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 Chinese nanxi play written by the playwright Gao Ming during the late Yuan dynasty.[1][2] There are French, German, English translations of the play, and an English novelization-translation.
It was the most popular drama during the Ming dynasty,[3] and it became a model for Ming drama as it was the favorite opera of the first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.[4]
Plot
The play is set during the Han dynasty.[3] Based on an older play, Zhao zhen nü (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.[5][6][7] 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][8]
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.[7] It was a favourite play of the first Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who commanded that it be performed every day at court.[9][10]
Translations
Antoine (A. P. L.) Bazin wrote a French translation in 1841.[11] This version, titled Le Pi-pa-ki ou l'Histoire de Luth, was published in Paris in 1841 by the Imprimerie Royale.[12] 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 Bing Xin among others.[13]Vincenz Hundhausen wrote a German translation in 1930.[14] A complete English translation and study by Jean Mulligan appeared in 1980. [15]
Memoirs of the Guitar, published in Shanghai in 1928,[16] 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.[17]
Mulligan, Jean (1980). The lute : Kao Ming's P'i-p'a chi. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231047606.
Das traditionelle chinesische Theater Vom Mongolendrama bis zur Pekinger Oper (Volume 6 of Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur, Wolfgang Kubin, ISBN 3598245408, 9783598245404). K.G. Saur. Walter de Gruyter, 2009. ISBN 3598245432, 9783598245435.
Tanaka, Issei. The Social and Historical Context of Ming-Ch'ing Local Drama (Chapter 5). In: Johnson, David, Andrew J. Nathan, and Evelyn S. Rawski (editors). Popular Culture in Late Imperial China. University of California Press, 1985. p. 143. ISBN 0520061721, 9780520061729.
Notes
^Faye Chunfang Fei, ed. (2002). Chinese Theories of Theater and Performance from Confucius to the Present. University of Michigan Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0472089239.
^ a b cStanley 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.
^ a bTanaka, p. 153.
^Jin Fu (2012). Chinese Theatre (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 447. ISBN 978-0521186667.
^ a bMerriam-Webster, inc (1995). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature. Merriam-Webster. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
^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.
^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.
^ a bBirch, p. xvii.
^Das traditionelle chinesische Theater, p. 293.
^Ye, Weili (2002), Seeking Modernity in China's Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927, Stanford University Press, p. 205, ISBN 9780804780414.
^Bieg, p. 71.
^Mulligan (1980).
^Liu, Wu-Chi, p. 291.
^"Memoirs of the Guitar: A Novel of Conjugal Love, Rewritten from a Chinese Classical Drama." Google Books. Retrieved on December 5, 2013.
^Birch, p. xvi-xvii.
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
(in Chinese) "Gao Ming (c. 1305- c. 1370): Yuefu yushu (Xin qiejing xuan gujin Yuefu gundiao xinci yushu ying) / Pipa ji." - 1599 illustrated version at the Royal Danish Library
(in French) French translation of Lute Song by A.P.L. Bazin:
No. 1: Gao, Ming. Translator: Bazin, Antoine-Pierre-Louis. Le pi-pa-ki: ou, L'histoire du Luth : drame chinois de Kao-Tong-Kia représenté à Péking, en 1404 avec les changements de Mao-Tseu. (original document from Harvard University) L'Imprimerie royale, 1841.
No. 2: Gao, Ming. Translator: Bazin, Antoine-Pierre-Louis. Le pi-pa-ki: ou, L'histoire du Luth : drame chinois de Kao-Tong-Kia représenté à Péking, en 1404 avec les changements de Mao-Tseu. (original document from Harvard University) L'Imprimerie royale, 1841.