by Tang Xianzu
LÜ DONGBIN:
They are all your witnesses. I’ll tell you one by one:
Zhongli Quan wears his hair in a girl’s bun,
Looking pale and dressed like a Taoist;
Cao Guojiu has slant eyebrows,
Like an official with a court tablet;
Han Xiangzi gives up his positions,
A Confucian disciple;
Lan Caihe plays music,
A musician at court;
Tieguai Li carries a crutch,
Somewhat crippled;
He Xiangu uses a rice-strainer.
Past the prime of her life.
LU SHENG:
What are they doing here day and night?
LÜ DONGBIN:
Day and night they watch the horoscope
And tell fortunes,
Sitting erect for self-cultivation.
Sometimes they play chess and drink wine,
Facing the universe in smiles.
LU SHENG:
They are born immortals. Can men attain this by cultivation?
LÜ DONGBIN:
Although they were born human,
They have green eyes and red brains,
With an air of immortals.
They have all undergone cultivation,
Transplanting their backbones and spines,
Changing their pith and tendons.
LU SHENG:
Can I do so as well?
LÜ DONGBIN:
You were fortunate enough
To marry Miss Cui and live a happy life
And to prosper on the land of Tang,
Giving birth to sons and grandsons.
Yet, when you turn round the road to Handan,
Your fortune ends and your costume is gone;
The millet is boiling and water swirling
In the inn in Qinghe.
LU SHENG (Smiles):
I have been hindered by affection all my life.
LÜ DONGBIN:
Like the burnt wood in the stove,
Your affection is nearing its end;
How is it that the bellows
Awaken the sleeping dumplings in the pot?
As you are fated to be a half immortal,
You meet me to instruct you on the great Tao.
LU SHENG (Looks):
How can the coming old man have such long eyebrows?
LÜ DONGBIN:
I’ve seen Zhang Guolao
With longer eyebrows.
Although he is not the founder of Taoism,
He ranks high among the immortals.
(Enter Zhang Guolao)
ZHANG GUOLAO (To the tune of Qingjiangyin):
The peach-blossoms have bloomed twice,
But I don’t have to ask about the year.
The Penglai Mountain looks beautiful in spring,
If only you are an immortal.
ALL:
People are fools
If they do not follow the immortals!
LÜ DONGBIN (Nods to Lu Sheng and greets Zhang Guolao, with Lu Sheng kneeling behind him):
Immortal Zhang, Lü Dongbin bows to greet you.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Who is kneeling behind you?
LU SHENG:
Lu Sheng, the former Tang Number One Scholar, Prime Minister and Duke of Zhao, kowtows to you.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Stand up, please. Old Duke, old Prime Minister, you look shabby now.
LU SHENG:
I was dreaming.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Were you really dreaming? I’m surprised that you were patient enough to endure fifty years of man-to-man disputes. Surprising, surprising!
LU SHENG:
That’s true.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Come forward, Lu Sheng.
(Lu Sheng kowtows)
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Although you’ve reached the desolate mountains, you do not seem to have been severed from your foolish affections. I’ll invite the immortals to remind you of your past experience. You’ll repent for one item after another.
(Lu Sheng agrees)
(Enter the immortals, singing with drums and clappers)
IMMORTALS:
Up the magpie bridge,
Down the magpie bridge,
We respond to the stars in the sky
And respond to the tides on earth.
We beat the drums to tell tales
And make herb medicine with wine.
The boys smile and the girls are coy;
They make the herb medicine with care.
They enjoy themselves in the open,
Not to miss the thriving spring scene.
(Greet Zhang Guolao)
We bow to greet you, Zhang Guolao.
HE XIANGU (Greets Zhang Guolao):
The obsessed man Lü Dongbin has converted is here.
LÜ DONGBIN:
It’s just the time for the Peach Banquet, He Xiangu.
LU SHENG:
Master, you have been called a converting Taoist priest, but in fact you are the living immortal Lü Dongbin. I’ve found the right master.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Immortals, please explain the stories in his dream one by one and serve as the witnesses so that I can convert him.
IMMORTALS:
Zhang Guolao gives a good suggestion. On your knees, you obsessed man.
(The six immortals raise questions one by one)
(Lu Sheng falls on his knees)
ZHONGLI QUAN (To the tune of Langtaosha):
What is your grand marriage?
The flower god
Renovated the house of a female skeleton.
Where is your Miss Cui?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
CAO GUOJIU (To the previous tune):
What is your grand learning?
You spent money
To buy your distinction in the palace.
Where is the Number One Scholar?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
TIEGUAI LI (To the previous tune):
What is your grand meritorious minister?
You dug the canal and broadened the territories
But you did harm to the people.
Where is the fame and name inscribed on the rock?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
LAN CAIHE (To the previous tune):
What is your grand enemy?
You went on exile in a region of miasma
And might be beheaded on the execution ground.
Where are your sufferings?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
HAN XIANGZI (To the previous tune):
What is your grand rank of office?
Guests flocked into your residence;
Charming girls made you drunk in the pavilion.
Where is the residence you stayed?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
HE XIANGU (To the previous tune):
What are your grand kith and kin?
You lived to the age of eighty,
Still exerting yourself to protect your heirs.
Where is the noisy mourning hall?
You obsessed man!
(Lu Sheng kowtows and responds)
ALL:
I am an obsessed man.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Wait, Lu Sheng has been reprimanded by the immortals. Has he been awakened and come to understand?
LU SHENG:
Yes, indeed I have.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Lu Sheng, now list
en to my Taoist decree: You were an unsuccessful Confucian scholar on the road to Handan, obsessed with fame and name. You were lucky to stop at the inn where you experienced eighty years of worldly intrigues. When you woke up from your dream, the meal of millet was ready in the human world. Who knows that tides rose near the Zhaozhou Bridge at midnight, but only reached the residence of a prime minister who was daydreaming. You and Miss Cui were obsessed in the daydream when Lü Dongbin revealed the heavenly secret to you. He did not use a single grain of yellow millet, but applied the medicine in his gourd at the right time. He processed mercury with his eyes closed and tempered gold with his very heart. When your heart conforms to nature, you will become aware by yourself and several witnesses will be on your side. You will build a hut and a stove when you are hungry, but we are afraid that you will be perplexed again when you wake up. Tieguai Li, just break the enticing pillow to pieces; He Xiangu, please hand over to Lu Sheng the broom to sweep the petals. He will sweep until the petals are all gone, the earth is gone and even the broom itself is gone and then he will no longer be obsessed. By that time, you will be able to pay respects to the Taoist Emperor by riding on a crane and reap the genuine fruit of your entering a dream by riding on a donkey.
LÜ DONGBIN:
Lu Sheng, accept the broom and thank the immortal!
LU SHENG (Accepts the broom and bows):
(To the tune of Chenzuidongfeng)
I will no longer be my worldly self
And be burdened by wealth and sex.
LÜ DONGBIN:
For three lives,
You’re a hybrid with the horse or donkey;
For one life,
You rose high in office,
But the records are vague on the tablet.
ZHONGLI QUAN, CAO GUOJIU:
You went through the vanity fair
And at last became a laughing-stock.
LU SHENG (To the previous tune):
I was scared on the execution ground
And had a narrow escape at the Ghost Gate Pass.
LÜ DONGBIN:
You still linger in your dream
And stick to your official stamp;
How many friends and foes did you meet?
TIEGUAI LI, LAN CAIHE:
As the sun has not set in the west yet,
What are you going to consult?
LU SHENG (To the previous tune):
To be an immortal is to be blessed;
I’ve escaped into the mountains in the sea.
LÜ DONGBIN:
When you open the window of flesh
And know the fate of flowers,
The flower-girls will surely awaken you.
HAN XIANGZI, HE XIANGU:
The peach-blossoms bloom another spring
While the human world is still asleep.
LU SHENG (Sweeps the petals):
(To the previous tune)
As an outsider,
I’m looking at the Handan people with their millet;
As my duty,
I sweep petals on the land of immortals.
Old master, I was so obsessed that I would still be dreaming if I had not met you.
Although I’m awakened from illusions,
I’m afraid it’s hard to know the truth.
IMMORTALS:
Why won’t you tear yourself away from your soul?
Even if you’re too obsessed to part from your dream,
You are now comfortably dreaming an immortal dream.
ZHANG GUOLAO:
Let’s pay tribute to the Donghua Emperor.
ALL (Walk on while beating drums and sounding clappers):
(To the tune of Qingjiangyin)
To sweep away the fame and fortune of a previous life,
Will perplex an obsessed man.
The peach will be as dry as faggot
And the sea will be as arid as a halo.
When you toss and turn by then,
Will you be waiting for the meal of yellow millet?
(To the tune of Northern Coda)
To convert the single person of Lu Sheng,
We’ve exhausted the topic of worldly affairs,
So that people will think it over
When they wake from their dreams.
Do not be intoxicated in worldly strife,
Only to awake in the last days of your life.
Make a contract with your heart right now,
Burn incense in your room and make a bow.
* * *
* The translation in quotation marks is by courtesy of Chinese Literature (Issue No.10, 1961).
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First published in China in 2014 as The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Shanghai First published in Great Britain in 2018
Originally written in Chinese by Tang Xianzu.
Translated from Chinese into English by Wang Rongpei, Zhang Ling, Gu Wei, Zhu Yuan and Huo Yuehong.
English translation edited by Wang Rongpei & Zhang Ling
English translation copyright © Wang Rongpei & Zhang Ling, 2014
This edition of The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu is published by arrangement with Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Shanghai, China.
Tang Xianzu has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.
This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for
ISBN: TPB: 978-1-9123-9201-8
ePub: 978-1-9123-9200-1
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