by C. T. Hsia
Who is that youthful scamp:
Born into a peaceful age with no sorrows or cares;
In vain did he have grand and handsome looks
And sport that mien of distinction.
Odds are he’s on his way to strum the lute or gamble,
Showing no concern for his family’s fortune.79
When would he ever seek old scholars of renown
To learn the classics by chapter and verse?80
[Intoxicating Spring Wind]
No concern that days and months fly by like juggled balls,81
That the world will pass on like an overnight shower.
Now that my sun is setting among the mulberries and elms,
What use am I, rotten old timber?82
But I do know that Odes and Documents are models to awaken the world,83
That loyalty and filial love are the bases for establishing oneself—
That wealth and property are fortuitous things. (Speaks:)
I have arrived home already. (Sings:)
[Sounds of Shouting]
Just now I walk along the highway, leaning on my staff,
Step by step,
Until I pass between my gateposts. (Sees RASCAL, becomes angry and speaks:)
Who is that over there eating noodles?
RASCAL (startled:) I’m dead!
ELDER (sings:)
Suddenly raising my head here,
I just now perceived him.
Why is he standing there so apprehensively—
Why does his courage fail him?
CUIGE: Your daughter-in-law bows to you.
ELDER: Stay out of this! (Sings:)
[Trimming a Silver Lamp]
I really do not have to bear with you, wastrel, and your wife,
Truly I need not care about you—my destitute kith and kin.
For a thousand reasons, this fellow cannot be tolerated;
Even the five corporal punishments could not repay him for his crimes! (Speaks:)
Rascal, what have you got to say? (Sings:)
I taught you how to become an honorable man,
To become a man of substance.
Why then did you brag and slander me behind my back? (Speaks:)
Haven’t you said, “My surname is Li, yours is Zhao—how are our families related?” (Sings:)
[Mustard Green]
What face have you now to cross my threshold again?
Why are you not attending to those two scoundrels?
(RASCAL leaves Fearfully. ELDER speaks:)
Where are you going? (Sings:)
Fear sets his hands, his feet all atremble;
Strange, what could you possibly fear from me?
That the soup for our little beggar lacks ginger or vinegar? (Speaks:)
Have you not put it down yet? (Sings:)
Then go have roast mutton at some restaurant!
(RASCAL shakes with fear, his chopsticks rattling against his bowl. ELDER beats him.)
MADAME ZHAO: Do not beat him, husband!
(RASCAL goes out the gate.)
RASCAL: Aunt, he’s beating me to death! Now I want to go into business, but I have no capital. I could earn big profits in the wink of an eye.
MADAME ZHAO: I will give you this string of cash as capital, child.
RASCAL: Don’t worry, Aunt; I’m going to do some business now.
(RASCAL momentarily exits, then reenters.)
Aunt, I took this string of cash and bought a package of charcoal.
MADAME ZHAO: What business are you doing?
RASCAL: I’m selling charcoal.
MADAME ZHAO: How is the selling of charcoal going?
RASCAL: With my one string of cash as capital, I sold one string’s worth and made a profit of one string. And I still have two packets of charcoal left to give you as interest, Aunt, to warm your feet with.
MADAME ZHAO: We have some here; you take this home and use it yourself.
RASCAL: Aunt, I’m going into some other business now.
(RASCAL momentarily exits, then reenters, shouting:)
Vegetables for sale: greens, cabbage, red-rooted spinach, coriander, carrots, scallions!
MADAME ZHAO: What business are you in this time, child?
RASCAL: Aunt, tell Uncle for me that I’m selling vegetables.
MADAME ZHAO: You stay here, child; I will tell Uncle. (Sees ELDER.) Good news, husband: Rascal is doing business and is making a profit!
ELDER: I do not believe it. What kind of business is he in?
RASCAL: First I was selling charcoal, but now I sell vegetables.
ELDER: When you sold charcoal, what did people say?
RASCAL: Some people said, “Rascal is selling charcoal—what a shame! When he was rich, he rose up just like a bonfire, but now that he’s broke, he’s crushed.”
ELDER: What is crushed?
RASCAL: The charcoal is crushed!
ELDER: Look at that fool—still not serious!
RASCAL: Now when I sell vegetables, some people also say, “When he was rich, he kept company with Liu Longqing. Even though now he’s broke, he still ‘takes those melons around.’?”84
ELDER: Does someone else carry your loads of vegetables, or do you carry them yourself?
RASCAL: Uncle, why would you even ask things like that? Do I have so much capital that I dare hire someone else to carry them? Suppose he carried it off somewhere —how would I find him?
ELDER: Do you go down the main streets or the back alleys?
RASCAL: I go down both the main streets and the back alleys.
ELDER: Can you hawk your vegetables and carry your load at the same time?
RASCAL: If I didn’t hawk them, how would anyone know that I had vegetables for sale?
ELDER: Do you do the hawking, or does someone else call for you?
RASCAL: I hawk them myself.
ELDER: Servants, all of you come and listen to how Rascal hawks his vegetables.
RASCAL: Uncle, if you want to hear, I’ll walk ahead and you follow along behind and listen. But send those servants back, Uncle; once they were mine, but I sold every one of them myself.
ELDER: If you do not hawk your vegetables, I’ll beat you to death, you scoundrel!
RASCAL: I know why he wants me to hawk for him—he means to shame me! If I don’t, he’ll beat me again. So I have no choice but to do it: Greens! Cabbage! Red-rooted spinach! Carrots! Coriander! Scallions! (Shows anguish.) Heaven! Shame is killing me!
ELDER: How pitiful he is! (Sings:)
[Red Embroidered Shoes]
In days gone by,
Behind lovebird-embroidered bed curtains
You held forth in the amorous game of clouds and rain.
Ah, child:
In days gone by,
With rich fare spread out on tortoiseshell plates,
You spoke so cleverly with such fine words;
Until, dappled with shadows of flowers, you had someone help you away.
Today you shoulder two baskets on a pole,
Dragging along your clothing,
And unashamed go hawking through the streets.
RASCAL: I never listened to your instructions before, Uncle. Only now after suffering poverty do I know the importance of money. I have woken up!
ELDER: Who said that!
RASCAL: I said that.
ELDER: Aiya! Ah, son, what pain you have caused me! (Sings:)
[Fragrance Fills the Courtyard]
You have awakened, you blithe drunkard of Gaoyang;
Now shouldering two baskets of cabbages—
Do you seek a few strings of lucky pennies?85 (Speaks:)
Rascal, how much money have you cleared today?
RASCAL: With my one string of cash as capital I sold cabbage all day and cleared a string.
ELDER (sings:)
You can part with five hundred coins:
Buy some mixed flour to take home to your ruined kiln,
And buy yourself a little oil, sal
t, and soy sauce.
RASCAL: Whose stomach dares eat oil, salt, or soy sauce?
ELDER (sings:)
Ah, son!
Take the leftover vegetables that you could not sell …
RASCAL: If we eat them, it will cut into my capital. I’ll just sprinkle a little cool water on them; I can still sell them.
ELDER (sings:)
Then the gods of your five viscera will not break their meat fast today. (Speaks:)
Rascal, just buy yourself a little roast mutton.
RASCAL: I wouldn’t dare eat it.
ELDER: Then buy some fish to eat.
RASCAL: Uncle, with no more capital than this, how could I dare to eat fish!
ELDER: Then buy some pork to eat.
RASCAL: I wouldn’t dare buy any of that either.
ELDER: If you wouldn’t dare buy any of that, what will you eat?
RASCAL: Uncle, if I bought some millet from the granary, I wouldn’t dare grind it—I’d be afraid that I’d waste some. I’ll just pick out those vegetable leaves that I can’t sell and stew them. But I won’t dip them in salt or smear them with soy sauce; I’ll just eat them with a bowl of thin gruel.
ELDER: Wife, I asked Rascal if he would buy some fish, and he said, “I wouldn’t dare eat it.” I said, “You buy some pork to eat,” and he said, “I wouldn’t dare eat it.” I said, “If you wouldn’t dare buy any of that, what will you eat?” He said, “I’ll eat thin gruel.” I said, “Can you eat thin gruel?” And he said, “I can.” (Sings:)
Ah, wife,
Would that he had learned earlier where his path was leading!
Think how they suffer now in their ruined tile kiln! (Speaks:)
True it is that “If you do not suffer the worst of hardships, you can never become a man above other men.” (Sings:)
Ah, son,
You must persist with all your strength.
RASCAL: I was “deluded and not persuadable,” but I “awoke on the brink of disaster.”
ELDER: That was the first good thing you have said in your whole life. If you do as I say, within three to five days I will make you into the richest of men. (Sings:)
[Coda]
This sea of karma has no shore, no limit to its suffering;
There’s no reprieve or deliverance from pain in that pit of poverty.
Waves in the sea of karma knock a thousand prostrate, none can escape;
Even with ten thousand somersaults, you’ll not escape from that pit of poverty.
(ELDER and MADAME ZHAO exit.)
RASCAL: Sister, let’s go home. Heaven! Poverty will surely kill me!
(RASCAL and CUIGE exit.)
(MASTER LI enters.)
MASTER LI: I’m Little Brother Li. Father told me to go invite Little Brother Zhao to a banquet. Here I am already at the broken-down kiln by the south wall of the city. I’ll just have to call him. Little Brother Zhao!
(RASCAL and CUIGE enter; they greet MASTER LI.)
RASCAL: Why are you here, Young Master?
MASTER LI: Little Brother, I come on my father’s orders. He invites you to a banquet tomorrow.
RASCAL: If Uncle invites us over to a banquet, of course the two of us will come.
MASTER LI: It would be best if you came a little early. (Exits.)
RASCAL: He must be inviting us to a banquet in order to shame me. But if Uncle invites us, it would be no good not to go. When we get there, don’t dally: you go with him to glean the fields and scour the ground, and I’ll carry water and tote the slops. Heaven! Poverty will surely kill me! (Exit together.)
ACT 4
(ELDER enters with MADAME ZHAO and MASTER LI.)
ELDER: Today is the anniversary of my humble descent.86 Since I have arranged a banquet and invited everyone in the neighborhood to celebrate this new residence, it will be convenient to fete the young squire at the same time.87 Thus yesterday I sent Little Brother to invite Rascal, but I have not seen him arrive yet. All of my dear neighbors will probably come soon. (NEIGHBORS enter.)
NEIGHBORS: We are all people of Memorial Arch Alley in Yangzhou. Some time ago when Zhao Guoqi was on the brink of death, he entrusted his son, the Rascal of Yangzhou, to the Elder of Eastern Hall. Who would have thought that Rascal would squander the entire family fortune! Now even the fine house has been sold to the Old Master of Eastern Hall. Since this is the Elder’s birthday, he has invited in all of his friends and neighbors to drink wine. He has also invited those two beggars, that bastard Rascal and his wife. But we don’t know why. We must go to celebrate both the Elder’s birthday and to congratulate him on his new house. We’ve had to walk a little way, but here we are already. Young Master, go in and report that all of us from the neighborhood have come especially to congratulate your father on his birthday.
MASTER LI (goes inside and reports:) Father, all the neighbors have come to congratulate you on your birthday.
ELDER: Invite them in quickly.
MASTER LI: Please came in.
NEIGHBORS (greet ELDER:) All of us neighbors are here first to congratulate you on your birthday, Squire. Second, we congratulate you on this new residence.
ELDER: I thank you very much, neighbors. Please be seated. Servants, arrange the wine and the meats on this side. We will begin the banquet as soon as Rascal and his wife arrive.
(RASCAL and CUIGE enter.)
RASCAL: I’m the Yangzhou Rascal. This is my uncle Li’s gate; we’ll just go in.
(RASCAL and CUIGE greet ELDER.)
Your daughter-in-law and I are here, Uncle. What do you have to say to us?
ELDER: You have come! (Sings:)
[Shuangdiao mode: Song of New Water]
Today in my painted hall in warm spring fine guests I feast,
As a shower of red blossoms dance in a breeze from the east.
How fine each delicacy that I have prepared,
How stylishly dressed each guest that I toast.
RASCAL (aside:) Whew! Shame will surely kill me!
ELDER: Rascal. (RASCAL does not respond.) (ELDER sings:)
I see his secret sorrow;
Silent, he stealthily dries his tears.
[Intoxicated by the East Wind]
I wanted you to establish yourself by following the merchant’s path;
Who told you to become a lover of harlots, heedless of the aftermath?
I wanted to pour heart and soul into teaching you.
RASCAL: Whew! He’s taunting me in front of all of these people! If I had known that this would happen beforehand, I wouldn’t have come.
ELDER (sings:)
Why do you only gnash your teeth in resentment?
It is all your fault you’ve no home to which you can run.
RASCAL (fumbles around with his hands:) I’m dying of shame!
ELDER (sings:)
Why do you fumble with your sleeves, wring hands for no reason? (Speaks:)
My child, why are you so nervous? (Sings:)
I let you suffer hunger and cold in dismay
Just so that you’d return to the right path.88 (Speaks:)
I have a few words to say to all my relatives and friends gathered here. Originally my family lived in Dongping prefecture, but for the sake of business, I came here to live inside the Eastern Gate of Yangzhou in Memorial Arch Alley. My neighbor to the east was Zhao Guoqi, who was Yangzhou Rascal’s father. For thirty years we were good friends. Then on the day he fell ill, he sent Rascal to invite me over to his house. I asked him about the cause of his illness, and he said it was all because his child, Rascal, was so unworthy. “I’m worried sick that he’ll surely ruin the family. The reason I’ve invited you over today is especially to entrust Rascal and his wife to you, to look after for the rest of your life.” I said, “I’m lacking in both virtue and talent, and moreover I’m not a close relative. I’m just not worthy of this weighty responsibility.” Even though Zhao Guoqi was desperately ill, he knelt before me. I could only accept. Rascal, that document that your father had
you mark on the front and sign on the back that day—what did it say?
RASCAL: I’ve never read it. Could it be a document giving you power over whether I live or die?
ELDER: No, child, it was not a document giving me such powers. Face our neighbors and read this document out for me in a loud voice.
RASCAL: As you wish. This is written in my father’s own hand, and the mark on the front and the signature on the back are mine. Ah, Father! The document is still here now, but where is the man who wrote it? (Laments.)
ELDER: Do not cry; just read the document.
RASCAL: All right. (Reads the document.) “Today I, Zhao Guoqi, …”—that’s my father’s name—“a resident of Memorial Arch Alley inside the Eastern Gate of Yangzhou, am so seriously ill that I do not expect to recover. Because my son, the Yangzhou Rascal, is unworthy, I have secretly deposited five hundred ingots of silver at the home of my old friend Li Maoqing to be used for my son Rascal in his days of distress and poverty.” My eyes must be deceiving me! Let me read it again! (Rereads the document.) Give it back to me, Uncle.
ELDER: Give what back?
RASCAL: Give what back? It’s written here in black on white!
ELDER: That is what your father wrote, but actually the silver is all gone.
RASCAL: Uncle, I don’t dare hope for five hundred ingots; just give me a tael or two—let me hold them for a while, and then I’ll give them back!
ELDER: There you go again, Rascal! Remember how, after your father died, you sold off all your fields, your businesses, and your household property? But I could not bear to let other people take possession. Secretly I sent people to buy them; I did so with those five hundred ingots of your silver. I have recorded the specific dates and sums spent for these purchases. That oil shop of yours, the pawnshop, the mill—you wanted to sell them all, but secretly I sent people to buy them back. I did so with those five hundred ingots of your silver. I have recorded the specific dates and sums spent for these purchases. Of those donkeys and horses and your other livestock, your young and old maidservants, some have left and some have died, but at first when you sold them off, I secretly sent people to buy them. The five hundred ingots of silver covered them too. I have kept an account book. Your house, halls, rooms, and cottages, your long benches, chairs and tables, your zither, chess set, books and paintings, your household articles—they are all entered here. Now I will hand them over one by one; if there is any deficiency, I will repay you fully. Hear me, Rascal: (recites:)