麒麟書苑專欄Tony Wang's Peking Opera

（Update：1998.10.22)

Peking Opera Stories







THE PROBLEM OF A SHOE 


THE PROBLEM OF A SHOE or the Fin River

Liu Yingchun  separated  from her husband  who left home to join
the military  18 years  ago, lived  in a cave  house  in northern
China  with  her  adolescent   son,  Dingshan.   The  17-year-old
Dingshan, a fine hunter, was accidentally killed by a soldier one
day while hunting  for food at the Fen River.  The great irony is
that the soldier  was none other than his own father  Xue Rengui,
who was on his way home for the first  time in 18 years.  But not
known to Rengui, the youth  was rescued  by a Tadst master.  thus
escaping death. Rangut moved on after the incident and found his
wife  outside  the cave house.  A lively  dialogue  ensued  after
Yingchun  was convinced  that the man was indeed her own husband.
In this dialogue, a fair amount of teasing was exchanged.  Later,
when  Yingchun  was  readying  the  bedroom  for him, Rangut  was
shocked  to find a man's shoe in the house.  Not knowing  that it
actually  belonged  to their son, he jumped to accuse his wife of
adultery.  It wasn't until the misunderstanding was resolved that
Rengui  came to realize that the youth he had killed was his own
son.  Yingchun  was heart broken and the couple proceeded  to the
Fen River hoping to ratdave their son's body.

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