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  (Sings)

  The loving favours from Heaven above have been liberal,

  My love-destiny was in previous lifetimes planted.

  A gold cage beneath the blossoms,

  To cleverly trick this pretty little phoenix is opened.

  The candle-flames are red,

  And one just sees goblets being fondled and cups passed around.

  When cups are passed,

  Talk is in cozy whispers all of a sudden.

  In the haste of it,

  There’s no allowance for roundabout coy wooing,

  As I’m begged into the bed-curtain.

  When I think of it,

  Behind the bed-curtain,

  Behind the bed-curtain our love-joys were like a dream.

  Twined in love,

  Our two hearts as one did seem.

  Twined in love,

  Our two hearts stealthily became as one.

  But as morning came creeping up on us, slyly appearing,

  There were other people there,

  Other people there,

  Putting on airs and graces,

  Chitter-chattering,

  Mock-mocking twit-twitting.

  As for me, I was all shy and bashfully awkward,

  All startled and so timid:

  I was by then so tugged and teased.

  (Enter another steward and another maidservant surreptitiously)

  (Enter Queen of the State of Han leading another steward and another maidservant)

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Sings)

  The spring breeze right through blows,

  The “flower”215 from the Female-relatives Ward especially richly blooms.

  (Says)

  The other day, my younger sister of the P’ei family, the Queen of the State of Kuo, received the emperor’ unique love favours. I arranged to meet up with my younger sister of the Liu family, Queen of the State o Ch’in, for use to go together to see her. Unexpectedly, she’s so vexed she’s fallen ill, so that’s why I’m heading there on my own.

  YET ANOTHER MAIDSERVANT: I submit to your ladyship: we’ve reached the mansion of the Queen of the State of Kuo.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Go and announce me.

  (Maidservant announces her)

  (Steward 2 passes on announcement)

  STEWARD 2: The Queen of the State of Han has arrived.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: Tell her she’s invited in.

  (Maidservant 2 invites)

  (Steward 2 and maidservant 2 exeunt unobtrusively)

  (Queen of the State of Kuo comes out, welcomes Queen of the State of Han, and they go in)

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: Elder sister, please come in.

  (Exeunt steward and maidservant, joking)

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Congratulations on your good news, younger sister.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: What good news is that?

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Sings)

  Invited to special imperial love-favour,

  Your one sprig has already aborded “redness” stardom, by the side of the “sun”, the emperor.

  (Queen of the State of Kuo looks bashful)

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: What are you saying, elder sister!

  (Sings)

  When I entered the Separate Palace,

  I’d no more than accompanied him and respectfully served him one cup of wine,

  When the “thick dew”216 of his affection, inside and outside the palace alike, was mine.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Laughs) Even though it was just the usual imperial bestowal of a feast, how did you reach the inside from outside?

  (Sings)

  With you being uniquely prized by the Ninth Layer217 emperor,

  Who could be your competitor!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: (Sings)

  What difficulty would there be in being my competitor?

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Let me just ask you: When you saw our younger sister Jade-bangle, what was her emotional state in the imperial palace?

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: (Sings)

  On the banks of the spring river,

  The scenery was pleasant and mild.

  I was hurried into attending the feast,

  And for Gazing-for-spring Palace headed.

  (Says)

  That younger sister of ours, Jade-bangle,

  (Sings)

  Had recently, by keeping quiet,

  extra honour and respect been accorded.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: I wonder how she gained the emperor’s love?

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: (Sings)

  In the spring night,

  In the spring night,

  The “paired-eyed fish” lovers came together in harmony.

  And what do you know!

  events of “cloud and rain”

  love-making she attained!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Do you mean to say he wasn’t sensitive to it in the slightest?

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: All you saw was younger sister Jade-bangle, as is her nature, become bit by bit more haughty and unrestrained.

  (Sings)

  Peering minutely at her private inner state,

  And freely pondering on her secret thoughts,

  I saw she was employing her accustomed innocent spoilt-child airs.

  She was used to employing her innocent spoilt-child airs,

  Seeking scars and looking for ripe ̶ picking faults,

  In all that, displaying her own breast-feelings.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Her nature’s been like that from when she was a little child. Younger sister, you really ought to try and persuade her to mend her ways.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: Who’s got the patience to go to the bother of trying to dissuade her!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Sings)

  Her feelings and nature are often haughty and unrestrained,

  But don’t let’s have any backbiting among us sisters.

  (Says)

  Anyhow, recently,

  (Sings)

  In Resplendent-sunlight Palace-hall,

  In Resplendent-sunlight Palace-hall,

  She among the three thousand palace-ladies

  has been love-doted on by the emperor,

  she alone,

  Who, one might ask,

  is capable of competing with her

  to be “cock-hen”!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN. Who’s competing with her! It’s just that she’s got such a nature, and I fear the emperor doesn’t mentally fathom it!

  (Queen of the State of Han gets up, and says aside)

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN. Listening attentively to my younger sister of the P’ei family’s words, I feel there must be a cause for them.

  (Sings)

  Peering minutely at her private inner state,

  And freely pondering on her secret thoughts,

  I see that she, the Queen of the State of Kuo,

  is employing such snootiness and anger outburst!

  She’s employing such snootiness and temper,

  Hiding her head but revealing her tail,

  I suppose she’s got other thoughts and feelings in her breast!

  (Enter steward)

  STEWARD: (Recites)

  By accident I’ve heard the emperor’s severe edict, and at the foot of the reception-hell report it to the queens eminent.

  (Meets queens)

  Bad news. Most-favoured-empress has gone against the emperor’s ordainment, and His Sage Majesty is mightily enraged, and has ordered milord Eunuch-chamberlain Kao to deliver her back into prime minister Yang’s official residence.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (In alarm) Fancy such a thing happening!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: I said that temper of hers would definitely stir up trouble.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: Even though that’s the case, you and I having sisterly feelings for her, and it moreover concerning the status of all of us, we really m
ust go over and see her!

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: You’re so right. I respectfully ask you to go there with me.

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Sings)

  Suddenly hearing of the emperor’s stern rebuke,

  I’m alarmed and fearful,

  I arrange our fragrant carriages,

  for us together to probe what will be her fortune?

  (Says)

  Elder sister, our younger sister Jade-bangle will be laughed to bits by former Most-prized-empress Plum-blossom!

  TOGETHER: (Sing)

  It was best though being the “Plum-blossom”

  blooming in the Scarlet Forbidden-precincts once again!

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: (Recites)

  It has come to my hearing that at the foot of the imperial-palace towers the emperor’s let down his silk angling-line,218 & 219

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Recites）

  Going out through the vermilion gates220, she goes in through the Dagger-axed Gate221 & 222

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF KUO: (Recites)

  Why must the monarch’s loving favours alone longendure?223

  QUEEN OF THE STATE OF HAN: (Recites)

  How pitiful that ‘twixt dawn and dusk splendour may plummet.224

  Act Eight: Gifting her hair to the emperor

  (Enter Yang Kuo-chung in haste)

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: (Recites)

  Heaven unpredictable ‘storm-cloud’225 mighty crises creates. Humans within dawn and eve have great changes of their fates.226

  (Says)

  I this inferior mandarin am Prime Minister Yang Kuo-chung. Ever since my younger female cousin was registered and set up as Most-prized-empress, my power dynamic has daily grown more flourishing. Unexpectedly, this morning, I had the news passed on to me that Most-prized-empress Yang has gone against the emperor’s command, and has been banished out of the imperial palace, Eunuch-chamberlain Kao being ordered to escort her in a single carriage to my door here. I wonder for what reason? It’s very alarming and frightening! Let me just step outside my gates to receive her.

  (Temporarily exits)

  (Enter Empress Yang, conducted by Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, riding in a carriage.)

  EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: (Sings)

  With the monarch’s mind never settling,

  Where to seek his loving favour’s light?

  The “moth-antennae eyebrows”227 Empress Yang

  has suddenly met with attrition and expulsion,

  I wonder what’s happening, all said and done?

  To abandon her, throw her away,

  is so very unfair, so unright!

  Cut off in “Tall Gate228 palace”

  to which Han empress was banished,

  Deep in “Enduring Lane palace”.229

  When she turns her head back,

  She can’t possibly contain her sorrow at her plight.

  (Enter Yang Kuo-chung, kneels and receives them.)

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: I, Yang Chuo-kung, welcome you.

  EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Prime minister, hurry and invite Empress Yang into your residence: we’ve got something further to discuss.

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: Steward, instruct the maidservants to usher Empress Yang into the rear reception-hall.

  (Enter maidservants. They help Empress Yang alight from her carriage by the arms, husting around her, and exeunt)

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: (Bowing to Eunuch-chamberlain Kao) Please be seated, venerable lord. I wonder for what reason this trouble arose?

  EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Empress Yang,

  (Sings)

  She’s been most love-favoured by our monarch,

  Capped the Pepper Room,

  in the imperial bedroom monopolises attending.

  (Says)

  Yesterday

  (Sings)

  For no reason, she went against the emperor’s feelings,

  And all at once it was the Shang and Ts’an stars clashing in might.

  (Says)

  Don’t reproach me for being so garrulous, prime minister, but Empress Yang,

  (Sings)

  Has an innate nature of frivolity,

  has grown used to being spoilt,

  So inevitably she objected,

  suspicious, conceived “downie-hugging”

  dominance did exert.230

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: Now that she’s been expelled, what on Earth can we do?

  EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: I suggest, prime minister, that you go to the gates of the imperial court, and apologise for her offence, then act as your assessment of the situation permits.

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: Venerable Chamberlain,

  (Sings)

  I entirely depend on you, to proffer corrective counsel to the present emperor

  To enlighten him from error.

  YANG KUO-CHUNG: Naturally I shall do so.

  TOGETHER: (Sing)

  We guarantee that Her Majesty

  the imperial-palace flower will be selected once more the Imperial Forest231 park to enter.

  EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: With that, I’ll say goodbye.

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: I’ll go with you. (Towards backstage) Instruct the maidservants to keep a watch over Empress Yang.

  (Assent from backstage)

  PRIME MINISTER YANG KUO-CHUNG: (Recites)

  Crow and magpie together departing: Whether good or ill their fortune there’s utterly no telling.

  (Exeunt together)

  (Enter Empress Yang leading maidservant)

  EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)

  Abruptly exiting from the imperial palace gate,

  I haven’t yet calmed down my wits,

  Soaked, sullied, with sorrow,

  is my makeup,

  and tear marks my face cover.

  This while the love-troubles in my heart

  Are so impossible to ponder.

  I just regret for my fragrant-flower countenance,

  Pity my fate so meagre,

  Call to mind the emperor’s loving favour.

  (Recites)

  My monarch’s loving favour is like water consigned to the east-flowing river, When I obtained his loving, my worries shifted, But, losing it, I’m distressed; “Don’t perform Blossoms falling232 before the wine-jar,”233 The cool breeze is only by the palace-hall, to its west.

  (Says)

  After I, Yang Jade-bangle. entered the imperial palace, I experienced the emperor’s affection, and just thought that his feelings for me were to be trusted, and we’d know love’s joy for a hundred years. But, to my surprise, my fate wasn’t normal,234 and suddenly one day I encountered his wrath. Then it caused me to be hastened into an imperial-palace carriage, and banished home to my private residence. As soon as I went out through Gold Gate,235 it was as if I was cut off far from Ninth Heaven emperor.236

  (Weeps) Ah Heaven, the moon within the imperial forbidden precincts will never any time shine my silhouette, and this flying blossom outside the imperial park has already despaired of mounting the twig-top. Reflecting mournfully, I cover my face with my sleeves, and futilely sigh. It’s so very grievous!

  (Sings)

  As I wipe and rub my tears with my tulle dress,

  It’s still permeated with the emperor’s scent.

  Where am I to turn to thank him

  for his previous loving favour?

  When I think of how I strolled with him,

  in spring, dawn and dusk with him went,

  (Sobs, turning her face away)

  Little did I know that it would happen that of Love the “rain would be severed and the clouds spent”.237

  When I played either coquettish or annoyed,

  In the past in hundred ways he proved compliant,

  But catching me unawares,

  because of a “cross-branch”,238

  We Intertwined Branches lovers

  all of a sudden were apart swiftly rent.

 
(Says)

  Maidservant, is there anywhere here from where I can gaze out into the imperial palace?

  MAIDSERVANT: Out at the front, up in the Imperial-writings Tower, if you gaze north-westwards, there’s the wall of the imperial palace.

  EMPRESS YANG: Come with me up into that tower.

  MAIDSERVANT: Very well.

  (Empress Yang ascends the tower)

  EMPRESS YANG: (Recites)

  “The western imperial palace scarce visible, far and faint, Gut-severed, right up into the tower I make ascent.

  (Maidservant points)

  MAIDSERVANT: Your Majesty, isn’t this whole ribbon of shimmery yellow glazed tiles the Ninth Layer’s imperial palace hall?