She would reply with auspicious words, which auger well for the well-being and good fortune of the people. Now that the peaches are ripe, the Queen Mother of Heaven has her personal guard keep watch over them.
The guard falls asleep and Dongfang Shuo manages to steal several peaches. When caught, Dongfang Shuo explains why he has stolen the peaches. Yue Fei takes him back to the celestial court. Once he sees the Queen Mother, Dongfang Shuo uses his eloquence to wish her an auspicious birthday with peach imagery. She exonerates his crime and even endows upon him with gifts. Tie Guan Tu is a traditional repertory.
Only six episodes are extant, as memorized and written down by Zhao Peisheng, an old artist of the genre. Among the six, Dissolving the Royal Family and On Mei Hill are vastly different from the versions found in the collection of plays from Chinese traditional theatre published in the Qing period.
The sung passage shows the devastation of the last emperor of Ming in his last moments and is deeply moving. When he reaches the Pavilion of Longevity, he sees he has no route of escape.
I am not a bad ruler but the villains have betrayed the country. My death shall be anonymous, and my people shall not mourn me. Cast: Wang Ying. It took three days and nights non-stop to have them all performed in one go. This is a regular choice for performance at temple fairs during the Ghost Festival to appease the spirits. The story of Ghost of a Woman Who Hangs Herself is about a young woman called Jade Hibiscus who killed herself when forced into prostitution, and twenty years later, returning to the mortal world to find a substitute so she can be incarnated.
