The Jade Hairpin


The Zither	The Zither		The Zither
Zou, Enli	Chen, Anna Wang, Taiqi		Chen, Anna Zhang, Dongxin


The Zither	The Zither		The Zither
Chen, Anna Zhang, Dongxin	Chen, Anna Xu, Tong		Xin, Yurong


The Zither	The Zither		The Zither
Chen, Anna Xin, Yurong	Chen, Anna Xin, Yurong		Chen, Anna Xin, Yurong


The Zither	The Zither		The Zither
Chen, Anna Xin, Yurong	Wang, Taiqi		Shi, Jiehua


The Zither	Love Through a Poem		Love Through a Poem
Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua	Shi, Jiehua		Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua


Love Through a Poem	Love Through a Poem		Love Through a Poem
Shi, Jiehua	Shi, Jiehua		Wen, Yuhang


Love Through a Poem	Love Through a Poem		Visiting the Sick One
Wen, Yuhang Shi, Jiehua	Wen, Yuhang Shi, Jiehua		Yue, Meiti Cai,Qinglin


Visiting the Sick One	Visiting the Sick One		Visiting the Sick One
Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi	Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi		Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi


Visiting the Sick One	Visiting the Sick One		Visiting the Sick One
Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi	Yue, Meiti Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi		Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua Cai,Qinglin Yin,Haiyi


The Farewell
Yue, Meiti Shi, Jiehua

The Jade Hairpin
The Jade Pin is a literary masterpiece by Gao Lian (1573-1641), a major poet/playwright of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The play tells a riveting tale of romance, replete with fortunes and pitfalls, separations and reunions, joys and tears. Young scholar Pan Bizheng visits his aunt, the abbess of a nunnery and falls in love with Chen Miaochang, a young nun-to-be who fled to the nunnery after she lost her mother on their way fleering the civil war. On one sleepless night, Bizheng goes for a walk in the garden and runs into Miaochang playing the zither. She asks Bizheng to play something. Through the music on the zither, Bizheng subtly expresses his love for her. Miaochang, though quite fond of him, feigns indignation and reprimands him harshly. Bizheng takes leave and hides himself in the bushes. He hears her confessing to herself her reciprocal feelings for him. When Bizheng comes out of hiding to flirt with her, she fleeing hastily back to her quarters. A few days later, the Abbess told Miaochang that Bizheng is sick; she asks to go with the Abbess to visit him. After hearing the conversation between the Abbess and Bizheng, she knows Bizheng’s illness is actual lovesick. The following day, Bizheng taking a stroll near Chen’s quarters. Seeing that her door is ajar, Bizheng walks inside and finds Chen dozed off in her room. He notices a poem composed by her. He sneaks the poem from under her elbow and reads it. To his great elation, the poem reveals her secret tender feelings for him. When Chen wakes up, she acts offended by his presence, and threatens to tell his aunt on his bold behavior. When she realizes that he has already perused her poem, she can but resigns to admitting to him her true emotions concerning him. The scene ends with the two making pledges of love to each other. Soon, the Abbess finds out their love affair. In great shock, she is determined to end their romance. Despite Bizheng’s plead, she orders Bizheng to pack everything immediately and hires a boat to Lin An, the Capital, to take the Imperial Examination. When this news reaches Miaochang, she hurriedly running to the autumn river and hires a boat to chase Bizheng’s boat. It is as if Havens takes pity on her, her boat finally catches up Bizheng’s boat. The two lovers exchange oath and keepsake before bidding farewell to each other. Performance ends with this scene; However, the original story continues as follow: A year later, Bizheng passed the examination with the highest scores and becomes the Number One Scholar of the Imperial Court. He comes back to the nunnery and asks Miaochang to marry him. He then brings Miaochang home to meet his parents. When they get home, Miaochang finds her long lost mother is right there with Bizheng’s parents. With great surprise and joy, they discover the unknown fact: when they were still infants, their parents already arranged their future marriage to each other. After all these hardship and separations, they are destined to be husband and wife.

The Jade Hairpin : The Zither
A highlight scene from “The Story of the Jade Pin,” a literary masterpiece by Gao Lian of the Ming dynasty, "The Zither” is marked for its poetic splendor and highly dramatic love story. Elegance and refinement must be the guideline to all actors playing the two leads. Pan Bizheng, a young scholar who failed the imperial examination, comes to stay in a nunnery where his aunt is the abbess. When Bizheng is introduced to a nun-to-be named Chen Miaochang, it is love at first sight on his part. Our scene begins when, sleepless one night, Bizheng goes for a walk in the garden. He runs into Miaochang playing the zither. After finishing her piece, Miaochang asks Bizheng, who is known to be a fine zitherist, to play something. Through the music on the zither, Bizheng subtly expresses his love for her. Miaochang, though quite fond of him, feigns indignation and reprimands him harshly. Bizheng takes leave of the seemingly irate Miaochang, but hides himself in the bushes. Sure enough, he hears her confessing to herself her reciprocal feelings for him. To her great consternation, Bizheng comes out of hiding to flirt with her. The scene ends with our embarrassed heroine fleeing hastily back to her quarters.

The Jade Hairpin : Love Through a Poem
“Love Through a Poem,” begins with Pan taking a stroll near Chen’s quarters. Seeing that her door is ajar, Pan walks inside and finds Chen dozed off in her room. He notices a poem composed by her. He sneaks the poem from under her elbow and reads it. To his great elation, the poem reveals her secret tender feelings for him. When Chen wakes up, she acts offended by his presence, and threatens to tell his aunt on his bold behavior. With her love poem in his possession, however, Pan behaves even more outrageously by confessing openly his love for her. When she realizes that he has already perused her poem, she can but resign to admitting to him her true emotions concerning him. The scene ends with the two making pledges of love to each other.



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The Jade Hairpin

The Jade Hairpin

The Jade Hairpin : The Zither

The Jade Hairpin : Love Through a Poem