Throughout his creative life as a poet and playwright, Guo Moruo (1892-1978) demonstrated his infatuation with history.
In his early works, he created figures from history and legends who would rather sacrifice everything, including their life, for justice, righteousness, freedom and the lofty goals of the country.
Guo's most representative work is "Qu Yuan," which portrayed Qu Yuan (339-278 BC), the ancient statesman and poet of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
He drowned himself when he failed to convince the King of Chu to adopt his own political agenda to save the State.
Female historical figures have always stood out among the protagonists in his plays and short works. These include Zhuo Wenjun, who against her father's wishes, escaped her wealthy background to marry a poor but talented young scholar; and Wang Zhaojun, who married a Hun prince over a monotonous and lonely life in the imperial palace.
Guo has also written about Cai Wenji, who also lived during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 221) like Zhuo Wenjun and Wang Zhaojun.
Cai Wenji, a female poet in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), was the daughter of a renowned Han Dynasty historian.
In 195 AD, 18-year-old Cai was married to a nomadic tribal prince after she was captured by the Huns.
Twelve years later, Cao Cao (155-220 AD), a noted statesman who laid the foundation for the establishment of the Wei Kingdom in the Three Kingdoms (220-280 AD), sent an envoy to ask Cai to return to central China. Cao wanted Cai to continue the work on a history book left by her father, Cai Yong, a great scholar who was killed in the war.
Moved by Cao's sincerity, Cai finally left her husband and two children and returned to her hometown in Luoyang.
"Cai Wenji is me," Guo writes in his preface to the script.
Guo's early personal experiences paralleled those of Cai in some ways.
In 1928, 36-year-old Guo left the motherland for Japan because of the chaos caused by war. He lived in exile there for nine years until he came back to plunge into the War of Resistance Against Japan for national independence in 1937. But Guo had to leave his Japanese wife behind in Japan.
Guo found he could understand Cai's feelings of exile and understand her trouble of choosing between the national interest and her own family.
In writing the play Guo had another goal to "rehabilitate" Cao Cao. For quite a long time, Chinese people considered Cao Cao as a treacherous courtier in literature and local operas, Cao is usually depicted as a negative character.
In Peking Opera, Cao Cao always has a "white face," which is a type of facial make-up used for wicked men.
But Guo thought this depiction of Cao was unfair as he had made outstanding contributions to the country's political, social and cultural development.
In the play, he changed Cao's usual image and portrayed him as a wise statesman, who tried to unite people of different ethnic groups.
(China Daily 03/30/2001)
