The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama

Home > Other > The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama > Page 49
The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama Page 49

by C. T. Hsia

[Shuangdiao mode: Song of New Water]

  All these years pass just like Zhuang Zhou’s butterfly dream,73

  How did all these fine days and lovely nights slip away?

  To think that my parents are so far away, beyond mountains and passes,

  And all messages and missives are cut off.

  Why do I sigh and feel frustrated?

  It’s because I wonder when I shall be able to leave this study.

  [Stop the Horse and Listen]

  With his talent and distinction,

  He should easily ascend the double phoenix gates of the dragon court;

  His wife, chaste and true,

  Should be bestowed noble title and scented carriage too.

  That will be better than the bride, her head decked with flowers,74

  Welcoming the top graduate at the imperial gate,

  Better than putting on the ground sweeping red cape,

  As back and forth matchmakers and gifts make their way.75

  Now we have the show differently billed

  So that a truly fine romance could be fulfilled! (Speaks:)

  I’ll close this door and see who is coming here.

  STEWARD (enters holding a broom:) The young master has gone to offer sacrifices. I should go and tell the mistress.

  (Greets QIANJIN:) The young master has gone to offer sacrifices. I have come specially to tell you.

  QIANJIN: Steward, you must be alert. I’m afraid His Honor will come upon us.

  STEWARD: May I presume to mention something? Today is Tomb-Sweeping Day. Are there any holiday treats that you can give me so I can eat my fill? I’ll just sit by the gate to see who is coming.

  (QIANJIN gives him meat and wine. He eats and speaks:)

  Last night the two young ones broke off some flowers on the wall. Don’t have them come out today. Have them play in the study. I fear His Honor will come upon them.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Fake Cards]

  You should bar them from what should be barred.76

  I thank you, steward.

  Yesterday the thorns ripped their sleeves and

  Scratched their fingertips.

  DUANDUAN: Mother, I’m going to meet Father.

  QIANJIN: He hasn’t come home yet. (Sings:)

  [Same tune as above]

  Just toss aside the flower stick,77

  And pay no heed to the flagon vase.

  It’s not yet time for your father to come home.

  Why do you insist on going to meet him?

  STEWARD: I have come to the gate, drunk a bottle of wine, and eaten a portion of the holiday food. I feel a spell of drowsiness. I’ll rest against this rockery and sleep for a while.

  (DUANDUAN strikes him.)

  You scared me to death, Young Master. Go play in the study if you must play.

  (Sleeps again and CHONGYANG strikes him.)

  Young lady, how could a little girl be so nasty? (Sleeps again and both children strike him.)

  I’m going to tell on you! Hurry on into the study.

  (MINISTER PEI enters leading ZHANG QIAN.)

  MINISTER PEI: My wife and Shaojun have gone to offer ancestral sacrifices. I’m feeling out of sorts, so I’m going to stroll a bit in the rear garden and have a look at the essays my son wrote. (Sees STEWARD.) The old fellow’s asleep.

  (MINISTER PEI strikes STEWARD, who wakes up and strikes out with his broom.)

  STEWARD: I’ll thrash you, you little scamps. (Sees MINISTER and is frightened.)

  MINISTER PEI: Whose children are these?

  DUANDUAN: The Pei family’s.

  MINISTER PEI: Which Pei family?

  CHONGYANG: Why, Minister Pei’s family.

  STEWARD: Of course this is the garden of Minister Pei’s family. Haven’t you little rogues left yet?

  CHONGYANG: I’m going to tell my mommy and daddy.

  STEWARD: You kids pick our flowers and have the nerve to say you’re going to tell your mommy and daddy. Provoke your elders and you’ll get it!

  (The two children run, STEWARD speaks:)

  The two of you, if you don’t go forward, then go to the back.

  (The two children see their mother.)

  CHILDREN: We were both going to meet Father when we saw an old man who asked whose family we belonged to.

  QIANJIN: Children, I told you not to go out. What shall I do now?

  (MINISTER PEI thinks.)

  MINISTER PEI: Those two children are not from any ordinary family. The old fellow is trying to put something over on me. I’m going to the hall and think this over.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Bean Leaves]

  You didn’t meet your father

  But ran into your grandfather.

  My spirit disperses and my soul melts,

  My vital organs are churning and feverish.

  My hands and feet are spastic: it’s too late to go.

  The old gentleman holds his cane, deep in thought,

  The steward holds his broom and tries to be evasive,

  And the children are tugging my sleeves.

  MINISTER PEI: Let’s go into my study.

  (MINISTER PEI, QIANJIN, STEWARD, and ZHANG QIAN go into the study and QIANJIN closes the door.)

  And who is this woman?

  STEWARD: This woman picked our flowers and is hiding in this room.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Hanging Jade Hook]

  You little brats, close the door a bit.

  It’s just terrible the way you turn heaven and earth upside down.

  The old master has personally come upon you in the garden—

  I am so utterly terrified that words are failing me.

  MINISTER PEI: Bring her to the Lotus Pavilion.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  I am flushed with shame,

  My heart is thumping with fear.

  I pant like the rumble of thunder;

  Panic seizes me like a churning windmill.

  STEWARD: This woman picked two flowers and, fearing that you would discover her, hid here. You should forgive her and send her home.

  QIANJIN: Venerable sir, take pity on me. I am Shaojun’s wife.

  MINISTER PEI: Who was the matchmaker? How much dowry was given? Who was in charge of the ceremonies?

  (QIANJIN bows her head.)

  Whose children are these two?

  STEWARD: Your Honor should be happy, not angry. Without expending any betrothal gifts, you have obtained this flower of a beautiful daughter-in-law and this fine pair of grandchildren. We should have a great feast. I’ll go buy a sheep. Lady, please go into the study.

  MINISTER PEI (speaks angrily:) This woman must be from a brothel or a tavern.

  QIANJIN: I am the daughter of an official, not a debased person.

  MINISTER PEI: Shut up! When a woman elopes with a man and has illicit relations with him, such transgression can’t be forgiven even when there’s an amnesty. I’ll send you to the authorities and see. They’ll beat you and break you.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Buy Good Wine]

  Originally I was a beauty from a fine family,

  Now I am going to stand accused,

  Summoned to court,

  And sent to the authorities to be tortured.

  People’s hearts are not forged in iron:

  “Such transgression can’t forgiven even when there’s an amnesty!”

  [Peacetime Song]

  In following my man, how can I speak of purity and chastity?

  In investigating our adultery, they will use rods and cangues.

  Who is familiar with song stages and dance halls?

  And why talk about teahouses and taverns?

  Even if Your Honor has this humble maid

  Beaten and broken in half,

  Still this is no dalliance in a house of pleasure.

  MINISTER PEI: I’ll thrash this old fellow. He knew all about it.

  ZHANG QIAN: This old fellow has always known how to seduce the old and
lead the young astray.

  STEWARD: Your Honor, seven years ago when the young master went to buy flower seedlings, it was this chap who played all sorts of tricks and egged the young master on to take the lady.

  ZHANG QIAN: The old fellow has dragged me into this!

  MINISTER PEI: You’re right. I’ll bet this rascal knew too.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Paddling on the River]

  He said he was a rival of Ling Zhe,

  Kuai Tong,

  And Li Zuoche.

  But now he is not like Ji Bu with his integrity of word,78

  Or like Wang Bodang and Li Mi whose corpses were piled together.

  Even as you face others, your words should be the same as those uttered behind their backs!

  The line between right and wrong has to be made clear!

  MINISTER PEI: Call my wife and Shaojun.

  (LADY PEI and SHAOJUN enter; MINISTER PEI greets them.)

  You and your son have been in league to trick me and wreck our family rules and regulations.

  LADY PEI: My Lord, how could I have known anything about it?

  MINISTER PEI: So this is what you’ve worked on for seven years in the rear garden! I’ll send you to the authorities and have them proceed according to law. You slut, not only did you ruin Shaojun’s future, you have brought shame on his ancestors!

  SHAOJUN: I am the son of a high minister. How can I be shamed in court for the sake of a woman? I would rather write a bill of divorce and that’ll be the end of it. Father, please forgive me.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Seven Brothers]

  What violence!

  I grieve and lament how

  The times and fortune go against me as I suffer torment.

  Pure as ice and jade, how could I bear to follow the deviant way?79

  Why do you tear up the knot of shared fate and lasting union?80

  How can you bear to split apart our knot of entwined branches and loving hearts?

  MINISTER PEI: I am like the Duke of Zhou with eight glorious achievements, and my wife is like Mencius’s mother who moved thrice to educate her son.81 It is all because of you, you dissolute woman, that our Shaojun’s future is wrecked and the Pei ancestors disgraced. Listen, woman: Since you are the daughter of an official, how is it that you came to elope? In the old days, when Wuyan was picking mulberry leaves in the fields, the King of Qi passed by in a carriage and saw her. He wanted to take her as his queen and have her ride in the same carriage, but Wuyan said, “This will not do. I must inform my parents before we can marry. If we do not first see my parents, this will be an elopement.”82 Pshaw! Compared to Wuyan, you are a wrecker of morals. You’ve proven the saying, “The man wanders through nine counties and the woman marries three husbands.”

  QIANJIN: I have but one, and that’s Shaojun.

  MINISTER PEI (angrily:) Haven’t you heard? “The woman aspires to faithfulness and chastity, while the man follows the example of talent and virtue.”83 “By betrothal you become a wife; by elopement you become a concubine.”84 Will you still not return to your own home?

  QIANJIN: Our match was a gift from heaven.

  MINISTER PEI: Wife, take off your jade hairpin. If your match was indeed a gift from heaven, then we will test it by divination. File the jade hairpin on this stone until it becomes as fine as a needle. If it doesn’t break, then that means your match is a gift from heaven. If it breaks, then you return home.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  [Plum Blossom Wine]

  He is ruthless and vicious,

  And my husband is weak and useless.

  The old gentleman is loathsome in his brutality,

  The old lady hisses with a scorpion’s sting:

  “Why don’t you go and transform into the Rock of a Pining Wife85

  Or have yourself glorified in a stele for burying your parents-in-law?”86

  All you have done is distress me:

  Ten thousand threads of sorrow,

  A thousand layers of discontent

  Confuse my heart,

  Numb my feelings.

  My eyes seem sightless,

  My hands may as well be crippled.

  Gingerly I pick up the jade hairpin,

  Slowly I hold and grind it.

  [Conquering the Southland]

  Alas, with a clink it breaks into pieces.

  Even phoenix glue87 could not mend the broken jade hairpin!

  It’s only that husband and wife, mother and children must part.

  It’s all because my evil karma has caught up with me!

  Still it’s better than the shen and chen stars, or the sun and the moon whose paths never cross.88

  MINISTER PEI: Can’t you see that the jade hairpin has broken? Are you still not willing to return home? Bring a silver pitcher. Tie this wispy thread to it and use it to fetch water from the golden well. If it doesn’t break, then you are man and wife. If the pitcher falls just like the hairpin breaks, then you must go home.

  QIANJIN: What shall I do? (Sings:)

  [Wild Geese Alight]

  It’s as if I had fallen into a mantrap ten thousand feet deep,

  It’s more devastating than roiling waves piling a thousand heaps of snow.89

  Just a moment ago I ruined the jade hairpin grinding it on the stone,

  Now he wants me to fish for the bright moon from the depths of water.

  [Victory Song]

  If the icy string snaps,90

  Love is cut off.

  If the silver pitcher falls,

  We must part forever.

  Our little family will be torn asunder.

  MINISTER PEI: Go and marry whomever you please.

  QIANJIN (sings:)

  How do you expect two wheels to make four ruts?91

  The dissolute, licentious, and wicked—

  Those guilty of the seven grounds for divorce should be expelled,92

  As for the right to enjoy wealth and fortune,

  For upholding the three compliances, who can compare to me?93

  MINISTER PEI: Since the hairpin broke and the pitcher fell, that means that heaven wants you two to separate. Let this wretch give you a bill of divorce; then I want you to return home. Shaojun, get together your zither, sword, and book box and go this very day to court to take the examinations. Have this boy and girl remain here at our house. Zhang Qian, drive her out of our house. (Exits.)

  (SHAOJUN gives QIANJIN the bill of divorcement.)

  QIANJIN: Shaojun, Duanduan, and Chongyang, this pain will be the end of me! (Sings:)

  [Intoxicated by the East Wind]94

  My dream of love’s myriad knots is rudely shattered,

  The road is far, a thousandfold of mist and waters.

  As the saying goes, “A real mother will give you a stepfather;95

  No real mother, and none would bother.”

  He wants to drag me to court

  To show off his lofty principles.

  I thank you for watching over my young daughter and artless son

  As I leave with wrenching, leaden steps. (Speaks:)

  Duanduan and Chongyang, my children, you must act grown-up a bit now. I won’t be able to see you anymore. (Sings:)

  [Song of Sweet Water]

  Duanduan and Chongyang

  Are shoots of your Pei family tree.

  Children! They are bawling in shock,

  This is none other than the mother-child tie that tugs and pulls—

  How can this pain not kill me!

  [Song of Breaking a Cassia Branch]

  True it is, then, that separation is life’s most bitter thing.

  Only now do I believe that “when the flowers bloom, the wind tosses them;

  When the moon is full, the clouds cover it.”

  Who still dares to soar and tangle like phoenixes in love?

  That will provoke the wasps and goad the scorpions.

  Beat the grass and the snake will be startled!

  You have spoil
ed the messages of love that we passed over the wall,

  Torn apart the oriole and swallow, the bee and butterfly in the willow shade.

  My son wails and my daughter tries to stop me.

  Since the pitcher fell and the hairpin broke,

  Our ties are cut; all love is lost!

  ZHANG QIAN: Go now, mistress, the old gentleman ordered me to report back to him.

  QIANJIN: Shaojun, you ought to at least send me off and see that I return home. (Sings:)

  [Mandarin Ducks Coda]

  Hold no rancor, bear no grudge against me for being like wilted flowers and broken willows,96

  I bore a son and a daughter with you; all karmic debts are paid up!

  I had hoped that in this life one coverlet we share,

  And in death one grave be our common fare.

  Songs tell of the poet who inscribes the pillar with grand aspirations,

  And of his lady who defies hardships as vendor of wine.97

  For our love is due to predestination

  And is the karma of the present life.

  Oh, Shaojun,

  In vain have I ridden with you in the scented carriage:

  Send off now this Wenjun that is anything but proud and spirited! (Exits.)

  SHAOJUN: Father, how could you do this? In one instant you have separated husband and wife, parents and children. What should I do? Zhang Qian, go and put my zither, sword, and book box in order. I am going to court and take the examinations.98 On the other hand, though, I am going to accompany Qianjin home without father’s knowledge. I expect there won’t be anything wrong with that. (Recites:)

  Indeed:

  She ground a jade hairpin on a stone;

  About to take shape, it snapped in the middle.

  She drew the silver pitcher from the bottom of the well;

  About to come up, its silken string broke.

  In both cases, what is to be done?

  It’s just like how we bid farewell today.99

  Truly if we have a heaven-made affinity,

  Then in the end we shall reunite as fruit and vine.100

  ACT 4

  (QIANJIN enters leading MEIXIANG.)

  QIANJIN: When Pei Shaojun divorced me, I returned to Luoyang. Since then both of my parents have died, leaving behind several servants, the family residence, and some land. As in the past, I am enjoying more wealth than I can spend. It’s only that I had to leave behind my son and daughter, and I don’t know whether Shaojun obtained an official position when he went to take the examinations. How sad it is! (Sings:)

  [Zhonglü mode: Powdered Butterflies]

 

‹ Prev