A stage for precious words

Performers rehearse the National Theater of China's new drama Fu Sheng in Beijing. Photo provided to China Daily

 

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A revived play salutes a Qin Dynasty hero who saved Confucian texts for future generations. Han Bingbin follows the dramatic tension.

For its final show of 2013, the National Theater of China has decided to put on some cultural attitude. They picked up a script from 10 years ago that pays tribute to an almost forgotten historical hero, Fu Sheng. The Confucian scholar saved one of the Five Classics, Shang Shu, while risking his own life, from a burning campaign that the first emperor (Qin Shihuang) of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) launched to eliminate dissent.

During Qin Shihuang's reign, some officials questioned his policies and advocated systems of previous dynasties that were recorded in Confucian classics. As a result, in 213 BC the emperor ordered that all historical records except the Qin records be burned. In the following year, more than 400 Confucian scholars were buried alive for libel after they scolded the emperor.

Practically nothing good was remembered of this time of misfortune except the heroic spirit of Fu Sheng. A descendant of two loyal Confucius disciples and once highly valued as an official historian by Qin Shihuang, Fu hid Shang Shu in a wall, making it among the rare historical classics to escape the fire. A collection of historical documents compiled by Confucius himself, Shang Shu is known as China's oldest historical record.

"The play is more than a story and legend," director Wang Xiaoying says. "Inheriting culture is a life experience."

Wang has directed plays about historical figures like Xiang Yu (232-202 BC), overlord in the West Chu period, and Richard III. But the rethinking of history or culture is hardly the attractive part for him. Instead, he's respected for relating the personal struggles of individuals, those who are put in extreme situations and have hard choices to make.

In Fu Sheng, therefore, history is slightly altered to create such dramatic tension. Instead of hiding Shang Shu in the wall, Fu memorized the whole book without telling anyone else, a method highly dependent on his talent but much safer, he thinks. It is an overly confident and seemingly thoughtless move that later blurred the line between selflessness and selfishness. When protecting his own life (and the treasured text in his head) becomes the top priority, he has to, in an agony of remorse, ignore the lives of his beloved ones.

Fu's son, also an advocate of Confucian thought, broke with his father after Fu surprisingly offered to burn down all the family's Confucian collections. Later when the son was hunted down by the soldiers, Fu turned him in because sheltering a criminal would cost the whole family's lives. Confused and irritated by her husband, Fu's wife killed herself by bashing her head against the wall. His daughter became a stranger.