![XZhu Gang’s painting of -Asking for Tea [SHINE]](https://i0.wp.com/usachinatrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/XZhu-Gangs-painting-of-Asking-for-Tea-SHINE.jpg?resize=525%2C296&ssl=1)
“Water Margin,” one of the “four great classical novels” of Chinese literature, tells the Song Dynasty (960-1279) story of 108 outlaws who gathered at Mount Liangshan to take up arms against the government.
The group was later granted amnesty upon surrender and sent on campaigns alongside government troops to fight peasant rebels. The novel, attributed to Shi Nai’an, is filled with expressive characters, dramatic conflicts and an engaging plot. It has been adapted into Peking and Kunqu operas.
‘Asking for Tea’
In an episode of the novel “Water Margin,” Zhang Wenyuan, a government worker, is attracted by the beauty of Yan Xijiao, a concubine of a government colleague named Song Jiang. Song is later framed and flees to Mount Liangshan, where he joins the rebel army. Zhang seduces Yan on the pretext of asking for a cup of tea, and they began a secret affair. After she is stabbed to death by Song, Yan’s ghost shows up at Zhang’s residence for a reunion.
Yan was Song’s concubine, but in the Peking Opera version, she is portrayed as just a girl seeking true love. The opera, full of disturbing ghost imagery, was banned from performance after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It didn’t return to the stage until 1985 in rewritten form to focus on the love between a human and a ghost. Zhang on the stage is a serial womanizer, but also a bit bookish. He uses a folding fan to illustrate both lechery and romantic charm. Yan, young and beautiful, is portrayed as a lovelorn woman who deserves sympathy for choosing the wrong man.
The opera “Asking for Tea” is hard to perform because it requires neither special singing skills, complicated body movements nor thrilling stunts. Performers are required to dig deep into the inner beings of their characters. When Zhang meets Yan, he is struck by her beauty. He exclaims, “What fine weather!” to show his excitement. Small gestures — a dip of the head, a twitch of the shoulder and even a kiss on Yan’s hand — are the first tentative steps he takes to seduce her. Yan’s reaction? She scolds him while smiling and refuses him shyly. “Remember we will have tea tomorrow,” she finally says, suggesting capitulation.
Zhu’s painting of this scene from the opera expertly catches what’s going on the minds of Zhang and Yan. He is leering at her with his body leaning forward. She is pink-faced with a shy smile, hinting at her hidden desire for love.
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