casts aside his brocade feast-mat strip.
(Makes a false-exit)
(Enter An Lu-shan, showing his drunkenness, two palace-ladies supporting him by the arms, and two eunuch attendants holding lanterns)
AN LU-SHAN: I’m drunk now. Let me go to my Casual Palace-hall788 to take some repose.
(Eunuch-attendants lead An Lu-shan, and arrive there)
(An Lu-shan sits down)
(Exeunt two eunuch attendants in advance)
AN LU-SHAN: (Sobering up and sighing) Huh, I wasn’t really drunk actually. It’s just because, after conquering Ch’ang-an, I would have liked to have rolled up the Central Plain like a mat, take it all, but unexpectedly, my generals of all the various route-regions were attacked one after the other, and routed, by Kuo Tzu-yi, and I felt mighty anxious, and also because I love my Empress Tuan, and have been going to excess with the wine and sex, not only making me physically wearied and flabby, but my two eyes both blind. So tonight I’ve been pretending to be drunk, and sent her back to the palace, so that I could free and easily sleep tranquilly in my Casual Palace, and just a while recuperates for one night.
(Enter palace-ladies 1 and 2 bearing tea in their hands)
PALACE-LADIES 1 and 2: August emperor-grandfather, here’s your tea.
(An Lu-shan drinks tea)
(Third watch sounds backstage)
PALCE-LADY 2: It’s the third watch of the night now. Please have a peaceful sleep in bed, Your Majesty emperor-grandfather.
AN LU-SHAN: Palace-charmeuses, shut the place-hall doors tightly.
(Palace-ladies respond with assent, and close the doors)
(An Lu-shan goes to sleep)
(Palace-ladies 1 and 2 sit on the floor, and doze off)
(An Lu-shan wakes with a start)
AN LU-SHAN: Why can’t I sleep soundly tonight, but just have my flesh jumping and my eyes twitching?
(Calls out) Palace-charmeuses, palace-charmeuses!
(Palace-lady 2 wakes up with a start)
PALACE-LADY 2: I think it must be that grandfather-emperor’s not used to sleeping alone, and that’s why he’s calling for us! You go to him, elder sister.
PALACE-LADY 1: No, better you go, elder sister.
(They push each other, and make jokes)
AN LU-SHAN: (Calling out again) Palace-charmeuse, who startled me awake?
PALACE-LADIES: Nobody.
AN LU-SHAN: Convey my order to the soldiers outside that they’re to patrol with care.
PALACE-CHARMEUSES: Order received!
(They open the door and go out. Face backstage, and convey order)
(Response of assent from backstage)
(Palace-ladies come in, forgetting to shut the doors. They sit down on the floor, and doze off again.)
AN LU-SHAN: (Unable to get to sleep) I remember another matter. My Queen Tuan asked me to set up her son Ch’ing-en as my heir apparent. I’ll have to settle that matter as well tomorrow.
(Goes to sleep)
(Enter Li Pig-son stealthily
LI PIG-SON: I, Li Pig-son, have been waiting for a long time in the dark shadows. Just now I heard that the mouth-harmoniums and singers have dispersed, and Queen Tuan gone back to the palace, and it was said that An Lu-shan got drunk and is recuperating in his Casual Palace. That’s a good opportunity for me!
(Walks on)
(Sings)
I slip in,
Stealthily unawares to any, in I slip.
(Backstage shout of “Patrol with care!”)
LI PIG-SON: (Sings)
The watch-patrol uselessly bawl:
Little do they know I’ve been secretly circling the palace keep!
Taking the crosswise short-cuts in the imperial park,
Getting close to the benighted ruler,
who’s collapsed drunk deep!
(Says)
Ah, now I’m at his Casual Palace. and happily this door is half-open. I must edge my way in.
(Goes in)
(Sings)
Don’t rattle the wild-beast door-ring at all,
(Listens)
(Sings)
I hear snores loud in corner of the palace-hall.
(Brings out dagger) (Says)
Look at them, the palace-ladies who are guarding him overnight, have both fallen asleep.
(Trims lamp)
(Sings)
I’ll trim awake this lamp’s orchid-grease,
make it lighter,
(Lifts up bed-curtain)
(Sings)
I lift up the merfolk-silk bed-curtain,
And guarantee to put paid to his wretched life-leftover.
(An Lu-shan talks in his dreams. Li Pig-son is startled, lies face-down on the floor, then slowly gets up and listens intently)
LI PIG-SON: (Sings)
He’s babbling in his dreams,
Why, he’s babbling in his dreaming slumber!
(Sound of the fourth watch being beaten backstage)
LI PIG-SON: (Sings)
The remnant watch makes frequent report,
And availing myself of the remnant watch’s making frequent report,
I shall truly stab him once in his heart.
(He stabs An Lu-shan, and exits in haste)
(An Lu-shan gives a loud cry, and tumbles to the floor, jerks a few times, and dies)
(The two palace-ladies are startled awake)
PALACE-LADIES: Why’s there all that noise? (They look) Oh dear, that’s bad! (They face outwards and call) Overnight-duty guards in the outer wing, come here, quickly!
(Enter four soldiers)
FOUR SOLDIERS: What’s all that uncalled-for great alarm for?
PALACE-CHARMEUSES: Grandfather-emperor suddenly cried out loudly in his dreams, and when we hastily got up and looked, we saw there was fresh blood all over him, and he’d collapsed onto the floor.
FOUR SOLDIERS. What a thing to have happened!
(They go in and look)
Hey, why he’s died of a stab to the heart! That’s very odd! We were keeping a firm guard in the outer wing, and there were also a lot of patrol guards blocking the lanes, so where did the villain get in through? At the end of the day, it must have been you who did it.
PALACE-LADIES: What a load of rubbish! You were protecting him in the outer wing, and you let the villain in. Tomorrow when the Great General interrogates you, each and every one of you are certain to die.
SOLDIER: Do you imagine you’ll come clean out of it by your denials!
(They joke)
(Enter general)
GENERAL: (Recites)
News of a murder in the emperor’s Scarlet Palace-hall has arrived, A command from the heir apparent’s Green Palace789 has been issued.
(Says)
The Great General has given an order, that, our ruler having been assassinated by someone sent by Kuo Tzu-yi of the T’ang court, he’s to be carried by soldiers to Empress Tuan’s palace and be placed in a shroud and coffin, to await the Great General’s ascent to the throne and his issuing of the Funeral Notices.790
FOUR SOLDIERS: Order received!
(The corpse is carried out. Exeunt soldiers and others)
PALACE-LADIES: (Turning to face backstage) (recite)
Fish-patterned dagger infringing the carriage-mat seat,791 Those on duty did watch-patrol close to the throne of Five Clouds;792 The sharp point entered his breast, and his blood daubed the floor,793 But now without trace the assassin’s disappeared into the crowds.794
Act Thirty-five: Taking back the capital
(Enter, proceeding, Kuo Tzu-yi, wearing gold helmet and long-robe, and four generals, each riding a horse, and two soldiers grasping flags)
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: (Sings)
Proclaiming awesome might, and advancing to punish the enemy,
We delight as the sun dawns in the imperial capital,
And the wind stills in the sublime imperial country-surround.
The Sharp-pointed Spear,795 comet of wa
r,
has been washed away entirely,
And we’re about to re-create Heaven and Earth, the whole world.
I brandish my horse-whip, and freely tap my gold stirrups,
To consolidate the Restoration796 I’ll do many a fine deed.
(Says)
I’m Kuo Tzu-yi, and I’ve received he imperial command to take charge of forces to punish the rebels. Let’s rejoice that An Lu-shan’s has forfeited his head, Yes, An Lu-shan’s been slaughtered, his son An Ch’ing-hsü‘s fled, and, right now, my Three Armies big and small, rouse your victorious brigades and re-enter the city of Ch’ang-an.
(All respond with assent. They move off)
ALL: (Sing)
We haul in our galloping reins,
Approach the Hanging Bridge.797
And just see,
bowing to our front command-standard,
the Ch’ang-an elders,
Cheers start up,
Laughing chat’s loud,
They sell strings of pearls to respectfully proffer us fragrant lees.
(They arrive)
ALL: Commander-in-chief, We’re now into the capital city. We ask your permission to set up camp provisionally in the government administrative office in Dragon-and-tiger Guard.798
(Kuo Tzu-yi and all dismount and go in. Kuo Tzu-yi sits in the main position, and the four generals sit to the sides of him)
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: (Recites)
I recall how in days gone by, Ch’ang-an was in its full splendour,
GENERALS 1 and 2: (Recite)
But this day as we come here again, it’s unbearably sad.
GENERALS 3 and 4: (Recite)
We freely strew the tears that fill our eyes for our rivers and mountains, our land.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Only now am I enlightened as to the poem on the wall in Hsin-feng.
FOUR GENERALS: Might we ask you, commander-in-chief, what poem was that on the wall at Hsin-feng?799
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Ah, you’ve no idea, my generals. When I originally first came as governor to this West Capital in past years, I chanced to see up in a storeyed wine-house there was on the wall a poem written by the wizard Li Hsia-chou.800
FOUR GENERALS: What were the words of the poem he inscribed?
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: The poem went:
Everybody’s departed Yen City,801
Horses don’t return home to Box Pass any more;
If you meet their ghosts at the foot of the mountains,
Tie your gauze-silk robe onto the ring of the door.
FOUR GENERALS: How’s that to be explained, commander-in-chief?
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: At the time, I couldn’t comprehend it in detail either, but looking at it now, I see that every one of its lines has turned out true.
FOUR GENRAN LU-SHAN: Please give us the detailed explanation.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: An Lu-shan, in command of the soldiers and cavalry of Yen and Chi, came and trespassed against our two capital cities. Wasn’t that then indeed a case of ‘Everybody’s departed Yen City’! Afterwards, our Ke-shu Han was defeated at T’ung Pass, which was precisely a case of “Horses don’t return home to Box Pass”.
FOUR GENERALS: Yes, that’s right. He was indeed quite correct about that. How do you interpret the final two lines, though?
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: “Ghost (鬼)” at the foot of” “mountain” (山) makes the character 嵬, of the name Ma Wei, and “ring” (“bangle”) comes in the name of Empress Yang, Yang Jade-bangle, so that final line corresponds exactly to the events when she was “awarded death” at Ma Wei’s Slope.
FOUR GENERALS: So that’s what it means! It’s evident that all those things were predetermined. That now, owing to your vast awesome prestige, commander-in-chief, you’ve re-taken the imperial palace, is truly an exceptional deed of merit for the state.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: (Sighing) Ah me, even though we’ve regained our West Capital, the trouble is that our Son of Heaven for the while remains dwelling in Ling-wu, Sublime August-emperor, Emperor Dark-progenitor, is “wintertime hunting” afar in Ch’eng-tu, all our thousand mandarins still scuttle out in the bush and chenopodium, and the ordinary populace hasn’t yet returned home to its farm-fields and villages. We must first restore tranquillity to the imperial palace’s forbidden precincts, sprinkle and sweep out the palace gardens and tomb-mounds and strive to leave the Court-music Wooden Bell-stands802 in their same position, and the appearance of the imperial ancestral temple as of old. Not until our Sublime August-emperor returns from the west, and comes back east in his Great Carriage, will my personal endeavours be able to attain completion.
FOUR GENERALS: (Cupping their hands and moving them downwards from the top of their chest in respectful conventional gesture of thanks.) We’re entirely in your hands, our commander-in-chief.
(Recite)
The T’ang dynasty’s altars of soil and millet we once more help up with one hand, Carry on our back the Lis’ world with all our two shoulders.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: For all you say, though, the matter of the Restoration will expend a lot of energy to manage. What would you gentlemen instruct me to do?
FOUR GENERALS: We wouldn’t be so impudent!
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: (Sings)
The ashes of the imperial Nine Ancestral-temples fly,803
All the various imperial tomb-mounds are dark with dust,
Everywhere you look is chaos,
and there’s the stink of cattle and sheep.
The Palace Music-instrument Stands804 have long been missing,
Grieved blood-tears frequent drip.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
Today the ill supernatural vapours have blessedly, to our joy, all been dispelled,
And we must quickly ourselves sweep away, repair and rebuild.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: General of the Left Camp, come over here.
GENERAL 1: Present!
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Take this Order-arrow,805 and go on ahead through the starry night, and engage and recruit hired labourers to sweep the imperial Bed-chamber Tomb,806 and to repair and rebuild the imperial ancestral temple, in readiness for sacrificial services to be held when our sage emperor’s carriage returns here.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
When in the spring garden,
The cherry-blossoms mature and burst open,
We’ll set forth and offer up seasonal food.
(Kuo Tzu-yi hands over the Order-arrow. General 1 takes it)
GENERAL 4: Commander-in-chief on high, this imperial capital has only just been retaken, and nine out of ten houses are empty, so the important task now is that we must reassemble those who’re homeless or have migrated elsewhere, and settle them down in their old vocations.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: It is as you say.
(Sings)
So deserving of pity,
A thousand families have been displaced,
A hundred households have drifted apart.
“Lamenting swan-geese”807 are sad and desolate all over every road.
We must quickly beckon them here,
So that their village and ward-gates may once again be filled.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
Gather them together in peace:
In the depths of spring,
in all the countryside around farming’s already underway,
Just the time to take the chance to at last doff armour, and weapons untie.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: General of the Right Camp, come over here.
GENERAL 2: Present!
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Take this Order-arrow, and go ahead and issue a notice-board to calm the general populace, and for them to return home to their old vocations.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
Through the countryside outside the city,
We shall to wo
men and children bring peace and tranquillity,
And encourage the cultivation of ploughing and weavery.
(Kuo Tzu-yi hands the Order-arrow to General 2, who takes it)
GENERAL 2: I receive your esteemed order.
GENERAL 3: Commander-in-chief on high, our state has been newly recreated, so we should extend state and social order, and we must further invite old ministers here, and together with them plan a change and new beginning.
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: That advice fits in precisely with my own ideas.
(Sings)
Even though I for the while control the “fishnet main ropes and chariot-canopy ropes” ̶ state laws,808
And shoulder alone that mighty undertaking,
We must, with shared feelings, morning and evening make united efforts.
(Says)
You hundred ministers,
(Sings)
For peace or peril, we must depend on your remarkable policies.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
We’re happy that “Nan-yang” has been able already to be full of splendid ethers,809
Favourable for us to refurbish the old constitutions
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Come here, General of the Rear Camp.
GENERAL 4: Present!
MILITARY COMMISSIONER KUO TZU-YI: Take an Order-arrow, and put up notice-boards to display a notice to all the mandarins that they are within a time-limit of three days to betake themselves together before my army, and join in furthering the affairs of state.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
Assisting the Restoration, for an age of Ascendant Peace and prosperous destinies
We’ll shadow-follow, tight-join, and assemble as many as clouds.
(Kuo Tzu-yi hands over the Order-arrow and General 4 takes it)
GENERAL 4: I receive your honoured command!
The Play Page 28
