To Revenge or Not to Revenge?: Seven Hundred Years of Transformations of The Orphan of Zhao

TO REVENGE OR NOT TO REVENGE?: SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE ORPHAN OF ZHAO Shiao-ling Yu (Oregon State University) The Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) zaju 杂剧 play Zhao-shi gu’er 赵氏孤儿 (The Orphan of Zhao) is perhaps the best known drama of revenge in Chinese literature.1 It was also the first Chinese play to achieve an international reputation, with several European language translations and adaptations in the eighteenth century. Although it was not considered a masterpiece by traditional Chinese drama critics, who favored plays with elegant poetic language, its story about loyal subjects and faithful friends who sacrificed themselves for a just cause earned it a place on the Chinese stage from the thirteenth century to the present. In the early twentieth century, it received a big boost from the noted scholar Wang Guowei 王 国维 (1877-1927), who declared that the play “deserves to be ranked among the world’s greatest tragedies.”2 This paper will examine the transformations of this play from Yuan drama to modern spoken drama (huaju 话剧) with an emphasis on the changes in the theme of revenge as it appears in traditional musical dramas and two recent productions. These transformations will not only show how different dramatic forms and conventions can change the meaning of the play, but also reflect how Chinese moral and ethical principles have changed from the middle ages to our day. I Zhao-shi gu’er is based on an historical event: the annihilation of the noble house of Zhao that took place in the state of Jin in the sixth century B.C. In the Chunqiu 春秋 (Spring and Autumn Annals), there are brief notices of the assassination of the ruler of Jin in the second year of Duke Xuan of Lu (606 B.C.) by Zhao Dun 赵盾, the most influential member of the Zhao clan, and of the execution of two members of the Zhao clan in the eighth year of Duke Cheng of Lu (583 B.C.). In the commentaries to the Chunqiu we find out that while Zhao Dun actually was not present at the assassination (having fled from the capital), he was still considered responsible for the event because he did not flee far enough and did not punish his brother for the deed when he did come back. In one of these commentaries, the Zuo zhuan 左传 (The Zuo Chronicle), we learn that the only male member of the Zhao clan to survive the extermination of the clan was Zhao Wu 赵武, who survived the massacre because of his close family connection to the royal house, his mother being the sister of the reigning duke of Jin. It is this Zhao Wu who is the prototype for the Orphan of Zhao in the later dramatic works. 1 The three longer, alternate, names of the play all include the character bao 报 (revenge). 2 Wang Guowei 王国维, Song Yuan xiqu shi 宋元戏曲史 (Shanghai: Huadong shifan daxue, 1996), p. 121. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 (2005-2006)©2006 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 In the longer account of the story in Sima Qian’s 司马迁 (c. 145-c. 85 B.C.) Shiji 史记 (Records of the Grand Historian), the person who exterminated the Zhao clan is identified as Tu’an Gu 屠岸贾, a powerful minister and a favorite of Duke Ling (r. 621-606 B.C.) of Jin. In this version of the story, Zhao Wu, born posthumously after the massacre of the Zhaos, is saved by two loyal retainers of the clan and grows up to avenge the wrongs of his family.3 The main conflict in this version has been changed from being one between the ruling house of Jin and the house of Zhao into a power struggle between two political rivals, Tu’an Gu and the head of the Zhaos, Zhao Dun. The Orphan’s mother has been transformed from an adulterous wife who betrayed her own family in the Zuo Chronicle into a loving mother. The addition of the loyal retainers, Cheng Ying 程婴 and Gongsun Chujiu 公孙杵臼, and of the villain, Tu’an Gu, provides for a stark and simple contrast between the opposing forces of good and evil. It is interesting to...