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The Lute
琵琶記
CONTENTS
You can find modules that analyze various adaptations of The Lute at the links below. To get a sense of the main themes and historical import of the original The Lute, please consult the "General Background" below.- New Year's Print of The Lute《琵琶记》年画连环画 (1958)
- "Reconciling Auspicious and Inauspicious Color Contrasts," a module on the 1958 lianhuanhua (narrative comic) New Year's print of The Lute.
- The Lute 琵琶记 (1985/1986)
- "Creating Emotional Atmospheres," a module on a lianhuanhua adaptation of The Lute.
- The Lute 全本琵琶记 (2012)
- "Techniques for Creating Sadness and Comic Relief," a module on a live performance of The Lute by the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe.
GENERAL BACKGROUND
The Lute (Pipa ji 琵琶記) is widely considered the foundational play of the Southern dramatic tradition. It is the first play that we know of that was written by a scholar-official, Gao Ming 高明 (ca. 1305-ca. 1370, courtesy name Zecheng 則成). Gao was a native of Wenzhou 溫州 (alternate name Yongjia 永嘉, modern Zhejiang Province), the cradle of what was alternatively called Wenzhou zaju, (溫州雜劇 “Wenzhou zaju drama”), Yongjia zaju (永嘉雜劇 “Yongjia zaju drama”), xiwen (戲文 “drama text”) or nanxi (南戲 “southern plays”). Most likely, he was acquainted with now lost plays such as Zhao the Chaste Maid and Cai the Second Son (Zhao zhennü Cai Erlang 趙貞女蔡爾朗) and Wang Kui (Wang Kui 王魁) that circulated in that region. We can gather that these stories represented a particular social type: the ambitious, but ungrateful scholar. The male protagonists pass the civil service examinations, but then blithely leave behind the women—either wives or courtesans—who had supported them prior to their examination success. The women had the last word insofar as they were able to exact divine retribution for the men’s shameless opportunism.
In The Lute, Gao is at pains to show that such heartless abandonment may not be the scholar’s own choice. Having sat and passed the imperial examinations himself, he brought a more sympathetic view to the problem of how to balance familial love and social success. In the play, everyone is desperately seeking to do right by each other, but confronted by circumstances beyond their control, the protagonists struggle to live up to their best intentions. For one, the scholar, Cai Bojie 蔡伯喈 (cast in the role of the young male lead; sheng 生) has no desire to leave his octogenarian parents; on the contrary, he would much rather stay by their side to look after them together with his new bride, Zhao Wuniang 趙五娘 (cast in the role of the young female lead; dan 旦). However, Father Cai 蔡公 (cast in the role of the elder supporting role; wai 外) insists that the younger Cai set out for the capital to seek fame and glory and to improve the family’s fortunes. Once there, Cai Bojie passes the examinations as the top graduate, but as a result, he has become the empire’s most eligible bachelor and is unable to ward off the pressure of Prime Minister Niu 牛公 (cast in the role of a clown; chou 丑). The Prime Minister insists on marrying him to his daughter, Ms. Niu 牛氏 (cast as supplementary female; tiedan 貼旦), a lovely and thoughtful young lady opposed to her father’s coercive maneuvers (fig. 1). Eventually, after the new marriage is arranged, Cai wishes to return to the countryside with his new wife, but his petition to be excused from his official duties is not granted. Taken together, these three instances of having his requests rejected by the older authority figures are known as the “three rejections” (san bucong 三不從).
One of the central themes that runs through the play and that is developed in many arias, including the one cited below, is that the Confucian writings do not only inadequately prepare their readers for the many obstacles involved in the implementation of Confucian ideals; moreover, the very people allegedly most devoted to safeguarding these Confucian principles—fathers, ministers, and the emperor—become the prime forces who get in the way of the younger generation’s desire to be loving and filial children. As Cai Bojie sings:
I think
Of the books I read in youth.
They said a son must become a model of filial service,
But never talked of the reality.
How could I have known that I would suffer so many troubles?
Forced by my father to attend the examinations,
Forced by the ruler to serve as counselor,
Forced by father-in-law to live in marriage—
Forced against my will three times, and now I must bear my pain in silence!
I can’t escape blame from both sides.
Here, they call me naïve, bashful, cold;
There, they call me shiftless, fickle, and untrue (Mulligan, The Lute, 181).
思量，
幼讀文章，
論事親為子也須要成模樣。
真情未講，
道吃盡多磨障？
被親強來赴選場，
被君強官為議郎，
被婚強效鳳凰。
三被強衷腸說與誰行？
埋怨難禁這兩廂
這壁廂道咱是個不撑達害羞的喬相識，
那壁廂道咱是個不賭是負心的薄倖郎。(Qian, Pipa ji, 174).
Are you really such a dedicated scholar?
I only fear that in ten miles of red pavilions,
Power and wealth you’ll covet.
But though you may forget me,
Surely your parents will stay in your thoughts.
There is no one to whom I can speak of this—
This cold, cold loneliness—how can I bear it? (Mulligan, The Lute, 82)
那些兒箇意孜孜，
只怕十里紅樓，
貪着人豪富。
雖然是忘了奴，
也須索念父母。
無人說與，
這凄凄冷冷怎生辜負 (Qian, Pipa ji, 65)
When everything begins to fall apart, Wuniang goes to extreme lengths to hold the family together. Famine strikes and the family gradually runs out of food despite Wuniang’s best efforts to scrounge together meals for her in-laws. The late Yuan period (1320-1366) was marked by a series of severe weather events that led to famine and eventually rebellion, hence the backdrop of starvation was not so much a melodramatic touch as an acute reminder of recent events. The theme of famine culminates in the iconic scene where Wuniang forces herself to swallow virtually inedible rice husks. She does this in secret to shield her in-laws from being overly worried about her and the family’s dire straits, but her secrecy backfires: Mother Cai suspects that Wuniang keeps the best morsels for herself; however, once the truth comes out, Mother Cai dies of shame and Father Cai, similarly afflicted by shame, hunger, and illness, follows suite not too long after that. Thus it falls to Wuniang to provide a proper burial, even though she is reduced to utter penury. She cuts and sells her hair, she begins to build a grave mound with her bare hands before being assisted by divine helpers, and she draws their ancestral portrait—actions that illustrate both the desperate poverty, but also her resilience in the face of unspeakable adversity. Inspired by a divine dream, she sets out for the capital taking along the eponymous lute of the title of the play, singing songs about filial love, while begging to support her travel needs.
The play is also remarkable for the female solidarity that characterizes the bonds between Cai’s first wife Wuniang and his second, Ms. Niu. Once Wuniang arrives in the capital, it is Ms. Niu who provides shelter for her. Once Ms. Niu realizes that Wuniang is the woman that her husband has pined after all this time and that she has served her in-laws in an exemplary fashion, she resolves to bring about a happy reunion between Wuniang and Cao Boijie. If her father had been the prime agent to drive a wedge between Cai and Wuniang, Ms. Niu, by contrast, becomes the de-facto matchmaker to reintroduce the couple to each other. Ms. Niu encourages Wuniang to write a poem on the back of the ancestral portrait and then proceeds to quiz Cai on the poem’s meaning. Once Cai realizes what has happened in his absence—the famine, the death of his parents, his deep attachment to them and to Wuniang—Ms. Niu invites Wuniang into the room. Together, the three of them decide to visit the countryside to pay their respects at the tomb of the deceased parents. Auspicious symbols abound around the grave site, signaling divine blessing for the conduct of all involved.
WORKS CONSULTED CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE
Gao Ming 高明. Pipa ji 琵琶記 (The Lute). Ann. Qian Nanyang 錢南揚 and Li Diankui 李殿魁. Taipei: Renli shuju, 1998.
Guo Yingde, Wenbo Chang, Patricia Sieber, and Xiaohui Zhang, eds. “L04: The Lute, Scene 20, “Wuniang Eats Husks,” 74-92. In How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023.
Llamas, Regina. “Top Graduate Zhang Xie and The Lute: Scholar, Family, and State.” In How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology, edited by Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas, 171-190. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.
Mulligan, Jean, intro. and trans. The Lute: Kao Ming’s P’i-p’a chi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.