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• 1 media/CTC_ZhaoBG.png media/OrphanZhao_ResourceBanner.png 2021-11-15T16:38:24+00:00 The Orphan of Zhao
  趙氏孤兒 106 plain 9 2025-01-28T14:42:24+00:00

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  CONTENTS

  You can find modules that analyze various adaptations of The Orphan of Zhao at the links below. To get a sense of the main themes and historical import of the original The Orphan of Zhao, please consult the "General Background" below.
  1. The Orphan of Zhao 赵氏孤儿 (2003)
     • "Dramaturgical Techniques to Turn A Commoner Into a Hero," a module on a live Beijing opera performance of Orphan of Zhao.
  2. Sacrifice 赵氏孤儿 (2010)
     • "Father-Son Love," a module on a film adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao by director Chen Kaige 陈凯歌.
  3. The Ink and Vermilion Edition of The Orphan of Zhao 墨本丹青版赵氏孤儿 (2011)
     • "Stage as a Narrator," a module on a TV recording of the "Ink and Vermilion" edition adapted by Wang Peiyu 王珮瑜.

  GENERAL BACKGROUND

  The Yuan zaju drama The Great Revenge of The Orphan of Zhao (Zhaoshi gu’er da baochou 趙氏孤兒大報仇, hereafter The Orphan of Zhao) was written by playwright Ji Junxiang 紀君祥 (ca. late thirteenth century to early fourteenth century), a native of Dadu 大都 (modern Beijing). As a historical play, The Orphan of Zhao has been adapted and performed in all the major dramatic forms from the thirteenth century to the present in China and elsewhere (see HTRCD, chap. 5). Even though certain core motifs—political rivalry, loyalty, and revenge—have been retained, each major version assigns different motivations for the unimaginably extreme actions of the villains as well as those of the heroes. 
  
  
  
  Loosely based on historical figures and events from the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 BCE), Ji Junxiang’s zaju 雜劇 play The Orphan of Zhao takes great liberties with its source materials. Two versions of his zaju exist, one printed in the fourteenth century (so-called "Yuan-printed version" 元刊本), the other an edited imprint dating to the seventeenth century (Ming version 明刊本). The two renditions largely share the same plot, but create different motivations for the protagonists’ actions. Importantly, in both versions, four characters sing (one in the capacity of opening male, chongmo 沖末, the other three in the role of the male lead, mo 末), thus providing a stereoscopic view on the unfolding events. Moreover, in the Ming version, even the senior male role (wai 外) sings in the first act and recites verse throughout, offering yet another perspective from which to evaluate this tangled tale of courage and terror.
  
  In keeping with popular sensibilities, the play creates a stark contrast between a set of heroes and an unscrupulous powermonger. Among the heroes, in order of appearance, we count the Princess (cast as dan 旦, female lead), physician Cheng Ying 程嬰 (cast as wai 外), palace guard Han Jue 韓厥 (cast as mo 末 in act 1), and retired minister Gongsun Chujiu 公孫杵臼 (cast as mo 末 in act 2 and 3). All of them seek to ensure the survival of the eponymous orphan of the title of the play (cast as mo 末 in act 4), that is, the last survivor of the Zhao clan. Among the villains ranks Tu’an Gu 屠岸賈 (cast as jing 淨), an official, who does not shy away from the most ruthless maneuvers to keep his political rivals in check, including the execution of the entire Zhao clan. 
  
  The story involves three generations of the Zhao family. Zhao Dun 趙盾 and Tu’an Gu are both high officials at Duke Ling of Jin’s 晉靈公 (r. 620-607 B.C.E.) court, but they are political arch-rivals. Out of envy, Tu’an Gu frames Zhao Shuo 趙朔, Zhao Dun’s son, by accusing him of plotting treason against Duke Ling. As a result of this false charge, the entire house of Zhao—numbering over 300 people—is put to death with the exception of Zhao Dun’s daughter-in-law Zhuangji 莊姬. As Duke Ling’s sister, she is a princess and is expecting a child from her marriage to Zhao Shuo. After she gives birth to a son, Tu’an Gu issues an order to kill the baby. At the princess' behest, Cheng Ying 程嬰, a physician and a friend of the Zhao family, smuggles the orphan out of the palace with the help of Han Jue, who knowingly lets them escape. In order to track down the missing orphan, Tu’an Gu decrees that all newborn babies will be killed if no one turns in the orphan of Zhao. After conferring with Gongsun Chujiu, a retired minister and an old friend of Zhao Dun, Cheng Ying decides to pass off his own newborn son as the orphan.
  
  In the course of the play, to save the orphan, the heroes sacrifice themselves or their loved ones. The Princess and general Han Jue commit suicide. Gongsun Chujiu and the supposed orphan (Cheng Ying’s son) are killed by Tu’an Gu’s soldiers. Cheng Ying becomes the retainer of Tu’an Gu and Tu’an Gu, unbeknownst to himself, adopts Cheng Ying’s “son” (the orphan of Zhao) as his own. When this orphan turns sixteen, Cheng Ying reveals his gruesome family history to the orphan to spur him on to take revenge. In the Yuan version, the orphan imagines a blood orgy as he imagines eviscerating his godfather with his own hands, while in the Ming version, he deputizes the arrest to the powers of the state.
  
  In the Ming dynasty, a southern chuanqi version of The Orphan of Zhao appeared under the title The Story of the Eight Righteous Heroes (Bayi ji 八義記). The play was considerably longer than the zaju and featured many new characters and sites reflecting a wide range of social status and occupation in both texts and illustrations. Notably, the play newly deemphasized the clear-cut boundary between good and evil. Instead of being a singularly cruel general, Tu’an Gu now was driven by social ambition in a world where aristocratic privilege and commercial aspiration collide (He 2020).
  
  Since the late Qing dynasty, the role of Cheng Ying has fascinated some of the greatest stars in the senior male role in Beijing opera. Originally, the Beijing Opera highlight play (zhezi xi 折子戲) entitled Searching for the Orphan, Saving the Orphan (Sougu jiugu 搜孤救孤) had featured the retired minister Gongsun Chujiu as its main character. However, Tan Xinpei 譚鑫培 (1847-1917), the greatest actor of his generation, who specialized in main male roles (sheng 生), transformed physician Cheng Ying into the play’s main protagonist. In his four scene version of the play, the key episodes are called “Settling on a Plan” (“Dingji” 定計, Cheng Ying and Gongsun Chujiu deciding on the substitution of Cheng’s child for the orphan), “Giving Up Their Own Child” (“Shezi” 舍子, Cheng Ying and Gongsun Chujiu convincing Cheng Ying’s wife to accept their plan), “The Audience Hall” (“Gongtang” 公堂, Cheng Ying denouncing Gongsun Chujin before Tu’an Gu), and “Execution Ground” (“Fachang" 法場, the slaughter of Gongsun Chujiu as well as Cheng Ying’s child). In the early twentieth century, Yu Shuyan 余叔岩 (1890-1943), one of Tan’s disciples, who also specialized in sheng roles, performed the new version, leaving behind two short recordings of songs from his performance as Cheng Ying. With that, the play became a signature item in the Yu school named for Yu Shuyuan. Notably, in 1947, one of Yu’s female students, Meng Xiaodong 孟小冬 (1908-1977), the first known woman to specialize in senior male roles, performed Cheng Ying’s part to great acclaim, solidifying her nickname as the "Queen Dong of Beijing Opera" (Jingju Dong Huang 京劇冬皇) (Xu 2011).
  
  
  After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, methods more commonly found in spoken drama, such as the use of playwrights and directors, began to inform the creation and production of traditional Chinese theater. Thus, in 1959, playwright and director Wang Yan 王雁 (1924-2016) combined elements of the Yuan zaju, the Ming chuanqi, and the earlier Beijing opera version to create a new and longer 14-scene Beijing opera entitled The Orphan of Zhao (Zhaoshi gu’er 趙氏孤儿) for the Beijing Opera Troupe (Beijing jingju tuan 北京京劇團). The new version featured a somewhat happier ending in that the orphan’s mother not only survives, but is reunited with the orphan at the end of the play. Four of the troupe’s leading stars, namely Ma Lianliang 馬連良 (1901-1966), Tan Fuying 譚富英 (1906-1977), Zhang Junqiu 張君秋 (1920-1997), and Qiu Shengrong 裘盛戎  (1915-1971), performed together in this play. In this modernized version, Ma Lianliang, arguably the most outstanding interpreter of senior male roles (laosheng 老生) of his generation (Liu, Transforming Tradition, 288) and the then artistic director of the Beijing Opera Troupe, turned the “commoner physician” (caoze yisheng 草澤医生) Cheng Ying into the defining figure at the heart of the play. In Ma’s own telling, he put every expressive technique in the service of bringing out the “righteousness” (yi 義) in Cheng Ying’s conduct. For each of the eight scenes, in which Cheng appears, Ma devised eight different entrances and exits, coordinating the hand gestures and movements, the eyes, the body, bearing, and the steps with the instrumental accompaniment of the gongs and the drums. Meanwhile, he arranged each scene around a basic emotion (worry, cleverness, courage, caution, dissimulation, desire, pain, happiness). Ma’s efforts created the foundation for the Ma-style rendition of the play that is still being performed and reinterpreted to this day.

  WORKS CONSULTED CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE

  He Yuming. “Adopting The Orphan: Theater and Urban Culture in Ming China.” In The Ming World, edited by Kenneth M. Swope, 161-184. London and New York: Routledge, 2020.

  Ma Lianliang 馬連良. “Wo yan Cheng Ying” 我演程嬰 (My Performance of Cheng Ying). (accessed July 22, 2023)

  Ma Lianliang 馬連良 (narration) and Liu Xinyuan 劉辛原 (recording). "Wo yan Cheng Ying" 我演程嬰. In Ma Lianliang yishu pinglun ji 馬連良藝術評論集, edited by Wu Xiaoling 吳曉鈴 and Ma Chongren 馬崇仁, 326-353. Beijing: Zhongguo xiju chubanshe, 1990. 

  Wang Peiyu 王佩瑜. Taishang jian : Wang Peiyu Jingju xueyan ji 台上見：王珮瑜京劇學演記 (See You On Stage: Wang Peiyu’s Account of Learning How to Perform Beijing Opera). Beijing: Zhongxin chubanshe, 2019. 

  Wang, Shih-pe. “The Orphan of Zhao: The Meaning of Loyalty and Filiality.” In How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology, edited by Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas, 127-150. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.

  Xu Jinwen 徐錦文. Jingju Dong Huang: Zhongguo diyi nu laosheng 京劇冬皇：中國第一女老生 (Queen Dong of Beijing Opera: China's First Female Performer of the Senior Male Role). Changsha: Hunan shifan daxue, 2011.

  AUTHORS

  Patricia Sieber and Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang