAND-GOD: The local land-god of Ma Wei’s Slope kow-tows in audience with you! I wish Your Majesty holy boundless long life!
FEMALE IMMORTAL: Arise!
(Local land-god stands up)
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Local land-god, I was passing this way when I saw there was a column of repining’s breath-energy above your area, charging straight into the empyrean. What’s the reason for it?
LOCAL LAND-GOD: Listen to my submission, Your Majesty:
(Sings)
It’s indeed a gorgeous crystal-sparkling Rainbow-skirt melody dainty-pretty beautiful lady,
With a wafty-willowy on Emerald Tray and palm dancing767
Chao Flying-swallow light body.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Who’s that?
LOCAL LAND-GOD. (Sings)
She’s the T’ang dynasty Son of Heaven’s Most-prized-empress, Yang Jade-bangle.
Dismal and so wretched by yellow-earth slope she repines,
And because of that, her grieved and sobbing dark spirit won’t depart,
But in billowing vapourous black wind vents her feelings at the edge of the skies.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Ah, so it’s Yang Jade-bangle! I recall that in the Tenth Year of the Heaven-treasure reign-period768 on the night when I crossed over the Milky Way, I saw her and the T’ang dynasty Son of Heaven at the upper end of Lasting-life Palace-hall, making vows and praying that they might be man and wife all their lives. And now she’s become a resentful ghost, most piteous. Local land-god, tell for my hearing the circumstances of when she died.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
Just because they were going off to Shu and she was attending on the Gold-bells imperial-carriage,
Like a tripod-cauldron boiling, the soldiers’ cries rang out on every side.
In grief, the Carmine Countenance empress didn’t presume to be ungrateful for the emperor’s loving favours,
And her goodbye to her monarch, weeping so sadly, was lamenting bowed.
In a trice, the Flower-like-one lost her life, hung by three feet of cord,
And, torn from her living life, for the state’s sake, her body she sacrificed.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: How did she sacrifice herself for the state’s sake? Tell me more in minute detail.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
That day, in a shindig and hubbub the Feather Forest fellows were excited into mutinous upheaval,
And came and encircled the posting-station courtyard all round.
If it hadn’t been for the passionately generous beautiful lady’s lightly rendering herself to the calamity,
How would the emperor have been able to be preserved unblemished,
And the monarch escorted right as far along the Shu road,
&
nbsp; Causing the hearts of everyone in the whole world to be respectfully submissive and delighted!
Today, a dynastic restoration has been witnessed,
Lo! has not the sublime imperial domain been re-created!
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Even though you put it that way, it’s just that he, the ruler of the whole world, was unable to protect that sole woman, so where now their vows made in Lasting-life Palace-hall! Li Third-young-gentleman the emperor is truly a poor lover.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: Your Majesty, that Most-prized-empress Yang,
(Sings)
She certainly doesn’t reproach the Ninth Layer emperor as having deserted love or neglected moral honour,
It’s simply that in the Nine Springs a debt of injustice long owed her she’s regretting.
She’s just so pained that their love-destiny has been severed and never rejoined,
And she’s always just lamenting these days,
Recalling the past,
And sniffling silent sobbing.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: What does she say, though?
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
She now says that his loving favours are were a figment,
His cherishing now considers a figment,
But they weren’t a figment,
those Lasting-life Palace-hall vows.
Even if love may play false,
And desires play false,
It’s impossible for those tokens of gold hairpins and casket to play false.
She strives, hugging her regrets, keeping the road to Hades.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: She was originally an immortal of Erigeron-chenopodium Paradise, who just because of some old sin past, went astray and lost her original true transcendental nature. Now she’s reached this pass, he still recalls the vows they made in Lasting-life Palace-hall. Given such true love, she particularly deserves judging with sympathy.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: I further submit to Your Majesty: Of late, Most-prized-empress Yang has been even more keenly repentant of her former errors.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: What shows that?
LOCAL LAND-GOD: (Sings)
Night in night out, facing the stars,
she heartfelt reflects and sobs her plaint,
Kow-tows to the bright moon, and laments and sighs.
She fervently repents to herself that her errors and faults accumulated,
And for her sinful karma to be cancelled and removed
to beseech in prayer, she tries.
Because of that,
She cries out her complaint,
Spurts out her bitter regret,
Suffering her mind.
Even though she can’t “thread through the white rainbow”769to attain the capital of Heaven above,
She’s already constructed a scarlet comet770 column of resentment and charged open a way from Hades,
That’s suddenly unexpectedly piercing through the blue empyrean and barring across the immortal road.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: So that’s how it is! Since she’s repented of her former crimes, she may be released from all her various faults. I just must vouch I’ll memorialise the celestial palace, and have her restored to her immortal state.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: Your Majesty
(Sings)
Even though you vouch you’ll memorialise that she may once more dwell among the immortal throng,
She still has so much infatuated love in her.
I just fear that when she’s arrived in the immortal palace,
Whenever alone,
She’ll pray for you to realise her previous pledge for them to be man and wife together.
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Those children are indeed very infatuated in their love. You now return to your own territory. I have some ideas of my own.
LOCAL LAND-GOD: I receive your dharma command!
(Sings)
I with such clarity plead her love matters on her behalf,
And will be grateful if Your Majesty will take up her cause,
see justice for her done,
So that soon I may see Ma Wei’s Slope with one less suffering wandering-spirit,
And assuredly have Mount Erigeron-chenopodium add an old immortal companion.
(Exit)
WEAVING-DAMSEL: Instruct that my carriage proceed. I shall return to my Jade-pearl Palace.771
(All respond with assent, and lead off her procession)
WEAVING-DAMSEL: (Sings)
The Carmine Countenance has had a mean fate,
I‘ve heard tell she truly suffers from the wrong done her.
In the Yellow Springs long feeling bitter,
I’ve heard tell she’s so very pained and sore,
But further that she clings to her chaste feelings,
Never unfaithful to her pledge of yore.
With fervent remorse, she at once reveals her immortal True Origin,772
Her love firm, she refines forth a solid gold-cinnabar773 elixir:
And it’s only fitting she should ascend into immortality,
And Heaven and mankind’s regrets remedy.
(Recites)
In the past I’d pay a court-visit to Bud-pearl Palace,774 & 775 When Magpie Bridge was formed, I gained access to the world above;776 I freely look downwards at the troubles of the insubstantial world,777 Everything becomes void if severed is her monarch’s love.778
Act Thirty-four: Assassinating the rebel
(Enter Li Pig-son799 in eunuch-mandarin hat, felt rain-hat and archer’s arrow-jacket.780)
LI PIG-SON: (Recites)
Such a titchy fellow in such a short jacket, I’m able to fly over walls, and along high eaves to run; In my jacket breast-flap I’ve got a dagger that nobody sees, And as soon as I frown, I start up a killing machine.
(Says)
I’m Li Pig-son, and from when I was a little child I’ve been in An Lu-shan’s yurt. He, seeing I’m so handsome, and have a personality of such bright intelligence, has treated me just like his own son. One day, after he became drunk, he suddenly manifested a pig’s head and dragon’s body, and said he was a pig-dragon, and would be bound to have the lot of a Son of Heaven.781 Because of that, he on the spur of the moment gave me the name Pig-son.
To my surprise, he’s now indeed become Son of Heaven, but he dotes on his Queen Tuan,782 and is going to set up her son Ch’ing-en783 as his heir apparent. It looks likely that, not to mention that I, Li Pig-son, am not going to have the good fortune to wear the World-quelling Crown of Son of Heaven, but it can’t ever be the turn of his eldest son, the great-general An Ch’ing-hsü,784 to wear it on his head. Because of that, the great-general harbours bitter resentment, and has discussed things with me, wanting me to go into the palace tonight and assassinate him.
Ah me, An Lu-shan, An Lu-shan, you received such great loving favours from the T’ang dynasty Son of Heaven, yet still mobilised forces to rebel against him, so don’t blame me if I, Li Pig-son, ruthlessly turn against you.
(The second watch is sounded backstage)
LI PIG-SON: Listen, the second drum’s being beaten in the watch-tower: I must avail myself of the still of night to proceed along the palace wall!
(Moves off)
(Sings)
A dark so gloomy lane,
I can’t walk to the end of this dark so gloomy lane,
And it’s deep in the night,
when people are still and quiet.
I startle the roosting birds into flight,
(Sounds of dogs barking from backstage)
(Sings)
Dogs woof-woof bay,
The springs of disaster are well and truly wrapped,
stored hidden away.
(Sounds backstage of the watch being beaten) The patrol guards are approaching from over there. I’ll just dodge to the side of this big tree to keep out of their way just for now.
(Dodges)
(Enter four soldiers, doing the watch patrol)
FOUR SOLDIERS: (Recite
We’re four men amid an army of a million, Outside t
he Ninth Layer emperor’s gate at the third watch, in the moonlight.
SOLDIER 1: Big elder-brothers, look at those tree-branches over there by the Imperial River bridge.785 Why are they moving so erratically?
SOLDIER 4: Can it be that there’s some spy in there?
SOLDIER 3: How could there be any spy in this place! I think it’s a weeping-willow-tree turned into a willow-tree sprite.
SOLDIER 1: Pah, can’t you hear it’s the wind rising!?
ALL: Don’t bother about it. Just carry on with our patrol.
(They circle the stage and exeunt at speed)
(Li Pig-son comes out and walks on)
LI PIG-SON: That was mighty scary.
(Sings)
I just saw cook-pot watch-gongs786 being beaten in the dark,
As the patrol-soldiers the imperial bridge787 crossed.
Clouds drifting in star-shine,
Blossoms shaking in moonlight,
I was almost found out, beyond being saved.
(Says)
I’ve walked all this way, and now I’m near to the rear palace-hall. I must jump over the wall.
(Sings)
The park-wall’s so high and steep,
But I’m certainly not afraid of the park-wall’s being so high!
I do a flip and make one leap,
(Jumps over the wall)
(Sings)
And already I’ve jumped over it,
with a flip and one leap.
(Music played from backstage) (Says)
Listen, at such an hour as this, there’s still the sound of mouth-harmoniums and song! I’m glad that all the paths in the palace are ones familiar to me, I’ll take it very slowly going there, and
(Sings)
Wait until after he’s drunk and in a fuddle,
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