272 Beijing Opera Performers - Hao Wen - Number 72

Hao Wen

Beijing Opera - "Dongchang Prefecture"

Hao Wen with a white monk face plays a leading role in the list-opera "Dongchang Prefecture," adapted from a story in "Magistrate Shi's Casebook." Hao Wen is the son of Hao Shilong, an outlaw of Dongchang Prefecture. He has become a monk in the Xuantan Temple, but learning that a cousin of his has been executed by the authorities vows to avenge the death. One day when Magistrate Shi Shilun is passing by the temple, Hao Wen kidnaps him and holds him in his father's house. Law officer Huang Tianba, hearing of this, enters the Hao family's home at night, pretending that he has been engaged to Hao Wen's daughter Suyi. He frees the magistrate and arrests both Hao Wen and his father, but Hao Wen's daughter escapes.