Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2

by Wm. Theodore de Bary

  Guo (sings):

  Twelve coins will buy only two—there is no way I can ever buy three.

  After speaking, Guo Ju turns around, and not far from the village center he stops.

  Standing outside his gate, he calls and calls again for his wife to open it.

  Suzhen (sings):

  Yao Suzhen is in the front room when suddenly she hears someone at the gate.

  I get down from the bed but do not leave; holding my baby I say a few things to Mother:

  Take good care of yourself here, I am going to the gate to see who it is.

  I tell Mother I am going outside, just a little ways to the front gate.

  Opening the gate, I see my husband standing there.

  Outside the gate is not a place to talk; let us go into our hut and talk.

  I lead my husband through the gate, and we soon arrive at the hut.

  I give my husband a place to sit.

  Guo (sings):

  I sit down and my tears overflow.

  Suzhen (sings):

  As soon as my husband sits down, I can see from his expression that something is wrong.

  His hair is disheveled and his face is pale, but I don’t know why.

  I sit down facing him and speak respectfully:

  You went to Uncle’s house to borrow rice—how much did you borrow?

  Husband, please give it to me and I’ll cook some, to satisfy Mother’s hunger.

  Guo (sings):

  If you hadn’t brought up borrowing rice it would have been all right, but bringing it up is truly painful.

  After I went into Uncle’s house I first asked if he was well and then brought up the matter of borrowing rice.

  He said he loaned me several pecks of rice and had not yet got back half a pint.

  It would have been all right if Uncle had not loaned me the rice, but in his rage he picked up his stick.

  Because I had not eaten for three meals, I could not fend off his stick.

  He forced me out of the gate just as Chen Zhong was returning from the market.

  Cheng Zhong gave me twelve coins and I bought two shaobing to be a filial son.

  I hand the shaobing over to you . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . And I take them in my hands.

  Husband, please wait in the hut; I will go to the sick room to see Mother and try to explain it to her.

  Suzhen goes into the sick room and with one word awakens her mother.

  Mother (sings):

  Suddenly I hear my daughter’s voice, there’s nothing I can do but open my worried eyes.

  Ah, it is my son’s wife, holding my grandson.

  I don’t crave either sour or spicy flavors—all I can think of is the aroma of rice gruel.

  I would like to have some rice right now—then I’d get better and could leave this bed.

  If there is no rice for me, then I am bound to see the King of the Underworld.

  I sent my son off to borrow some rice and bring it back here.

  I tell my daughter-in-law to cook some rice, to make a bowl of nice rice for Mother to eat.

  Suzhen (sings):

  If you hadn’t brought up borrowing rice it would have been all right, but bringing it up is truly painful.

  My husband, following Mother’s request, went to Uncle’s to borrow rice.

  But he said that he had loaned several pecks three years ago—let me ask you, is he a relative or not?

  If my husband hadn’t asked to borrow rice Uncle wouldn’t have gotten mad, but Uncle was enraged and his stick was savage.

  He drove my husband out the front gate just as Chen Zhong was coming back from an errand.

  He gave my husband twelve coins, and he used them to buy two shaobing to be a filial son.

  As Suzhen hands over the shaobing the tears pour from her eyes.

  Mother (sings):

  As I take the shaobing I become angry.

  I curse you, Brother, you are not human—remember the year when we were rich and you were poor and you borrowed gold and silver from us Guos?

  Now when you are rich and we are poor, you don’t treat our Guo Ju like a human being.

  You said your rice was to feed your chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs; you did not think of what I am to you at all.

  If I get better I will stand in front of your gate, you dog.

  Then I’ll give you what I owe you, and everything you owe me, principal and interest, will be taken back to my house.

  She curses the old dog once more, and looks at the shaobing to see if they are real.

  I will eat one of these shaobing and save the other to feed my grandson.

  If I starve to death it won’t matter much—I’m afraid that my grandson will starve to death.

  If my grandson starves to death it will be very serious, for the root of the Guo family will be cut off.

  Holding the shaobing I say to Daughter-in-law: Listen while I explain it to you.

  I will eat one of the shaobing, and give this one to my grandson to eat.

  I hand over the shaobing . . .

  Yao Suzhen (sings):

  . . . And I take it.

  Taking my leave of Mother I go outside and come to my husband.

  Mother is going to eat one of the shaobing and saved this one to give to her grandson.

  As Yao Suzhen hands over the shaobing, tears fall from her eyes.

  Guo (sings):

  How painful it is to take this shaobing! It’s like our little baby10 is taking food out of Mother’s mouth.

  Oh, Mother! What feeling is it that makes you still want this little baby?

  I say we should just give our little baby to someone else to raise and use the extra food to be filial.

  Suzhen (sings):

  You say we should give our baby to someone else to raise; but if that person should beat or curse him, his mother’s heart would break.

  I say it would be better to bury him alive, and use the extra food to be filial.

  Guo (sings):

  What you say, wife, I cannot believe.

  Suzhen (sings):

  I will swear an oath to Heaven.

  I come before you and with folded hands fall to my knees.

  If I am not telling the truth about wanting to bury our baby, hereafter I will certainly be struck by the Five Thunders!

  Guo (sings):

  As soon as I see my wife make her vow in broad daylight I know she is sincere.

  I was born and raised by Mother, while my wife comes from another family. I go forward and hurry to help her up.

  Suzhen (sings):

  I get up from the ground.

  Guo (sings):

  I will go and pick up my shovel and mattock;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Your wife will go get our little son. [Both exit.]

  Heavenly Official Who Increases Blessings enters.

  Heavenly Official (speaks): I am the Heavenly Official Who Increases Blessings. Guo Ju is going to bury his baby for the sake of his mother. I must go first and bury eighteen pieces of Heavenly gold and silver. With my treasure-sword I open the earth, open it three feet deep and bury the gold and silver. The eighteen pieces of gold and silver I’ve buried Guo Ju can use to be filial to his mother. [Exits.]

  Guo (sings):

  Guo Ju shoulders his mattock and shovel;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Suzhen carries the baby in her arms.

  Guo (sings):

  Listen, wife, don’t make any noise . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . So our dozing mother won’t know what we’re doing.

  Guo (sings):

  If Mother should learn of this . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . There will be no way we can bury our baby.

  Guo (sings):

  Husband and wife go out their poor gate . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . And lock it behind them.

  Guo (sings):

  Husba
nd and wife come to the main street;

  Suzhen (sings):

  There are many people in the street, making a din.

  Guo (sings):

  If we go along the main street hugging our baby . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . All our relatives will say we’re so poor we are hopeless.

  Guo (sings):

  We won’t go by the main street, we’ll use the small lanes;

  Suzhen (sings):

  By winding ways we will go through the hutongs.

  Guo (sings):

  Husband and wife leave the village,

  Suzhen (sings):

  And after leaving the village head straight east.

  Guo (sings):

  Black clouds arise in the northwest;

  Suzhen (sings):

  To some wealth comes, to others poverty.

  Guo (sings):

  Can it be that Uncle has bought ten thousand years of wealth?

  Suzhen (sings):

  Can it be that our poverty is bound to a deep karmic root?

  Guo (sings):

  The Heavenly Official Who Increases Blessings has turned his back on us;

  Suzhen (sings):

  The hungry ghosts of the starved will not leave our house.

  Guo (sings):

  May the Heavenly Official Who Increases Blessings please come to our house . . .

  Suzhen (sings):

  . . . And drive away the hungry ghosts of the starved.

  Guo (sings):

  Heavenly Official Who Increases Blessings, we invite you to our house;

  Suzhen (sings):

  We will give wine and food to your heart’s content.

  Guo (sings):

  When you hit a board fence then the high is brought low;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Of ten poor men, nine once were rich.

  Guo (sings):

  Though the leaves of the wutong tree may fall, the trunk survives;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Just get rid of the branches and twigs and wait for the spring.

  Guo (sings):

  Even the realm of the Lord of a Myriad Years [the emperor] sometimes collapses and shatters;

  Suzhen (sings):

  The affairs of this world are decided by fate, not by men.

  Guo (sings):

  Though the fierce tiger is skin and bones, his heart is still heroic;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Though a gentleman is poor, he is not poor in will.

  Guo (sings):

  Liu Xiu of the Han dynasty [Emperor Wu] painted tigers and climbed mountains;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Yuan Dan was bitten by a tiger while gathering firewood.

  Guo (sings):

  All I want is that the poor do not have to be fearful.

  Suzhen (sings):

  Shi Chong had a dream and was bitten by a scorpion.

  Guo (sings):

  [The guests come to a rich man’s door like a flood.]

  Suzhen (sings):

  Those presenting mutton and making toasts never leave his gate.

  Guo (sings):

  Precedence at a banquet is not determined by age;

  Suzhen (sings):

  Those whose clothes are best are treated best.

  Guo (sings):

  Neighbors, if you don’t believe me, just you look around;

  Suzhen (sings):

  The first ones to be toasted are the ones with lots of cash.

  Guo (sings):

  Liu Bei could only sell straw sandals,11

  Suzhen (sings):

  And Lu Zheng’en was a watchman and oil peddler.

  Guo (sings):

  Zhang Fei had no occupation and could only sell meat,12

  Suzhen (sings):

  And Zhu Maichen was a woodcutter.

  Guo (sings):

  In the years before a juren passes the examinations,

  Suzhen (sings):

  His relatives act as if he is not human.

  Guo (sings):

  But later when he gets a regular office,

  Suzhen (sings):

  All those who had scorned him now pay him homage.

  Guo (sings):

  There are many ancients of whom we will not speak,

  Suzhen (sings):

  For shortly we’ll arrive at Shuangyang junction.

  Guo (sings):

  Don’t go any farther, wife!

  Suzhen (sings):

  Is it here that we will bury him?

  Guo (sings):

  Good wife, please climb the hill and see if there are any travelers.

  If there’s a person on any of the four high roads, we won’t bury him and will go back home.

  If there’s no one on the four high roads, then we’ll bury our baby here.

  Suzhen (sings):

  I hear what my husband says and climb the hill to look carefully around.

  Suzhen has reached the hilltop, and looks off to the west, and then to the east.

  Can it be that our baby is fated to die? There is not a soul on the four roads.

  Suzhen comes down from the hill and tells her husband to hurry and dig a hole.

  Guo (sings):

  I hear what my good wife says, and dig a grave for our baby.

  I take a shovelful, and another; I strike once with the mattock, and once again.

  While I am finishing the hole, keep the baby occupied as you wait by the road.

  Suzhen (sings):

  I hear what my husband says, and keep the baby occupied as I wait by the road.

  I sit on the ground and open my ragged jacket, patches upon patches.

  I put the nipple in my boy’s mouth, and before long his little belly is as tight as a drum.

  Our little baby, not knowing he is to die, gives a tiny smile and tries to stand up in his mother’s arms.

  As our little baby is on the point of dying in the dirt, I entrust him to you.

  I hand over our dear baby to you . . .

  Guo (sings):

  . . . And I take him in my arms.

  If our little baby dies in the dirt, he will lodge an accusation against me in the court of the King of the Underworld.

  Lord Yama will weigh your accusation, and bring your father to the Dark City.

  If you testify against me, I will be pitched with a trident into a vat of boiling oil.

  This is the punishment for anyone who buries a little baby alive, blaming us for something we were too poor to avoid.

  I hand over the baby to you, so I can dig the hole deeper.

  I can’t lift another shovelful, [two characters illegible] I fall to the ground.

  My vision dims, my head swims—I have not eaten for three meals, how can I have the strength to dig a hole?

  Before long I stop digging, and tell my wife to bury our son.

  Suzhen (sings):

  I crawl forward a few inches on my knees and look into the hole.

  But it is not just a hole in the ground, it is my baby’s grave.

  If I put my baby in that hole he will scratch at the dirt with his hands and push at it with his feet.

  Your warm, breathing body, that cold dirt—all I can do is hug my baby tighter.

  I think you haven’t dug the hole deep enough; the wolves that seize, the dogs that tear will break my heart.

  I ask my husband to dig the hole deeper, to dig it deep enough to cover our son.

  Guo (sings):

  Guo Ju is angry, his rage pours out; he heaps curses on his wife’s head:

  Remember what you said at home? You should not have made a vow to Heaven.

  [Because of your vow] it is impossible to not bury him, and if we bury him you will escape [divine punishment].

  Looking toward my house in the distance I call to my old mother; Mother who raised me, why don’t you reply?

  When Mother dies I will put on deep mourning; but who will have a funeral for me when I die?

  I turn my back on my ho
use; gaze at my baby, gaze at the hole.

  Little baby, you are a foot and a half long, but the hole is only a foot.

  I dig out another shovelful, and another; hack out another chunk, and another.

  Three shovelfuls, four shovelfuls—and bright silver gleams in the hole!

  Suzhen (speaks): Oh, my son, I can’t look at you!

  Guo (speaks): My son! Don’t cry! [Laughs.]

  Suzhen (speaks): How can you laugh at such a time?!

  Guo (speaks): There’s silver!

  Suzhen (speaks): Oh, my God! I’ve never seen silver!

  Guo (speaks): Wife, embrace me! Ai-ya! Eighteen pieces of silver and gold! Wife, don’t do anything, I’m going to take some pieces home to be filial to Mother!

  (Sings)

  High blue Heaven cannot be deceived.

  Suzhen (sings):

  Don’t laugh at poor people wearing rags.

  Guo (sings):

  Everyone desires riches and children.

  Suzhen (sings):

  Wealth and glory are bestowed by Heaven.

  Guo (speaks):

  Yes, wealth and glory are bestowed by Heaven. Now let us go and be filial to Mother. Husband and wife make obeisance to the sky, ha-ha, oh ha-ha-ha!

  [Li Jinghan and Zhang Shiwen, eds., Dingxian yangge xuan 2: 268–27913—DJ]

  PART TWO: SOLO PERFORMANCE

  Opera and ritual were part of a single performance complex: they took place at the same time, in the same place (except in large cities that had commercial theaters), for the same reasons. They also did not take place very often; a god’s birthday or a great exorcism came no more than once a year. There were many professional entertainers, however, who did not require elaborate costumes or even a stage. Working alone or with a partner, they could perform in a villager’s home, in a teahouse, on a street corner, even in the fields. These lesser performance genres—teahouse storytelling, ballad singing, streetside lecturing, baojuan recitation (see p. 126), and the like—in a sense filled the gaps left by ritual and opera. They brought professional performance into everyday life.