Today performance by Ming Hua Yuan is really awesome. The stage is very well-done, i will try to take a photo of the stage on Sat where we had again bought advanced tickets. The lead actress, 鄭雅升, did a great performance.
The starting of the performance is the 三仙大会. As today is Ming Huan yuan first performance, they are required to have a opening ceremony. There are performances by the 'Fu Lu Shou - 福禄寿, eight immorals - 八仙， Faires and monkey god. After those dances and performances, the scholar and the wife must invited the opera god to be sit at the main altar at the Cheng Huang temple. Next, the organiser of the opera gave a rather long speech and the opera performers gave some sweets and posters to the front audiences.
Then the start of the offical opera:刘全进瓜
Here is the story:
Liu Quan took part in the imperial exam but failed to win any posts in the top 3 position. He was very resentful of his cousin-in-law whom took the 探花 - 3rd place in the exam。Liu Quan had a virtue wife called 李翠莲。Unfortunately, Liu Quan blamed her for his bad luck in the exam.
Meanwhile, back in Hell, the ten lords of hell needed to go to 九华山 to meet the head of hell, 地蒇王菩萨. Being ghosts, they cannot stand in the sun so they needed to travel using umbrella. The 10 lords met with their head as they were unsure what to do with the Tang emperor whom save the dragon king. The dragon king later created havoc in the earth by floods. The head had mentioned that the ten lords should leave the emperor alone. Then they had a wine celebration in the mountain. One by one, the rest of the 9 lords returned to hell. The last lord is called 转轮王. The 10th lord was very drunk and so he took a nap in the garden. When he woke up, he realised that it was morning. He tried to reach for his umbrella but it blew away. Just then, Liu Quan appeared and the 10th lord asked him to retrive the umbrella which Liu did. The 10th lord being grateful to Liu wanted to be swore brother with Liu. Liu in order not to offend the lord agreed too.
Liu wife's Cuilian saved a woman in the ghost forest. As a result, the resenful ghost cannot be reborn as that ghost was looking for a 替死鬼. Back at Home, a monk appeared at their doorstep and warned Cuilian that the ghost will took her life in replacement for that woman cuilian saved. The monk gave Cuilian a charm and warned her not to remove it from their doorstep.
Just then, Cuilian cousin arrived. He had just won the 3 spot in the imperial exam. When Liu quan returned home, he was very angry with Cuilian for being too close to her cousin. Cuilina cousin left because of Liu's disapproval. Liu quan scolded cuilian for inviting her cousin home and chased her away. He also tore the charms away.
The ghost arrived and forced Cuilian to hang herself. Liu was very regrettful when he knew of his wife's death.
The monk appeared at Cuilian grave and scolded liu that the ghost was able to enter the house because the charm were removed. Liu said that he wished to meet the ghost of his wife so the monk suggested that Liu can helped the tang emperor to give melons to hell. The Tang emperor was grateful that the head of hell helped him so he promised to give melons for the lords. Unfortunately, he cannot find anyone willing to go to hell to deliver the melons. Liu agreed immediately.
At the palace, Liu drank a poison wine and died. At the third watch of the night, the papar dolls become alive and liu's spirt came out of his body too. Together, They entered hell.
The 10 lords welcomed Liu with warmth. The melons were given. Liu asked for the lords to allow him to see his wife. The lords agreed for him to see his wife for only 10 seconds. Liu was very upset and ran after his wife. Liu went to a closed city called wrongful death city.
Liu met the 10th lord whom gave him a magical weapon that can beat ghosts.The 10th lord also taught Liu how to escape from hell. Liu used the weapon to force into the city. The wife came out together with other female ghosts but liu chased them away.
The other 9th lord appeared and tried to stop liu but were forced to retreat because of the magical weapon. Liu took his wife away. The head of hell appeared and liu had a fight with him.
Liu and his wife then escaped to the reincarnation wheel 转轮台.The 10th lord found liu and explained that there are 6 cycles for this wheel - the animals cycle, the fish cycle, the human cycle, the bird cycle (not too sure of the other two cycles). The 10th lord said that this cycle now is the bird cycle and the human cycle was only ready in 3 days time. Liu and his wife decided to jump into the wheel too as the other 9 lords were going to catch them.
Just then, the other 9 lords came. Liu fought again. The head of the hell also arrived. the 10th lord saved liu. Liu took his wife to jump into the wheel where both were reincarnated as birds.
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红尘菩堤 - 5/1/08
Today story is about 济公 and the Song empire.
The story begin where the old song emperor and the zhou king were fighting. Both were about to lose when their pregnant wives saved them. Both wives fought and went into labour at the war field. Their husbands went to look for them and both gave birth to a boy each. Song emperor son was named "宋伯敬 and 赵.( I had forgotten what is his name now, i think i am getting bit of old)
After the birth, the Song emperor and the zhou king continued to fight. Song emperor was badly injured by the zhou king while the song soldiers managed to snatch baby zhou away from his mother. The badly injured emperor instructed his queen, Lu to take good care of his enemy's son so that in future, song and zhou can be friends. The old song emperor then died.
20 years later, both song and zhou had grew up. Bojing become the emperor of Song while zhou was only a prince although zhou was the older brother. In truth, Bojing was the only true blood of the Song empire but zhou was not aware of his birth nor his own parents.
Both of the royal brothers loved the girl, 莲 （Lian). Bojing expressed his love for Lian but lian only love zhou.
The border passed news to the queen mother, Lu that the zhou king was creating problems in the border again. Zhou offered to go to war but Lu wanted bojing to accompany him as well.
In the war, Bojing was defended and captured by zhou king. Zhou managed to avoid being attacked by the zhou's soldiers wolves because the wolves recongised the blood in zhou was the same as its master, the zhou king. Zhou went back to find his mother, Lu. On the influence of the court officers and Zhou's, Lu had no choice but to annonuce zhou to be the new emperor but lu wanted zhou to return the title back to bojing if he came home.
Bojing was bought to the zhou king and told them that his older brother zhou would saved him. When zhou king heard the name of zhou, he realised that this person was his son. He and his wife then hurried to Song area wishing to find their son.
While zhou king and his wife were out, a dancer named 庆 helped bojing to escape. They went to a temple and wanted to seek help from the monks. One of the monks was Jigong. Ji gong advised bojing not to ask for the impossible, that is not to went back to his old house, the palace. Bojing was still unaware that his older brother, zhou is the new emperor.
Just then, there was a loud annoucement outside the temple that the emperor was coming to pray in the temple Jigong asked bojing and qing to hide. The emperor, zhou then entered the temple. Zhou asked for bojing safely. On hearing this, bojing came out of his hiding place and wanted to hug zhou. Zhou was too shocked to react and left the temple in a hurry. Bojing and Qing chased him. Zhou soldiers advised zhou to murder bojing so that zhou can remained the emperor. Zhou on seeing bojing then ordered the excursion of bojing but jigong helped bojing to escape. Jigong asked bojing and Liu to become beggers to earn a living as both their lives were at risk. bojing agreed.
Zhou gave chase to the temple. When the abbot of the temple was unable to reveal where jigong was, zhou ordered the burning of the temple but promised the abbot 80 thousand dollars as reward. Being greedy, the abbot agreed to burn his own temple.
Zhou then left. Jigong appeared in front of his abbot and told him that the zhou emperor would not keep his word. Jigong suggested that if both of them sold dog meat, they can raise money for a new temple.
So Jigong and his abbot went to xi hu (West Lake) to sell dog meat. In the meantime, both zhou's queen and Lu (song queen) had a strange dream that a monk can help them find their sons if they went to West lake to look for a monk selling dog meat. They both appeared at the West Lake and met jigong. Jigong asked them if they wanted smaller bowl or bigger bowl of dog meat. Bigger bowl would meant 80 thousand dollars. Lu on hearing this wanted to pay for a bigger portion of the supposed dog meat. Jigong then asked Lu to go to the beggers' area to find bojing. When ZHou king saw that jigong was not a normal monk, he also wanted Jigong to give him a bigger bowl but jigong refused. Jigong said that even if they looked for their son, their son would not acknowledge them. Jigong used a magical wind to send zhou king and his wife to find zhou. As what jigong mentioned, zhou refused to acknowledge his own parants and tried to kill them too. Jigong appeared and stopped the fight.
Jigong then told zhou king that it was all his fault as he had occupied Song's land. To gain back his son, he had to give up song's land to song. Zhou king then agreed.
Back in Song palace, Zhou refused to return the throne to bojing. When Queen Lu revealed that zhou was not her son, zhou refused to believe her too. Bojing then escaped. However, zhou gave chase. On his escape, bojing met zhou king and his wife whom gave up song's land to him. Zhou then asked his soldiers to capture bojing. However, jigong appeared.
Zhou refused to accept his parents so jigong asked zhou king to leave. Before leaving, zhou king soldiers kneeled before zhou and bow to him, telling him that the zhou soldiers are always loyal to their own people. Zhou king's wife asked zhou to take care. On seeing them about to leave, zhou cannot bear the seperation and yelled out his parents. The whole family were then happily reunited.
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马车夫与小逋快 7/1/08
Today story begin with a 7 low ranking magistrate, called Guo and his wife, Xu was robbed. Both were rescused by a constable named Hua Zhan. Having saved the magistrate, Both Hua Zhan vowed to serve the new magistrate well.
Hua Zhan had two very beautiful daughter, the eldest daughter was called Hua Yue Chan and the youngest daughter was called Hua Yue Fang. Hua Yue Chan loved a slave named Liu Feng Yang. However, Hua Zhan objected to this relationship as Hua Zhan thought that Liu Feng Yang was too poor. Liu Feng Yang become a slave of the Hua Family as his father died while still teaching the young Hua daughters. Out of goodwill, the Hua father kept Liu Feng Yang as his house slave.
One day, Hua Yue Chan told her father that she only wanted Liu Feng Yang to be her husband. However, his father strongly dissaproved and told his daughter that he will never accept Liu as his son-in-law. This was overheard by Liu and he decided to run away. On his way out, Liu met Yue chan's younger sister, Yue Fang. Yue Fang then rushed to inform her sister that Liu was running away.
Yue Chan chased after Liu and vowed to be wife with him and followed him despite his provety. Hua Zhan appeared suddenly and tried to stop them. However, Yue Chan only wanted to eloped with Liu so Hua Zhan cannot do anything about it.
Yue Fang secretly passed her own saving to Liu for him to start a new life with her sister.
2 Years later, Liu was the richest businessman in the city of Chao Xing. Yue Chan was also pregnant with their first child. Liu was out on a business trip when he met a heavy thunderstorm. He planned to take shelter in a 亭 but saw a woman inside it. Being a honest guy, he decided not to go into the shelter for fear that the woman reputation would be ruined. The woman was deeply touched when she saw this. When the rain stopped, Liu left.
The woman was in fact Justice Bao Wife. She told her husband about this incident.
Liu approached a 马车夫 named bao hei to ask him to take him back to Chao Xing as his wife was near child birth. On their way, they learnt that Justice Bao was on tour outside the city. No one was to pass the countryside where Justice Bao would be passing. Being anxious that the whole tour might took 8 hours, Liu asked Bao Hei to rush toward the way and hopefully, they can avoid passing into Justice Bao. They were not so lucky as their horse knocked into Justice Bao.
Justice Bao asked for 20 canes when he heard that Bao Hei had rushed the horse into his way despite the early warning that no one must pass by this road. Liu however asked to share Bao Hei canning as he felt he was responsible for asking boa hei to rush. Bao Hei was canned 10 stokes. When Liu was about to be canned, the pole used to cane him broke into two. Justice boa then asked if Liu had done any good deed recent days. Liu recalled that he had allowed a woman to take shelter without sharing the shelter with him. Justice bao then knew this guy was the man his wife mentioned. Justice boa was very grateful to Liu and decided to be brothers with Liu. They then parted ways.
Boa Hei and Liu went to take a rest in a inn. While Bao Hei was parking his horse, Liu suddenly saw Hua Zhan in the same inn. Hua Zhan was shocked to see Liu so well dressed up. When Hua Zhan saw Liu with $4000 in his bag, he become even more shocked. He asked Liu for how he become so rich. Liu told him that he had used Hua Zhan second daughter saving to start his own business and was now the most wealthest man in Chao Xing. Hua Zhan then purposely asked Liu to go back to his town.
In the forest, Hua Zhan murdered Liu. The murder was seen by Bao Hei whom had went to find Liu after finding him missing in the inn.
Yue Chan knew of Her husband death. Bao Hei then appeared and told her that the cconstable that appeared earlier was the murderer. Yue Chan was shocked as that constable was her own father. Her own father had murdered her husband.
She seek justice with magistrate Guo but The case was rejected due to lack of evidence. In fact, although Yue Chan had a piece of her father cloth as evidence, as the magistrate and Hua Zhan were of close relationship, the case was rejected just like this.
Yue Chan fainted on the street and was saved by Justice Bao. Justice Bao heard of Yue Chan case and told her to raise the case again on the 3 of May. Justice Bao said that he will dressed as normal ppl in the street to view how the corrupted magistrate had deal with Yue Chan case. Yue Chan then left.
Unkown to Justice Boa, his advisor went to find Gou and Hua Zhan and told them of Justice Bao plan. As Both Guo and Zhan did not seen Justice Bao before, the advisor gave a description of Justice Bao look. Guo and Zhan then search the city for Justice Bao. When they saw Bao Hei, they thought they had found the right person and bought him back. Guo and Zhan sweet talked and tried to use money for the fake justice bao.
Bao Hei was suddenly justice bao. He went on court on 3 of May. When Yue Chan tried to sue her father, Guo and Zhan thought they had the upper hand. Both turned black into white and tried to overturn every evidence against them. However, Boa Hei suddenly spoke - he managed to claim justice for Yue Chan as bao Hei was also a honest guy . He executed Guo for corruption and executed Hua Zhan for murder with the help of the real Justice bao whom taught him how. When Yue Chan saw Bao Hei, she realised that Bao Hei was the guy in the forest but she did not call him in the court. Justice bao then revealed to Bao Hei that a guy was dressed as him too. Bao Hei knew that justice bao was addressing to him but Justice bao allowed bao hei to play his role to the end of the day.
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