Xiqu

Also known as The Oil-seller Winning the Most Famous Beauty, this story is adapted from the script Winning the Most Famous Beauty written by Li Yu in early Qing Dynasty. An arranged version by Song Hengzhi appeared in 1954 and in 1956, Xiao Duoqu adapted Song’s version into a Su Opera version. The opera is composed of six parts; Decking up, Tour the lake, Return home drunk, Disobedience, Snowy pond and Burn the contract. The performance is refined and the tunes elegant, in particular the part Return home drunk. With the effort of several generations of artistes on polishing the work, it has become Su Opera’s classic repertory.

The story takes places in late Northern Song Dynasty when the Jin soldiers come to invade. Eunuch Shen Shan’s niece Shen Yaoqin is separated from her maid in fleeing from calamity and is abducted and sold to become a prostitute in Linan. She later turns into a famous courtesan. Oil-seller Qin Zhong encounters her by the West Lake and falls in love. Taking his entire savings for the year with him, he goes to meet her but she does not return until late at night and is deadly drunk too. Unwilling to wake her up, Qin stays quietly by her side and uses his sleeves to pick up her vomit and waits til daybreak. The beautiful girl wakes up and is deeply moved. She decides to shake off the ties with the wealthy dandy Wan Qi and after the crisis at the snowy pond, finally buys back her freedom and marries Qin Zhong.