Dou E Yuan, commonly translated as The Injustice of Dou E, is the masterpiece of Guan Hanqing, a playwright during the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1271-1368 ). The full Chinese title of the play is Gan Tiang Dong Di Dou E Yuan, which translates to The Injustice of Dou E That Touched Heaven and Earth.
This story was about Dou E, a young woman from Chuzhou, who was wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt court official and sentenced to death. Dou E Yuan was a traditional Chinese drama staged in about 86 Chinese operas. Today, the phrase “snowing in June” is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for the miscarriage of justice.
Dou E lost her mother when she was a child. Her father, Dou Tianzhang, was a poor scholar. In order to raise money for his journey to the capital to sit for the imperial examination, he was forced to borrow 5 gold pieces from a widow, Cai Po. After one year, the debt of the 5 gold pieces escalated to 10. Dou Tianzhang could not repay the debt and was forced to sell his daughter to the Cai family as a child bride. After she grew up, she married into the Cai family. Her husband died two years after their marriage, leaving her and her mother-in-law behind to depend on each other.
After one year, the debt of the 5 gold pieces escalated to 10. (Image: via Flickr)
Zhang Lu’er tries to force Dou E to marry him
One day, she and her mother-in-law were bullied by an unscrupulous physician and, by coincidence, were saved by the hooligan Zhang Lu’er and his father. Zhang offered to “protect” them and moved into their house against their will. Zhang tried to force Dou E to marry him, but she refused.
Cai Po fell ill one day, and Dou E prepared soup for her mother-in-law. Zhang Lu’er plotted to murder Cai Po by putting poison in the soup so that when the mother-in-law died, he could force her to marry him. However, Cai Po vomited and did not drink the soup. Zhang’s father unknowingly drank the soup instead and died from poisoning. Zhang then framed Dou E for murdering his father.
She was arrested and brought before the prefecture governor, whom Zhang bribed. She was subject to cruel tortures to force her to confess to the crime. The kind-hearted Dou E did not want her mother-in-law to be implicated, so she admitted to the murder and was sentenced to death by beheading.
Dou E is executed
In the sixth lunar month (midsummer), she was brought to the execution ground. Before the execution, she wanted a white chain to be hung on the flagpole. She swore that if she was innocent and after she died, her blood would not drip onto the ground but instead splash onto the white chain on the flagpole. This would be followed by heavy snowfall in midsummer, and three feet of snow would cover her body. Chuzhou also experienced a drought for three years.
Chuzhou also experienced a drought for three years. (Image: via Pixabay)
After the knife fell, not even a drop of blood spilled on the ground, but instead splashed onto the white chain on the flagpole. Dark clouds covered the sky, and there was snowfall followed by drought in Chuzhou for three years.
Years later, Dou E’s father, Dou Tianzhang, became a government official after passing his imperial examination. He was assigned to Chuzhou to check on the situation. On his arrival at Chuzhou, he found that there had not been a drop of rain in the past three years, and he suspected there must be some case of grievances. One night, while he was going through Dou E’s case, her soul appeared before her father. She told his father about her grievances. Dou Tianzhang ordered a reinvestigation of the case, and the truth finally came to light. She was posthumously proclaimed innocent. Zhang Lu’er was given the death penalty, and the prefecture governor was dismissed from his post.
Chinese people still remember Dou E’s story after hundreds of years. They admire the traditional drama, which reveals the important moral concept of good and evil, grievances and oath
Translated by Chua BC
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