The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama

by C. T. Hsia

  [The Whole World Rejoices]§

  I was to ask what happened, tracing the story from its source,

  I was to pull out my sword, ready to assist the wronged by force.

  How this affects me! Sorrow entwines my vital organs,

  Anger besieges my insides.

  It turns out that the fallen victims of treachery are my father

  And the ancestors of my clan!

  When the story is told to its heartbreaking point,

  Even a man of iron or stone will wail in lamentation!

  If you, Tu Angu, become the king,

  And I become your minister—

  What about the will of heaven?84

  [Ascending a Small Tower]

  If you, Father, had not looked after me,

  And brought me up,

  Then twenty years ago,

  Decapitated, torn apart,

  I would have been dead in the ruins from the start.

  Tu Angu,

  That villain,

  Searched for the roots as he pulled up the tree,

  He had my whole clan slain and none could flee!

  [Same tune as above]†

  For having turned against one man,85

  That traitor should be wiped out, along with nine sets of relations in his clan.

  Instead all military resources under heaven,

  Common folk that fill the realm

  Are turned over to that villain presiding at the helm.

  It turns out you are the mastermind,

  It is under the tutelage you designed

  That he is taught to threaten lords of other domains,86

  It was you who has taught him to assassinate the ruler and murder his father!87

  [Twelfth Month]*

  Thinking of my father and mother who suffered wrongful deaths,

  I want to seize the slandering, conniving villain.

  I will make that scoundrel ride the wooden donkey,

  Flay his body cut by cut,

  Chop his young sons and daughters into mincemeat,

  So that not a single kin of his remains.

  [Song of Yao’s People]*

  Today others will persecute you: what then?

  It so happens that, like a protective talisman, you have the Zhao Orphan reared!

  Let everyone in his clan, be they high or low, meet a fate most feared!

  Look, my three-foot Dragon Spring sword is with blood dimly besmeared.

  Heed the moment,

  Heed the moment,

  What little you owed in your former life

  You have to pay back today.

  [Teasing Children]§

  By tomorrow, should I encounter my foe,

  I will block the traitor’s way squarely on the long road.

  Grabbing the Dragon Spring sword in hand, I will drag him by his clothes.

  Whipping my horse, powerful as a bear, with my long arms I will reach out,

  His horse with its jade bit and golden saddle I will put to rout.

  From his black-canopied carriage with golden flowers he will fall.

  No easy forgiveness at all:

  The fierce tiger that hesitates

  Is not as deadly as the stinging wasp.

  [Third to Last Coda]*

  If these wrongs I do not relieve,

  I cannot dispel this rancor and grief.

  To think of my father who died a violent death, my own mother who perished in prison!

  If I do not avenge my parents in the underworld and assuage their pain,

  The shame of facing the starving man under the mulberry tree will be my bane.

  Have no fear and doubts:

  Just distinguish the good case from the weak one,

  Examine what’s the truth, what are the lies spun.

  [Penultimate Coda]†

  Gouge out that villain’s eyes,

  Slit open his belly,

  Rip out his heart,

  Lop off his limbs,

  Crack! Break that scoundrel’s spine.

  As the saying goes, not too little rancor—a noble man’s at stake.

  It has always been so: without venom a true man you cannot make.

  It will be hard to cover him up!

  I am not afraid of the guards shielding him in front,

  Nor of the soldiers to his left and right.

  [Ultimate Coda]~

  [Coda]†

  I want to repay the kindness of my parents who died violent deaths,

  Relying on the blessings of the sagely emperor.

  If the royal soldiers were willing to protect the Zhao Orphan,

  I will appeal to the supreme ruler for his decision!

  Topic: Han Jue Saves the Brave Man Who Is Ready to Die; Cheng Ying Vies with the Worthy and Gives Up His Son

  Title: Gongsun Chujiu Matches Duty with Duty; The Zhao Orphan Requites Carnage with Carnage

  NOTES

  1. Zuozhuan, Gongyang, and Guliang are traditionally classified as exegetical traditions of Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), whose putative author or editor is Confucius. Zuozhuan differs from the other two in being much longer and more committed to narrative. It overlaps in content with Guoyu: both are dominated by accounts of Jin affairs.

  2. See Zuozhuan Xuan 2.3, Cheng 4.6, 5.1, 8.6, 10.4, in Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu (hereafter Yang), 655–63, 819–22, 838–39, 849–50. Zhao Dun, who had facilitated the accession of Lord Ling of Jin in 620 B.C.E. (then a mere infant or very young child) after initial vacillations (Wen 7.4, Yang, 558–61), was probably responsible for his assassination thirteen years later (607 B.C.E.). That story, couched in terms of Lord Ling’s misdemeanors, defiance of remonstrance, and murderous plots against Zhao Dun, raises questions on the justification of assassinating a ruler, the adjudication of responsibility, and “truth” in historical records. The Zuozhuan account of Lord Ling’s assassination betrays a distinct pro-Zhao bias. Our play transforms Zhao Dun from likely perpetrator into archvictim. Zhao Dun is mentioned in records pertaining to 603 B.C.E., and by 601 B.C.E. his son Zhao Shuo has succeeded him, so he probably died around 602 B.C.E. Despite the toll of the crisis that later destroyed Zhao Dun’s brothers and their families in 597 B.C.E., the Zhao lineage regained its influence and was one of the three clans that partitioned Jin in 453 B.C.E.

  3. Han retellings of this story (see Liu Xiang, Xin xu jinzhu jinyi 7.254–59, Liu Xiang, Shuoyuan jinzhu jinyi 6.177–78) suggest that “Tu’an” is understood as the surname, and Zheng Qiao (1104–1162) also lists “Tu’an” as a “double surname” (fuxing 複姓) in Tongzhi (29.480–81). However, Ji Junxiang regards “Tu” as the surname; that is why Tu Angu names his adopted son Tu Cheng. For the sake of consistency, we have rendered the name as Tu Angu in Shiji as well. There is a passing reference to one official by the name of Tu’an Yi in Guoyu, “Jin yu 2,” 8.305. However, there in no indication of any powerful “Tu” or “Tu’an” lineages in extant pre-Han accounts about Jin.

  4. Wu-chi Liu reviews some of the historical sources of the play in “The Original Orphan.” Sima Qian’s account (Shiji 43.1783–85) is not traceable to extant earlier sources and is also contradicted by his own narratives in other chapters of Shiji. Many notable historians and scholars have expressed their skepticism about this story, including Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661–721), Hong Mai 洪邁 (1123–1202), Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223–1296), Fang Yizhi 方以智 (1611–1671), and Liang Yusheng 梁玉繩 (1744–1819).

  5. This is the title of the play in Anthology. The Yuan Editions version has a different title and topic, which are listed at the end of the translation of that edition. The Tianyige version of The Register of Ghosts gives its title as “Gongsun Chujiu Meets Duty with Duty, / The Zhao Orphan Requites Carnage with Carnage” (Yi feng yi Gongsun Chujiu, yuan bao yuan Zhaoshi gu’er 義逢義公孫杵臼, 冤報冤趙氏孤兒) (Zhong Sicheng, Lugui bu, 149).

  6. In one version of The Register of Ghosts, his name appears as Ji Tianxiang 紀天祥 (ibid., 68).

&nbs
p; 7. Whether Cheng Ying has the right to give up his own son’s life or whether one baby’s life may be worth more than another’s are questions often debated in the classroom when this play is taught. What may seem an ethical quagmire to us is sometimes presented as unambiguous moral choices in much of premodern Chinese literature: a parent sacrificing a child out of his or her sense of duty is often praised as a selfless hero.

  8. See Wang Guowei, Song Yuan xiqu shi, 102.

  9. See Zang Maoxun, YQX, 7:3713–3761; Xu Qinjun, Xin jiao Yuan kan zaju sanshi zhong, 1:308–26.

  10. Idema, “Traditional Dramatic Literature,” 804. See also Idema, “Orphan of Zhao.”

  11. A series of arias from another play attributed to Ji, Chen Wendao Reaches Enlightenment in the Dream of Pine Shadows (Chen Wendao wudao songyin meng 陳文道悟道松陰夢) (also called Li Yuanzhen in the Pine Shadows [Li Yuanzhen songyin ji 李元真松陰記]) is included in Zhao Jingshen, Yuanren zaju gouchen.

  12. On adaptations and translations of this play, see Hsia, “Orphan of the House Zhao.”

  13. “Ling” 靈 is the Jin ruler’s posthumous honorific, and it is of course anachronistic for Tu Angu to refer to him as such. As posthumous honorific, “Ling” conveys negative judgment.

  14. In imperial times, officials would go to the countryside to encourage agriculture; that ritual is called speeding the plow. The translation follows Cyril Birch’s rendering of the term in The Peony Pavilion.

  15. Western Rong is one of the “barbarian” groups in early China. Erya zhushu (10.195) defines ao 獒 as a large hound of about four chi (roughly three feet), and Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi (10A.5b) identifies it as a hound trained to do its master’s bidding.

  16. In audiences with the ruler, officials write down the points they wish to make on an ivory or bamboo tablet they hold with both hands in front of their chests (Liji zhushu 13.559, “Yuzao” 玉藻). The image here evokes officials who are too terrified to remonstrate with the ruler.

  17. Yao and Shun are legendary sage-rulers of ancient China. The xiezhi 獬豸 is a mythical animal endowed with prescience and unerring judgment.

  18. The stories of Chu Ni, Ti Miming, and Ling Zhe are told in Zuozhuan (Xuan 2.3, Yang, 655–63), where Lord Ling is the one who unleashes a hound to attack Zhao Dun. The Zuozhuan account ends with the assassination of Lord Ling by Zhao Dun’s kinsman Zhao Chuan.

  19. Being allowed to commit suicide is also “a gift from court” (chaodian 朝典).

  20. Han Feizi was executed at Yunyang 雲陽 (Shiji 6.232), and Yunyang is often used in later writings, especially fiction and drama, to refer to execution.

  21. A person who has died a natural death at home is usually buried with his ancestors.

  22. Jin forces were divided into the upper, middle, and lower armies (shangjun 上軍, zhongjun 中軍, xiajun 下軍) during the Chunqiu period. Han Jue leads the lower army at one point (Zuozhuan Cheng 13.3, Yang, 865).

  23. Feuds during the Chunqiu period often resulted in entire lineages being wiped out, but the idea of eliminating “nine sets of relations” (jiuzu 九族) as punishment is a later idea. The term refers to four sets of relations on the father’s side, three on the mother’s side, and two on the wife’s side. There is also a “vertical” explanation of the term that counts upward to the great-great-grandfather and downward to the great-great-grandson.

  24. Literally, “the general guarding the world beyond the city gate” (kunwai jiangjun 閫外將軍). The Han official Feng Tang says to Emperor Wen that Han failed to control the Xiongnu because the emperor did not give his generals free rein. Feng cites ancient rulers who were content to control “affairs within the city gates” and to leave “affairs beyond the city gates” to the generals (Shiji 43.2758).

  25. In Zuozhuan, we are told that Han Jue was raised by Zhao Dun (Cheng 17.10, Yang, 903); it is because of Han’s intercession with the Jin ruler that the Zhao line is not completely decimated after internecine strife (Cheng 8.6, Yang, 839). Han Jue is the hero in the Shuoyuan version of the story, which belongs to the chapter “Requiting Beneficence” (Fu’en 復恩).

  26. The word for “ginseng” (renshen 人參) is homophonic with that for “human body” (renshen 人身).

  27. “To become a man”—to have a chance to escape death—means enduring the discomfort of the medicine chest. But these lines also refer more generally to the difficult choices that the characters in this play face.

  28. Zhao Shuo speaks of his parents’ wrongful deaths in the wedge, but here it seems Zhao Dun is supposed to have escaped. In act 4 Zhao Dun is said to have died in the wilderness.

  29. Literally, “a sightless service,” meaning “a service that assumes that heaven is sightless.”

  30. Lu Ji 陸機 (261–303), “Tanshi fu” 嘆逝賦 (Xiao Tong, Wenxuan 16.726): “I sigh that, when the fragrant zhi is burned, the hui [orchid] sighs” (Jie zhi fen er hui tan 嗟芝焚而蕙嘆). The line is rendered less literally in chap. 2, this volume, act 4: “The orchid turns when the fragrant herb burns.”

  31. Literally, “courage that envelops the person.”

  32. The word for both “pearl” and “pupil” is zhu 珠. Those who have “eyes without pupils” lack judgment. Here Han Jue is accusing Cheng Ying of misjudging him.

  33. In Zuozhuan, Jin is the only domain said to have “three armies.”

  34. The corresponding term here is huaben 話本, texts for storytelling since Song times.

  35. There is a discrepancy in the plot here. In act 1, Tu does not give the order to have the baby brought to him.

  36. Another discrepancy: the Zhao Orphan is supposed to be less than a month old at this point.

  37. In Shiji (43.1783), Gongsun is a retainer of Zhao Shuo’s.

  38. Literally, three qing 頃—one qing is approximately fifteen acres.

  39. That is, Gongsun used to have military duties but now lives like a recluse.

  40. Diao’ao ke 釣鰲客, literally “angler of the mythical turtle,” a contrastive parallel with “the likes of dog butcher” (tugou bei 屠狗輩).

  41. Literally, arrayed “bird rows” (of officials) and “leopard-tail carriages.”

  42. Actual titles of the “three chief ministers” vary according to period. The term did not appear in accounts of Jin court from the Chunqiu period.

  43. What we translate as “bushel” is an ancient measure of grain (zhong 鍾) that might have amounted to about 640 kilograms.

  44. Literally, “arrayed cauldrons [serving food] and layers of mattresses.”

  45. Hundun 渾敦, Qiongqi 窮奇, Taowu 檮杌, and Taotie 饕餮 are the evil sons of great lineages banished by Shun to the four margins of the domain during the rule of King Yao (Zuozhuan Wen 18.7, Yang, 636–42).

  46. A human being; “black” refers to the color of hair. The version of these two lines in Yuan Editions seems to make more sense (see this chap., p. 60).

  47. Lunyu zhushu 2.24. Meng Chengshun comments on these lines in Libation: “Only heroes who see through life and death can utter such words” (Xin juan gujin mingju leijiang ji, Zhaoshi gu’er, 19b).

  48. The Tang official Lai Junchen asked Zhou Xing how he used torture to force confession, and Zhou described how he would force suspects to step into a burning cauldron. Lai then told Zhou he should expect the same torture (Sima Guang et al., Zizhi tongjian 204.6472). The allusion thus refers to punishment that the unsuspecting offender had designed for others. Here it merely means a punishment that the offender should expect.

  49. An official notice for the wanted is taken down (jie 揭) when someone has the answer—that is, can produce the person who’s being sought. The solution of such a case would be so momentous that even heaven would shake in fear.

  50. More literally, Jin will be able to make full use of its topography and defy stronger enemies. Bai’er shanhe 百二山河 means “mountains and rivers that create such a strategic advantage that twenty thousand troops would be the equivalent of a hundred thousand” (Shiji 8.
382).

  51. According to Shiji (43.1784), Tu Angu started the coup against the Zhao lineage in the Lower Palace (Xiagong 下宮).

  52. Gongzi Guang of Wu sends Yao Li to assassinate his rival, Qingji. In order to gain access to Qingji, Yao Li has to pretend to vow vengeance against Gongzi Guang. Yao Li thus stages his punishment by Gongzi Guang, who has Yao Li’s right arm cut off and his wife killed. Through such an unspeakable sacrifice, Yao Li manages to become Qingji’s retainer, but he ultimately fails in his assassination attempt and kills himself (Lüshi chunqiu jiaoshi 11.587–88). Yao Li comes to symbolize unconditional loyalty and an unflinching sense of honor.

  53. The term wenjing jiao 刎頸交 means “friends who would slit their throats (for each other)” and is from Shiji 81.2443.

  54. A warrior’s belt displaying a pattern of lions and barbarians.

  55. That is, he will pay for it someday if there is any justice under heaven.

  56. By the Chinese way of counting, a child is one at birth. The baby is, of course, only ten days old.

  57. All three are standard expressions. The first two (“The horses are strong, the soldiers brave,” “The father is loving, the son filial”) describe ideals related to the polity and family. The third maintains that the subject should share the distress of the ruler.

  58. It is from this point on that the orphan addresses Cheng Ying as simply “Father” (diedie 爹爹), instead of “Father on This Side” (zhebixiang diedie 這壁廂爹爹), a form of address that implies his tie with Tu Angu, “Father on That Side” (nabixiang diedie 那壁廂爹爹).

  59. This is one of the inconsistencies in the play. On the previous day the ruler was still Lord Ling. The historical Lord Dao ruled from 586 to 558 B.C.E.

  60. The “wooden donkey” (mulu 木臚) is a bed of nails atop wheels. The criminal is perched on it while being paraded.

  61. Earlier, Han Jue’s rank is said to be “commander of the lower army.”

  62. The version of the text in Libation has the same title and topic.

  63. For the expression (slightly modified in the text here) “to manipulate the Son of Heaven and (in his name) command all under heaven (or the nobles)” (xie tianzi yi ling tianxia xie tianzi yi ling zhuhou 挾天子以令天下, 挾天子以令諸侯), see Zhanguo ce 3.115; Lu Ji, “Bianwang lun” 辯亡論, in Xiao Tong, Wenxuan 53.2312. The line is often used to describe how Cao Cao, at the end of the Han dynasty, issued commands to military leaders in the name of the Han emperor.