Justice and Rightness or Yi:The Fate of The Orphan of Zhao Being Deconstructed in Europe

Wang Yun

Justice and Rightness or Yi:The Fate of The Orphan of Zhao Being Deconstructed in Europe

Wang Yun

The Orphan of Zhaois notmerely the earliest ancient Chinese play thatwas introduced into Europe,but also themost-often-adapted one by the European playwrights.As far as the east-west dramatic communication is concerned,this play is self-evidently important.Among the European playwrights’adaptations of The Orphan of Zhao,Voltaire’s The Orphan of China（l’Orphelin de la Chine） and James Fenton’s The Orphan of Zhaoare ofmost revolutionary significance.To manifest the revolutionary significance of the two plays,this essay will discuss the following five questions based on the perspectives of concepts of western modern justice and ancient Chinese rightness orYi（义）:（1） Why would these playwrights deconstruct The Orphan of Zhao？ （2） Which value of The Orphan of Zhaois the specific object that they deconstructed？ （3） What are the strategies and methods that they adopted to deconstruct The Orphan of Zhao? （4） Why was The Orphan of Zhaodeconstructed only by European playwrights? （5） What thoughtweapon was used when these playwrights deconstructed The Orphan of Zhao？

The Orphan of Zhao;justice;rightness orYi;deconstruction;Voltaire;James Fenton

The Yuan-Dynasty Zaju opera(literallymeaning “various plays”)T he Orphan of Zhao written by Ji Junxiang is known by almost every household in China.It is notmerely the first ancient Chinese play to be introduced and circulated in Europe during the eighteenth century,but also themost-often-adapted ancient Chinese play by the European playwrights.As far as east-west dramatic communication is concerned,this play is self-evidently important.

In 1735,Description de la Chine compiled by J.B.du Halde was published in Paris,in which Joseph Maria de Prémare’s abridged French version of T he Orphan of Zhao is one ofmany translated texts.Since then there have been at least seven adaptations of T he Orphan of Zhao in Europe.Among these adaptations,two plays are of most revolutionary significance.One is Voltaire’s The Orphan of China(l’Orphelin de la Chine)premiered in the Theatre of France in Paris in Aug.20,1755;the other is James Fenton’s The Orphan of Zhao premiered in the Swan Theatre in Stratford by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Oct.30,2012.

In order to manifest the revolutionary significance of the above two plays,this essay will discuss the following five questions based on perspectives and concepts of western modern justice and ancient Chinese rightness or Yi （义）.The rightness or Yi here refers to that of the Confucian School which occupied a dominant position in ancient China,not the Mohist or Legalist Schools.

A.W hy would Voltaire and James Fenton deconstruct Ji Junxiang’s T he Orphan of Zhao?

In order to answer this question,Ihave to briefly introduce the story of T he Orphan of Zhao.More than two thousand six hundred years ago,in northern China,there was a kingdom named Jin State.The king of Jin State was Jin Ling Gong,a tyrant.He had two court officials in high positions.One was the crafty and evilmilitary general Tuan Gu,the other was the loyal and virtuous Prime Minister Zhao Dun.

With Jin Ling Gong’s tacit permission,Tuan Gu killed Zhao Dun and his whole family of about three hundred people for occupying the highest position of all court officials.Because Zhao Dun’s daughter-in-law was a princess,the daughter of Jin Ling Gong,she survived themassacre.At that time the princess was about to give birth to a baby boy.Tuan Gu didn’t want the boy to live.However,Cheng Ying,who was a very loyal servant of the princess and her husband,hid the boy and the princess committed suicide.The boy became the orphan of Zhao.

Tuan Gu’smen searched for the orphan everywhere,but couldn’t find him.Consequently,Tuan Gu decided to kill every baby boy all over the kingdom.Cheng Ying had to pass his own baby son off as the orphan,and put him in the house of Gongsun Chujiu who was a loyal and virtuous retired senior official and great friend of Zhao Dun.Cheng Ying reported that Gongsun Chujiu had hidden the orphan causing Cheng Ying’s son and Gongsun Chujiu to be killed while the orphan survived.After eighteen years,the orphan avenged the death of his family and the people who helped him survive by killing Tuan Gu.

The core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao is undoubtedly that Cheng Ying sacrificed his own baby son to save the life of the orphan of Zhao.Why then,would Voltaire and James Fenton deconstruct T he Orphan of Zhao?Tomake a long story short,it is because they could not accept that core plot.This is what the Orphan of China and James Fenton’s T he Orphan of Zhao tell us,though Voltaire didn’t say it in explicit terms and Iam unsure whether James Fenton did either.

In March of 2013,the University of Leeds held an international symposium“Performing China:on the Global Stage:People,Society and Culture”.Iwas personally present at the occasion.Gregory Doran,the director of James Fenton’s The Orphan of Zhao and the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company,was invited to speak at the symposium.In his speech，he twice stressed that he couldn’t understand why Cheng Ying sacrificed his son to save the orphan of Zhao.This represents Voltaire’s,James Fenton’s andmostwestern audience’s opinions towards this core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao.

B.W hich value of Ji Junxiang’s T he Orphan of Zhao is the specific object that Voltaire and James Fenton deconstructed?

On the surface,Voltaire and James Fenton couldn’t accept the core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao.In essence,they couldn’t accept the conceptof Chinese rightness or Yi,which the core plot implies.

In T he Orphan of Zhao,Cheng Ying praws pictures to tell the orphan the history of his family.When it came to “Cheng Ying”,the orphan asks,“Dad,this Cheng Ying is you?” Cheng Ying replies,“There aremany people with the same name in the world.He is another Cheng Ying.” The orphan asks again,“This Cheng Ying would sacrifice his own son?” Cheng Ying’s response was beyond expectation,he says,“Cheng Ying’s life is to be sacrificed,not to speak his son.It doesn’tmatter,does it?”

In Cheng Ying’s view,the values of people’s life have different grades.Because of the relationship between master and servant,the value of the orphan’s life is naturally higher than that of Cheng Ying’s life.In order to save the orphan of Zhao,Cheng Ying naturally should sacrifice his life.Because of the relationship between father and son,Cheng Ying’s life is naturally more valuable than his son’s life.Since Cheng Ying should sacrifice his own life,not to speak his own baby son.This is also the concept of ancient Chinese rightness,which emphasizes that the lower level people should be obligated to and responsible for the high level people.

Of course,neither Voltaire,James Fenton nor Gregory Doran could accept such an idea,because of the influence ofmodern western justice.So,simply speaking,the specific object that Voltaire and James Fenton deconstructed is the concept of ancient Chinese rightness.

C.W hatare thestrategiesandmethods that Voltaireand James Fenton adopted to deconstruct Ji Junxiang’s T he Orphan of Zhao?

Voltaire and James Fenton both share the same strategy of deconstruction:through reconstructing the core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao in their own plays by deconstructing the core concept of T he Orphan of Zhao.However,their specificmethods of deconstruction are totally different.

James Fenton kept the core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao and added a new ending in his T he Orphan of Zhao.This new ending,to ask for his son’s forgiveness,Cheng Ying plans to commit suicide before his son’s grave,yet he insteadmeets his son’s ghost.

Ghost:…………

Cheng Ying:…………

Ghost:They hated you.You hated your son.

Cheng Ying:No father hates his own baby son.Why should Ibe different?

Ghost:That’swhat Ihave askedmyself these eighteen years.

Cheng thinks about this for amoment.

Cheng Ying:You knew my son?You seem too young to have known him.

Ghost:I am your son.You betrayed me.You had me killed.You loved the orphan of Zhao.You hid him and you cherished him.You brought him up as your own,and under the protection of the Court.It alwaysmakesme weep to think about it.

The Ghostweeps copiously.

Why did you hateme?Why did you love the orphan of Zhao?

Cheng Ying:Here is the tree.Here are the steps cut in the rock.Maybe the graves are a little further on.I am an old man now,and perhaps I have begun to forget.But I cannot remember ever having hated my son.If I had hated my son,it seems to me I should have remembered that.I should have asked myselfwhathadmademe such amonster of nature as to hatemy son.

Ghost:You loved the orphan of Zhao.You gave him everything.I came to the courtyard at night and Iwatched him at play.Isaw how he grew in your love.You gave him toys.You painted stories for him.Everybody loved him-and rightly so,hewas a beautiful child.But can you not see how hurtful that was tome?You forgotme for the orphan of Zhao.You forgotme out here on the hillside-a handful of scattered bones,white in the frost.

Cheng Ying:Here is the tree.Iam starting again from the tree.And here are the steps cut in the rock.But now Iam an old man and Ishall need your help.Show me the grave.You must help me die at your grave.

Ghost:You do not deserve to find my grave.

Cheng Ying:It is true-I deserve nothing.I am asking for what I do not deserve.I can see that I wronged you long ago,and the truth is:I cannot remember why.I feel theremust have been a reason.I feel that I could have had no choice.But Icannot any longer tell you what the reason was.Iam an old man and Iam asking you to help me.

Ghost:You are standing on my grave.Those three short scratches in the rock are where the workmen aimed their pickswhen they destroyedmy little home.There is nothing else to see.

Cheng Ying:My wronged son,my love,place your cold hand here in the fold of my gown,and show me how to hold the knife.Ido not lack of courage but I doubtmy strength and skill.Help me to die.

Ghost:Themoon is sharp on the blade.Hold it here below the rib.And if you do truly loveme,I shall taste it in your heart’s blood.

Cheng Ying:Place your hand on my hand.Help me direct the blade.

Ghost:There.

The Ghost tastes the heart’s blood.

You loveme.You always did loveme.

And now you belong tome for ever.

Ends.

This is a truly amazing ending.It is an ending that successfully deconstructs the concept of ancient Chinese rightness.In this ending,the ghost of Cheng Ying’s son shows strong doubts about Cheng Ying’s sacrifice to save the orphan of Zhao.Any Westerner who has been influenced by the concept of modern justice would have this same doubt.To be exact,it is the doubt that subverts the theme and the core values of T he Orphan of Zhao.

Voltaire,on the other hand,wrote his own version of T he Orphan of Zhao which was called simply The Orphan of China.The core plot of the new story is that a Chinese Minister Zamti intends to sacrifice his own son to protect the youngest son of the emperor of China from being killed.Although there are many similarities,there are alsomajor differences in the two plays.Cheng Ying’s actions do not encounter any anti-action or resistance.He succeeds.However,when Zamti tries to sacrifice his son’s life,this action suffered a strong anti-action.Thus a strong theatrical conflict is formed.He finally has to give up the sacrifice when Zamti’swife Idame stops him.

During the third scene of Act II,Zamti says to Idame,“Before you had the relationship between mother and son,you already had the obligations to the emperor.The relationship between the emperor and subjects is more important than that between father and son.I should sacrifice everything…….Although the child ismine,he is nothing compared to the son of the emperor.”These words are similar to Cheng Ying’s words.The value of a person’s life is measured by his or her social position.The higher his or her social position,the more valuable his or her life is.In order to keep the life of the high level people,the life of the low level people should be sacrificed.This is the logic of the ancient Chinese rightnesswhich is regulated by the ancient Chinese ideas of distinction and inequality.

However,Idame doesn’t approve of such ideas and replies,“No,Idon’t understand that terrible faith and virtue........They didn’twant your son,but you offered him to them.......Have you sworn to kill your own son?Oh!What is noble and humble?What are Lord and ministers?Everyone is born equal.”Here,we should pay special attention to the line “everyone is born equal”.This is a totalmanifestation of the conceptofmodern western justice:everyone is born equal;everyone is entitled to their human rights.

Also during the 3rd scene,Zamtisays“Iam afraid to fail the sacred duty........You ruin it,my oath,.......You ruin it,the descendants of your emperor.”Unexpectedly,Idame replies,“Emperor?Bah!letme tell you,they have no such authority:why should we sacrifice our living son for that dead ghost?.......we should have saved the orphan;butwe can’t pay the high price to sacrifice our own son for saving the orphan;as long as you don’t sacrificemy son’s life to save him,Iam not indifferent;Iwill rush to save him;Ipity him,but you have to pity yourself,pity our innocent child,pity your wife who loves you.”

During the 6th scene of Act IV,Zamti says,“My sole responsibility is to rescue the young prince,to sacrifice everything for him,includingmy family,my life,even my son,becausemy son was born to be a subject for the emperor.” Idame responds more firmly, “You have a heart of stone.You did two evil things in one day.You killed your own son to be loyal to the emperor and abandoned your beloved wife to save the country.”Cheng Ying sacrificing his own son to save the orphan is considered in China to be a righteous deed,while Zamti’s intention to sacrifice his own son to save the orphan is defined by Voltaire as “evil”.The contrast is too sharp.In their own ways,both Voltaire and James Fenton were about to deconstruct the core value of T he Orphan of Zhao.

D.W hy were all deconstructions of Ji Junxiang’s T he Orphan of Zhao by European playwrights?

The theory ofwestern justice and Chinese rightness are of the type.They are both theories of rights and obligations.Before the eighteenth century,the connotation of the western justice and the Chinese rightnesswere very similar.

From the end of the seventeenth century,there appeared some politicalworks in Europe such as John Locke’s The Second TreatiseofGovernment（1690）,Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality （1753） and The Social Contract （1762）,and some political declarations from America such as The Virginia Declaration of Rights（1776） and United States The Declaration of Independence（1776）.These works and declarations improved the theory of justice via advocating equality.Not only did adding the element of equality to justice form the theory ofmodern justice that developed from the theory of classical justice originated in ancient Greece,but also had a great influence on the outbreak of the French Revolution and the birth of French The Declaration of Human and Civil Rights.

The Orphan of China premiered in 1755 against this background,we can deduce that itsappearance was not accidental.The advanced ideas in this play became important parts of the concept of western justice which were becoming themainstream at the time.

After the French Revolution,the concept of equality became deeply-rooted.Thus,“equality” became another important factor of justice,which marks thematurity of the theory ofmodern justice.Since then,there has been a huge difference between the concept of ancient Chinese rightness and that ofmodern Western justice:The modern Western justice is doubly regulated by goodness and equality;while the ancientChinese rightness is doubly regulated by benevolence （goodness） and distinction even inequality.

The reason why T he Orphan of Zhao was only deconstructed by European playwrights is that from the 18th century in Europe there appeared an advanced thought,namely the theory ofmodern justice.

E.W hat thought weapon was used when Voltaire and James Fenton deconstructed Ji Junxiang’s T he Orphan of Zhao?

This question was already answered to some extent in discussing the fourth question.When Voltaire and Fenton deconstructed T he Orphan of Zhao,the weapon of thought they used was the concept ofmodern western justice.

From the perspective of the concept ofmodern justice,it is extremely doubtful for Cheng Ying to sacrifice his son for saving the orphan of Zhao.The orphan of Zhao’s life is life;so the son of Cheng Ying’s life is not life?Since everyone is born equal,their lives should be equally valuable.Now that their lives are equally valuable,why did Cheng Ying think that one ismore important than the other?

According to the concept of themodern justice,everyone is born with natural rights,among which the right of life is themost important.It is a sacred right.It is an inalienable right.Since the right of life is a sacred and inalienable one,itmeans that anyone,including the parents of the deprived,cannot deprive their children of it without proper and adequate reasons.However,in T he Orphan of Zhao,to save the orphan from being killed,Cheng Ying racked his brains and sent his own son to the jaws of death.Are Cheng Ying’s reasons proper or adequate?Are Cheng Ying’s reasons justified?If not,I have to ask:Is Cheng Ying’s action right or just?Here Iattempt to return to the originalmotivation of Voltaire and James Fenton when they adapted the core plot of T he Orphan of Zhao.

Did Cheng Ying have the authority tomake a decision for his son’s life?The concept ofmodern justice will answer that Cheng Ying has no authority tomake a decision for his son’s life.Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasized in The Social Contract:“Even if each man could alienate himself,he could not alienate his children:they are bornmen and free;their liberty belongs to them,and no one but they has the right to dispose of it.”Rousseau also pointed out in Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality:“……liberty is a gift for the children as human beings from the Heaven so that their parents have no right to deprive them of it.” French philosopher Pierre Henri Leroux （1797-1871） was deeply influenced by Rousseau,he said in On Equality,“A father has no power to kill his own children,because the characteristics of human beings are also reflected on the children’s face.”

As a human being,Cheng Ying’s son has the natural right,especially the right of life and liberty.It is not for anyone including the father,Cheng Ying,to deprive or dispose of his child without justification.Cheng Ying has no authority or power to deprive of his son’s right of life and liberty or to dispose of his son’s right of life and liberty.This is the concept ofmodern justice.Through the different plot designs,both of Voltaire’s The Orphan of China and James Fenton’s T he Orphan of Zhao deconstructed the core value of T he Orphan of Zhao and revealed the concept ofmodern justice.

（本文系上海市高原学科“上海戏剧学院艺术学理论”建设项目的阶段性成果）

标题：正义与义：《赵氏孤儿》在欧洲被解构的命运

《赵氏孤儿》不仅是最早传入欧洲的中国古代戏剧，而且也是被欧洲剧作家改编得最多的中国古代戏剧。就中西戏剧交流而言，它的重要性不言而喻。在《赵氏孤儿》的欧洲改编本中，伏尔泰的《中国孤儿》和詹姆斯·芬顿的《赵氏孤儿》最具革命意义。为清晰显示这两部剧作的革命意义，本文以西方现代正义观念和中国古代义的观念为视角，讨论以下五个问题：（1）伏尔泰和詹姆斯·芬顿为何要解构《赵氏孤儿》？（2）《赵氏孤儿》所彰显的哪一种价值观是伏尔泰和詹姆斯·芬顿解构的具体对象？（3）何为伏尔泰和詹姆斯·芬顿解构《赵氏孤儿》的策略和方法？（4）对《赵氏孤儿》的解构为何均出自欧洲剧作家之手？（5）伏尔泰和詹姆斯·芬顿在解构《赵氏孤儿》时使用了何种思想武器？

《赵氏孤儿》 正义 义 解构 伏尔泰 詹姆斯·芬顿

上海戏剧学院教授

Author：Wang Yun is professor of Shanghai Theatre Academy,Shanghai,China.

（作者单位：上海戏剧学院艺术研究所）