| The Chalk Circle | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Li Qianfu |
| Characters |
|
| Original language | Classical Chinese |
| Subject | Judge Bao fiction |
| Genre | zaju |
| The Chalk Circle | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 灰闌記 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 灰阑记 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | story of the boundary oflime | ||||||
| |||||||
The Chalk Circle (sometimes translatedThe Circle of Chalk), byLi Qianfu, is aYuan dynasty (1259–1368)Chinese classicalzaju verse play andgong'ancrime drama, in four acts with a prologue.[1][2] It was preserved in a collection entitledYuan-chu-po-cheng, orThe Hundred Pieces.[3] TheChinese language original is known for the beauty of its lyrical verse, and considered a Yuan masterpiece;[2][4] a series of translations and revisions inspired several popular modern plays.
A beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, Hai-tang (also transliterated Hai-t'ang, Hi-tang, or Chang-hi-tang), is sold into ahouse of prostitution by her impoverished family, after her father's death. There she is befriended by Ma Chun-shing, a wealthy and childless tax collector, who takes her into his house as his second wife. She bears him a son, Shoulang, but earns the jealousy of his first wife, Ah-Siu. Ah-Siu accuses Hai-tang ofadultery, poisons Ma, blaming Hai-tang for the crime, and claims to a court that Shoulang is her own child, so that she can inherit Ma's fortune. Hai-tang is arrested, and beaten until sheconfesses. As Hai-tang is about to be hanged, she is rescued byBao Zheng in a scene similar to theJudgment of Solomon: Shoulang is placed in a circle of chalk between the two women, and each is ordered to pull the child toward her; as Hai-tang cannot bear to hurt her child, she gives up the attempt —and so is judged his true mother.[1][5][6][7][8]
The play became first known in theWestern world in aFrench language translation byStanislas Julien, published inLondon in 1832 asLe Cercle de Craie. This was liberally re-translated intoGerman byKlabund asDer Kreidekreis in 1924, which was very popular.[8][9] In Klabund's version, the Emperor marries the heroine at the end of the play, while in the original she returns to live with her brother, who is now a court official.[2][3] Based on Klabund's play, the Austrian composerAlexander von Zemlinsky adapted a libretto for hisDer Kreidekreis, performed in Zurich in 1933.
Klabund's version was translated into English byJames Laver asThe Circle of Chalk, in five acts, published in London byWilliam Heinemann in 1929. It was put on stage in March of that year, produced byBasil Dean, starring theAmerican actressAnna May Wong, Australian actressRose Quong, and British actorLaurence Olivier.[7][10] As of 2008, this version is still being produced by various theatre groups.[6]
In 1940,Bertolt Brecht wroteDer Augsburger Kreidekreis, ashort story based onDer Kreidekreis, which reworks the story by omitting any Imperial intervention and making the first wife the biological mother, but having her abandon the child. The heroine is a serving girl who rescues and raises him, becoming the "real" mother. In 1944, he further reworked the story as the play,The Caucasian Chalk Circle, moving the events to medievalGeorgia, adding a prologue set inSoviet Georgia, and greatly elaborating the narrative. In 2000,The Caucasian Chalk Circle in turn was rewritten asFull Circle, orThe Berlin Circle, byCharles L. Mee, set in 1989East Germany after thefall of Communism.[11]
The famous Kyrgyz author and novelistChinghiz Aitmatov was also indirectly inspired from the Chalk Circle, while writing his 1960 book,The Red Scarf. He used some indirect elements from the tale very loosely. The plot of the 1977 Turkish film "Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım" was based on The Red Scarf. The movie is one of the best known films inTurkish cinema[citation needed].
In 2018, Claire Conceison wrote and directed a play called The Chalk Cycle based on the original Yuan drama The Chalk Circle, the Brecht adaptation The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and theCustody battle for Anna Mae He.[12]