183 Beijing Operas - Zheng Lun - Number 1

Zheng Lun

Beijing Opera - "Green Dragon Pass"

Zheng Lun with a green pointed three-tile face in Green Dragon Pass, an opera based on an episode in the novel Canonization of the Gods. This novel, written in the Ming dynasty, tells of the struggles between the rulers of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but the plots and characters are mostly fictitious. Gods, fairies, and other supernatural beings, fighting each other with magic and magic weapons, dominate many of the stories. The novel begins with the political turmoil that engulfed the last years of the Shang dynasty and the uprising led by King Wu of Zhou and ends with the canonizing of gods by Jiang Ziya, a prime minister of Zhou.

Green Dragon Pass was a strategic spot hotly contested by the Shang and Zhou armies. Zheng Lun was a general under King Wen, the father of King Wu. In the opera he is sent to attack Green Dragon Pass defended by Sang general Qiu Yin. Although not a god, Zheng Lun has the power of exhaling white smoke to conceal himself. His adversary also possesses magic powers, so neither can defeat the other. In the end Zheng Lun captures the pass with the help of the gods.