The Poem Drama of World Taste

Author: Cheng Yun / Country:
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2002-08-01
Features: Although The Pipa Record incorporates and draws upon certain details of the life of the historical figure Cai Yong, and presents a revisionist narrative, its story remains significantly different from historical accounts. Plot Summary: Scholar Cai Bojia marries and lives happily for two months, with no intention of pursuing fame or fortune. However, when the imperial court issues a call for talent, Bojia is compelled by his father to take the imperial examination and eventually passes, becoming a high-ranking official. The Minister of Justice, Cao Jingshi, admires Bojia’s talent and wishes to marry him off to his daughter. Despite Bojia’s repeated refusals, he is ultimately forced by imperial decree to marry into the Cao family. Bojia also attempts to resign and return home, but the emperor refuses. Meanwhile, his hometown suffers a famine, and though his wife, Zhao Wuniang, does her best to sustain them, Bojia’s parents die of hunger. After burying them with earth wrapped in her silk skirt, Zhao Wuniang depicts their family’s misfortunes in a painting and sets off on a journey, playing the pipa and singing to beg for food, searching for her husband in the capital. Upon meeting again, Bojia deeply regrets his actions. Fortunately, the Minister of Justice’s daughter is compassionate and understanding, allowing the couple to reunite. Bojia returns home with his two wives and spends three years mourning his parents. In the end, the emperor issues an edict to honor the entire family.
Regarding the motives behind Gao Ming’s creation of The Pipa Record, Ming Dynasty scholars have offered numerous speculations. For instance, the preface to the revised The Pipa Record by Baiyun’s (Baiyun’s Immortal) suggests it was written to “criticize the unfiliality of Murong Jia of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the injustice of Niu Jin.” Xu Wei’s Record of Southern Drama claims it was composed out of pity for Bojia’s unjust reputation, aiming to redeem him. Tian Yicheng’s Notes from the Green Bamboo Pavilion suggests it was a satire on his friend Wang Si (whose name shares the character “Wang” with “pipa” in Chinese) abandoning his wife for another. Wang Shizhen’s Discussions on Art attributes it to satirizing the daughter of the Tang Dynasty’s Chancellor Niu Shenru, who divorced her husband to marry again. Others believe it was written to mock Cai Bian, who divorced his wife to marry Wang Anshi’s daughter. Such legends are merely forced interpretations and speculative conjectures. So, why did Gao Ming revise the theme of the condemnation of scholars who abandon their wives for wealth and fame (Zhao Zhenniu Cai Erlang) into a narrative that promotes loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness (The Minister of Justice Bojia, the Filial and Righteous Scholar)? The opening Water Moon Reflection song clearly reveals the reason:
Autumn lamp illuminates jade curtains,
Night desk studies the classic scrolls.
Through time, stories of all kinds—
Few lack heroes or geniuses,
Some even feature immortals or spirits,
Trivialities too numerous to behold.
Indeed:
If not for moral teachings,
Even the finest is in vain.
To write a (fiction),
It’s easy to entertain,
But hard to move the heart.
Lovers of art, take note—
Such tales deserve a different gaze.
Forget the jokes and gags,
The musical modes need not be traced.
Just focus on filial sons and virtuous wives.
Horses of rare breed take solo steps,
Horses of the masses dare not compete?
It turns out Gao Ming, too, merely borrowed this familiar story framework, altering its core plot to advocate for moral teachings and traditional ethics through the form of Southern drama. This aligns with his personal philosophy, as the saying goes, “Words reflect the heart.”
However, the ideological tendencies embedded in The Pipa Record are complex and contradictory, its significance and aesthetic impact far exceeding the author’s original intentions. Gao Ming first shifted his stance from condemning Bojia in Zhao Zhenniu to reimagining his life and social environment. He meticulously portrayed Bojia’s helplessness in the face of reality and the indescribable inner conflict and suffering it caused. To atone for Bojia’s perceived sins—not serving his parents in life, not burying them in death, not honoring them with offerings—the author cleverly arranged the plot of Three Forced and Three Refusals: Forced by his father to take the imperial exam, Bojia reluctantly leaves home (refusal to take the exam); Forced by the Minister of Justice to marry, Bojia declines, but the minister insists (refusal to marry); Forced by the emperor to accept a high-ranking position, Bojia resigns, but the emperor refuses (refusal to take office). These Three Forced and Three Refusals are interconnected, forming a chain of causation: “For three refusals to serve father and emperor, family members were torn apart.” This is the direct cause of Bojia’s family tragedy. “Three refusals brought disasters of heaven’s magnitude.” Through these changes, The Pipa Record subtly conveys the idea that the tragedy stems not from individual moral failings but from the irrationality of the feudal system and the absurdity of its ideology.
Yet, despite the author’s meticulous crafting of the Three Refusals, does it truly absolve Bojia of his unfilial guilt? Although Bojia is labeled loyal and filial, he never fully devoted himself to serving the emperor or fulfilled his filial duties to his parents. The imperial decree clearly states: “Filial piety is great, but it ultimately serves the ruler. The state faces many hardships—how can one repay his father?” The messenger delivering the decree adds: “After all, serving the ruler and serving the father are one and the same. In life, how can one achieve both loyalty and filial piety? Yet, have you not heard that when the mother dies, the son returns to the Han court?” This implies the author vaguely recognized the contradictions within feudal ethics and morality.
Facing the Three Refusals, Bojia once attempted resistance, but his attitude remained ambiguous, his defiance weak and ineffective. Confronted with the powerful traditions of paternal and imperial authority, Bojia had little choice. He could never escape the conflict between the harsh reality and his true inner world, even after his eventual honor. He remained consumed by self-reproach: “Alas, my parents starved to death, only for my son to gain fame and fortune.”
Thus, while The Pipa Record vividly reflects the contradictions and absurdities of feudal ethics to some extent, the author did not intend to expose or critique them. In other words, there is a significant gap between the author’s subjective intentions and the objective artistic effect of the work.
Of course, the portrayal of Bojia’s inner conflict is not the most valuable ideological core of The Pipa Record. The character of Zhao Wuniang is far more moving and artistically compelling. After Bojia marries into the minister’s family, Zhao Wuniang becomes a discarded wife but continues to support her in-laws. She sells all her clothes and jewelry, even disregarding propriety to beg for relief, enduring humiliation from the local official. She contemplates suicide but cannot her husband’s last request, so she endures in silence. She raises her in-laws with the grain she gathers, while herself swallowing bran in secret, leading to misunderstandings from her mother-in-law. After her in-laws’ deaths, she refuses to beg again, cuts her hair, buries them with a skirt wrapped in earth, and builds a simple grave.
The author clearly aims to portray Zhao Wuniang as the epitome of a filial and virtuous wife, but her image transcends the mere concepts of filial piety and virtue. In scenes like “rejecting her own food,” “tasting her husband’s medicine,” “cutting her hair to bury her in-laws,” and “depicting her face before leaving,” her actions and emotions far exceed the duties expected of a daughter-in-law under traditional ethics. Even by the standards of a filial son’s duties to his parents, her behavior goes beyond what is required.
Zhao Wuniang’s care for her in-laws reflects the author’s strict adherence to and practice of feudal ethics, but to readers and audiences, it represents an exalted human ideal of goodness and perfection. Her eventual happiness and reunion with Bojia resonate deeply with later readers. We cannot dismiss her final honor as mere cheap optimism or a simplistic happily ever after. To ordinary people, such a woman had every reason to be treated with respect by her husband and recognized by mainstream ideology and the highest authority.
The emergence of The Pipa Record marks the transition of Southern drama from its earlier vulgar and crude stage to a more refined, literary form, representing a key shift from collective folk creation to private,ized writing. Due to its artistic achievements, it became a model for later drama and (opera) compositions. Many Ming and Qing Dynasty qu (song) anthologies selected it as an example, earning it the title “The Ancestor of Southern Qu.”
Of course, The Pipa Record has long been praised not only for its relatively mature qu (song) conventions but also for its tightly structured dual-plot design. The entire narrative follows two intertwined threads: Bojia’s journey to the capital, his success, his marriage into the minister’s family, and his rise to power, contrasted with Zhao Wuniang’s struggles at home during the famine. These threads often intertwine and oppose each other, creating sharp contrasts on stage—sorrow and joy, tragedy and comedy, low and high status. On one side, Zhao Wuniang is robbed of relief grain and agonizes in despair, while on the other, the minister’s mansion is adorned with lights, Bojia marries into the family, and the homeland of Chenliu lies barren. When Zhao Wuniang is forced to reject her own food, Bojia is enjoying leisure with his new wife by the lotus pond. While Zhao Wuniang buries her in-laws with a skirt wrapped in earth, the minister’s family celebrates a full reunion and enjoys the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
This dual-plot structure, though foreshadowed in the Southern drama Zhang Xie Yuanzhang from the Song Dynasty, has become a fundamental feature of Southern drama over the centuries. Gao Ming’s execution of it is particularly masterful. He fully leverages the strengths of the dual-plot structure, excelling at contrasting scenes to vividly depict the breadth of social life—from the elite to the common people, from the imperial court to humble dwellings, from the capital to the countryside. He concisely and realistically condenses an era’s multifaceted aspects, all centered around the central plot to serve character development.
Thus, The Pipa Record is both a family ethics drama and a socially significant problem drama.
In terms of language, The Pipa Record retains the early Southern drama’s accessibility while also skillfully using diction and imagery to create atmosphere and charm. The famous Ming Dynasty scholar Wang Shizhen praised it in Discussions on Art: “It deeply understands human emotions, exploring every nuance; it vividly depicts objects, making them seem alive; in dialogue, it reveals no forced contrivance.” This serves as a fair assessment. Below is an excerpt from Zhao Wuniang’s Depicting Her Face scene: