Tale of the Pipa

Tale of the Pipa (traditional Chinese: 琵琶記; simplified Chinese: 琵琶记; pinyin: Pípa jì; Wade–Giles: P'i-p'a chi "Tale of the Pipa" or "The Story of the Lute") is a southern style (Yangtze Valley) Chinese play created during the early Ming Dynasty.[1] It was created by Gao Ming.[2] There are French, German, English translations of the play, and an English novelization-translation.

It was the most popular drama during the Ming era.[3]

Plot

Gao Ming, circa 1305-1359

The play is set during the Han Dynasty.[3] Based on an older play, Zhao zhen nu (The Chaste Maiden Zhao), it tells the story of a loyal wife named Zhao Wuniang (T: 趙五孃, S: 赵五娘, P: Zhào Wǔniáng, W: Chao Wu-niang) who, left destitute when her husband Cai Yong is forced to marry another woman, undertakes a 12-year search for him. During her journey, she plays the pipa of the play's title in order to make a living. The original story sees Zhao killed by a horse and Cai struck by lightning, however in Gao Ming's version the two are eventually reconciled and live out their lives happily.[4][5][6] Gao reportedly composed The Lute over a three-year period of solitary confinement, locking himself in an attic room and wearing down the floorboards by tapping out the rhythms of his songs.[2][7]

The Lute won considerable critical acclaim amongst Gao's contemporaries, since it raised the popular and somewhat rustic form of Southern folk opera to a high literary standard, and it became a model for Ming dynasty theatre.[6] It was a favourite play of the first Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who commanded that it be performed every day at court.[8][9]

Translations

Antoine (A. P. L.) Bazin wrote a French translation in 1841.[1] This version, titled Le Pi-pa-ki ou l'Histoire de Luth, was published in Paris in 1841 by the Imprimerie Royale.[10] A group of Chinese students in Boston performed an English-language version of the play in 1925, translated by Y.H. Ku and Liang Shih-chiu, and acted by Liang and Bingxin among others.[11] Vincenz Hundhausen wrote a German translation in 1930.[12] A complete English translation and study by Jean Mulligan appeared in 1980. [13]

Memoirs of the Guitar, published in Shanghai in 1928,[14] is an English-language novel self-described as "A Novel of Conjugal Love, Rewritten from a Chinese Classical Drama". The author was Yu Tinn-Hugh and the publisher was the China Current Weekly Publishing Company.[15]

Adaptations

A 1946 American musical comedy based on the Chinese play, titled Lute Song, was written by Will Irwin and Sidney Howard.[16] This adaptation was produced on Broadway. It starred Yul Brenner and Mary Martin.[2] Cyril Birch, collaborator in a translation of The Peach Blossom Fan, wrote that presumably the basis of the American play was the A. P. L. Balzin French translation of the Chinese play.[1]

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Birch, p. xvii.
  2. 1 2 3 Stanley Hochman (1984). McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama: an international reference work in 5 volumes. VNR AG. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-07-079169-5. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 Tanaka, p. 153.
  4. ↑ Faye C. Fei (2002). Chinese theories of theater and performance from Confucius to the present. University of Michigan Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-472-08923-9. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  5. ↑ "The Lute". World Digital Library.
  6. 1 2 Merriam-Webster, inc (1995). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature. Merriam-Webster. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  7. ↑ Colin MacKerras (1983). Chinese Theater: From Its Origins to the Present Day. University of Hawaii Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8248-1220-1. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  8. ↑ Grant Guangren Shen (15 March 2005). Elite Theatre in Ming China, 1368-1644. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-134-29026-0. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  9. ↑ James R. Brandon; Martin Banham (28 January 1997). The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-521-58822-5. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  10. ↑ Das traditionelle chinesische Theater, p. 293.
  11. ↑ Ye, Weili (2002), Seeking Modernity in China's Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927, Stanford University Press, p. 205, ISBN 9780804780414.
  12. ↑ Bieg, p. 71.
  13. ↑ Mulligan (1980).
  14. ↑ Liu, Wu-Chi, p. 291.
  15. ↑ "Memoirs of the Guitar: A Novel of Conjugal Love, Rewritten from a Chinese Classical Drama." Google Books. Retrieved on December 5, 2013.
  16. ↑ Birch, p. xvi-xvii.
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