Full Yuan Opera: Volume 4

Author: Chief Editor: Wang Jisi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-02-01
Features: Excerpt: (Shop assistant and Dan Dan go up stage) (Shop assistant says) I just came from the market and heard that Zhao Scholar has won the top rank as the imperial scholar and has become an official. There’s nothing valuable in my house except my wife’s skirt. I’ll trade it for a bottle of wine and wait outside the palace gate to celebrate with him. (Exit) (Dan Dan says) Who would have thought that my scholar would actually become an official today! I’ll take my child and follow the scholar to see him. (Exit)
(Head of the court ceremony enters and says) The dragon pavilion and phoenix towers in the nine-layered city, newly built sand embankments for the prime minister’s procession. I am noble and honored, do not envy me, for ten years ago I was just a scholar. I am the head of the court ceremony, and I have been ordered by the superior to call Zhao E, the top-ranked scholar this spring, who has the surname Zhao and the given name E, styled Tianyi. He lost his court ceremony due to improper conduct in the morning session and was ordered by the sage to have his boots, ceremonial staff, and robe stripped, and to be sent out as a commoner. You there, call Zhao E for me.
(Zhao E enters and says) I, Zhao E, have passed the imperial examination and become the top-ranked scholar. I am thanking the emperor in the danchi. Unexpectedly, I lost my court ceremony today and am now waiting in the dew-drip courtyard. The superior has called me, but I don’t know why. I must go.
(Sings) [Xianlü · Diangengchen]
Winter comes with wind and snow at the humble door,
Spring arrives with fine rain through the broken window.
My and books are soaked.
To endure the cold and hunger,
I must bear my wife and child’s complaints.
(Sings) [Hunjianglong]
Now it’s been three days since I was paraded through the streets,
Not in vain for the ten years of hard study in the cold room.
Above my head, a black canopy is struck,
In front of my horse’s head, two rows of red robes stand.
With my seven steps, I achieved the top rank,
With my five-character poems, I climbed to the heavens.
Today, my literary talent has saved me,
I now shed my white robe for a black one,
Wear purple and red.