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• 1 2023-06-09T18:21:28+00:00 The Lute
  全本琵琶记 (2012) 78 plain 2025-07-14T16:03:13+00:00

  Recording of Live Performance
  Troupe: Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe 上海昆剧团

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  LINKS TO THE RECORDING

  • A recording of the performance with Chinese subtitles on bilibili.

  INFORMATION

  • Title: The Complete Lute 全本琵琶记
  • Year: 2012
  • Style: Kunqu 昆曲
  • Troupe: Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe 上海昆剧团
  • Cast: Liang Guyin 梁谷音 (1942-, as Zhao Wuniang 赵五娘), Ji Zhenhua 计镇华 (1943-, as Father Cai 蔡公 and neighbor Zhang Guangcai 张广才), Zhang Mingrong 张铭荣 (1943-, as Mother Cai 蔡婆), Yuan Guoliang 袁国良 (1979-, as neighbor Zhang Guangcai)
  • Venue: Mei Lanfang Grand Theater 梅兰芳大剧院, Beijing, 2012
  • Orchestra: The Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre 北方昆曲剧院
  • Source: CCTV Channel 11 Production
  • Duration: 113 minutes

  INTRODUCTION

  The Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe (Shanghai kunju tuan 上海昆剧团), one of the leading Kunqu companies established in 1978 under the artistic direction of famed actor and teacher Yu Zhenfei 俞振飞 (1902-1993), produced this version in 2012. The playtext derived from a hand-written script passed down from Shen Chuanzhi 沈传芷 (1906-1994), a Kunqu master. Yu first trained with his own father, acclaimed singing master Yu Sulu 俞粟庐 (1847-1930), who put together the foundational Kunqu singing text Sulu’s Formulary (Sulu qupu 粟庐曲谱). In 1916, Yu Zhenfei studied with Shen Chuanzhi’s father Shen Yuequan 沈月泉 (1865-1936).
  
  Its title as the Complete Lute notwithstanding, the script consists of six iconic rearranged scenes (zhezixi 折子戏), namely “Eating Husks” (“Chikang” 吃糠), “Making a Will” (“Yizhu” 遗嘱), “Painting a Portrait” (“Miaorong” 描容), “Taking Leave at the In-Laws’ Grave” (“Biefen” 别坟), “Sweeping Pine Needles” (“Saosong” 扫松),” and “Delivering a Letter” (“Xiashu” 下书). This version centers the main storyline around characters of Zhao Wuniang (Liang Guyin), Father Cai (Ji Zhenhua), Mother Cai (Zhang Mingrong), and neighbor Zhang Guangcai (Ji Zhenhua and Yuan Guoliang). Despite its relative brevity compared to the full 42 scene play, the story is tightened, yet the script retains several comic roles to counterbalance the sorrowful tenor of the main plotline.  
  
  The production featured many of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe’s longtime stars, that is, the famed female role (zhengdan 正旦; liudan 六旦) actress Liang Guyin 梁谷音 (1942-), the renowned old male (laosheng 老生) performer Ji Zhenhua 计镇华 (1943-), and the versatile comic (chou 丑) performer Zhang Mingrong 张铭荣. The three actors were part of the first Kunqu cohort to graduate from the Shanghai Theatre Academy (Shanghai xiqu xuexiao 上海戏曲学校) in 1961. After the theater sector reconstituted itself after the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the three actors came to prominence in the 1980s. All three are prominently represented in the One Hundred Pieces of Kunqu, Master Performers Discuss Their Scenes (Kunqu baizhong Dashi shuoxi, 昆曲百种大师说戏, 2014). In the discussion that follows, we will pay special attention to the balancing of serious and comic elements.

  PLOT SUMMARY

  The Kunqu version of The Lute is based on the eponymous southern play written by the scholar-official, poet, and playwright Gao Ming 高明 (circa 1305-1359) during the late Yuan dynasty. The Lute is extremely important in the history of Chinese drama. While other southern plays were authored by writing clubs (shuhui 书会) about whose members we know next to nothing, this play was authored by a historically identifiable figure. In the famous prologue to the play, in the voice of the troupe leader, Gao Ming noted that theater needed to blend a morally compelling story with satisfying music and felicitous comedy. The original playtext alternates between the tearful family drama of the main protagonists (sheng 生, dan 旦) and the comic interludes involving a cast of supporting roles of high and low status figures (jing 净, chou 丑) . A host of characters cast in the role of an intermediary role (mo 末) mediate between different comic and serious characters. Blending deeply sorrowful and riotously funny moments, The Lute came to be honored as the foundational work of mature southern theater (chuanqi 传奇). According to critic Lü Tiancheng’s 吕天成 (1580-1618) Classified Plays (Qupin 曲品), the success of The Lute cannot be separated from its alternation between bitterness and happiness (kule xiangcuo 苦乐相错).
  
  Many modern adaptations foreground Zhao Wuniang, the main female character (zhengdan 正旦, literally “upright female role”), who sets an example of marital loyalty and filial love in the face of great adversity. She has been married to the scholar Cai Bojie 蔡伯喈 for only a short time before he leaves for the capital at the urging of his father to pursue examination success. Once Cai passes the imperial examination, he is pressed to marry the daughter of the Prime Minister and hence does not return home. In his absence, his hometown is struck by a devastating famine. When rice is scarce, Wuniang feeds her parents-in-law the actual kernels of rice, while she avoids starvation by forcing herself to eat the husks typically used as animal feed. However, Mother Cai, Wuniang's mother-in-law, at first thinks Wuniang keeps all the good food for herself. When she inadvertently finds out the truth, she chokes on the husks and dies out of shame. Father Cai also feels too ashamed and dies not too long after Mother Cai. Left without a penny, Wuniang digs a grave for her parents-in-law with her bare hands and paints an ancestral portrait of her late parents-in-law, tasks that are typically assumed by paid professionals. She keeps the portrait close at hand when she sets out for the capital to look for her husband. Her kind neighbor Zhang Guangcai provides money for her travel expenses and promises to watch over her in-laws’ grave in her absence.

  THEME: Techniques for Creating Sadness and Comic Relief

  In our discussion below, we will focus on how singing techniques can express deep sorrow and distress, while also highlighting how different forms of verbal and physical comedy counterbalance the somber and serious tone of the main plot.  

  1. Using various singing techniques to create a sad mood

  Example 1:  Singing a Southern-Style Title Tune in a Northern Style (nanqu beichang 南曲北唱)
  The most famous and iconic scene of the entire play is “Eating Husks” (“Chikang” 吃糠). On account of this scene, Zhao Wuniang came to be known as the “husk wife” (zaokang fu 糟糠妇), a term that is still in use to denote a long-suffering wife. Zhao Wuniang’s first aria right after entering the stage is called “Sheep on the Hillside” (“Shanpo yang” 山坡羊), a song pattern (qupai 曲牌) typically sung in the sweet and lingering style of southern music (nanqu 南曲). However, Wuniang’s circumstances are precarious and riven with hardships. To avoid a dissonance between musical form and lyrical content, Wuniang delivers the aria introducing her difficult situation in a Northern musical style (beiqu 北曲). The vigorous and forceful tonality of this form is better suited to the somber mood of Wuniang’s introductory aria.
   
  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  五娘唱：乱荒荒不丰稔的年岁。	Wuniang (sings): Wreacking havoc—a year with a meagre harvest
  远迢迢不回来的夫婿。	Impossibly far away—a husband who has not returned home.
  急煎煎不耐烦的二亲。	Agitated and hotheaded—two impatient in-laws.
  软怯怯不济事的孤身体。	Weak and timid—ineffectual and lonely me.
  奴家自从丈夫去后，	After my husband left
  遭遇灾荒	we have met with disaster.
  公婆年老生死难保。	Father- and Mother-in-law are very elderly, and whether it will life or death no one can say for sure.
  奴家只得	I could only
  将衣衫首饰尽皆典卖	pawn all my clothes and my jewelry
  才得一碗淡饭。	for a single bowl of plain rice
  与公婆充饥	to give to my in-laws to satisfy their hunger.
  奴家自己么	As for myself
  且把米膜糠皮筛些来吃。	I winnow some film and husks and eat them.
  吃时又恐公婆看见	Whenever I eat, I am afraid that Father-and Mother-in-law see me
  招致烦恼	And then they would worry;
  因此东躲西避	Therefore, I hide everything left and right.
  今日饭已煮好	Today, the rice is already cooked and
  不免请公婆出来用膳。	it is time to invite Father- and Mother-in-law to come out and partake in the meal.

  
  
  Example 2: The use of melisma for affective emphasis
  In the aria set to the tune “Song of Filial Love” (“Xiaoshun ge” 孝顺歌), Zhao Wuniang sets up an extended comparison between herself and the rice husks. In the end, Zhao Wuniang overturns the metaphor between the husks and herself, because in her desperation, she feels that the husks are better off than she is. In the opening aria of this comparison, we can observe the use of melisma to emphasize Zhao Wuniang’s suffering. Melisma is the practice of dwelling several beats on a single character, often with melodic ornamentation. It is commonly used in the Kun style of Chinese musical theater. In the aria below, the performer dwells on the character “tong” (痛, “being in pain”) to underline her physical misery. In a similar vein, at the beginning of the comparison between the husks and herself, the performer’s singing draws out the pronominal characters for herself, “nu” 奴 and “jia” 家 (“I, this young woman”) to highlight the introduction of this highly unconventional metaphor, thus using the vocal techniques to prepare the viewer for the mental distress implicit in such a comparison.
   
  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  五娘唱：呕得我肝肠痛珠泪吹。	Wuniang sings: I have thrown up so much my innards are in pain and my tears are dropping
  喉咙尚自牢噎住。	My throat is still choking.
  啊呀糠呀，	Alas, Husks!
  你遭砻磨被桩杵。	You were ground by the pestle; Then you are winnowed out,
  筛你簸扬你吃尽控制。	And you suffer every torment.
  好似奴家身狼狈。	It is just like this haggard body of mine,
  千辛万苦皆经历。	That has borne ten thousand hardships.
  苦人吃着苦味。	The bitter one eats the bitter taste,
  两苦相逢。	And the two in bitterness meet.
  可知道欲吞不去。	Ah, no wonder I cannot swallow you.

   
  
  
  Example 3: Expressing shared emotion through joint singing of identical lines (he 合)
  In the scene “Taking Leave at the In-Laws’ Grave” (“Biefen” 别坟), after burying her parents-in-law, Zhao Wuniang paints a portrait of her deceased in-laws and decides to go to the capital to look for her husband. When Elder Zhang hears that Wuniang is about to leave, he gives her money for her travel expenses and sees her off at her in-laws’ grave. Worried that the grave will be neglected during her absence, she entrusts the care for the grave to Elder Zhang. In this interaction, parallelism and symmetry characterize vocal and visual aspects of the scene. Vocally, when one actor sings, the other performer simultaneously delivers their spoken responses (highlighted in red and green below). First, Wuniang sings, “Elder Zhang, please take care of it,” while Elder Zhang speaks the line “You can count on me… no worries.” Thereafter, the two roles switch the manner of delivery. Now Elder Zhang sings, “Never break this promise,” while Wuniang says, “Thank you Elder Zhang,” in response. Furthermore, the many instances of joint singing of the same lines demonstrate not only that Zhao Wuniang and Elder Zhang share the same emotions, but the joint delivery also magnifies these feelings (highlighted in blue below). Both protagonists have a deep personal connection to the late Father Cai and Mother Cai, and they are both worried that Wuniang’s impending journey to the capital will be full of difficulties. In a similar vein, the repetition of certain words and lines throughout the interaction reinforces the pathos of the situation through verbal emphasis and musical accents (highlighted in purple). In some cases, the same singers repeat a line; in others, a jointly sung line is repeated by a solo singer or vice versa; in other cases still, a line is reprised later in the exchange. 
   
  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  五娘唱：此去孤坟望公公看着，望公公看着。	Wuniang sings: Elder Zhang, please take care of this solitary grave when I am away. Elder Zhang, please take care of the grave.
  张广才说：包在老夫的身上…放心地去吧。	Zhang Guangcai speaks: You can count on me…No worries.
  五娘唱, 张广才合：举目萧索。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: What a bleak and chilly sight!
  五娘唱：举目萧索。	Wuniang sings: What a bleak and chilly sight!
  五娘唱, 张广才合：满眼盈盈泪落。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: Our eyes are full of tears.
  张广才唱：承委托我当领略这孤坟看守，我也决不爽约。	Zhang Guangcai sings: At your behest, I will watch over this solitary grave and never break this promise.
  五娘唱说：多谢大公。	Wuniang speaks: Thank you, Elder Zhang.
  张广才唱：但愿你在途路中吖呵身安乐。	Zhang Guangcai sings: I wish that you are safe and well on your journey.
  五娘唱, 张广才合：举目萧索. 举目萧索. 满眼盈盈泪落。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: What a bleak and chilly sight! What a bleak and chilly sight! Our eyes are full of tears.
  ......
  五娘唱, 张广才合：此去孤坟寂寞，路途滋味恶。两处堪悲，两处堪悲，万愁怎么莫。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: The grave will be deserted after I leave, and the journey ahead will be loathsome. It will be sheer misery here and there. It will be sheer misery here and there as well. How to bear the myriad sorrows?
  五娘唱, 张广才合：流泪眼观流泪眼。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: Tearful eyes gaze at tearful eyes.
  五娘唱：断肠人送断肠人。	Wuniang sings: One heartbroken person sees off another heartbroken person.
  五娘唱, 张广才合：断肠人。	Wuniang and Zhang Guangcai sing together: Heartbroken people!

  
  
  Visually, every time when Wuniang and Elder Zhang sing lines together, especially for the lines “What a bleak and chilly sight” (举目萧索) and “Our eyes are full of tears” (满眼盈盈泪落), not only are their voices in sync with one another, but they also perform their poses and actions symmetrically. For the visual parallelism, see the example picture below:
  
  

  2. Using various verbal techniques and physical movements to create comic effects

  In this rearranged The Lute, Mother Cai 蔡婆 in the role of comic (jing) is one of the roles that provides comic relief. Portraying her in this role allows the play to balance melancholy and somber emotions with a light comic touch. In this production, a very famous male comic actor, Zhao Mingrong plays Mother Cai. In dynastic times as well as the modern era, it was not uncommon for men to play the comic female parts. For one, starting from the middle of the Qing dynasty (mid-eighteenth century), female actors were banned from performing onstage; for another, with the commercial decline of commercial opportunities for Kunqu troupes in the late Qing dynasty, fewer actors specialized in “old female roles” (laodan 老旦) and as a result, old women were often played in a comic vein. Mother Cai, the mother of Cai Bojie and mother-in-law of Zhao Wuniang, disagrees with Father Cai in many respects. First, Father Cai compels his son to take the civil service exams and believes that examination success can help lift the family’s status, whereas Mother Cai to some extent disagrees with her husband's worldly aspirations and wishes that her son stays home to look after them. The second and more consequential disagreement between Father Cai and Mother Cai is their attitude towards Zhao Wuniang. Mother Cai at first thinks Wuniang has been keeping all the good food for herself, but Father Cai disagrees and believes that Wuniang is a filial daughter-in-law and that Mother Cai might be wrong about her. This marital discord is a source of humor.
  
  Example 1: The Ample Use of Dialect
  As is typical of comic roles, Mother Cai has few singing passages, all of which are delivered in Mandarin. In contrast, Father Cai, Zhao Wuniang, and neighbor Zhang Guangcai both sing and speak a lot, exclusively in Mandarin. However, as a comic jing role, Mother Cai delivers many spoken lines (nianbai 念白 ) in Wu dialect (Subai 苏白). The contrast between Wu dialect and Mandarin not only differentiates comic roles (jing) from a virtuous and moral role (dan, laosheng) but also distinguishes low status from high status protagonists. In this scene, Mother Cai is singing the first line, “Life is tough in the absence of grains 生计萧条米粮缺少,” and the chorus echoes with, “Alas, life or death, no one can say for sure! 啊呀天啊，真个死生难保” in Mandarin, but then she switches to dialogue in Wu dialect to complain to Father Cai, carrying on in this manner for the rest of the play. The rhythm and delivery of Wu dialect successfully conveys a sense of humor.
   
  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  蔡婆：诶，才怪倷格个佬佬，叫伲子上京赶考，他、他一去不回。这饥荒年间，眼看你我才要饿死哉！就是伲子中仔状元，又有啥格用呢？	Mother Cai: Sigh, it is all your fault, old man. You compelled your son to take the civil service exam in capital, and he, he is gone forever. In face of these years of famine, you and I are going to starve to death! Even if your son achieved the highest score on the exam, what is the use?
  蔡公：我也非神仙，怎知会遭此饥荒？况事已如此，你再唠唠叨叨，埋怨于我，也是无用的啊！	Father Cai: I am not a god; how could I know that we would suffer from such a famine? Things being already [as dire] as this, it is pointless for you to keep nagging and blaming me.
  蔡婆：我勿埋怨倷，我埋怨谁？	Mother Cai: If I don’t blame you, who can I blame?
  ……
  蔡婆：佬佬，倷阿晓得媳妇为啥不拿菜拨我俚吃？	Mother Cai: Old man, do you know why our daughter-in-law did not serve us any side dishes?
  蔡公：你的意思是……	Father Cai: You are implying…
  蔡婆：佬佬，倷跟我来，倷跟我来！佬佬，我搭倷说：一定是俚买仔好鱼好肉，一个人在背后，吃得有滋有味！	Mother Cai: Old man, come with me, come with me! Let me tell you this: it must be that she bought some nice fish and meat and ate it all with great gusto all by herself behind our backs.
  蔡公：哎，婆婆，你看媳妇她脸色饥黄，骨瘦如柴，媳妇不是这等样人啊！	Father Cai: Sigh, old woman, look at our daughter-in-law’s sallow face and emaciated bones. She is not that kind of person!
  蔡婆：我跟倷说，吃饭的辰光，总是东躲西藏，盘脱仔我俚。不是背地里吃好东西，为啥要直梗呢？	Mother Cai: Let me tell you this: she always took pains to hide from us when she was eating. If she was not having nice food behind our backs, why did she act so strangely?

  
  
  
  Example 2: Punning Use of Speech and Body Language
  Due to Mother Cai’s anger over her husband’s pressuring of Cai Bojie to go to the capital, Zhao Wuniang comes to mediate the dispute and asks her mother-in-law to mollify her anger. Mother Cai responds, “I am starving so much so that my chest already clings to my back. There couldn’t be any air/anger left in me anymore” 我饿得前胸贴后背，还有什么气！Here the humor rest on the double entendre of “qi” 气 as both “air/breath” and “anger.” When Mother Cai delivers this line, she claps her hands twice to humorously parallel the situation in her line, “my chest already clings to my back.” Her two palms figuratively represent her chest and her back.
  
  
  
  Example 3: Using exaggerated body language
  Mother Cai decides to find out what delicacies Wuniang is eating on the sly. It turns out that Wuniang is eating the husks and their false suspicion makes Mother Cai and Father Cai terribly embarrassed and ashamed. To express her shock and regret, Mother Cai slightly leans back, raises her head towards the sky, and her hand hits her forehead. She also uses her fist to hit her head.
  
  
  
  
  
  Example 4: Metatheatrical violation of role expectations
  Mother Cai swallows the husks and chokes to death. The death is shown in a slightly humorous way. When Wuniang goes to check on Mother Cai, Mother Cai does not respond, so Wuniang gives her a slight nudge, and Mother Cui rolls over and drops from the chair to the ground, and then lies motionless on the ground. This agile movement belongs to the repertoire of martial main role (wusheng 武生) or martial comic role (wuchou 武丑) actors. Zhang Mingrong, the actor playing Mother Cai, is skilled in the performance of martial comic roles, so this skillful, but unexpected body movement within the context of a female comic role provides humorous relief at an otherwise sad juncture of the play.
  
  
  
  
   

  WORKS CONSULTED: CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE

  Llamas, Regina. “Top Graduate Zhang Xie and The Lute: Scholar, Family, and State.” In How to Read Chinese Drama, edited by Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas, 171-190. Columbia University Press, 2022.

  Yip Siu Hing, comp. and Josh Stenberg, ed. Kunqu Masters on Chinese Theatrical Performance. London: Anthem Press, 2022.

  Yip Siu Hing 葉筆鑫, comp. Kunqu baizhong Dashi shuoxi 崑曲百種大師說戲. 5 vols. Hong Kong: The Masters’ Studio Limited, 2013.

  Opera School affiliated to Shanghai Theatre Academy 上海戏剧学院附属戏曲学校, comp. Kunqu jingbian jumu diancang 昆曲精编剧目典藏 [Selected Works of Kun Opera], vol. 13. Shanghai: Shanghai shijie shuju, 2010.

  AUTHOR

  Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang