Ts’ai and Lan [entering in Taoist garb, recite]:
Farewell to dusty world;
In the clouds we gather as followers of the Way.
Greetings from Ts’ai Yi-so and Lan Ying.
Chang: Do you both prepare the altars and lead our brethren in the ritual. I will purify myself and change my garments so that I may offer up prayer with the utmost devotion. Truly a pure repast before the gods, an offering from the chaste hearts of men.
[Chang exits. Ts’ai and Lan set up a triple altar which they furnish with incense, flowers, fruits, and tea. They set up banners and tablets, and then sing.]
Ts’ai and Lan together [singing]:
As the sun rises from the sea, we build our high altar.
All spirits of the sky, appear!
Lords of the stars and planets, come to audience!
Your banners float on the breeze
As prayers ascend for the seventh-month sacrifices.
Ts’ai: The altar is raised and furnished. All is ready.
Lan: And lo, here comes a throng of village elders with gifts of wine and incense.
[Enter Master of Ceremonies at the head of a crowd of villagers. They bear wine, incense, paper money, and embroidered banners.]
Villagers [sing]:
Home-brewed wines we bear,
Incense purple and yellow
We’ve wrapped in broidered kerchiefs.
Upward we gaze, to the royal Throne
In the Jade Palace of the Purest Void,
And ask: How came our Emperor
To leave us villagers fatherless? [They weep.]
Now in the seventh month, deep in the folded hills,
Offerings we burn to His late Majesty.
[They greet Ts’ai and Lan, and say]: Reverend Sirs, we of the laity are all present and prepared for the service. Please ask His Reverence the Abbot to come forth and circumambulate the altar.
Ts’ai and Lan [calling offstage]: All is in readiness for Your Reverence to circumambulate the altar and perform the rites of purification.
[Three drumbeats. Four Taoist musicians appear. Ts’ai and Lan put on robes decorated with magic symbols, and follow behind bearing censers. Last comes Chang, in similar robe and gold mitre. He walks around the altar, carrying a vial of water and a pine branch with which he conducts the rituals of purification.]
All [singing]:
Hands new purified
Flourish branch of pine,
Scatter healing dew
In droplets superfine.
Round the altar and around,
Thrice threefold and nine:
Banish dust, vanish lust,
From this place divine.
Incense smoke ascending,
Cloud with cloud entwine,
Airy palace towers
For his royal line.
[Exit Chang.]
Ts’ai and Lan [calling to Chang, offstage]: The ritual of purification is complete. Now let Your Reverence change your robe and offer the memorial prayer at the altar.
[Ts’ai and Lan proceed to set up the tablet of the Emperor Ch’ung-chen on the central altar. On the left are set the tablets of the civil martyrs of the year 1644, and on the right the tablets of the military martyrs of the same year. Soft music plays. Chang enters wearing a nine-ridged hat (indicating highest rank in the bureaucracy) and a crane-embroidered robe of audience. His thick-soled boots also are such as are worn in Imperial audience. He wears a golden girdle and carries an ivory tablet.]
Chang [kneeling]: Let the stars of the heavens lend brightness to the vision of the Land of the Immortals. Let the winds and the thunder bear word that the gates of Heaven be opened. Here in all reverence we implore the attendance of His Imperial Majesty Ch’ung-chen and of all noble martyrs, both civil and military. Let the Imperial procession now appear in all its splendour, flanked by gleaming banners and followed by the attendant throng. Ride the white clouds to where we humbly await Your Imperial Presence with offerings of sacred music and hallowed wine.
[Music sounds. Chang makes a triple libation and prostrates himself four times. Master of Ceremonies and Villagers join in his prostrations.]
Chang [sings]:
Adepts here assembled
Implore Your Majesty to descend from the azure clouds.
Leave Coal Hill, the fatal tree,[1]
Untie the silken sash,
Come relish pepper wine,
Breathe incense of the pine,
Lament no more the crimes of bandit rogues.
No earthly pomp can last a thousand years,
But in these hills your spirit lives forever.
[Chang exits. Ts’ai and Lan make libations at either side of the stage, then prostrate themselves. Master of Ceremonies and Villagers join in the prostrations.]
Ts’ai and Lan together [singing]:
For every martyr’s soul we pray
Who died on that ill-fated day.
All who found death by slow starvation,
Knife, or well, or strangulation,
Let no more rage your bosoms fill,
Join us here and feast at will.
[They speak]: Now pour libations and burn the spirit offerings, that the spirits may be escorted to their heavenly home.
[All present burn paper offerings, make libations, and wail.]
Master of Ceremonies: Now for the first time they have been fittingly bewailed.
Villagers: Having expressed our devotion, let us go to our own pure repast. [Exeunt.]
Ts’ai and Lan [calling to Chang, offstage]: The ceremonies of invitation are completed. Now is the time for Your Reverence to change your robes and ascend to the altar to offer food to the wandering souls.
[Ts’ai and Lan set out the food offerings. To soft music, Chang re-enters, now wearing a turban and a cloak trimmed with crane’s down, and carrying his whisk. After prostrating himself, he ascends the steps of the altar. When Ts’ai and Lan have assumed their positions behind him, he strikes the altar with his fist.]
Chang: Though endless spread the sandy battlefields, raising our eyes we see the mansions of Heaven; lost as we are in the boundless ocean of sorrows, turning our heads we see the Isles of Blessing. We commemorate the host of those who gave their lives for their country, whether they fought hard by the capital or in the central plains, south of the great lakes or far in the desert northwest; whether to them came death by water, death by fire, death by sword’s edge, death by arrow, death beneath trampling feet, or death from sickness and starvation. Though your bones lie tangled in thorny thickets, though your spirits flicker as will-o’-the-wisps, come to our holy hill, our sacred altar. Come drink the cup that agelong will quench your thirst. Come taste the grain that for a thousand springs will be your nourishment. [He scatters grains of rice, sprinkles water, and burns paper offerings. Then he sings]:
Out on the dusty battlefield
With wild herbs overgrown,
Crimson stains of blood must yield
To slowly whitening bone.
In howl of wind, rage of rain,
Homeward gazing, they gaze in vain.
Poor ghosts who linger drear and chill:
Come eat this once, come eat your fill.
Ts’ai and Lan: Now the gifts of food have been made, it is time for Your Reverence to send forth the rays of holy light which will illumine the Three Realms[2], so that the wandering spirits may be guided each to his proper altar.
Chang: They have been long in Heaven, the souls of the martyrs of last year’s disaster.
Ts’ai and Lan: But what of the victims of this year’s struggle, Prince and ministers pitted against the north? We entreat you to seek a sign of what fates have befallen them.
Chang: Then attend with steadfast hearts while I offer incense and enter meditation, closing my eyes to see the more intently. [Ts’ai and Lan stand with bowed heads, incense sticks held before them. A long pause ensues.] No, I find no manifestation of the Emperor Hung-kuang, the two Generals
Liu, T’ien Hsiung, and the rest. They must still be among the living.
Ts’ai and Lan: What of Shih K’o-fa, Tso Liang-yü, and Huang Te-kung, who died in this year’s fighting?
Chang: Let me see.
[He closes his eyes, whereupon there enters, to soft music, a white-bearded figure wearing court headdress and crimson robe. His face is covered with a yellow silk cloth, and he has a retinue of attendants carrying streamers of silk such as decorate shrines.]
First Apparition: I, Shih K’o-fa, former Field Marshal and President of the Board of War, am newly appointed Original of the Purple Void, in the Palace of Great Purity. To this post I now ride.
[He mimes the act of riding, and exits. A second figure, in gold armour and with a red silk cloth over his face, enters to drums and pipes. His retinue carry banners.]
Second Apparition: I, Tso Liang-yü, former Earl of Southern Peace, am newly appointed Heaven-soaring Envoy. To this post I now ride.
[He exits. A third figure enters with banners, drums, and pipes. His armour is silver, and the cloth over his face is black.]
Third Apparition: I, Huang Te-kung, former Earl of Southern Tranquillity, am newly appointed Heaven-roaming Envoy. To this post I now ride. [Exit.]
Chang [opens his eyes]: Wonderful! I have just had visions of Their Excellencies Shih K’o-fa, Tso Liang-yü, and Huang Te-kung, each riding to assume a glorious new appointment in Heaven. [Sings]:
Celestial steeds astride the clouds,
In heroes’ pride they go.
Heavenly music sounds on every side,
Banners and parasols wave,
Swords, robes, and insignia befit
The majesty of other-worldly office.
High Heaven recognized their worth,
And now they ride in glory.
Ts’ai and Lan [bowing with folded hands]: Homage to Heaven’s Lord! Thus virtue reaps reward, and the justice of Heaven is displayed for all to see. [Turning to Chang]: But what retribution has befallen the traitors Ma Shih-ying and Juan Ta-ch’eng?
Chang: Let me see.
[Enter, running, a fourth figure, with dishevelled hair and clothes.]
Fourth Apparition: After a lifetime of misdeeds, I, Ma Shih-ying, met my end in the T’aichou Mountains. [Following him comes the Spirit of the Thunderclap, who chases him around the stage. The Apparition kneels, clutching his head.] Have mercy! Have mercy!
[The Spirit strikes him dead, strips his body, and departs. Enter a fifth figure in court robes and girdle.]
Fifth Apparition: Done it! A superb achievement for Juan Ta-ch’eng, to cross this Ridge of the Immortals!
[He climbs a peak, whereupon the Mountain Spirit and attendant Yakshas[3] enter and push him off. He falls to his death.]
Chang [opens his eyes]: Horror, horror! A vision of Ma Shih-ying struck dead by a thunderbolt in the T’aichou Mountains, and Juan Ta-ch’eng fallen to his death from the Ridge of the Immortals. Each with his skull cracked open, terrible to behold. [Sings]:
Bright is the image in the karmic mirror,
Close is the mesh of Heaven’s all-compassing net.
Flee where you may over a thousand hills,
Thunder Spirit and Yakshas will hunt you down.
Those who have scooped the brains from so many skulls,
Will scarcely feed a dog with their remains.
Ts’ai and Lan [hands folded]: Homage to Heaven’s Lord! Thus evil meets retribution, and the justice of Heaven is displayed for all to see. [Turning to Chang]: Your attendants still lack the fullest understanding. We beseech Your Reverence to fill our ears with truth.
[While Chang raises his whisk and sings at the top of his voice, Master of Ceremonies and Villagers re-enter to listen respectfully, incense sticks held before them.]
Chang [sings]:
Every mortal creature’s
Misdeeds, however small,
However closely hidden,
To his account must fall.
And yet the karmic circle
Each merit will recall,
Reward and retribution
Made visible to all.
North succeeds to South,
State gives way to state,
Each dynastic cycle
Predeterminate.
Just men and the ungodly
Meet their appointed fate,
Sure of resolution,
Whether soon or late.
[Master of Ceremonies and Villagers kowtow and exit. Enter Fragrant Princess with Pien Yü-ching.]
Pien: Happiest in all this world are those who devote themselves to acts of piety. In the company of Taoist priestesses we have set up banners before the altar to the Empress Chou, and now we come to hear the Abbot in his sermon hall.
Fragrant Princess: Am I permitted to accompany you?
Pien: See, here is a throng of Taoist priests and laymen, there can be no harm in our presence as observers.
[Pien prostrates herself before the altar, then takes up a position at one side, with Fragrant Princess. Enter the minstrel Ting Chi-chih.]
Ting: Hard to ensure return in mortal form; mysterious and secret is the Way. [He prostrates himself before the altar, then rises and calls offstage]: Master Hou, come see the sermon hall.
[Hou Fang-yü hastens onstage.]
Hou: At last! Long have I suffered in the dusty world. Now to seek bliss beyond its narrow confines. [He follows Ting to a position at the other side of the stage from Fragrant Princess.]
Chang [pounds his lectern]; You, my hearers, hearts turned to piety: know that only the total voidance of your dusty desires can free you to rise towards purity. One single speck of lingering mortal passion, and you are condemned to a thousand further revolutions of the wheel of karma.
[Concealing his face with his fan, Hou peers at Fragrant Princess, and starts in astonishment.]
Hou: That is my Fragrant Princess! How can it be that I find her standing here? [He hurries over to Fragrant Princess and tugs at her hand. She is equally startled to see him.]
Fragrant Princess: It is Master Hou! Oh, the longing for you has almost caused my death! [Sings]:
Ah, when I recall
The abruptness of our parting!
No bridge was ours, to cross the Milky Way;
Higher than Heaven seemed the walls between us.
No letters could we exchange,
Dreams were a vain recourse,
Longing was endless;
And when I left the palace,
Ever more distant wanderings seemed to face me.
Hou [points to the fan]: Gazing on the peach blossoms of this fan, I have asked myself how I could ever requite you. [Sings]:
The blossoms on this fan:
Were they really formed from bloodstains?
Or are they the petals that rained down
When the holy Abbot preached?[4]
[Hou and Fragrant Princess look at the fan together. Then they are dragged apart by Ting and Pien.]
Ting: You should not discuss private matters while the Abbot is in the middle of his sermon.
[Hou and Fragrant Princess take no notice, and Chang pounds his lectern again.]
Chang: Tchah! What kind of fractious children are these who babble of love before this sacred altar? [He hastens down, tears the fan from the hands of Hou and Fragrant Princess, and flings it to the ground.] This a place of sanctity, not to be defiled by wanton youths.
Ts’ai: Ai-ya! But Your Reverence knows this man. It is Hou Fang-yü of Honan.
Chang: And the girl?
Lan: I know her. She is Fragrant Princess, who became Master Hou’s bride.
Chang: And what has brought them here?
Ting: Master Hou is residing at my Gather Purity Temple.
Pien: And Fragrant Princess at my Foster Purity Temple.
Hou [bowing to Chang]: And you, sir, are Chang Wei, from whom in former days I received much favour.
Chang: Master Hou, I am delighted to see you released from prison. Did you kno
w it was because of you that I left the world to follow the Way?
Hou: No, I had no means of knowing that.
Ts’ai: I also left the world on your account. I shall tell you the story all in good time.
Lan: And I came here as escort to Fragrant Princess in her search for you. I little dreamed that we should find you at last.
Hou: How shall Fragrant Princess and I ever repay the debts we owe to you, Ting Chi-chih and Pien Yü-ching, who gave us refuge, or to you, Ts’ai Yi-so and Lan Ying, who aided our search for each other?
Fragrant Princess: And Su K’un-sheng also accompanied me here.
Hou: And Liu Ching-t’ing came in my company.
Fragrant Princess: We owe so much to Su and Liu, who stayed loyally beside us in defiance of all hardships.
Hou: When we are home once more as man and wife, we shall endeavour to repay their kindness.
Chang: What is all this meaningless chatter? How laughable to cling to your amorous desires when the world has been turned upside down!
Hou: Sir, you are mistaken. The marriage of man with maid is the source of human relationship. Sorrows of separation, joys of reunion, all these are the fruits of love. Why should you object to our discussion of them?
Chang [angrily]: Pshaw! Two piteous passion-clinging bugs! Where now is the nation, where the home, where the prince, where the father? Can’t you get rid of this miserable infatuation? [Sings]:
Alas for silly youths,
Ignorant of the changing of their world.
A stream of lascivious chatter,
Hand in hand they plan their marital bliss,
Here, in the very presence of the spirits!
Can’t you divine love’s final dissolution,
Hear the flapping of wings
As the mandarin ducks fly apart,
See the shattered fragments
Of the jewelled mirror of union?
Are you not ashamed to hear
The laughter your performance brings?
Are you not ready to follow
The broad highway of Escape?
Hou [bows]: I hear your words and wake from my dream, drenched in a chilling sweat.
Chang: Do you understand them?
Hou: I understand.
Chang: Then if you do, salute Ting Chi-chih as your tutor. [Hou does so.]
The Peach Blossom Fan Page 31