Romance of the Western Chamber

Introduction

Wang Shifu's Yuan zaju in five parts and twenty-one acts, telling how Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying come to marry

Romance of the Western Chamber, in full Cui Yingying Waits for the Moon in the Western Chamber, is usually credited to the Yuan playwright Wang Shifu, though other authors such as Guan Hanqing have been proposed. Its story goes back to Yuan Zhen's Tang tale of Yingying and passed through a Song drum-song and Dong Jieyuan's Jin-dynasty medley, which gave the lovers a happy ending in place of the original parting. The play runs to five parts and twenty-one acts, far longer than the usual four-act zaju, and tells how the scholar Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying, daughter of a late chief minister, fall in love at the Pujiu Monastery and, with the help of the maid Hongniang, finally win her mother's consent. Hongniang grew from a supporting part into a central role, and some regional versions are named after her. The earliest complete printed edition is the 1498 Ming edition now in Peking University Library, and Jin Shengtan's annotated text was widely read from the early Qing. Kunqu, Peking opera and many other forms still stage the story today.

Parts

1. Zhang Junrui Disrupts the Memorial ServicePart one: the scholar Zhang Junrui first sees Cui Yingying at the monastery and contrives to see her again at the memorial service
2. Cui Yingying Listens to the Zither at NightPart two: after the siege of the monastery is lifted, Yingying listens by moonlight to Zhang playing the zither
3. Zhang Junrui Falls LovesickPart three: Zhang falls ill with longing while Hongniang carries letters between the lovers
4. Dreaming of Yingying at the Grass Bridge InnPart four: after their secret union Zhang must leave for the examinations and dreams of Yingying at the Grass Bridge Inn
5. Zhang Junrui Celebrates the ReunionPart five: Zhang returns after passing the examinations and is at last married to Yingying