272 Beijing Opera Performers - Si Mashi - Number 173

Si Mashi

Beijing Opera - "Iron Cage Mountain"

Sima Shi with a flowered red-cross face stars in "Iron Cage Mountain." The eldest son of Si Ma Yi, a brilliant, but evil warlord, he became supreme commander of the Wei armies after his father's death. In the list-opera he is defeated by the Shu general Jiang Wei and encircled on Iron Cage Mountain where there is only one spring with a small trickle of water. When he offers up prayers and sacrifices to the spring, it begins to flow profusely, saving him and his men from dying of thirst. Subsequently, Mi Dang, king of the Western Qiang, an ethnic minority, arrives at the head of a large army to assist Jiang Wei, but Wei general Chen Tai, a friend of Mi Dang's, persuaded him to change his alliance. Together they totally defeat Jiang Wei and force him to retreat from the mountain.