Pipaji

…playwright whose sole surviving opera, Pipaji (The Lute), became the model for drama of the Ming dynasty.

A renowned Ming play is Pipa ji (“Pipa [Lute] Song”), written in 42 affecting scenes, by the scholar Gao Ming in the 14th century. Its heroine, Zhao Wuniang, sets a perfect example of Confucian filial piety and marital fidelity, caring for her husband’s parents until their tragic death and then…