The White Rabbit

Liu Zhiyuan, a poor man who will found a dynasty, leaves his wife Li Sanniang; she gives birth in a mill and her son is raised far away. Years later a white rabbit leads the boy to his mother at a well. The White Rabbit is a classic southern drama. It is a folk classic of separation and reunion, still performed in regional opera. 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.