183 Beijing Operas - Ni Rong - Number 163

Ni Rong

Beijing Opera - "The Qingding Pearl"

Ni Rong with a green Broken-flower face plays a part in the opera "The Qingding Pearl," also called The Fisherman's Revenge. Xiao En and his daughter Guiying earn their living by fishing. One day Landlord Ding a local tyrant, sends a henchman to demand a payment of a fishing tax. Ni Rong and Li Jun, two friend of the fisherman who are drinking with him, chide the tax collector and force him to leave. The landlord now sends the captain of his guards and some hoodlums to extort the money, but they too are driven off by the fisherman and his friends. Fearing reprisal by the local authorities, the fisherman goes to the county court and reports the case. The county magistrate, however, is in league with the landlord. Instead of punishing the latter, he accuses the fisherman of disrupting the law and give him a flogging. Sensing that there is no other recourse, the fisherman and his daughter go to the landlord's house to take revenge. Pretending that they have come to present the landlord with a valuable pearl called Qingding, they enter the house and kill the landlord and his captain.