183 Beijing Operas - Huyan Qing - Number 135

Huyan Qing

Beijing Opera - "Huyan Qing Takes Up the Challenge"

Huyan Qing with a rubbed-in black broken-flower face plays a part in the opera "Huyan Qing Takes Up the Challenge," based on an episode in "Romance of the Huyan Family Generals with Golden Whips."

This is a story of the Song dynasty. Two great families, the Huyans and Ouyangs, were enemies because Ouyang Fang, Song prime minister and head of the Ouyang family, had executed a senior member of the Huyan family. Ouyang Fang's daughter was married to Pang Wen, a court official with great power whose daughter was a royal concubine. In the opera Pang Wen and his daughter devise a heinous plot whereby the whole Huyan family is executed. Only Huyan Qing and his mother escape. On day news arrive from Youzhou that a man called Huang Wenbin is plotting to usurp the throne. To find good fighters, Pang Wen petitions to the emperor to let Ou Zifang, a monk skilled in the martial arts, set up a leitai (a stage on which challenge bouts are fought) and challenge all comers. Yang Wenguang, a general of the Yang family, comes along and gives Pang Wen a thrashing. Huyan Qing, out to avenge the murder of his family, also arrives. He accepts the monk's challenge, goes on the stage and after a furious bout beats his adversary to death. The enraged Pang Wen tries to arrest him, but with Yang Wenguang's help he escapes.