After breaking through the Demon Gate, he grabs the image of the deceased from inside the fortress and ties it on the back of the chief mourner. While another family member holds a parasol over the image so that it does not come in contact with the energies of the world of the living, which might bring it back to life and turn it into a wandering ghost, the family rushes with the image to the house, where a basin of water and a change of clothing have been prepared. . . . The priest returns to the altar to perform an exorcism to purify the ritual area. He removes the effigies of Guanyin and the Earth God from the remains of the fortress and brings the Earth God back to his place at the entrance to the altar. Inside the house, both the image of the deceased and the clothing are burned.
Spirit-mediums are often present for this rite. From outside the shut doors of the house, the spirit-medium is questioned about the voyage of the deceased: what does he need? Meanwhile, the remains of the fortress are given to an elderly man, who takes them to an isolated spot for burning.
[Adapted from Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual, pp. 216–237—DJ]
OPERA
The great procession in honor of the Sanzong God in Zhangzi County, Shanxi, the fire-walking ritual of Shenze village, Zhejiang, the Attack on Hell in Tainan, Taiwan—these rituals were highly dramatic, and some were in fact influenced by the conventions of opera, as we have seen. Opera was inextricably bound up with religion and ritual. Every important temple had a stage (but never a pulpit!), and every important community ritual was accompanied by the performance of opera.
Traditional Chinese drama always combined singing, declaiming, and instrumental music, hence the term opera, but images of chandeliers and velvet, of evening dress and limousines, should be banished from the reader’s mind—in China, opera was the most democratic of arts. All but the poorest, remotest villages had their own stages, even if they sometimes were only big enough for puppets. Indeed, any social group that had the resources—family, guild, native-place association—sponsored operas to accompany the rituals that marked important occasions in its life.
There were hundreds of varieties of opera in late imperial times; along with dialect, to which it is, of course, intimately linked, opera is one of the most reliable markers of cultural difference at the village level. If illiterate people watched the same operas, in the same language, by definition they belonged to the same local culture. From operas ordinary people learned much of what they knew about gods, demons, and the world of the supernatural, and most of what they knew about Chinese history, about emperors and prime ministers, about politics, warfare, and heroism. Operas also taught them about praiseworthy and reprehensible behavior, though there the messages were less consistent, since the values inculcated ranged from the entirely orthodox to the decidedly unconventional.
As noted in the introduction, Chinese opera was moralistic from the start, and the conventions of the Chinese stage reflect this. No one was ever in doubt as to who was the hero and who the villain. Indeed, in most scripts speeches were identified by role-type, not by the name of the character. (This would be like indicating Falstaffs lines in Henry IV with “clown” rather than with his name.) There was minimal scenery, and the costumes, though extremely elaborate, were highly conventional. Heavy face makeup created the effect of masks, and indeed, some of the oldest opera genres frequently employed masked actors. Thus stylization, not realism, was the guiding principle. Moreover, this was stylization in the service not of the tragic vision of Greek tragedy or Japanese No drama but of (in most cases) the affirmation of communal values. Of course, those values varied with the community—operas for villagers were quite different from operas for literati. Then, too, in any given audience different members could, in theory at least, interpret what they were watching in different ways. Nevertheless, opera taught, whether intentionally or not, and taught with unique emotional power. The two works that we will look at below vividly demonstrate this.
Religious Epic
Although opera was a part of virtually all communal religious ceremonial, relatively few operas had overtly religious themes. Among these few, the most important and impressive was Mulian Rescues His Mother. This Buddhist epic of temptation, damnation, filial love, and salvation has been known in China for more than a thousand years and was performed throughout the country in many versions until the middle of this century.
It tells the story of the pious young Mulian and his widowed mother, Liu Qingti, who, in one popular version, abandons at the unprincipled urging of her evil brother the Buddhist precepts she had followed faithfully while her husband was alive and sinks deeper and deeper into a life of meat-eating, violence, and blasphemy. She is condemned for these sins by the Jade Emperor, and in the scenes given below Yama, the ruler of the Underworld, sends his demon-bailiffs to seize her soul and drag it down to Hell. Madame Liu gives the demons the pretext they need when she swears falsely to her son that she has not eaten meat or done any of the other evil things she has been accused of. The rest of the opera recounts Mulian’s journeys to Heaven and Hell to seek the aid of the bodhisattva Guanyin and to rescue his mother’s soul, and it ends with her final enlightenment and salvation.
Mulian was frequently performed for the so-called Ghost Festival—the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month—but other dates were traditional in some places. In addition, special performances of Mulian were staged when villagers felt that dangerous evil spirits were abroad, for example when there had been an unusual number of suicides. Some performances lasted as long as forty-nine days, but most lasted three. They usually took place at night, which made the ghosts and demons that are everywhere in the play unforgettably terrifying. A mid-seventeenth-century description of a performance in Shaoxing gives a good sense of this: “The audience was very uneasy; under the light of the lamps, the actors’ faces had a demonic quality. In acts like ‘Summoning the Evil Ghosts of the Five Directions’ and ‘Madame Liu Flees the Stage,’ ten thousand people and more all screamed at once.” The uproar was so great that the prefect sent a yamen officer out to see if pirates were attacking.5
The Mulian story originated in Buddhist scriptures and matured in a Chinese setting, and it taught the theology and ethics of Buddhism and Confucianism very effectively. But there is no doubt that the opera also functioned as a grand ritual whose purpose was to drive out ghosts and protect the community from evil spirits. Many versions of Mulian were prefaced with a scene in which five demons were driven off the stage and pursued for some distance outside the village by an actor representing a priest, a god, or the King of the Ghosts. In Mulian, the dividing line between opera and ritual was virtually effaced: it was an opera that had ritual functions, but one could as easily say that it was a ritual in the form of an opera. In the Qi Opera version, from which the selections below are taken, a sūtra recitation hall was constructed facing the stage, and an eminent Buddhist monk chanted sūtras in it while the opera was being performed. When Mulian’s father died in the play, the monk came onstage to pray for his soul, exactly as if someone had really died. Contrariwise, the actor who played the character of the exorcist, Master Wen, was in some cases asked by the villagers to perform an actual exorcism in their homes.
Mulian Rescues His Mother was the greatest of all Chinese religious operas. During its performance Buddhas, immortals, and a terrifying array of demons and ghosts swarmed over the stage, at times erupting into the audience and rushing out into the surrounding fields. It presented the mysteries of death and rebirth in scenes whose impact on audiences must have been overwhelming. It taught religious and moral values to ordinary people with incomparable force, though not always in a form that won the approval of Buddhist monks or Confucian literati.
MULIAN RESCUES HIS MOTHER
While Mulian has been away from home after his father’s death, his mother has been persuaded to break her vow to abstain from eating meat. This sin has led to others, including violence and sacrilege. When the following scene begins, accusations against her have reached
the Jade Emperor, who orders Yama, King of Hell, to punish her. Yama thereupon dispatches his demon runners to apprehend her.
SCENE 42
The Infernal Runners Set Off
The five demon-bailiffs enter.
First demon-bailiff (chants):
The sparrow when it pecks looks all around;
The swallow sleeps without a care.
For the great-hearted, blessings are naturally great,
For the deep schemer, misfortune is deep as a well.
Brothers!
Demon-bailiffs: Here!
First demon-bailiff: We have been ordered by Lord Yama to seize Madame Liu Qingti. We will go first to the headquarters of the City God to register, and then to the Fu house.
Demon-bailiffs: Well said!
Second demon-bailiff (chants): Truly,
Demons and spirits are formless and soundless,
Third demon-bailiff:
Inaudible and invisible to living people.
Never forget that evil-doing is requited with evil;
Fourth demon-bailiff:
On no account be greedy and scheming!
First demon-bailiff (sings to the tune “Si bian jin”):
We’re the Runners from the hall of Lord Yama.
Carrying ropes and iron chains
We head straight for the gate of the Fu house
To seize the soul of Madame Liu.
She will certainly have no place to hide,
Demon-bailiffs:
And will find it hard to buy her way out.
To all men we give this warning:
Do good, don’t do evil.
To all men we give this warning:
Do good, don’t do evil.
First demon-bailiff: Let’s go!
The five demon-bailiffs exit together.
SCENE 43
Life-Is-Transient Leads the Way
The Life-Is-Transient demon, a miscellaneous role-type, dances across the stage (leading the way for the demon-bailiffs). He wears a hat about two feet tall, on which are the words “You’ll come too!” He stands on stilts eight to twelve feet high and carries a palm-leaf fan.6
SCENE 44
Ili Sweeps the Hall
[Madame Liu overhears the faithful family servant, Ili, musing to himself on the moral degradation that has overtaken the household. She is enraged and is about to begin beating him when Mulian, here called by his childhood name, Luobu, enters. She tells him to bring her a club.]
Fu Luobu: Alas, Mother, I have taken the vows!
Mme Liu: You have taken the vows, have you?
Trembling with rage, she snatches his rosary and beats Ili with it, and overturns a chair three times.
(Sings)
Oh, Luobu!
If I don’t beat him a few times
And curse him a few times
And if others hear of it
They will say I can’t control my household at all, can’t control it at all.
I must teach this evil slave a lesson
And make him examine himself.
In ordinary households
There is no confusion between right and wrong, kin and non-kin.
Honored and mean, noble and ignoble, are kept perfectly clear, kept perfectly clear.
Strikes Ili, again overturns the chair three times.
[Both Luobu and Ili do everything possible to prevent Madame Liu from beating Ili. Eventually she relents.]
Mme Liu [to Ili]: Get up!
Fu Luobu: Dear Ili, just what did you say to make my mother beat you?
Ili: I just said two things I shouldn’t have.
Fu Luobu: What two things?
Ili: Good deeds stay at home, but evil deeds travel a thousand leagues.
Mme Liu: Tcha!
(Chants)
You two bully me with your talk;
How could I have made any mistakes?
If Madame Liu broke her vow of abstinence. . . .
Fu Luobu and Ili: Ai, Mother! Mother! Mistress!
Mme Liu: . . . I shall go to the garden to swear an oath, to swear an oath.
Mme Liu exits, followed by the others.
SCENE 45
The Oath in the Garden
The five demon-bailiffs enter.
First demon-bailiff (chants):
What arises in men’s hearts the demons know first;
Second demon-bailiff:
Heaven, dark and deep, cannot be deceived;
Third demon-bailiff:
Good and evil in the end will always be requited;
Fourth and fifth demon-bailiffs:
The only thing uncertain is when it will occur.
First demon-bailiff: Brothers, we have been commanded by King Yama to seize Madame Liu Qingti. The Earth God says that her son serves the Buddha and so she will be difficult to take. Just now she has gone to the garden to make an oath; we will seize her there.
Second demon-bailiff: I’ll wait for her here.
Others: Let’s go!
First demon-bailiff: Here she comes.
Mme Liu (sings within to the tune “Hong nei yao”):
I go into the garden—
Madame Liu enters, stumbles and falls. The five demon-bailiffs surround her. She mimes fear.
Mme Liu: Ng-heng! Ng-heng! Ai-ya, I know this path to the garden so well—how could I have fallen down? If I can’t do it this way, I’ll go around. [Exits]
The demon-bailiffs: Wait over there.
Mme Liu (sings within):
I go into the garden—
Madame Liu enters stage left. The five demon bailiffs surround her. She mimes fear.
Mme Liu: Demons! Demons! Oh, I am so sorry!
(Sings)
Seeing the flowers
Wraps me in grief,
Makes me more ashamed.
I remember when my husband was alive
And built this flower terrace.
Truly all I hoped for was that husband would lead and wife follow,
That when our hair was dark we would stay close to each other
And when our hair was white we would part.
Who would have thought that the phoenix would depart, leaving the terrace empty,
The phoenix depart, leaving the terrace empty and the mist thickening.
The five demon-bailiffs seize Madame Liu, and she falls to the ground. Fu Luobu enters. The five demon-bailiffs bow to him, retreat, and exit. Luobu helps Madame Liu get up.
Mme Liu: A demon! A demon!
Fu Luobu: Mother, it’s Luobu!
Mme Liu: You are Luobu?
Fu Luobu: Yes!
Mme Liu: Take my hand and lead me back.
(Sings)
To raise a fine son takes all his parents’ efforts—
Ili enters.
Mme Liu: A demon! A demon!
Fu Luobu: Dear mother, it’s our Ili.
Mme Liu (sings):
Ai-ya, Luobu my son!
It is also said that slanders should not be listened to.
If you do, disaster will befall you.
If the lord listens to slanders, the minister will be dismissed;
If the father listens to slanders, the son will be destroyed;
If friends listen they will become estranged;
If husband and wife listen they will separate.
Imposing is a man’s seven-foot frame,
Tireless his three-inch tongue.
The tongue is a Dragon Spring7
That can kill without drawing blood.
Don’t listen to slanderous words, my son;
They destroy the natural affection between mother and child.
See the sunflowers—
[To herself] O sunflowers,
In the netherworld
You are in charge of good and evil among men.
Even if you do not know what others have done,
You were born in my garden,
So you must know
The things I have done:
Breaking m
y vows behind my son’s back and killing living things.
Sunflowers,
To you sunflowers I say from the bottom of my heart,
It is useless to have a sincere heart,
It is useless to have a sincere heart,
You just lean toward the sun, lean toward the sun.
The exploding sunflowers are set off. The five demon-bailiffs throw down the bones [that have been buried in the back garden].
Fu Luobu and Ili (sing):
Fiery red, fiery red, the flames rise up,
Stony white, stony white, the bones fill the pit.
Who killed all these animals?
Why did they take the lives of all these geese and ducks?
They buried the white bones deep in the earth.
They must not have known that Heaven above is keeping watch.
They tried to cover it up, but only made it more obvious.
Ai-ya, Mother!
Why weren’t they,
Why weren’t they careful from the start?
Mme Liu (sings):
Whose vicious thought was this?
Whose devilish work was this?
Who killed the animals
And buried white bones in the shade of flowers and trees?
[To herself] When Luobu sees them he is stunned;
When Ili sees them he is uneasy.
[They must be feeling,] How can it not be true?
Deception is still deception; if I deceive these two fine boys,
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2 Page 16