Act Forty-five: Rain dream
(Enter Sublime August-emperor)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR, (Sings)
In the depths of my sorrow, I dream afar,
How many hairs have I added of white?
What I suffer most from is that my beautiful lady passed away so soon,
I grieve that I pass the night alone,
Bitter regret the meaningless night.
(Recites)
I can’t bear the aimless nights’ frequent sounds of rain, Every time I think of the one in Layered Springs, my mind feels grieving; When I’ve tweaked the lamp-flame out, I can’t get to sleep, In my forlorn and bleak Southern Inner-palace,940 who is there any more dwelling?
(Says)
Since returning to the capital from favouring Shu with my visit, I’ve withdrawn to dwell in Southern Inner-palace, where every day I think of and yearn for naught but my Most-prized-empress Yang. Previously, when we buried her at Ma Wei’s Slope, I’d looked forward to gazing upon her “left-behind looks” once more, but unexpectedly the grave had changed into an empty pit, and all that was left was her one perfume-sachet. I don’t know whether her corpse had actually dispersed, or whether her jade-fair flesh was transformed into perfume and melted away. Pointlessly I toss and turn and ponder over it, wondering how I shall be able to have a meeting with her. Tonight, facing this bitter rain all over the courtyard, and half a wall’s sorrowful lamp-light, it makes one feel so forlorn and desolate!
(Sings)
Cold wind and beating rain shudder the long night,
I hear drop on drop whistling in that parasol-tree.
Hiss-hissing sough-soughing they together in the dark tap out my disarrayed sorrow,
And no sooner halt than they drift back promptly.
How can I bear the emptiness of this phoenix bed-curtain,
The strings of incense dispersing rapidly,
Me sitting alone,
Huddled round the shine of my solitary lamp,
Regretting I don’t have, to listen with me,
that dainty-pretty alluring lady!
(Sheds tears)
(Sings)
Abruptly, I think of our old love-joys and diversions,
And I can’t halt the intermingling of my tears.
(First watch is beaten backstage)
(Chang Yeh-hu941 sings backstage. Emperor listens)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: Hey, where’s that sound of singing coming from? It sounds so forlorn; it can only be some former member of my Pear-orchard Conservatoire! I must go out in front of my portiere, and lean on the balustrade and have a listen.
(Stands up, and leans on balustrade)
That’s Chang Yeh-hu’s voice. Let me listen to find out what melody he’s singing.
(Listens, and at the same time heaves sighs and covers up his tears)
(Chang Yeh-hu stands on a high point in the depths of the stage)
CHANG YEH-HU: (Sings)
On the ten-thousand-mountain Shu road,
High teeter the ancient strutted gallery-roads,
Hasty rain urges the forest twigs,
Tapped with wild abandon are wooden-clappered tiny bells and crotals,
They’re like complaining, like sorrow,
Without cease deafening to bits,
Echoing in the empty mountains, making one’s wits fade away melting.
One echo’s suddenly slow and feeble,
Another echo’s suddenly urgent and shaking.
Matters of boundless heart-grieving,
Teased out by it,
Are transcribed into
Pure Shang Music-treasury music,942
transmitting far the bitter regretting.
(Sound of the drum for the second watch from backstage)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Lamenting) Ah me, why it’s the melody Rain showering on the tiny bells that I myself composed. I remember how when formerly I was on the strutted-gallery wooden walkway, I heard the rained-on little bells ringing with each other, and, achingly recalling my Most-prized-empress Yang, I culled the sounds, and composed them into this melody. Hearing it tonight, I recall my sad forlornness on the road to Shu, and feel all the more gut-severed.
(Sings)
Hearing the rain-showered tiny bells,
I feel anguish in my breast.
Ten thousand kinds of forlorn bleakness old and new encircle me,
Entwining and molesting this sorrowful person utterly vexed.
Heaven’s grown deserted and Earth grown fadey,
Who understands such a kind of bitter regret!
Listen, outside my window the sound of rain grows louder,
Sparse and dense,
Soft then louder yet,
And no sooner have I closed my eyes
Than a further few gusts disturb my dream from outside my casement.
(Enter Eunuch-chamberlain Kao)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: (Recites)
In West Palace South Inner-palace there’s a lot of autumn greenery, As night-rain drips on the leaves of the parasol-tree.
(Meets emperor) (Says)
It’s now deep in the night. Please, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor, take repose in your bed, won’t you.
(The third watch is drummed backstage)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: Oh dear, clepsydra and watch-drum intermingle. Let me just lie down on this little bench. Ah me, I wonder this night what dream can come into my eyes!
(Sings)
Faint and far, one living one dead, we’ve been a whole year separated,
But her spirit has my dreams never entered.
(He falls asleep)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Our Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor’s gone to sleep. I’d better go and take some rest, too.
(Makes false exit)
(Enter two eunuch attendants bearing swords)
TWO EUNUCH ATTENDANTS: (Recite)
His profound love still not able to be dispersed, Going into his dream, the monarch’s moved.
(They kneel facing the emperor) (Says)
Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor, please awake.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Waking up, and looking) Where’ve you two come from?
TWO EUNUCH ATTENDANTS: We’ve respectfully received Empress Yang’s command to come and invite you to visit her, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor.
(Sing)
Just because that day amid the mutinous soldiers she wretchedly disastrous calamity encountering,
Stealthily among the cluster of people changed her attire and secretly fled,
So drifted around, for long as fleabane-tumbleweed floating.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (In astonished delight) Oh, so my Empress Yang never actually died. But where is she now?
TWO EUNUCH ATTENDANTS: (Sing)
She thinks and thinks of you, Your Majesty, dawn to dusk,
Bitter regret entwining her and sorrow winding round her,
And so she quietly sweeps out the posting-station courtyard,
(Kow-tow)
(Sing)
Hoping that your gold-bells imperial carriage will soon with a visit favour her.
She says she wants to join up again
Her unfinished love-pledge with you her ruler.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Shedding tears) I think of and yearn for my Most-prized-empress Yang in every conceivable way, but little did I realise that she was in the posting-station! The two of you quickly come with me there, and this very night we’ll usher her back here.
TWO EUNUCH ATTENDANTS: As you command!
(They lead the emperor, and proceed)
(Sing)
He delights to hear that his lady of flower-like looks,
Is now still in the mortal world,
And he can invite her to a face to face.
He hastily has us slip out by the double-walled road in the imperial park,
Not concerned that the night’s deep and people still,
&nbs
p; The dew chill and the breeze cold,
The road long and the moon dark.
(Enter Ch’en Yȕan-li, barring their way)
CH’EN YȔAN-LI: Your Majesty, you’ve been dwelling tranquilly for a long while here in South Inner-palace, so why are you going out incognito deep in the night? Where are you going?
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Shocked)
(Sings)
Where are you from, mandarin,
Barring my carriage, and with your argy-bargy babbling on?
CH’EN YȔAN-LI: I’m Ch’en Yȕan-li. Please swiftly return to your palace, Your Majesty.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Angrily) Tcha! Ch’en Yȕan-li, that day in Ma Wei’s Slope posting-station, you slyly incited the soldiers to force my Most-prized-empress Yang’s to die, your crime deserving punishment beyond execution. Now, today, are you wanting to commit another transgression by barring the way for my carriage?
(Sings)
You take utterly no notice of ruler or minister,
But abruptly have the impertinence to show wild boldness without halter.
CH’EN YȔAN-LI: If Your Majesty won’t return to your palace, I just fear that the Six Armies will mutiny and cause an upheaval again.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: Tcha! Ch’en Yȕan-li,
(Sings)
You’re bullying me because I don’t hold the reins of power,
And dwell in retirement withdrawn from the imperial court.
You just flaunt your possession of power and prestige,
And that your infantry are violent, your soldiers arrogant.
In law you’re unforgivable,
How can your crime be spared!
I call on you eunuch attendants to speedily cut off this rebellious subject and rogue-son’s head and hang it up in public displayed.
TWO EUNUCH ATTENDANTS: As you command!
(They seize Ch’en Yȕan-li, and exeunt executing him, then turn back)
We submit to you Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor: We’ve now arrived before Ma Wei’s Slope posting-station. Please go in.
(Exeunt unobtrusively)
(Emperor goes in)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I just see mostly empty little huts, tumbledown little huts,
And bleak and so forlornly aproach this deserted city-precinct countryside, this city’s country precincts.
(Says)
Eunuch-attendants, where is my Empress Yang?
(Looks round)
Hey, how is it that I don’t see even one of them?
(Sings)
I simply just hear, soughing and rustle-rustling, the wind rippling and the trees rocking,
Chirrup chirp-chirping wintry crickets on every side,
Chattering on and on, one stretch of sorrow’s sprouts, sprouts of complaining.
(Weeps)
Oh dear, oh my Most-prized-empress Yang,
(Sings)
I can’t call forth your flower dainty-prettiness, your moon dainty-prettiness gay,
I expect probably that your body has dispersed, your shadow melted away.
(Gong sounds backstage)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Alarmed) Hey, most odd: in a trice even the posting-station has vanished, too, and I’ve arrived instead on the bank of Bendy-river Pond. What a huge expanse of water!
(Sings)
Taking one unawares, the severed steps and crumbled walls
Have turned into startled billows, boiling billows.
(Gazes)
Look, in the middle of this great stretch of water, a monster has surged forth, with pig’s head and dragon body, brandishing its claws and extending its fangs, and coming rushing abruptly this way. Most frightening!
(Gong sounds backstage. Enter leaping, a Pig-dragon943 with an iron chain round its neck, and pounces at the emperor. Emperor flees in alarm, and, chased to his original location, falls asleep)
(Enter two gold-armoured gods grasping maces. They attack the pig-dragon.)
TWO GOLD-ARMOURED GODS: (Bellowing) Pah, you bastard beast, you’re so discourteous! Why are you jumping out again, and coming here and alarming and transgressing against the sage-emperor? You’d better hurry and be off!
(Exeunt dragging the pig-dragon and beating it)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Calling out in alarm) Agh, it scared me stiff.
(Enter Eunuch-chamberlain Kao in haste, supports emperor by the arm)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor, why were you yelling out so loudly in your dreams?
(Emperor sits down flabbergasted, and calms his mind)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, what’s that sound outside?
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: It’s the sound of rain on the parasol-tree.
(Sound of fourth watch being beaten on a drum backstage)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I was just wondering who startled me from the tail-end of my dream-drifting,
But why! It was the wild swish-swishing of the rain.
I bitterly resent that it refused to spare me even on my pillow,
Every sound, every drip, of it arriving on the wintry tree-top,
I was just about ready to saw that wretched parasol-tree down.
(Says)
Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, just now in my dream I met two eunuch-attendants, and they told me that my Empress Yang was in the Ma Wei’s Slope posting-station, and was inviting me to visit her there. It must have been that her fragrant spirit hasn’t yet dispersed. I recall that when in the past Emperor Warrior of the Han dynasty was yearning for his Queen Li,944 he had Li Shao-chun945 beckon her spirit for a meeting with him, and there must be some such man around nowadays! When dawn comes, you may immediately transmit my command that a search is to be made everywhere for a necromancer to come and beckon Empress Yang’s spirit here for me.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: As you command!
(Fifth watch sounds backstage)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
Pell-mell fall my tear-drops, like pearls flown,
The sound of rain noises at me from the parasol-tree;
Just the other side of one window, dripping right till dawn.
(Recites)
Half a remnant lamp flash-flashes bright,946 So, in the rain, I recall the rain showering on the tiny bells;947 Grieved of heart, I suddenly awake from a dream of political vicissitudes,948 Wanting to tailor a letter right to the Dark Shades.949
Act Forty-six: Seeking her spirit
(Enter necromancer Yang Mystery-accesser,950 leading Taoist Novice-lads951 each grasping a banner)
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: (Recites)
A Lin-ch’iung952 Taoist priest, a visitor in the Swan-goose Capital,953 I’m able by my refined piety to evoke spirits; Because I’m moved by our monarch’s turmoil of yearning, I’m to search everywhere with eager diligence.
(Says)
I, this poor Taoist priest, am Yang Mystery-accesser. By census-category I’m registered as attached to the Cinnabar Terrace,954 and my name’s been elevated into the Scarlet amulets.955 I can call up wind and drag forth lightning, chariot the ether to the gate of Heaven, control demons, invoke spirits, and wander my mind in the Earth-palace Shades. Just because Grand Sublime August-emperor’s yearning for his Most-prized-empress Yang, and has everywhere been seeking out remarkable men to invoke her spirit to meet him, I’ve come here in response to his summons. Grand Sublime August-emperor is utterly delighted, and has summoned me into East-Hua Gate palace,956 to practice my magic according to the prescriptions.957 I’ve already completed the construction of my magic-altar-platform, and this evening shall mount the altar-platform, and proclaim the emperor’s invitation to her.
My Taoist novice-lad, come with me up onto the altar-platform.
(Taoist Novice-lads hold sword and water in his hands, and proceed together with him)
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: (Sings)
Just because of their love-destiny once star
ted,
In life and death they bear grievance,
And long again to meet,
I rely on my boundless Taoist magical powers,
And set out my direct access to the supernatural to manifest.
(A high altar-platform’s set up on stage)
TAOIST LAD: We’ve reached the altar-platform.
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: It is a fine magic altar-platform.
(Sings)
This altar-platform was originally constructed and set up in the empty air,
Symbolising embracing the Grand Ultimate,958 and on the past modelled.
In Non-existence,959 there are Female Force and Male Force960 accumulated and gathered together,
In Existence,961 there’s no creation of humans, “no clay figures with water and fire thrown and pottered”.962
TAOIST LADS: How were the foundations of the altar-platform erected?
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: As for the foundations, I dispatched the Five Able-bodied-men963 and Sixth Chias god of hailstorms,964
(Sings)
I operated the Centre965 and, in the middle, there and then it erected.
TAOIST LADS: What techniques did you use to complete it?
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: As for my use of techniques, I “reared babies” for “human heart-blood”966 and “young girls” for “kidneys” for refining quicksilver.967
(Sings)
I matched the metal and wood of yi and keng,968
and in a trice it was completed.
TAOIST LADS: Are there doors and windows up on the altar-platform, though?
YANG MYSTERY-ACCESSER: As for doors and windows, facing the Gold Cock969 sun, and turning towards the White-jade Hare moon970,
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