Shōkun (Nō)

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Scene from "Beauty and the Barbarian"

Shōkun ( Japanese 昭君 ), Chinese Zhāojūn, the beautiful and the barbarian , is the title of a Nō drama. The author of the legend is unknown. There are different versions, such as Zeami and Zenchiku . The piece is a fifth game within the Nō category.

Preliminary remark

The piece goes back to a Chinese legend: Wang Zhāojūn was a lady-in-waiting of Emperor Yuandi . When China made peace with the Huns after long struggles, the Huns asked a lady-in-waiting of the emperor to his wife as pledge for loyalty. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the choice fell on Zhāojūn, who finally died lonely in a foreign country.

  • Waki: A traveler
  • Tsure: The mother of the Zhāojūn, Wang-mu (王母)
  • Kogata: The spirit of the Zhāojūn
  • Shite I: The father of the Zhāojūn, Baitao (白桃, white peach)
  • Shite II: The spirit of the Hun King Kokanya Zennu

action

  1. act
    1. Prelude: (A young willow stands on the stage with a mirror next to it.) A traveler appears with his name, who wants to visit the parents of the Zhāojūn. Attribution.
    2. The father and mother of the Zhāojūn appear with an orchestral sound. The parents speak of their daughter, whose fate they lament with singing.
    3. Exchange speech between the two. They sweep the yard and the space around the pasture. The father recites: "It's too hard, let's rest a little."
    4. The traveler appears and asks the father why he is keeping the soil clean under the willow. The father explains that Zhāojūn planted this willow before she had to move to the Huns. She said, “If I die in the Huns, this willow will die too.” The story follows, largely performed by the choir, of how Zhāojūn was elected from among the 3000 palace ladies for the sake of the empire and sent to the distant barbarian land. Exchange speech between father and mother. The speech comes to the mirror, which is brought out, in which the daughter appears. Choir.
    5. Interlude
  2. act
    1. The spirit of the Zhāojūn emerges from the mirror with an orchestral sound. Attribution. The ghost of the Hun King Zennu appears with the rapid sound of the flute. Exchange speech between the two. Zhāojūn tells him to look in the mirror. The Hun does it and backs away in shock. Dance of the Hun King. Choir: "Disgraceful figure ...". (The spirit of the King of the Huns resigns.) Final chorus. "... Even in the clear mirror of the realm of the dead, which reflects guilt and sin, the crystal-clear picture remains unclouded ...".

literature

  • Donald Keene (Ed.): Shōkun. In: Twenty Plays of the Nō Theater. Columbia University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-231-03455-5 .
  • Peter Weber-Schäfer: The beautiful and the barbarian . In: Twenty-four Nō games. Insel Verlag, 1961. ISBN 3-458-15298-X . Pp. 175 to 182.
  • Hermann Bohner: Shō-kun In: Nō. The individual Nō. German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Tōkyō 1956. Commission publisher Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. Pp. 613 to 616.