The Injustice to Dou E

Dou E, a young widow, is falsely accused of murder and executed; before she dies she swears that snow will fall in summer and drought will grip the land. The Injustice to Dou E is the greatest tragedy of the Yuan stage. A short, powerful drama about corruption and justice that still moves audiences. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. Stage directions and role names are kept, and the sung arias are rendered as verse, so the play can be read like a script or imagined on the stage. Chinese drama mixes speech, song, comedy and spectacle; the plays were performed for centuries, and their stories are still known to every Chinese reader.