by C. T. Hsia
You unreasonable, devious rogue of an officer!
You are totally intent on riding roughshod over me!
Liu Yuniang killed her husband because of adultery:
My predecessor had closed the case with summary.
But you say the document has flaws,
And that deception in it gives you pause.
Was the mixer of the poison Li Fourth or Zhang Third?
Was the lover Zhao Second or Wang the Elder?
And what was the name of that messenger?
And were the conspirators many or few?
You did not let me, as your superior, investigate,
So I will let you your own case create.
Whom are you yelling at so loud?
And in a public manner truly uncowed?
I hand over this case to you,
Giving you three days to get through.
You are to examine and interrogate,
And on no account from the law deviate!
If you settle this well,
I will write a memorial on your behalf,
Send it by post horse
To the capital, to the emperor,
Who will handsomely reward and promote you.
But if you fail,
You who seem to rival Sui He and Lu Jia in eloquence49
As you confront those of eminence
Overturning old cases, seeing relevance—
I’ll knock right off that cursed50 monkey head of yours,
And you’ll taste the bronze blade of my glinting ordinance sword! (Exits.)
CLERK: Anyway, you are so bullheaded, perhaps you won’t mind trying out that bronze blade! Doesn’t even matter to you! (Recites:)
Even when he can stop with impunity, he will not stop,
But insists on reviewing the death sentence, with time limit atop.
Truly,
Arguments for right and wrong arise because he talks too much,
All his troubles come from sticking out his neck as such! (Exits.)
ZHANG DING: Oh Zhang Ding, this is all your own fault! (Sings:)
[Flowers in the Rear Courtyard]51
I have taken on this unclear, nasty case,
And today I will the cause of the innocent embrace.
You must have received some bribe, Clerk Xiao,
And so sent her to her death, this Liu Yuniang.
I consider the case with care:
The prefect wants a clear resolution.
When a man is killed, you want to see his wound;
When a man is robbed, you want to see the loot;
When there is adultery, you want to see the pair.
How can I question them all?
[Pair of Wild Geese]
For no rhyme or reason I muddled my way to a tight spot.
I was about to decline when I had already taken it up.
Now I have three days’ time, like the flipping of a hand!
How can I not worry even if I don’t want to worry?
How can I not be in a flurry even if I don’t want to be in a flurry? (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, put Liu Yuniang in the cell for the condemned.
ZHANG QIAN: Understood!
ZHANG DING (sings:)
[Coda in the Waves]
There is no basis to Yuniang’s crime,
But Clerk Xiao’s ability with words is prime.
I’ve taken on the arena of right and wrong, injustice in full breadth—
The case of Li Dechang who left home and suffered a foul death.
I’ll find out how he met his end,
I’ll so deal that the innocent go free, the guilty pay! (Exits.)
ACT 4
ZHANG DING (enters:) I am Zhang Ding. By His Honor’s exalted order, I have been given three days to solve this case. If I am successful, I will be rewarded; if not, I will have to pay with my life for Liu Yuniang. Oh Zhang Ding, this is all your own fault! (Sings:)
[Zhonglü mode: Powdered Butterflies]
Until my investigation reveals who the villain is,
I will be so upset that my vital organs will be torn,
Forgetting sleep and food, depressed and careworn.
How can I get to the bottom of this?
Hard to settle
Are the fine points of this case.
With all my wits,
I will steps and plots trace.
[Intoxicating Spring Wind]
With the best of intention I exhorted him,
But in return I am saddled with an impossible charge.
The mouth has always been the gateway of calamity!
Zhang Ding!
Now you are sorry!
You must make the ten thousand laws clear,
And absolve all those who are innocent.
All will depend on your undimmed conscience. (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, bring in that Liu Yuniang!
ZHANG QIAN: Understood! Come before the court, woman! (LIU YUNIANG kneels.)
ZHANG DING (sings:)
[Sounds of Shouting]
Yamen officers like tigers and wolves
With all their might push her down to kneel before the steps!
I only see her silent rancor as she swallows her sobs and lowers her head. (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, loosen her cangue.
ZHANG QIAN: Understood! (He takes off her cangue; LIU YUNIANG gets up and bows.)
LIU YUNIANG: Thank you, Inspector! In a day or two, I’ll send you a box of sesame cakes. (Starts to go out.)
ZHANG DING: Where are you going? If you go, I must pay for your husband’s life!
LIU YUNIANG: I thought I was released.
ZHANG DING: Woman, give your deposition. If you speak truthfully, there will be no further trouble. If you speak falsely … Zhang Qian, prepare the large rod! (Sings:)
[Happy That Spring Is Coming]
You say you have been wronged and have suffered all too much.
Then who was it that plotted to murder and steal?
If I beat you till skin breaks and flesh splits, you’ll be sorry too late!
It’s not that I am trumping up accusations:
Just speak up now and all will be well.
LIU YUNIANG: Brother Inspector, no matter how hard you beat me, it will only be another false confession.
ZHANG DING (sings:)
[Red Embroidered Shoes]
I have received a strict time limit:
Only three days.
Just now you have been prevaricating again and again:
That will only invite more rounds of torture and interrogation.
I have heard you out,
But there is not the least bit of facts!
How can you expect to get by me?
[Welcome the Immortal]
When we put on the finger press,52
We first soak the hempen cudgel,53
And increase the force of the blows;
You will become purple and blue,
Green and red!
You will vainly have brought the stick upon yourself:
You may then be sorry, but wouldn’t it be too late?
LIU YUNIANG: Beat me as hard as you like; it will only be another false confession.
ZHANG DING (sings:)
[White Crane]
You say that if you die it will but be a wrongful death,
Yet stubbornly you refuse to tell the truth. (Speaks:)
I won’t ask you anything else, but (sings:)
When you left the city, what was your big idea?
When he died on entering the gate, what was the cause? (Speaks:)
Woman, I ask you (sings:)
[Same tune as above]
Did he not have some new business partner?54
LIU YUNIANG: I don’t know.
ZHANG DING (sings:)
Or was there an old friend sharing tea and drinks from time past?
How did he send letters home?
How did he send news?
LIU YUNIANG: Brother In
spector, I have forgotten that man!
ZHANG DING: Come forward and I’ll work out a description of him for you.
LIU YUNIANG: It was so long ago! I’ve forgotten. …
ZHANG DING (sings:)
[Same tune as above]
Was he tall or short?
Thin or fat?
Was he dark or sallow of complexion?
With a beard and mustache or without?
LIU YUNIANG: I am beginning to remember a little …
ZHANG DING: What luck! Confucius has said, “Look at whom he befriends, observe why he acts, examine wherewith he finds peace of mind. How can a person be hidden?”55 (Sings:)
[Same tune as above]56
Wait till we figure out the whereabouts of the villain,
And fully figure out the details of the case.
Alas, how can this not torture me till my temples turn gray
Or trouble me till my heart is broken in pieces! (Speaks:)
Woman! (Sings:)
[Same tune as above]
Does he not live east of the small lane,
Is his family not west of that broad street?
What hamlet is he from, what village?
What are his surname and his given name? (Speaks:)
I will ask you again (sings:)
[Same tune as above]
Does he sell fried noodles or festival food?
Or cut out bolts of cloth for autumn garments?
I ask you: on what account did he leave his home?
For what reason did he come to town? (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, what day is tomorrow?
ZHANG QIAN: Tomorrow is the seventh day of the seventh month.
LIU YUNIANG: Brother Inspector, I recall now! Last year precisely on the Double Seventh, there was a vendor of Moheluo dolls who brought the message. And he gave us a Moheluo!
ZHANG DING: Woman, do you still have that Moheluo? Where is it?
LIU YUNIANG: We left it on the nook shelf in my house.
ZHANG DING: Zhang Qian, get it for me!
ZHANG QIAN: Understood! (He goes out.) I go out the gate, come to Vinegar Street, and inquire: this is Liu Yuniang’s house. I open the gate, and on the nook shelf is this Moheluo. I pick it up, go out the gate, and come to the yamen. Brother Inspector, isn’t this the Moheluo?
ZHANG DING: It certainly is! Zhang Qian, bring incense. Moheluo, who was it that plotted to steal and murder? How is it that Li Dechang died as soon as he entered his gate? Tell me! (Sings:)
[Sounds of Shouting]
You have taught foolish children,
So much so that foolish hearts become wise.
If you explain this unjust case
To the inspector,
[Intoxicating Spring Wind]
Will it not be better than teaching little girls how to practice sewing,
Or urging young ladies to learn embroidery?
To clear this serious case of an unjustly accused person,
Moheluo, this rests entirely with you, with you.
If you can free this wronged woman,
I will have people offer sacrifice to you:
How much better than being a child’s toy! (Speaks:)
Moheluo, speak: how can you remain silent! Recall how a dog once saved his master by dampening the grass57 and a horse repaid his master by dangling his reins.58 If mere animals can act like this, how much more should you! Since you have people light fires and burn incense for you, why shouldn’t you manifest your spiritual powers? Have compassion on wronged souls and point out the person who plotted to steal and murder! (Sings:)
[Rolling Silken Ball]
Let us paint your dark eyebrows, arched and curving;
We put on your red robe, wide and flowing.
Bright and shiny are your phoenix crown and rainbow cape.
Why are you so finely arrayed?
When you get to Double Seventh,
The supplicants for skills
Adore you as a bringer of joy to all.
You should then display your power,
Do all the things we ask.
If you can show your tapered fingers59 threading needles,
Why can’t you open your red lips and tell right from wrong,
So that generations hence will know of your deed? (Speaks:)
Moheluo! Who killed Li Dechang? Tell me! (Sings:)
[If a Scholar]
Vainly were you made like the image of Guanyin.
Why don’t you have any of her compassionate countenance?
And all for nothing did I question you,
You are not giving me any reply.
I shall examine you all over,
Looking carefully from top to bottom.
(ZHANG DING sees characters:) There it is!
[Barbarous Aunt]
I thought he was somewhere else,
But from the first he was right here.
Who would have thought that below the base was hidden the murderer!
I call for my men:
Come up the steps!
Who knows this Gao Shan here? (Speaks:)
Zhang Qian, do you know Gao Shan?
ZHANG QIAN: I do.
ZHANG DING: Bring him here, beating him every step of the way!
ZHANG QIAN: Understood! I am coming out of the yamen, let me look around.
GAO SHAN (enters:) I’ll enter the city to collect what people owe me for my Moheluos.
ZHANG QIAN (apprehends him:) Walk faster! They’re awaiting you in the yamen!
GAO SHAN: Ah! You’re beating me to death!
(GAO SHAN appears before ZHANG DING and kneels.)
ZHANG DING: Are you this Gao Shan?
GAO SHAN: I am none other—but I don’t know what I am guilty of, that this fellow should beat me, as fast as flowing water, all the way!
ZHANG DING: Old man, have you ever carried a message for anyone?
GAO SHAN: From my youth I have stuck to three vows: first, not to act as a go-between for anyone; second, not to be guarantor for anyone; third, not to carry messages for anyone. I have never carried any message.
ZHANG DING: Have this old man sign the confession.
GAO SHAN: I have never carried any message; what confession am I to sign?
ZHANG DING: Old man, by whom was this Moheluo made?
GAO SHAN: It was made by me.
ZHANG DING: Bring out that woman!
LIU YUNIANG (greets GAO SHAN:) Old man, do you recognize me?
GAO SHAN: You, lady, are you not Liu Yuniang? How is that husband of yours?
LIU YUNIANG: Li Dechang is dead!
GAO SHAN: Dead? He was a good man!
ZHANG DING: What is all this that you have never carried a message?
GAO SHAN: I just carried one this single time.
ZHANG DING: Old man! How did you plot to murder Li Dechang and take his money? Confess the truth!
GAO SHAN (making his statement:)60
Listen to me as I speak the truth in every detail.
Brother Inspector, consider this carefully.
Last year when the Double Seventh came around,
I came to the city to make a living.
Arriving at the temple of the General of Five Paths south of the city,
I quickly pressed my palms together to pay my respects.
Suddenly I came upon this Li Dechang,
Who was just then taken ill in the temple.
Weeping and crying, he implored me,
And so I carried a message for him.
This was the only time in my life I ever broke my vows;
Who would have thought that, having come home, he could not be saved?
In my pack I have nothing but Moheluos:
I haven’t a pinch of arsenic or an inch of iron.
How can you grab a peddler making his rounds in towns and villages
And wrongly accuse him of being a rogue plotting to steal and murder!
ZHANG DING: Old man, tell me the truth.
GAO
SHAN: That one in front is wearing a phoenix-wing helmet on his head and chain mail on his body. He holds a sword in his hand. That one toward the left chamber is wearing a black hat and a green gown. He is holding a brush in his hand and some papers under his arm. The one to the right has a bluish face with fangs and reddish hair. In his hand he is holding a wolf-tooth cane.
ZHANG DING: But those are all clay images!
GAO SHAN: You told me to “make models in earnest.”61
ZHANG DING: Zhang Qian, beat this old man for me. (ZHANG QIAN beats GAO SHAN.) (Sings:)
[Happy Three]
The Moheluo was made by you,
Gao Shan is your name.
Today with the loot we seized the thief, who else can you blame?
How can you persist in your stubborn retorts!
[Old Man Bao]
You must have poisoned the husband,
And implicated his wife.
Oh! You know well these false pretenses and base tricks!62
But if you toss a tile up to the sky,
How can you expect it there to stay?
Ah! Now the tile has fallen on solid ground!63
We don’t want your falsehoods and lies,
None of the fakery
Spewed by your crafty lips and artful tongue!
I want you to tell the truth from the start,
Spare no detail, leave nothing unsaid,
And give a truthful deposition.
GAO SHAN: Brother Inspector, it’s nothing to draw up a deposition: I’ll even draw a life-size picture of myself for you!64 (He signs the deposition.)
ZHANG DING: Old man, come forward and I’ll question you. (Sings:)
[Ghosts on the Third Terrace]
Back then when you delivered the message for him,
Whom did you meet on the road?
GAO SHAN: I met no one.
ZHANG DING: Old man, by the time you went to see Liu Yuniang, didn’t you first see someone else in the city?
GAO SHAN: I remember! When I entered the city, I pissed!
ZHANG DING: Who asked you about that!
GAO SHAN: When I entered the city, I questioned someone. There was a tortoise shell hanging from his doorway.
ZHANG DING: That would have been a turtle shell.
GAO SHAN: That turtle really choked me!65 Before his gate there was also a stone boat.
ZHANG DING: That would have been a stone mill.
GAO SHAN: If I were milled by it, it would pulverize all my bones! I saw that someone was sitting inside: that rascal was a vet.
ZHANG DING: Could he have been a doctor?
GAO SHAN: He was a vet!
ZHANG DING: How did you know that he was a veterinarian?
GAO SHAN: If he weren’t a vet, how could he have acted like such an ass? He was called—er—Doctor Lu’s Rival.
