The Forbidden City (Bruno Frank)

Data
Title:	The forbidden city
Genus:	play
Original language:	German
Author:	Bruno Frank
Premiere:	1942/1954
Place of premiere:	Lucerne / Nuremberg
Place and time of the action:	Beijing. 1898 (Acts I and II). 1900 (Act III)
people
In the Chinese world The Empress-Widow of China The young emperor Weng, his tutor Kang , his friend The Pearl Concubine Jung Lu Prince Tuan Yuan-shi-kai The merchant Shih The chief eunuch Ko, eunuch of the emperor A three year old boy Imperial councilors, eunuchs, servants In the Legation Quarter Sir Henry Ormond, British envoy Spencer Murray, Secretary of the Legation Sung, servant in the embassy William Bartlett Mrs. Bartlett Franz von Perner, Austrian envoy Mrs. von Perner Major Hazlitt

The forbidden city. A play in three acts from 1940 is a play by Bruno Frank . The play is Bruno Frank's last stage play. It was premiered in 1942 in the city theater of Lucerne and in 1954 in Nuremberg. The printed edition of the play was published in 1951 as a stage manuscript by Felix Bloch Erben in Berlin.

The English translation was done by the Chinese writer and translator Lin Yutang , who from 1935 lived mainly in the USA. A manuscript of the unpublished translation is in the estate of Bruno Frank's wife Liesl Frank-Mittler in the Bavarian literature portal.

Overview

China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing. The “young emperor” wants to convert China into a modern state in a snap (“ hundred-day reform ”). The conservative forces around the empress widow, his aunt, thwart the reforms. Finally the dowager empress seizes power and has the young emperor arrested.

The boxer movement has set itself the goal of driving the foreign powers out of China and restoring the country's “harmony”. In a real assessment of the balance of power, the Viceroy Jung Lu tries to persuade the Empress widow to suppress the boxers. However, the latter takes the side of the conservative forces around Prince Tuan, and Jung Lu falls out of favor.

The Boxer Rebellion is crushed by the overwhelming power of foreign powers, and the Empress Dowager has to flee the imperial residence of the Forbidden City . She reconciles with the emperor and accepts the so-called " Boxer Protocol ", through which the emperor is reinstated in office under degrading conditions. The loyal advisor Jung Lu is rehabilitated and his underage grandson is chosen to succeed the childless emperor.

action

Note: Numbers in parentheses, for example (15), refer to pages in the print edition #Frank 1951 .

The play consists of 3 acts, the first act with pictures 1–3, the second act with pictures 4–6 and the III. Nude with picture 7-11. The play begins in the summer of 1898. The III. Act takes place two years later.

I. act

Acts I and II play from the summer of 1898.

First picture

Reception room in the British Legation. The new Austrian envoy Franz von Perner with his wife and Maureen Bartlett, the wife of an arms dealer, are visiting the English envoy Henry Ormond. One comes up with the “young emperor” and the empress widow, to speak of his aunt: “He is emperor, but she rules. […] Now one whispers of reforms that he is planning - of edicts intended to overturn the law of the four thousand years. ”(8–9) William Bartlett, Maureen's husband, will soon arrive. He is returning from a trip to Tientsin to see Viceroy Jung Lu, the "most important man in China" (15). He wanted to sell Jung Lu cannons for the fight against the foreign powers, including the English, but Jung Lu gave Krupp preference.

Second picture

Emperor Guangxu in his study.

Emperor's Pavilion. The emperor shows his first concubine, the pearl lover ("Pearl"), the sealed reform decrees through which he wants to modernize China. Pearl warns the emperor against the resistance of the empress widow, who is hostile to the reform efforts. The imperial educator Weng unexpectedly visits his pupil to present his concerns about the reform project. He condemns the impatience of the scholar Kang, the imperial friend and spiritual father of the reforms: (34)

Kaiser: You exalted his virtues. Weng: He has them all, except one: patience. Kaiser: Big ventures have failed because of too much patience. Weng: A little impatience brought Throne down. Son, you are like a rider who kills his horse in the morning. How does he want to travel at noon.

Kang, eagerly awaited by the emperor, comes along with a stranger, the troop leader Yuan-shi-kai from Tientsin, whom Kang recommends to the emperor as a “determined helper”. (39) While the emperor gave Kang the order to publish the reform decrees, the chief eunuch brought the order of the empress widow to arrest Kang. Weng helps Kang escape. The emperor now gives Yuan-shi-kai the task of issuing the imperial edicts.

Third picture

Throne hall of the Empress Dowager. The Supreme Council has gathered around the Empress Dowager. The 5 councilors include Weng, Viceroy Jung Lu and Prince Tuan. The Empress Dowager condemns the Emperor's reforms:

A boy, liable to us through filial duty, commits the sacrilege. […] In the flickering fire of his immature years, he hurls edict after edict into the people and thinks of stirring them up from the ground up. (50-51)

Dowager Empress Cixi (1835–1908) on the throne bench, photo around 1890.

She branded the imperial educator Weng, in whom she saw the idea of ​​the reforms, as a traitor and sent him into exile. She calls on the 4 other councils to support her with her advice. Prince Tuan and two others recommend that she take back the reign. Jung Lu said goodbye to the exiled Weng and was initially silent on the proposal of the other councilors. When he is pressured, he advises the Empress Dowager, "not until she has slowly turned a hundred times a hundred pages," she should make up her mind. (57)

After the 3 remaining councilors were dismissed, the empress widow was left alone with Jung Lu, who was her closest confidante for 40 years. Jung Lu admits that, contrary to orders, he did not have Kang executed. He campaigns for reconciliation with the emperor, against the illegal takeover of the reign and against the murderous burning of the boxers under Prince Tuan. The Dowager Empress instructs him to turn Yuan-shi-kai away from the Emperor.

II. Act

Fourth picture

Study in the British Legation. Viceroy Jung Lu has banned boxers, but they continue to be up to mischief. The British government encourages Envoy Ormond to support the Reform Party. Instead, he calls in naval troops to fend off an impending attack by the Chinese.

Fifth picture

Emperor's Pavilion. The emperor appoints Yuan-shi-kai as the new viceroy and sends him to Tientsin, where he is supposed to execute the previous viceroy Jung Lu. After his return he is supposed to occupy the palace, capture the Dowager Empress and intern her on the island in the Western Sea.

Sixth picture

While the emperor is waiting for Yuan-shi-kai to return, the empress widow invades him. Yuan-shi-kai betrayed the Emperor's plans to the Empress Dowager, and she accuses the Emperor: “You have raised your arm against Us. We cut it off, your arm. ”(94) She banishes the emperor to the island intended for her and forces him to transfer rule to her by means of a rescript.

III. act

The act takes place from the summer of 1900.

Seventh picture

Room in Prince Tuan's house. The merchant Shih visits Prince Tuan and offers him and his boxers the financing of their fight against the foreigners. Jung Lu comes unexpectedly and warns Prince Tuan of the foreigners' revenge after the boxers murdered the German envoy. Jung Lu implores the prince to evacuate the city, but the prince refuses. Meanwhile the chief eunuch arrives and announces Jung Lu's deposition as viceroy.

Right: the three-year-old Emperor Puyi (1906–1967), left: his father and his little brother, photo 1909.

Eighth picture

Study in the British Legation. The Legation Quarter is under fire from the boxers. They all flee to the well-fortified British embassy. The British envoy Ormond and the Perners, whose house has been destroyed, are eagerly awaiting relief from the troops of the Europeans. They are finally there, five miles from the embassy.

Ninth picture

Throne hall of the Empress Dowager. The soldiers of the foreigners are about to conquer the Forbidden City. Jung Lu, ostracized as a traitor, took up the fight against Prince Tuan's boxer to save the ambassadors. The empress widow receives the rehabilitated Jung Lu, who wants to protect her and the emperor from being attacked by foreigners. Jung Lu urges the Empress Dowager to flee incognito with the Emperor to the province and remain there until he, Jung Lu, has negotiated the conditions for their return with the foreigners.

Tenth picture

Reception room in the British Legation. Ormond was slightly injured while defending the legation. Jung Lu comes unexpectedly. He asks Ormond to save the city from destruction. This transmits the request to the British troops.

Eleventh picture

Throne hall of the Empress Dowager. The Dowager Empress has returned from her escape. She banishes Prince Tuan and rehabilitates Weng. She appoints Jung Lu's three-year-old grandson as Reich heir, and the dying Jung Lu gives him his blessing.

background

The stage directions for the play are unusually detailed and describe the set, furniture, costumes and customs in great detail. It can therefore be assumed that Bruno Frank studied Chinese culture and the history of the boxer rebellions in detail before writing the play.

Bruno Frank's mother-in-law Fritzi Massary was the operetta diva of the Weimar Republic. Towards the end of the 1920s she switched from operetta to comedy. In 1939 she emigrated to Beverly Hills near Los Angeles in the USA, where she lived in the house of her daughter Liesl and her son-in-law Bruno Frank. Since moving there, she has not been involved. With his play “The Forbidden City”, Bruno Frank intended to bring his mother-in-law a comeback in the USA: she was supposed to play the role of the Empress Dowager. The English translation of the play was provided by the Chinese writer and translator Lin Yutang . Los Angeles did not have any major theaters, most likely New York offered the opportunity to win a stage for the play. Albrecht Joseph , who was friends with Bruno Frank and lived in Los Angeles, wrote about the unsuccessful attempts by Bruno Frank's wife Liesl to stage the play in New York:

Bruno had written a piece for her [Fritzi Massary] that was based on the person of the Empress Dowager Ts'e-Hsi , ruler of China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Liesl put all her energies into getting it performed in New York, and the Theater Guild seemed interested too. But the staging would have been expensive and the risk of starring an English-speaking foreigner was apparently too great.

Quotes

• [About US President] How can one enjoy respect that the people vote for and dismiss? His ancestors are not with him. (30)
• [About the US President] There the people exalt themselves in the one man. He lives in a modest little house, the gates of which are always open. Anyone can come in, take their hand and speak to him. So he knows what is going on in people's hearts. (31)
• Kang: The circumstances, I dare hope, excuse the assault. - Weng: The law is above the circumstances. That is his point. (39)
• Fight and bloodshed are necessary evils, entrusted to men of raw nature. (40)
• Kaiser: How should resistance show against laws that are intended for the happiness of the people? - Kang: Not everyone, sir, immediately recognizes their best. (40–41)
• Not every ear is made to receive reason. (60)
• The law is threatened. - You can't protect it by breaking it. (61)
• It is the oldest, most boring advice in the world, at which everyone yawns: go the middle way. (64)
• Write clearly and forcefully. And briefly. Long dispatches are never read properly. (73)
• Great things never happen exactly as they are planned. (89)
• Yes, the starry canopy has its limits, but human stupidity does not. (121)
• You can only do what you always do when you've done something stupid: trust in a miracle. (123)
• “What do you care”, it is written, “whether people know you. Make sure you recognize them! "(137)
• If the hour is not ripe, you cannot hear. (138)
• People are the same everywhere. Let ambitious agitators whip up the popular masses over the sea in our countries - and the same thing happens. We're both too old to believe in peoples. (148)

Printouts

• The forbidden city. Acting in a prologue and eight pictures. Stage manuscript. Berlin: Felix Bloch Erben, 1951, pdf .
• Forbidden City. A Play in Three Acts by Bruno Frank. Rendered into English from the German and adapted by Lin Yutang . Unpublished manuscript, 1940. Liesl Frank-Mittler estate, Bavarian literature portal .

literature

• Frank, Bruno. In: Renate Heuer (editor): Lexicon of German-Jewish authors. Archive Bibliographia Judaica, Volume 7: Feis – Frey, Munich 1999, Pages 250–268, here: 268.
• Harold von Hofe: Literature in exile: Bruno Frank. In: The German quarterly , year 18, issue 2, March 1945, pages 86–92, here: 90.
• Albrecht Joseph: Portraits I. Carl Zuckmayer - Bruno Frank. Aachen 1993, pages 245-313, here: 288-289.
• Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work. Düsseldorf: Grupello, 2009, pages 294–295.
• Konrad Umlauf: exile, terror, illegality: the aesthetic processing of political experiences in selected German-language novels from exile 1933–1945. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1982, page 111.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Weng Tonghe.
2. ^ Ronglu, court name Zhonghua.
3. ↑ Zaiyi, Title: Prince Duan.
4. ↑ # Circulation 1982 .
5. ↑ # Frank 1951 .
6. ↑ #Frank 1940 , #Hofe 1945 .
7. ↑ #Kirchner 2009 , pages 294–295.
8. ↑ # Joseph 1993 .