Scene 27: Meeting on the Boat
Scene 27: Meeting on the Boat
(Enter Su Kunsheng, in the role of a pure male, carrying a bundle on his back and riding a donkey, in haste.)
Song to the Water's Bottom Fish:
Warhorses swarm, smoke and dust darken the sky;
Soul startled, heart shaken, a long pavilion joins the distant village.
(Enter an ugly male role, a man with a whip, driving and calling out.)
Whip Man: Sir, go slowly! Look on the Yellow River dyke, fleeing soldiers are running wild. Don't let them snatch your donkey!
(Su Kunsheng ignores him and hurries on.)
(Enter three fleeing soldiers, in miscellaneous roles, from the opposite direction.)
Soldiers: Helmets cast aside, shields snatched away, we flee head down like rats; no time for mockery, we are all defeated troops, we are all defeated troops.
(They encounter Su Kunsheng, push him into the river, snatch the donkey, and run off.)
(The Whip Man chases after them.)
(Su Kunsheng stands in the water, holding his bundle high above his head, calling loudly.)
Su Kunsheng: Help! Help!
(Enter a boatman, in an old male role, punting a boat. Enter Li Zhenli, in the role of a young female, dressed in plain, poor clothing.)
Song to the Same Tune:
The flowing water is turbid, wind and waves batter the Yu Gate; by the dyke the waves are gentle, the boat moored at the roots of a willow tree.
(The boatman is about to moor.)
Li Zhenli: (calling out) Captain, look ahead on the shallow shoal, there's someone calling for help. Let's punt over and save his life, to gain some hidden merit, what say you?
Boatman: The Yellow River's current is swift, this is no joke.
Li Zhenli: If a person does a good deed, the Great King, his grandfather, will naturally bless him.
Boatman: Yes, yes, let me punt over.
(Punts.)
Wind fierce, water tight, risking life to save a man; the cry of anguish is urgent, his ruined life has but half a soul left, his ruined life has but half a soul left.
(The boat approaches Su Kunsheng.)
Boatman: (calling out) Quick, come up! It's your fate not to die, you've met a good person.
(He extends the punt pole. Su Kunsheng grabs it and climbs onto the boat.)
Su Kunsheng: (shivering) So cold! So cold!
(The boatman takes dry clothes and gives them to Su Kunsheng. Li Zhenli stands with her back turned.)
(Su Kunsheng changes clothes.)
Su Kunsheng: Many thanks, Captain. You are my reborn parents.
(Kowtows.)
Boatman: It's nothing to do with me, old man. It was thanks to this lady here who told me to save you.
(Su Kunsheng makes a bow, rises, and looks at her in surprise.)
Su Kunsheng: You are Li Zhenniang! Why are you on this boat?
Li Zhenli: (startled, recognizing him) So it's Master Su! Where have you come from?
Su Kunsheng: It's a long story.
Li Zhenli: Please sit down and tell it.
(They sit.)
Boatman: (mooring the boat) I'll go ashore first and buy a jug of wine to drink.
(Exits.)
Song to the Window Lattice:
Su Kunsheng: Ever since you married into that wealthy house, the song pavilion was locked, the dancing skirts folded away; in the cold wind and bitter snow, Xiangjun was cried out.
Li Zhenli: (wiping away tears) Xiangjun living all alone, how could she get by?
Su Kunsheng: She entrusted me to come and seek Master Hou. With conscripts and warhorses, there's been no news of Master Hou; on the endless post roads I made diligent inquiries.
Li Zhenli: (asking) How did you fall into the water?
Su Kunsheng: I was walking along the dyke when fleeing soldiers snatched my donkey and pushed me into the water. Thanks to your rescue from the muddy current, an old friend is reunited tonight.
Li Zhenli: So that's how it was. It was fated that you, Master, should not die. It is also my good fortune to see you again.
Su Kunsheng: (asking) Zhenniang, since you entered the Tian Mansion, how did you come to be here?
Li Zhenli: First, get a fire going to dry your clothes, and I will tell you in detail.
(Li Zhenli brings a brazier.)
(Enter a supporting male role as a boatman, punting a boat. Enter the male lead, Hou Fangyu, sitting in the boat, in haste.)
Hou Fangyu: Just escaped the mist of a thousand forests of tigers and leopards, now I pursue the waves of ten thousand leagues of whales and crocodiles.
(calling out) Captain, this is the Luliang region. Hoist the sail, let's make an early start on the journey; I want to be off early tomorrow.
Boatman (supporting role): Sir, don't be so impatient. With such wind and waves, how can we travel? Ahead is a place for mooring. Let's pull in to shore and stop for the night.
Hou Fangyu: As you wish.
(The boat moors.)
Hou Fangyu: My startled soul has slightly calmed. I might as well take a short nap.
(Lies down.)
(Su Kunsheng dries his clothes by the fire. Li Zhenli sits beside him and talks.)
Li Zhenli: My fate is bitter. Now I am no longer in that Tian family. I recall that night...
Song to the Same Tune:
Hastily I dressed as a new bride, they seized the hidden beauty, the spring of the golden chamber; all the favor of one body, overwhelmed the hairpins and skirts.
Su Kunsheng: That was very good.
Li Zhenli: Who would have known that Tian Yang's principal wife was fiercely jealous and venomous. Her lion's might surpassed a tiger's, her serpent's poison was like a blade. She dragged me out of the bridal chamber and beat me half to death.
Su Kunsheng: Ah! Ah! Unbearable! How could Tian Yang not come to the rescue?
Li Zhenli: That Tian fellow swallowed his anger and endured it. In the end, he rewarded me to an old soldier.
Su Kunsheng: Since you were remarried, how are you on this boat?
Li Zhenli: This is a grain transport registration boat. The old soldier has gone ashore to deliver documents. I sit alone at the boat's prow, an old acquaintance comes to tell new grievances.
(Hou Fangyu, listening carefully on the other boat, hears this.)
(He sits up after hearing.)
Hou Fangyu: The two people in the neighboring boat have been chattering on for half the night. That man's voice sounds like Su Kunsheng's. The woman's voice also sounds somewhat familiar. Let me call out suddenly and see what happens.
(calling) Su Kunsheng!
Su Kunsheng: (answering quickly) Who calls me?
Hou Fangyu: (delighted) It is indeed Su Kunsheng!
(Comes out to meet him.)
Su Kunsheng: So it is you, Master Hou! I was just about to go looking for you, and I never expected to run into you here. Thank Heaven and Earth, we've met just in time.
(calling) Please come over to this boat and recognize an old acquaintance.
(Hou Fangyu crosses to the other boat.)
Hou Fangyu: Who else is there?
(Sees Li Zhenli, startled, recognizes her.) Ah! Zhenniang, how did you come to be here? Strange indeed, strange indeed! Where is Xiangjun?
Li Zhenli: Sir, you do not know. Ever since you fled that night to avoid disaster, Xiangjun kept her chastity for you and refused to come downstairs.
(Hou Fangyu wipes away tears.)
Li Zhenli: Later, Ma Shiying sent some vicious servants, carrying three hundred taels of silver, and forcibly wanted to marry Xiangjun to Tian Yang.
Hou Fangyu: (startled) My Xiangjun! How could she have married him?
Li Zhenli: Married she did not. Xiangjun was terrified and dashed herself to the ground.
Hou Fangyu: (weeps loudly) My Xiangjun! How could she have dashed herself to death?
Li Zhenli: Dead she is not. She dashed her face full of blood. And outside the door they were still clamoring for a person. In a moment of helplessness, I married Tian Yang in her place.
Hou Fangyu: (delighted) Good! Good! So you married Tian Yang! And today, traveling by boat, where are you going?
Li Zhenli: I live on this boat.
Hou Fangyu: Why is that?
(Li Zhenli looks embarrassed.)
Su Kunsheng: She was driven out by Tian Yang's jealous wife. Now she has been remarried to a certain General on this boat.
Hou Fangyu: (smiles faintly) Such storms and waves! Pitiable, pitiable!
(asks Su Kunsheng) How did you come here?
Su Kunsheng: Xiangjun is in the old quarters, thinking of you every day. She entrusted me to bring a letter.
Hou Fangyu: (urgently asking) Where is the letter?
Song to the Gardenia Flower:
Su Kunsheng: (taking out a package) This letter is not on letter paper. It's folded palace gauze, clamped between speckled bamboo. A poem inscribed to pledge love, rhymes shared at the bridal urging.
(Hou Fangyu takes the fan.)
Hou Fangyu: This is the poetry fan I gave her.
Su Kunsheng: (pointing at the fan) Look at the peach blossoms, half red with a flush, the feeling is sincere! Ten thousand words are hard to exhaust.
(Hou Fangyu looks at the fan and asks.)
Hou Fangyu: Who painted the peach blossoms on this side?
Su Kunsheng: Xiangjun damaged her face, spattering blood all over the fan. Yang Longyou added the branches and leaves, making it into a few strokes of a broken peach blossom branch.
(Hou Fangyu looks closely, delighted.)
Hou Fangyu: They are indeed drops of blood. Longyou's embellishment is also quite interesting. This peach blossom fan is truly my treasure.
(asks) Why did you bring it today?
Su Kunsheng: When I left, Xiangjun said, "A thousand sorrows and ten thousand woes are all on the fan's face. Let the fan serve as the sealed letter!" So I brought it.
(Hou Fangyu looks again, weeps.)
Hou Fangyu: Xiangjun! Xiangjun! How can I ever repay you!
(asks Su Kunsheng) How did you come to find Zhenniang?
Su Kunsheng: (pointing and singing)
Song to the Same Tune:
I, ah, trudged the long dyke on donkey-back with bitter toil, met fleeing soldiers who pushed me into the icy waters.
Hou Fangyu: Aiya! What a danger you endured!
(asks) How did the fan not get wet?
Su Kunsheng: (making a gesture) The crosscurrents rose to my shoulders, but I held the letter high, preserving the true copy of the Orchid Pavilion.
Hou Fangyu: (clasping his hands) For this peach blossom fan, you valued your life lightly! Truly touching.
(asks) And then what happened?
Su Kunsheng: Thanks to Zhenniang, who feared not the wind and waves, she moved the boat to save me. I ponder, who would be willing to jump into a well to save another?
Hou Fangyu: Good! Good! If it were not for meeting Zhenniang, with the Yellow River's swift current, who would have been willing to save anyone?
Li Zhenli: I had no such intention. I had him brought aboard, and only then recognized Master Su.
Hou Fangyu: This is all a coincidence of heavenly fate.
Su Kunsheng: I have not yet asked you, Master Hou, why have you come south?
Hou Fangyu: Since last autumn, I followed Gao Jie to defend the river. I never expected that fellow to be without strategy and refuse to listen to advice. He was tricked by Xu Dingguo into Suizhou, and during a drinking session, assassins were sent to kill him. I could not stay there. I hired a boat on the Yellow River and drifted east with the current. Look on the main road—everyone is scattering in panic, all defeated soldiers. How can I have the face to see Lord Shi again?
Su Kunsheng: In that case, let's go to Nanjing first, see Xiangjun, and then decide what to do.
Hou Fangyu: Very well. Let's take leave of Zhenniang and set sail early.
Li Zhenli: Thinking back to the days in the old quarters, we all lived together as one family. Today on this boat, only Xiangjun is missing. I wonder if we can ever see her again in this life.
Song to the Golden Lotus Seed:
One family scattered, reunited amidst water and clouds. Words are exhausted, the sorrow of parting is a hundredfold. The cherished daughter, raised in the palm of the hand, on what day shall we speak of her hardships?
(SHENG) I fear someone may be pursuing us. Uncle Kun, change your clothes quickly, and let us part here. (JING changes clothes) (SHENG and JING, holding back tears, cross to the other boat) (JING) My plans for return are not yet settled. (SHENG) Meeting old friends only adds to my sorrow. (FUJING poles the boat away) (XIAODAN) I am weary of the brothel life; spending my days with an old soldier is actually quite pleasant. I never expected to meet an old friend again, stirring up all the old regrets. Listen to the roaring of the waves—how can one possibly sleep tonight?
Like drifting duckweed, a moment's intimacy,
Old regrets and new sorrows in a few brief words.
Do not say that life is ever aimless and adrift;
Even the Yellow River has its settled dwellers.