The Beautiful Love Story ：West Chamber
West Chamber by the Yuan－dynasty dramatist Wang Shifu has been acclaimed by literary historians and loved by general people.Like A Dream of Red Mansions and Outlaws of the Marsh,it is internationally recognised as a masterpiece.
This beautiful love story took place in the Temple of Universal Salvation in Yongji of Shanxi Province.
The drama followed a Chinese pattern of a secret meeting of a gifted scholar with a beauty in a back garden,plus trials and tribulations,and finally a happy union.Scholar Zhang and Cui Yingying,the Prime Minister's daughter,fell in love with each other when they met and exchanged verses in a garden.When Cui's family ran into trouble,Zhang bravely came to the rescue.But later Cui's mother broke her promise to give her daughter to Zhang in marriage.The warm－hearted maidservant Hong Niang or Red Girl with her ingenious plans eventually brought the couple together.
The sentimental scholar Zhang with sense of justice is an archetype of the talented scholar in ancient Chinese literature.
Brought up in an influential family,Cui Yingying is constant in her love for Zhang.
"When under Cui's mother's pressure,Zhang took a reluctant leave for Chang'an to seek an opportunity in officialdom.Cui said to him,'so long you can come back soon,it doesn't matter whether you will be an official or not'.She meant she would marry him even if he could not be an official,because what she loved was the person and not a position," said Zhou Zhaoxin,a professor at Beijing University.
The maidservant Hong Niang who passed letters between Zhang and Cui was an intelligent,witty and warm－hearted girl.She left a deep impression on the audience.
The language in West Chamber is refined and emotional.Take the song from the act of "Farewell at a Pavilion":
The sky is blue,yellow flowers cover the ground;
In the west wind the wild swans fly southbound;
What dyed the frosted forest red at dawn?
In the leaving man's tears the trees drown.
In the coda of the drama we hear:"Let all lovers in the world become pairs!" It sublimated the old idea of union of gifted men with beautiful girls to the union of all lovers in the world.This is the most important message from West Chamber.
"'Let all lovers in the world become pairs' not only voiced the aspirations of young men and women in the feudal society,but also heralds a new trend of literary liberation in China from the 13th century to the 16th century," said Deng Shaoji,a professor at the Institute of Literature,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The past half century saw stories,plays,dramas in Beijing Opera and other local operas adapted from West Chamber.
Thanks to the influence of West Chamber,the Temple of Universal Salvation in Yongji has become known throughout China.The Pagoda of Sarita in the Temple is nicknamed the Pagoda of Cui Yingying.Wandering in the Temple today the visitors always try to find some traces of this aged,beautiful love story..