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        During the reign of Emperor Jia-Jing in the Ming Dynasty, Yen Sung and his son, Yen Shi-Fan, were evil yet very powerful prime ministers. Mo Huai-Gu, a high ranking official in charge of rituals, took in Tang Qin, a paperhanger who was poor, and recommended him to be a dependent of the Yens. Tang coveted Xue-Yen, a concubine of Mo Huai-Gu and intended to falsely incriminate Mo to take the woman for himself. When he found out that Mo owned a white jade cup referred to as Snow Jade, an heirloom of the family, he urged Yen Shi-Fan to demand the cup from Mo. Mo gave Yen a forgery which was seen through by Tang Qin. Shi-Fan brought guards to search Mo’s house for the cup in vain as Mo Cheng, a house servant of the Mo family, had hidden the cup away. Shi-Fan threatened Mo Huai-Gu to force him to hand over the jade cup, so Huai-Gu had to give up his position and seek refuge with his good friend General Qi Ji-Guang in his mansion in Jizhou. However, with the arrival of the arrest order from Yen, Mo Huai-Gu found himself trapped as he could neither escape nor fight against the powerful Yens. Mo Cheng the servant proposed to die for his master by disguising himself as Mo Huai-Gu, as Qi Ji-Guang had to behead Mo Cheng in response to the arrest order. (“The Search for the Cup and Substitute Death”)

        After Mo Cheng was killed, Qi Ji-Guang brought his head to the capital city, but again, Tang Qin saw through the ruse. Yen Shi-Fan flew into a rage and ordered a member of the royal guard, Lu Bing, to look into the matter with Tang Qin as the supervisor of the case. When the two were arguing over their disparate views, Lu Bing discovered that Tang Qin coveted Xue-Yen and ordered Tang Qin to testify that the head was indeed Mo Huai-Gu’s head to keep Qi Ji-Guang from being punished and he would then declare Xue-Yen belonged to Tang. Meanwhile, he hinted to Xue-Yen to try to kill Tang Qin when an opportunity arose. On the wedding day, when Tang Qin was drunk, Xue-Yen seized the opportunity and stabbed him to death. Then she committed suicide by hanging herself. (“Judging the Head and Stabbing Tang”)
        When the Yens eventually lost power, Qi Ji-guang sent a letter to Mo Huai-Gu to inform him about it, urging him to return to his hometown. Before his journey home, Mo went to the willow woods by the West Gate of Jizhou to pay tearful homage to Mo Cheng, and he happened to meet Mo Cheng’s son, Mo Wen-Lu, who had came to the grave to offer a sacrifice to his deceased father. After the two acknowledged each other, Mo Wen-Lu learned that his father had died for Mo Huai-Gu and felt deeply grieved for his father. Mo Huai-Gu decided to adopt Mo Wen-Lu as his son to return to the great favor of Mo Cheng. (“The Reunion with the Snow Cup”)
 

        This opera is a revision of a traditional Chinese opera with the same name by Li Yu, a playwright of the Soochow School at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. The original opera consists of thirty acts and tells the highly detailed story of how Mo Huai-Gu is trapped in a disaster because of the jade cup he owns. It was a popular Kunqui opera. In the republic period, actors of the generation of Fu often performed the opera in two separate parts since it was comprised of a dozen acts. The opera was a very popular one. Such an outstanding opera with its many conflicts and much tension was naturally taken up by the newly founded Chinese Opera. But as the original opera was too long and the acting styles and singing of Kunqui Opera were quite different from those of Chinese Opera, this opera underwent a great deal of revision.

        In the Chinese Opera version, this opera retains its original plot but drastically cuts the thirty-some acts to a few important ones, including: “Searching for the Cup”, “Substitute Death”, “Judging the Head”, “Stabbing Tang”, and the final act, “The Reunion with the Snow Cup”. Among these, “Searching for the Cup and Substitute Death” and “Judging the Head and Stabbing Tang” are often combined as a separate opera. When all the acts are performed on stage, it becomes the complete Chinese opera known as The Snow Jade Cup. Compared to the original Kunqui opera, the Chinese opera demands a broader variety of skills. The acts “Searching for the Cup and Substitute Death” and “Judging the Head and Stabbing Tang”, in particular, consist of many complex speeches and movements in a totally different style from the original. In “Searching for the Cup and Substitute Death”, Mo Cheng has to speak vehemently with a strong voice and move in precise rhythm to the percussion music to create the act’s intense atmosphere. “Judging the Head” makes use of fluent and complex speeches and changeable facial expressions to convey the sharpness and calculating character of Lu Bing. In “Stabbing Tang”, Xue-Yen sings two extended lyrical passages and performs a series of complicated movements when she is about to stab the villain. This complicated performance requiring various skills represents well the performance artistry of Chinese Opera.

        By comparison, the final act, “The Reunion with the Snow Cup,” is much simpler. There are two versions of this act in the traditional opera. One of them, performed for zhe-zi-xi (performance of a certain act), retainss the plot of Mo Huai-Gu’s son redressing the miscarriage of justice of his father; when the family is reunited, they pay their respect to the soul of Xue-Yen at her tomb before they are rewarded by the imperial court. This version includes much singing, but the plot is loose. The other version depicts Mo Huai-Gu as he meets up with his wife and Mo Wen-Lu, the son of Mo Cheng, at the latter’s tomb and eventually adopts Wen-Lu as his son. This version does not require much acting skill as it merely serves as the denouement of the opera, The Snow Jade Cup. Many performances of the complete opera of The Snow Jade Cup even omit the act “The Reunion with the Snow Cup” retaining only “Searching for the Cup and Substitute Death” and “Judging the Head and Stabbing Tang”. In this performance of The Snow Jade Cup by the Guoguang Opera Company, the act “The Reunion with the Snow Cup” was significantly revised tightening up the plot and making it more complex. This revised version focuses on Mo Huai-Gu and Mo Cheng’s son, Wen-Lu. Since both roles sing a number of lyrical tunes, it is presented as an act of lao-sheng (old men roles) singing. The combination of acting and singing skills renders this opera complete. Tang Wen-Hwua, the leading actor of the company, takes on three roles in the opera as he plays Mo Cheng (in “Searching for the Cup and Substitute Death”), Lu Bing (in “Judging the Head and Stabbing Tang”), and Mo Huai-Gu (in “The Reunion with the Snow Cup”) and thoroughly presents the performance art of lao-sheng with his wonderful performance.