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Du (Singing to the tune of Silk-Washing Stream):
Warm mountain hue,
Lawsuits are few.
Birds fly away at dawn,
And come back at nightfall.
Curtains undrawn,
Petals fall in the hall.
The governor is beyond me;
I'll do as the sage under a pear tree.
So much good for the living and the dead I've done,
Still I have not a jade-like son.
Since I came to Nan'an as prefect, only my wife and my daughter have kept me company. It is now necessary for me to select a tutor for my daughter's education. Yesterday, the director of the prefectural school recommended a sixty-year-old scholar Chen Zuiliang to teach my daughter on the one hand, and to keep me company on the other. Since we are not busy today, I have ordered a feast to entertain the tutor. Now attendant!
Attendant: Yes, my lord.
(Enter Chen Zuiliang wearing a scholar's hood and a blue gown.)
Chen (Singing to the previous tune):
In spirits high
And shabby gown,
Though old am I,
I'll play it down.
Attendant (Announcing ): Here comes Master Chen.
Du: Invite him to come in.
Attendant: Come in please, Master Chen.
Chen (Kneeling, rising to his feet, bowing and kneeling again.): I pay my respect to my lord.
(Kowtowing) You have opened the school.
Du: Today let's drink our full.
Chen: Here are cups for the toast.
Du: The guest's honored the host.
Let the attendants withdraw and a houseboy come to the service.
(Exeunt attendants. Enter a houseboy.)
(To Chen) I have heard of you as a scholar. May I inquire about your age and family?
Chen (Singing to the tune of Southern Branch):
I am over sixty years old,
And of seventy on the threshold.
Wearing the scholar's hood,
White-haired, I'll teach for good.
Du : What are you doing recently?
Chen: Most scholars know the art to cure,
A gourd at door is a sign sure.
Du: So your family knows the medical art?
What else?
Chen: I can play various parts
And know something about all arts.
Du: So much the better.
Your fame is high, but our acquaintance late,
You're a famed scholar in a famed state.
Chen: I am unworthy of my fame.
Du: My daughter knows to read and write,
She will be instructed with delight.
Chen: It is a teacher's duty, but I am afraid I could not be her worthy tutor.
Du: You can make the pearl
In my palm a learned girl.
It is lucky for her to pay
Her respect to you today.
Attendant, strike the clappers to call your young mistress in.
(Enter Du the Belle with her maid Frangrant Spring )
Belle (Singing to the previous tune):
With eyebrows pencilled green,
My pendants ring when I come in
From behind the embroidered screen.
With lotus steps I come into the hall
To answer my father's call.
Fragrant: What shall we do now the tutor has come?
Belle: I must go to salute him, Fragrang Spring.
Fair maidens model themselves on ladies of old.
Knowing some books, you are a maid of good household.
Attendant (Announcing): Here comes our young mistress.
(Belle greets her father.)
Du: Come over here, my dear.
Unpolished jade cannot be bright;
Unlearned maid knows not what is right.
Come and pay respect to your tutor at this lucky hour.
(Drum beats and trumpets are heard.)
Belle: Like willow down, how dare I to compare
With your students as peach blossoms as fair?
Chen: You are as worthy as a pearl.
I'm honored to teach a jade-like girl.
Du: Fragrant Spring, come and kowtow to Master Chen. Fragrant Spring will accompany her young mistress in her studies. (Fragrant Spring kowtows.)
Chen: May I ask what books our young mistress has read?
Du: She has learnedThe Four Books by heart. It would be better to readThe Five Classics now. ButThe Book of Change on the sunny and the shady side would be too philosophical andThe Book of History too political for young maidens.Spring and Autumn Annals andThe Book of Rites seem fragmentary.The Book of Poetry which begins withCooing and Wooing is easy to read and its four-character lines easy to learn by heart. Besides, it is our traditional reading, so let her studyPoetry. We still have many other books, but they are not fit for maidens.
Nearly fifty years old, I'm fond of books,
Having over thirty thousand in my nooks.
It is a pity that I have no son,
To carry on our tradition there is none.
Dear Master, my daughter has all the books she needs. If she has done anything wrong, please punish her maid.
Fragrant: Alas!
Du: When my daughter comes of age,
She should be worthy of family heritage.
You know of course what should be done
Against the naughty one.
Fragrant Spring, accompany your young mistress back. I shall have a drink with our tutor.
Belle: Our tutor may drink wine
To make his student scholar fine. ( Exeunt. )
Du: Let us go to the back garden and have a drink.
Du: In private school the tutor teaches at leisure.
Chen: For a hundred years scholars eat but rice with pleasure.
Du: I'll make a son of my daughter in her bower.
Together: A teacher is sought for from flower to flower.