The Jade Hairpin (Bi Yu Zan)
Overview. The Jade Hairpin (Bi Yu Zan) was written and first performed by Cheng Yanqiu in 1924, a milestone in his artistic career.
Synopsis. Since rising to fame Cheng Yanqiu had devoted himself to innovation, and before the age of twenty already had more than ten new "private" plays to his name — among them The Green Frost Sword, The Tale of the Red Duster, and The Golden Lock — all great successes. Yet those plays were mostly written by Luo Yinggong, with tunes created by the "Heaven-Reaching Patriarch" Wang Yaoqing, so Cheng was not in the leading creative role. In 1924 Luo Yinggong fell ill and died; his unfinished work The Jade Hairpin was continued by Jin Zhongsun. When Cheng later went to Wang Yaoqing to have the tunes composed, Wang refused with the words "this is nothing but a Tianqiao fairground play." Luo Yinggong had been Cheng's patron and remaker; how could Cheng abandon his mentor's last work? In a fit of pique he took the script back and composed the tunes himself — and it became a classic handed down through the ages. Thus The Jade Hairpin, more than any of his earlier works, embodied Cheng Yanqiu's own artistry, and marked the beginning of his deep personal involvement in creation. From then on every new play was composed and staged by him personally, achieving still greater heights and a sharper character, befitting a founder who opened his own school.
Artistic Features. A Cheng-school (chengpai) dan masterpiece, celebrated for its refined and melancholy melody and its unbroken, sobbing vocal line.
Why Watch. The Jade Hairpin stands as the clearest proof of Cheng Yanqiu's artistic independence — the play through which he began composing his own tunes and shaped the Cheng style.
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