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Heroic, Historic, Operatic Yang Generals

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday

The patriotic deeds of valor by the Yang family of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), are recorded in China’s history, distilled in its folklore and refined in Peking Opera.

Having been celebrated by story-tellers, writers and dramatists throughout the centuries, the Yang family’s acts of self-sacrificing heroism, as performed in the folk opera The Western Expedition of 12 Widows and the Peking opera The Women Generals of the Yang Family, are unashamedly hyperbolic. Numerous other plays about the Yang family have been performed on the Peking Opera stage over past centuries, the 40 extant of which are standard repertoire items.

Mu Guiying holding high the seal of commandership in the Peking opera Mu Guiying Assumes Command.

Mu Guiying setting out on her dangerous mission of finding a secret path in a box canyon.

A scene from the Peking opera The Women Generals of the Yang Family, in which Dowager She (first left) persuades the emperor (first right) to fight off the invaders.

A scene from the Peking opera Fourth Son Visits His Mother, where Silang confesses his true identity to his wife.

The Yang Family

The “Yang Family Generals,” as they are respectfully referred to by the Chinese people, are revered for their patriotism and sworn loyalty to the emperor demonstrated in their fighting against the invading Liao Kingdom from the north and Western Xia Kingdom from the northwest. The first-generation Yang general, Yang Jiye, was married to She Saihua (In her old age, She Saihua is popularly known as Dowager She on the Peking Opera stage). The couple had seven sons and two daughters. But the Yang generals specifically honored in legend and opera were women.

The folk opera, The Western Expedition of Twelve Widows, is a true account of the 12 Yang women generals who, having lost their husbands and sons to earlier repulsions of the invading Liao Kingdom, most notably in the battle of Jinshatan, commandeered tens of thousands of Song troops to give battle in their dead husbands’ stead against the invading Western Xia. This all came about after Yang Zongbao, the sole surviving third-generation Yang male, was shot and killed while scouting behind the enemy lines. When news of his death reached the then capital of Bianliang (today’s Kaifeng), it rocked the family and the entire nation. The confidence of the ruling imperial court was so shaken that it considered appealing to the enemy for peace. Dowager She, General Yang Jiye’s centenarian widow, urged the emperor to continue fighting the enemy on the northwestern frontier, and volunteered to lead an expedition of relief troops, along with the 11 other Yang widows and Yang Zongbao’s son, Yang Wenguang. In the Peking opera, his mother Mu Guiying plays a major part in leading a surprise attack on the enemy camp while Dowager She attacks the enemy flank. The Song army attacks and defeats the enemy from within as well as without.

The Beginning of Serialized Peking Opera

This lengthy play was adapted into a series of five Peking operas, performed on consecutive evening performances, a form that became known as the “Stage Opera Serialization.” Jinshatan is the first “episode,” in which the treacherous official Pan Hong, based on an actual personage called Pan Mei, beguiles the emperor into taking a trip to Wutai Mountain, where he is immediately set upon by Liao soldiers. It is General Yang Jiye and his sons that protect the emperor in the ensuing skirmish, but his three elder sons are killed and the fourth and fifth disappear, leaving only the sixth and seventh sons to return.

In the following “episode” Li Ling Stele, treacherous Northern Song chief commander Pan Hong sends Yang Jiye and his remaining two sons deep behind enemy lines to fight an army of considerably superior force. His troops completely surrounded, General Yang Jiye sends his youngest son back to Pan Hong to ask for reinforcements. Pan Hong refuses and furthermore has the seventh Yang son killed on the pretext that he has violated military discipline. In desperation, the Yang patriarch sends his sixth son to the capital asking for reinforcements. They are eventually overwhelmed and General Yang Jiye, refusing to be captured alive, takes his own life by dashing his head against the Li Ling Stele.

The whereabouts of the fourth son, Yang Silang, who disappeared in the Jinshatan Battle, are recounted in the Peking opera, The Fourth Son Visiting His Mother. After losing contact with his troops and brothers, Yang Silang finds himself in Liao territory. He disguises himself as Mu Yi – two characters that if combined read Yang. The reigning empress dowager of the Liao Kingdom marries this handsome young man, well-schooled and an excellent exponent of martial arts, to her daughter. Fifteen years later, war breaks out between the Northern Song and Liao, and Yang Jiye’s widow Dowager She leads the Song army to the frontier. Longing to see his mother, Yang Silang confesses the secret of his identity to his loving princess wife. She steals a pass tally from her mother and urges Silang to go but to return before daybreak. Dowager She is so happy to see her lost son that out of gratitude to her princess daughter-in-law she does not try to persuade him to join her forces and bids Silang return the same night as arranged.

The third “episode” The Brothers Meet on Wutai Mountain tells of the fifth son Wulang, who, having survived battle, feels jaded at the ruthless political intrigues of the imperial court and enters a monastery on the mountain. Many years later, his younger brother, Liulang, stays one night on the same mountain on his way to reclaim his father’s mortal remains from Liao territory. The two meet, but as both Liulang and Wulang have changed so much it is some time before they finally recognize each other. By the time they do, Liao troops in pursuit of Liulang arrive at the foot of the mountain. After fending off and defeating the enemy, the two brothers part, Wulang to his monastery, but he still fears for the safety of his country. The Heavenly Gate Formation, next play in the series, sees Yang Wulang go down the mountain, at the request of his brother Yang Liulang, to help break the enemy’s military Heavenly Gate Formation. They win, but never return to their home.

History or Legend?

General Yang Jiye did leave a widow called She Saihua, but no record indicates that she lived to be a centenarian, or that she went into battle at this advanced age. As regards Yang Jiye himself, history records his having fought until his steed died under him. When, seriously wounded, the Liao army captured him, but the general refused to surrender and went on hunger strike until his death three days later. In order to satisfy the idealistic public, however, in the Peking opera Li Ling Stele General Yang Jiye achieves martyrdom by dashing his head against a stele, as this seems more heroic.

There is no mention of Mu Guiying, the name of Yang Zongbao’s wife in the Peking Opera and folk dramatizations, in any existing historical document. Yet her vivid characterizations on the folk opera stage have exerted a much stronger influence on the Chinese people than any actual historic female figure. To this author, Mu Guiying seems to be a personification of the young Dowager She, who on the folk opera stage is always portrayed as in her later years.

The treacherous Pan Hong character was based on Pan Mei, who was probably far less of a villain than as portrayed in the Peking opera Li Ling Stele. It is actually another official named Wang Shen, who was of a much lower rank than Pan Mei, that has since been held directly accountable for Yang Jiye’s death and the Yangs’ defeat. The imperial court took no further action in this case than to administer light punishment to Pan Mei and Wang Shen. The common people, however, were incensed that Pan Mei, who was the highest commander of the military mission, should get off so lightly. It was to satisfy them that, in the fourth of this “Stage Opera Serial” Interrogating Pan Hong (Shen Pan Hong), Pan Hong is depicted as cowardly traitor who meets a duly sticky end.

The Yanmen Pass in Shanxi’s Daixian County, one of the many strategic fortresses where the Yang family generals were stationed.

The family

The opera stage in the Yang Family Memorial Temple in Hunan’s Fengxian County, where members of the Yang clan are believed to be descendants of Yang Liulang.

Wuye (Master No. 5) Temple on Wutai Mountain, where Yang Wulang sought retreat in Buddhism.

Shanxi’s Daixian County is where the Yang troops once stationed and in Lutijian Village, 20 kilometers from the county seat, live many villagers named Yang, all of whom claim descendancy from Yang Jiye, who is enshrined in the village temple. Folk operas are performed as part of the annual commemoration of the Yang family heroes on an open stage opposite the memorial temple. All the folk operas that celebrate the Yang family are performed other than Jinshatan, as Lutijian villagers profess sadness at witnessing even the death of their venerable ancestors.