Xiqu

Southeast the Peacocks Fly is one of the signature plays in the Yue Opera repertoires of Fan Ruijuan and Fu Chuanxiang as well as followers of their stylistic schools. It is adapted from An Ancient Poem Written for the Wife of Jiao Zhongqing of the East Han period. The production has entered the stock repertory of the Shanghai Yue Opera Group. In 1980, the play was performed with wide acclaim in Hong Kong by Fan and Fu, two icons of the genre. The local audience was moved by the heart-wrenching love story of Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi because of the stars’ consummate acting. Many of the arias like Remember the Blooming Spring Flower of Yesteryears, The Lonely Chamber after the Person is Gone, A Fond Farewell, etc. have become popular classics, and the episode The Vows of the Peacocks is also frequently performed as an excerpt of the play.
The story takes place in the 3rd Century, during the Eastern Han period. Jiao Zhongqing is a petty officer in Anhui. On his wedding night with Liu Lanzhi, relatives and neighbours all admire the beauty of the pride. They praise the newly-weds for being such a fine pair that they liken them to a pair of peacocks. But Lanzhi fails to find favour with her mother-in-law, who finds her ‘wilful’ and ‘impudent’. The mother-in-law even goes so far as to take in the gossips of their next door neighbour, and wants to expel Lanzhi from their home in order to find a high-born lady as her son’s new wife. A couple of years later, she succeeds in forcing Zhongqing to annul the marriage and send Lanzhi home to her family. The loving couple is thus torn asunder. As they tearfully part, the two make a pledge that they would never give up one another, in the hope that they would be together again someday. Lanzhi has a very hot-tempered elder brother. On hearing of her forced annulment of marriage and expulsion from their home, he goes on a rampage to make things right for her, only to be restrained by his younger sister who is by nature meek and docile. She believes Zhongqing will soon come and take her back. But time passes, Lanzhi waits, but no news comes from the Jiao family that welcomes her return. Only numerous matchmakers come and go. Forced by her mother and elder brother with rhyme and reason, Lanzhi cannot but agree to remarry. With her devastations, she finds no one to share her woes. So in the evening quiet, she steals out of her house to cry, just when Zhongqing rushes to see her on hearing of her impending marriage. It is a bitter sweet reunion, and they renew their vows of love with a new promise that they would die rather than be separated. When finally the wedding day comes, Lanzhi throws herself into the pond to honour her pledge, and Zhongqing hangs himself on a tree.