Circle of Chalk
| The Chalk Circle | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Li Qianfu |
| Characters |
|
| Original language | Chinese |
| Subject | Judge Bao fiction |
| Genre | zaju |
Circle of Chalk (Chinese: 灰闌記; pinyin: huīlán jì, sometimes translated Chalk Circle, The Circle of Chalk, or A Circle of Chalk), by Li Qianfu (also transliterated as Li Ch'ien-fu, Li Xingdao, Li Hsing-tao, or Li Xingfu), is a Yuan dynasty (1259–1368) Chinese classical zaju verse play and gong'an crime drama, in four acts with a prologue. It was preserved in a collection entitled Yuan-chu-po-cheng, or The Hundred Pieces. The Chinese language original is known for the beauty of its lyrical verse, and considered a Yuan masterpiece; a series of translations and revisions inspired several popular modern plays.
A beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, Hai-tang (also transliterated Hai-t'ang, Hi-tang, or Chang-hi-tang), is sold into a house of prostitution by her impoverished family, after her father's death. There she is befriended by Ma Chun-shing, a wealthy and childless tax collector, who takes her into his house as his second wife. She bears him a son, Shoulang, but earns the jealousy of his first wife, Ah-Siu. Ah-Siu accuses Hai-tang of adultery, poisons Ma, blaming Hai-tang for the crime, and claims to a court that Shoulang is her own child, so that she can inherit Ma's fortune. Hai-tang is arrested, and beaten until she confesses. As Hai-tang is about to be hanged, she is rescued by Bao Zheng in a scene similar to the Judgment of Solomon: Shoulang is placed in a circle of chalk between the two women, and each is ordered to pull; as Hai-tang can not bear to hurt her child, she is judged his true mother.
The play became first known in the Western world in a French language translation by Stanislas Julien, published in London in 1832 as Le Cercle de Craie. This was liberally re-translated into German by Klabund as Der Kreidekreis in 1924, which was very popular. In Klabund's version, the Emperor marries the heroine at the end of the play, while in the original she returns to live with her brother, who is now a court official. Based on Klabund's play the Austrian composer Zemlinsky adapted a libretto for his Der Kreidekreis (opera), performed in Zurich in 1933.
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