Zhao's Orphan

Author: Jin Haishu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-30
Features: As one of the most widely spread and internationally influential plays in the history of Chinese opera, Zhao's Orphan (Zhao Shi Gū'er) demonstrated astonishing vitality after being adapted into a stage play in 2003, as people sought to reflect on their own fate through history. This tragic historical story, often referred to as the "Chinese Hamlet" in the history of Chinese literature, has evolved from the Records of the Grand Historian to Yuan Dynasty zaju (a form of traditional Chinese opera), to the stage play, and now to this novel. Zhao's Orphan has finally developed into a profound tragedy of the human soul. The thrilling conspiracies and love, desires and struggles, incest and murder—all are concentrated in this single novel. The unbearable pain of modern life is shockingly presented through an ancient story, truly horrifying. Author Jin Haishu has written about the desolation of human nature in all of humanity using an old story. There is nothing more tragic than this, when conspiracies and love, power and incest, revenge and murder all become meaningless. Standing on the wasteland of human nature, surrounded by emptiness, in fact, we are all orphans. The fate of Zhao's Orphan is precisely the tragic plight of the rootless souls in the urban landscape. The female writer Yin Lichuan, who had previously highly praised the stage play Zhao's Orphan, remarked that compared to the novel, the stage play immediately showed its shortcomings: "The stage play is brilliant, but its brilliance owes more to its form, the powerful performances, and the dialogue. Now that I've read the novel, I must speak of the stage play's shortcomings: it is overly full, full to the point of being moving. After all, performance needs to be moving to truly convey the grandeur and intensity, the joy and sorrow. The novel Zhao's Orphan is much lighter and more ethereal, with room for everything to turn and twist, like the (negative space) in landscape paintings, yet it cannot be changed—this is a deeper beauty of tragedy. It tells a classical story of great ups and downs, fierce passion, and tragic sorrow, playing with postmodern temporal and spatial shifts and detached contexts. You can take Zhao's Orphan as a cruel story to listen to, or you can analyze and theorize about it carefully—only a truly great novel can be read in multiple ways."
Table of Contents:
Preface: The Origin and Development of Zhao's Orphan
Introduction: King Ling of Jin and My Chronicle
Chapter 1: The Storm at Grand's Birthday Banquet
Chapter 2: The Western Region's Spiritual Wolf (A Spiritual Wolf) Is a Dog with a Certain Political Status
Chapter 3: The Feud Between Tu Anye, Ji Heng, and Tu An's Ancestral Grudge with My Grandfather
Chapter 4: How Wei Jiong Got Involved
Chapter 5: Zhao Shuo Stabbing the Dog and Chu Ni Being Stabbed
Chapter 6: My Exile Began the Day I Was Born
Chapter 7: The Before and After of My Father's Murder
Chapter 8: Childhood Love and a Dog
Chapter 9: The Collapse of the Zhao Clan and My Fate
Chapter 10: A Massacre Unleashed
Chapter 11: Why Did I Have to Survive at All
Chapter 12: What Remains Is Always Madness
Chapter 13: Extra Words: The Final Account of a Historical Event
Appendix 1: Records of the Grand Historian - The Thirteenth Family of Zhao / Written by Sima Qian
Appendix 2: Yuan Dynasty Zaju - Zhao's Orphan Avenge Their Clan / Written by Ji Junxiang