The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama
Page 21
JUDGE BAO: Zhang Qian, bring Liu Dezhong forward and let Young Piegu beat him to death with the gold mallet.
ZHANG QIAN: Yes sir.
JUDGE BAO (sings:)
[Buying Good Wine]
Liu Dezhong committed a great crime,
And Young Piegu has bided his time.
This is enmity he earned—how else to resolve it?
It’s not that I am unduly harsh:
But your father’s death is a debt you have to settle.
[Song of Peace]
Human lives have always mattered most—even heaven is concerned.
How can we allow him to wantonly kill like a wolf or a tiger?
The purple-gold mallet is before us still,
Take it up and bash his brains in.
Not before his flesh is rent
And his blood spurts out,
Not until he suffers this punishment,
Will peace and order be restored to Chenzhou.
(YOUNG PIEGU clubs LIU DEZHONG to death.)
Zhang Qian, is he dead?
ZHANG QIAN: Yes, indeed.
JUDGE BAO: Zhang Qian, take Young Piegu away.
ZHANG QIAN: Yes sir. (ZHANG QIAN leads YOUNG PIEGU away.)
(MASTER LIU rushes on stage bearing the imperial pardon.)
MASTER LIU (recites:)
My harried heart made the road seem long,
I left my home when things went wrong.
I am Master Liu. I made my case before the emperor himself and requested a pardon, sparing those still alive, not doing anything for those already dead. I traveled day and night to Chenzhou in order to save my two sons. Guards, stay the sentence—I have a pardon for those still alive, though it does nothing for those already dead.
JUDGE BAO: Zhang Qian, who are the dead ones?
ZHANG QIAN: The dead ones are Yang Jinwu and Liu Dezhong.
JUDGE BAO: And who is alive?
ZHANG QIAN: Young Piegu.
MASTER LIU: Oh no! I have obtained a pardon for the wrong person.
JUDGE BAO: Zhang Qian, release Young Piegu. (Sings:)
[Joy at the Palace]
All of a sudden I heard of the pardon,
And I cannot help turning my head windward, laughing out loud.
Just think: father and sons had always abused their powers,
But today they have run out of luck and met their doom.
He had hoped that the pardon would the inevitable avert,
How was he to know that, faster than pardon, came death as just desert?
All this topsy-turvy just bought pardon for another.
It’s not that his all-too-human schemes lack cleverness,
But they pale beside heaven’s justice, clear for all to see. (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, arrest Master Liu. Now hear my judgment. (Recites:)
Because of drought and famine at Chenzhou,
The poor people scattered hither and yon.
Liu Dezhong was never fit for office grave,
Yang Jinwu was even more of a knave.
Bearing an imperial order to sell rice at Chenzhou,
They changed the price and pocketed the difference.
With the purple-gold mallet they unjustly killed a good man,
Cries of grievance moved heaven and earth to sorrow.
How could Minister Fan have condoned such vermin?
He begged the throne for mercy, but not for the guilty dead.
Today with justice we investigated this case,
Sending Young Piegu to avenge his father’s murder.
Only thus can we see the just law of kings
Passed on for a thousand years to come.
Topic: Minister Fan Makes an Appointment for the Government
Title: Judge Bao Solves the Case of “Selling Rice in Chenzhou”
NOTES
1. See Bao Zheng, Bao Xiaosu zouyi.
2. Huang Zhen 黃震 (1213–1280), Kujin jiyao 古今紀要, Siku quanshu, cited in Chen Tao, Baogong xi yanjiu, 41.
3. The official title daizhi means, literally, “awaiting (imperial) command or query.” Wilt Idema and Stephen West translate daizhi as “rescriptor-in-waiting” in Monks.
4. However, in that play, Zhang Qian Kills His Brother’s Wife on His Behalf (Zhang Qian ti shaqi 張千替殺妻), Zhang Qian as male lead sings all the arias, and Judge Bao as extra has only improvisational lines not included in the text.
5. This ballad story appears in English translation in Idema, Judge Bao, 31–66. Although these stories were printed between 1471 and 1478, they were probably composed ca. 1200 to ca. 1300 (ibid., xviii–xx).
6. For studies of Judge Bao fiction, see Bauer, “Tradition”; Ma, “Kung-an Fiction”; Hanan, “Judge Bao’s Hundred Cases Reconstructed”; St. André, “Picturing Judge Bao.”
7. Idema, Judge Bao, xxvi. Idema argues that while later revisions “turned Judge Bao into an instrument of central state power … Judge Bao’s main antagonists [in the ballad stories] are members of the imperial family”—he thus implies that the ballad stories are more subversive (xxxiii–xxxiv).
8. That episode works its way into chapter 83 of An Yushi, Quan bu Bao Longtu pan baijia gong’an.
9. See, for example, Li Chunxiang, Yuandai Baogong xi xuanzhu; Wu Baitao, Gudai Baogong xi xuan; Kong Fanmin, Bao Zheng yanjiu; Ding Zhaoqin, Su wenxue zhong de Baogong; Chen Tao, Baogong xi yanjiu.
10. Zang Maoxun, YQX, 1:258–307.
11. The Phoenix Pond refers to the highest level of imperial bureaucracy, the Grand Council (Zhongshu Sheng 中書省), which was especially powerful during the Song dynasty.
12. Fan Zhongyan (989–1052) was a famous scholar, poet, statesman, and general of the Song dynasty. He rose to distinction from poverty. Famous for his integrity and learning, he set forth his reform objectives in his “Ten-Point Memorial to Emperor Renzong” (r. 1023–1063). Although these reforms had ultimately been rescinded by 1045 and Fan was sent to positions in the provinces (which was tantamount to exile), the more ambitious reforms designed by Wang Anshi (1021–1085) in the 1070s basically addressed the same issues. See Mote, Imperial China, 124–38.
13. The historical Fan Zhongyan never served on the Board of Revenue.
14. Like Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi (1008–1075) was a famous scholar, statesman, and general.
15. 1056–1063.
16. Lü Yijian (979–1044) held the reins of power in Emperor Renzong’s court for two decades. He attacked reformers like Fan Zhongyan for “factionalism” (pengdang 朋黨).
17. According to a Chinese idiom, an ignorant person “has no clue how high the sky is or how thick the earth is” (buzhi tiangao dihou 不知天高地厚). Liu Dezhong comically exposes his delusion of power vis-à-vis the cosmos.
18. One picul (dan 石) was the equivalent of ten pecks, or about one hundred kilograms, in the Song dynasty. A Chinese peck (dou 斗) normally contains ten sheng 升 (translated here as “unit,” the equivalent of about one kilogram), not eight. The scale will be altered by 30 percent, so that a person will have to pay thirteen taels of silver for what reads as ten taels.
19. The corresponding Chinese term, duoluo 多羅, is a transliteration of the Sanskrit term for “eyes.” The granary hands boast of having “ten eyes” because they are so alert and watchful. The Sanskrit term may also evoke associations with the Buddha of many eyes.
20. The term “chicks’ nests” refers to a method of cheating by making holes in the measuring devices through which rice leaks out during the measuring process.
21. A type of counterfeit money, silver on the outside but lead on the inside.
22. A unit of measure that contains ten or five pecks.
23. Nie Yizhong 聶夷中, “Yong tianjia” 詠田家, in Taiping guangji 183.1365. The lines describe apparent amelioration that is far from real succor.
24. According to a Chinese idiom, “If the upper beams are not upright, the lower beams will be crooked”—that is, if the ruling class is unjust, there will be gener
al disorder.
25. Judge Bao is also called Bao Longtu because one of his titles is “academician of the Longtu (Dragon Image) Chamber” (Longtu ge xueshi 龍圖閣學士). Two and a half fen 分 is one measure (xing 星), four measures is ten fen, or shifen 十分 (totally). The lines here mean, “You have totally fallen short of Judge Bao.”
26. The term for “bandit” here is hulahai 虎剌孩, the transliteration of a Mongol word meaning “bandits.”
27. The head scarf (wangjin 網巾) men used to tie their hair in the Ming seemed to have been already in use during the Yuan.
28. The word for “green” (qing 青) is homophonous with that for “clean” or “honest” (qing 清) and rhymes with that for “demon” (jing 精). Wang Jisi suggests that the root vegetable underground and the tufts of green above ground also serve as an analogy for the discrepancy between appearance and reality (cited in Zang Maoxun, YQX, 1:275).
29. To “polish mirrors in a bowl of paste” is a Song-Yuan idiom describing prevarication and befuddlement.
30. In ancient times people were allowed to declare their grievances by beating on a drum located outside the palace.
31. Yi Yin, adviser of the first Shang king Cheng Tang, is said to have been born from the hollow stump of a mulberry tree.
32. As his father’s friend, Fan Zhongyan would discount the seriousness of any crime he committed. If Liu Dezhong killed ten men instead of one, it would not make any difference to Fan.
33. The “five southern provinces” (wunan 五南) refers to Jiangnan, Hunan, Lingnan, Hainan, and Yunnan. Historically officials conducting inquests during the Song would not have covered such a vast area.
34. “The others’ pain” is, literally, “going against the feelings of others” (weile zhongqing 違了眾情): this may refer to Judge Bao’s underlings in the yamen (who will also be denied “extra income” if Judge Bao refuses a bribe). As Zhang Qian makes clear in the following scene, a judge’s subordinate stands to profit in many situations. See also chapter 99 in Honglou meng 紅樓夢 (The Story of the Stone).
35. “Obligations” (renqing 人情) here refers specifically to the obligatory gifts for weddings, funerals, and festivals.
36. Judge Bao brings the villain Lu Zhailang to justice in Judge Bao Uses a Ruse to Execute Lu Zhailang (Bao daizhi zhizhan Lu Zhailang 包待制智斬魯齋郎), attributed to Guan Hanqing.
37. In the Yuan play Yan’an Prefecture (Yan’an fu 延安府), the upright official Li Gui punishes Commissioner Ge, who tried to cover up his son’s crimes. The author misattributes this heroic story to Judge Bao.
38. Guan Longfeng was the loyal minister of the benighted Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty.
39. Bi Gan was the loyal Shang minister put to death by the tyrant Zhou, last ruler of the Shang dynasty.
40. For the story of Han Xin, see chap. 2, this volume.
41. Shiji 8.381.
42. Literally, “Han Xin was executed, and Peng Yue turned into minced meat” (Shiji 91–92).
43. Shiji 55.2048. Master Red Pine is a legendary figure who achieved immortality. See chap. 2, this volume, n. 48.
44. On Fan Li, see chap. 2, this volume, n. 66.
45. Rush baskets were often used by beggars.
46. The original has “grass chicken” (caoji 草雞), which in certain dialects means “hen.”
47. The term in the text, shuajuan 刷卷 (brush the scrolls), refers to the procedure whereby Yuan commissioners reexamined court cases to prevent delay or the miscarriage of justice.
48. Wang Fenlian’s house is a brothel. The name for “quails,” anchun 鵪鶉, is a homophone for “secret spring” (anchun 暗春) and a close homophone for “unofficial prostitute” (anchang 暗娼).
49. Tounao jiu 投腦酒 (literally, spirits that “throw the brain”) is a potent mix of alcohol with meat and spices.
50. That is, criminals to be executed listed in the “Purple Forbidden City” (Zijin Cheng 紫禁城)—in other words, the capital.
51. Literally, “money for my straw sandals” (caoxie qian 草鞋錢)—that is, compensation for all the distance covered by his straw sandals or for sandals worn out because he had to cover great distance.
52. The front of the stove is where the fire is, but it is at the back of the stove that the food is ready. That is, when dealing with officials, it is always more effective to approach their subordinates.
53. That is, Judge Bao only sits at the yamen, while Zhang Qian acts on his behalf.
54. Wang Qiao or Wangzi Qiao (Prince Qiao) is one of the Daoist immortals; see Liexian zhuan jiaojian, 65–68.
55. Spirit paper money burned as offerings is said to be “golden” but actually has a dull yellow sheen.
56. Liaohua 蓼花 is a flowering plant, and the name may imply someone weak and obliging. The name may also suggest Liao Hua 廖化 (third century), a mediocre Shu general during the Three Kingdoms.
57. “Luck” is literally “the blessings of the Five Elements.” Judge Bao is saying that Liu is lucky to have escaped justice for as long as he did.
58. A place in hell.
59. Ancient Chinese coins had holes, called eyes.
60. Xiao He (d. 193 B.C.E.) was the prime minister under Emperor Gaozu of Han. He was known for his legal expertise (Shiji 53.2014–15). See chap. 2, this volume, n. 9.
4
THE MOHELUO DOLL
MENG HANQING
TRANSLATED BY JONATHAN CHAVES
INTRODUCTION
WAI-YEE LI AND JONATHAN CHAVES
Inspector Zhang Cleverly Questions the Moheluo Doll (Zhang kongmu zhikan Moheluo 張孔目智勘魔合羅), or, abbreviated, The Moheluo Doll (Moheluo 魔合羅), is the only extant play of Meng Hanqing 孟漢卿 (ca. thirteenth to fourteenth centuries). Apparently the sole biographical fact known about Meng Hanqing is that he came from Bozhou in northern Anhui. Jia Zhongming 賈仲明 (1343–after 1422) mentions his fame and the popularity of his play The Moheluo Doll.1 A comment in Libation credits Meng Hanqing for the intense evocativeness wrought by narrative momentum in his arias.2
Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–1962) suggests that the Chinese Moheluo of the title may be a transliteration of the Sanskrit Mahākāla.3 (The name is also transliterated as Mohele 磨喝樂 or Mohouluo 摩睺羅.) Mahākāla, a name for Shiva, became a “protector of the dharma” (hufa 護法) in Tantric Buddhism. Mahākāla is sometimes described as a fearsome deity of war with eight arms and wearing a necklace made of a poisonous snake and human skulls. By the Song and Yuan dynasties, the term was being applied to something quite different. On the festival of the seventh evening of the seventh month (the Double Seventh), when the Cowherd and Weaving Maid stars are said to meet across the Milky Way, the occasion was celebrated with various competitions and games. Moheluo, a clay or waxen doll in various guises, was used in these games and displayed as offerings to the Weaving Maid. The popularity of these dolls in Kaifeng and then in Hangzhou was mentioned in Meng Yuanlao’s Dreaming of Splendors Past: The Eastern Capital, Luo Ye’s 羅燁 (thirteenth century) Conversations of a Drunken Old Man (Zuiweng tanlu 醉翁談錄), and Wu Zimu’s Record of Vain Dreams. According to Meng Yuanlao, several streets in Kaifeng specialized in the sale of these dolls, and some of them were lavishly decorated with gauze, silks, gold, gems, and ivory and could be very expensive. Children would hold lotus leaves in the characteristic pose of Moheluo dolls.4 The aria “Rolling Silken Ball” in act 4 of our play describes the elaborate dress of these dolls. Chen Yuanjing’s 陳元靚 (thirteenth century) Festivals of the Seasons (Suishi guangji 歲時廣記) also records that while the images were ordinarily made of clay, those presented at the imperial court were made of silver or gold. The description in Festivals of the competitions held with them seems to indicate that their eyes and hands were able to move.5 In songs, plays, and stories, a character is sometimes said to be as handsome or beautiful as “a Moheluo doll.” The aria “Rolling Silken Ball” suggests that girls used these beautiful dolls to “pray for
skills” (qiqiao 乞巧) on Double Seventh. It can be seen from the play that the Moheluo images had not entirely lost their original religious significance: Inspector Zhang burns incense before one and prays to it for insight in the case he is attempting to solve.
The inspector Zhang Ding has been identified with an eponymous Yuan official.6 According to Yuan History (Yuan shi 元史), the historical Zhang Ding, an upright official, worked under the Uighur Ariq Qaya (1227–1286), who threw in his lot with Kublai Khan around the time of the Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty. Zhang later lost his position because of slander at the Mongol court.7 There is, however, no conclusive evidence for the identification. In this play, Zhang Ding’s title is kongmu 孔目, a yamen officer in charge of documents, accounting, and details of legal procedure.8 Supplicants, yamen aides, or commoners call him “Brother Inspector” (kongmu gege 孔目哥哥), a form of address that indicates that he is not as far above them as, say, the magistrate or the prefect. Unlike the sagacious Judge Bao, who sometimes seems to have preternatural powers, Inspector Zhang is but a shrewd officer who combines good judgment with compassion and sound intuition.9 Another Yuan play featuring him, Zhang Ding of Henan Prefecture Solved the Case of the Head Scarf (Henan fu Zhang Ding kan toujin 河南府張鼎勘頭巾), attributed to Sun Zhongzhang 孫仲章 (late thirteenth century), shares dialogue as well as plot details with the play here: for example, an accidental witness or informant who is first misidentified as culprit and then proves instrumental to the investigation; an object that facilitates the solution of the crime; and Zhang’s position as middleman, which puts him at the mercy of his superior’s punishing deadlines. If Judge Bao in the preceding play underlines his empathy with victims by becoming one in his disguise as a country bumpkin, Zhang Ding, by virtue of his subordinate position, is made to share the plight of the accused by having to prove himself right in order to escape punishment. In both Zhang Ding plays, the magistrate or judge is either corrupt or befuddled even when well intentioned. Zhang Ding as midlevel officer draws attention to midlevel abuse in the Chinese courtroom—clerks and officers who are easily bribed and who control the mundane functioning of the legal process.