The Story of the Haunted Grave Mound

Abstract

The purpose of the First International Academic Symposium on Chinese Traditional Opera, xiqu 戲曲, held in Beijing in April 1987 was the further integration of xiqu into world theater, both in terms of research and stage practice. When the symposium was over, Professor Wu Xiaoling 吳曉玲 and representatives of cultural institutions of Hebei invited all of the foreign participants to attend the unveiling of a stone tablet at the tomb of Guan Hanqing 關漢卿. Until then, none of us had even heard of the existence of that dramatist’s grave. He probably died somewhere between 1310-1324, had written zaju 雜劇 for the popular theater, and lived in the Pleasure Precincts of Kublai Khan’s capital, thereby confining himself to the very fringes of society. We were told that the grave was near Anguo 安國. In the event, only Cyril Birch and I could avail ourselves of Wu’s invitation. We traveled about 240 kilometers south to the town of Anguo in Hebei Province, where we passed through its large marketplace full of stalls smelling of medicinal herbs. We were informed that Anguo had, since time immemorial, been one of the largest trading centers for medicinal herbs in China. This caught my attention and I remembered the well known statement in the Register of Ghosts (Lugui bu 錄鬼簿) published in the middle of the 14th century, that appears under Guan Hanqing’s name, that he “was a man of Dadu, clerk in the office of the Grand Physician,” as James Crump translated it, remarking that his status was “something as lofty, it seems, as an orderly in the U.S. Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland.” Nevertheless, this is one of the sparse facts to have come down to us concerning this great dramatist. To this day, medicinal herbs are purchased wholesale in Anguo, even by Japanese. Providing that Guan Hanqing was associated with medicine, it is fitting that his home town should be an herbal marketplace. We visited the Temple of Pi Tong, God of Drugs (Yaowang Pi Tong 藥王丕彤) on the outskirts of Anguo, where a small Guan Hanqing Memorial Hall has recently been opened to the public. It was established by the Office for the Upkeep of Memorials and presents relics of material culture from Wuren Village (Wuren cun 伍人村), the small village fifteen kilometers south of Anguo that is the alleged actual birthplace of Guan Hanqing. There was also a map of the village and its environs, showing the former location of Guan’s family home and of their burial field. On exhibit were also reliefs from the Tang (618-906) period