Silang Visits His Mother

Introduction

Fifteen years after his capture, Yang Silang slips back one night to see his mother; a play built on singing

Silang Visits His Mother, also known as Visiting Mother and Returning the Order, is a famous traditional play of Peking opera, and Xiang, Han, Sichuan, Hebei bangzi and Qinqiang opera all have their own versions. In the Northern Song, Yang Silang is captured after a defeat, takes the name Mu Yi and marries Princess Tiejing of the Liao; fifteen years later his mother She Taijun arrives at the front, and the homesick son is helped across the border by the princess, who steals an arrow of command for him. He spends one night with his mother, his brother, his first wife and his two sisters, rides back at dawn and is condemned by the Empress Dowager Xiao, until the princess pleads for his life. An earlier form, Balang Visits His Mother, was part of a serial play staged by the Sixi troupe in the late Qing. Male and female leads carry equal weight, singing comes first, and before 1949 stars such as Mei Lanfang, Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying and Zhou Xinfang shared the stage in it.