The Wufeng Gathering

Introduction

Named as a representative play in the national heritage entries for both Tangshan and Laoting shadow theatre

The Wufeng Gathering is a traditional play of the shadow theatre of eastern Hebei, and its title is also written with a variant character. The national heritage entry for Tangshan shadow theatre names it among the repertoire beside Erdu Mei and Qingyun Jian. The entry for Laoting shadow theatre likewise lists it as one of its main plays, together with Qingyun Jian and Dongting Hu. Tangshan shadow theatre, also called Luanzhou or Laoting shadow play, is sung in the Laoting dialect to a system of beat-based tunes. Its scripts, known as shadow scrolls, survive in more than five hundred titles, divided into single plays and serial plays, of which there are over one hundred and thirty. A popular plot summary sets the story in the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song, at the foot of Wufeng Mountain.