MAGIC LOTUS LANTERN

第一篇：MAGIC LOTUS LANTERN

MAGIC LOTUS LANTERN

Chi nese per form ing arts have played a large role in pre serv ing and dis sem i nat ing folk tales.One example is “The Magic Lo tus Lan tern.” The at ri cal per for mances of this tale ap peared as early

as the Song(960–1126)and Yuan(1280–1368)dy nas ties, and it gained re newed pop u lar ity in the form of a Chinese dance drama in 1957, a re gional op era of Hebei prov ince in 1959, and a movie car toon in 2002.In Mid west ern China there is a beau ti ful moun tain named Hua.On top of it there is a tem ple ded i cated to the God dess San Shengmu.Peo ple wor ship this God dess be cause they be lieve that she

is al ways ready to help them.When this story took place, she was busy help ing the peo ple of the re-gion fight ing a strange ep i demic with the magic power of her baoliandeng(Magic Lo tus Lan tern).Even though the dis ease was un der con trol, she did not stop work ing be cause she wanted to make sure that the ep i demic would not re cur.For this rea son, she had to be away from her tem ple’s altar from time to time.Dur ing her ab sence, a young scholar named Liu Yanchang toured the tem ple.He was on his

way to the cap i tal to take an im pe rial ex am i na tion.He burned incense and drew a qian(bam boo slips

used for p i na tion)af ter pray ing to the God dess San Shengmu, wish ing that the god dess would make him lucky enough to suc ceed in the ex am i na tion.At the time, the god dess hap pened to be ab-

sent and there fore was un able to give him an an swer to the lot he had drawn.Dis ap pointed at the