LIANG ZHU 2 Zhu Yingtai

Dance of the Garden: here we see that Zhu Yingtai is a girl of lively disposition though she does well by carrying herself in the manner required of a girl in her position and status. Her accomplishments in literature and music is notable as are her social graces in the company of elders… but it is her spirit that seeks to be free… In the dance, we see her first as a genteel lady, practiced in manners and etiquette, but as the dance progresses, her irrepressible spirit comes through…

Enter Yin Xin, her maid.

Yin Xin:
O miss, your honourable mother has asked me to tell you that she will see you now.

Yingtai:
O good! What do you think she will say to my plan, Yin Xin? Do you think she will agree?

Yin Xin:
I really doubt it, miss. Please forgive my lack of faith but I have never heard of such a thing as a young girl like you leaving home to study… but then you are so clever with words, you always have a way with your mother… surely she will at least consider your wishes seeing how she loves you so much…

Yingtai:
Well I definitely will have to apply both logic and subtle emotional pressure to succeed … actually it is not so much my mother but my honourable father who will prove to be the difficult one… but then I will need to get her on my side if I were to win this first battle of wits with them. Let us go in now?
[Enter Mdm Zhu] O, my mother has come…

Yin Xin:
Madam…

Mdm Zhu:
Yingtai…

Yingtai:
Beloved mother…

Mdm Zhu:
Yin Xin told me just this morning that you have something important to tell me. What is it? Without rhyme or reason… it struck me that perhaps something was amiss or you were unhappy about something… are you alright? Are you not well?

Yingtai:
I am very well, dear mother… just that your child has a wish…
From the ground it first sprouts soft and tender
The bending bamboo from a green shoot grows
Seeking the sun it grows tall and slender
Till it gives shade and song when the wind blows

Mdm Zhu:
What is it you want to say… my dear?

Yingtai:
Like a silkworm feasting on luxuriant leaves
Your child has grown under your tender care
Having spun its silken cocoon bathed in moonlight
It now seeks the sun a beautiful butterfly in the air

[song]
in my heart a small little wish it grows
in my mind a big question has arose
to learn from a great master who knows
moral and ethics, literature poetic
conscience and politics, meaning and music
to that great master in Hangzhou, may I go?

Mdm Zhu:
Who’s heard of such a thing? You’re a girl. Who will protect you? What if something untoward happened to you? In any case, what school will accept a girl as a scholar?

Yingtai:
Beloved mother, if all that the tutor has taught me is true… if all that the learned masters have said is true… then is it not also my duty to study more so that I can be of more use? Must knowledge only reside in the minds of men?

Mdm Zhu:
I know, Yingtai, that you are keen on study. And I am very proud of that… but what is to be done? A girl just doesn’t leave home like that to study. If you were to step out of the house, it is to ride in a flower bedecked palanquin on your way to your in-laws… we will be looking for a matchmaker soon…

Yingtai:
O no! mother… that’s furthest from my mind. Surely the promptings of the soul is more important than the prescriptions of society…

Mdm Zhu:
What soul, my dear…?

Yingtai:
I can go in disguise as a boy, can't I? Nobody will find out… I swear…

Mdm Zhu:
You make it sound so simple… it’s almost believable

Yingtai:
I can do it… I have a plan…

Mdm Zhu:
Yingtai, this is crazy talk… and your father will never allow it…

Yingtai:
Please, my beloved mother…
In my heart a little wish it grows
In my mind a big question has arose
Can a girl like me know how life flows
Let me learn it from a master who knows…

Mdm Zhu:
I’ll have to talk to your father… though I doubt he will ever agree…

Yingtai:
If you agree, my mother, then it is just a matter of persuasion…

[Mdm Zhu gives her daughter a look of exasperation and then sighs… and leaves… Yingtai dances with joy…]