The Injustice to Dou E

Dou E Yuan, commonly translated as The Injustice to Dou E, and also known as Snow in Midsummer, is a Chinese zaju play written by Guan Hanqing (c. 1241–1320) during the Yuan dynasty. The full Chinese title of the play is Gan Tian Dong Di Dou E Yuan, which roughly translates to The Injustice to Dou E that Touched Heaven and Earth.

The story follows a child bride turned widow, Dou E, who is wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt court official for actions perpetrated by a rejected suitor, Zhang the mule. After her execution, three prophesied phenomena occur to prove her innocence, including blood raining from the sky, snow in June and a three-year drought. After a visit from the ghost of Dou E, her father eventually brings the corrupt court official, a doctor and Mule Zhang to justice, thereby vindicating his daughter.

Today, the phrase "snowing in June" is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for a miscarriage of justice. The story has been repeatedly used and modified by later dramatists and remains one of Guan's most popular works.^[1]

Story

Prologue

Dou Duanyun, a young maiden from Chuzhou (楚州; present-day

• Her blood will spill on her white clothes, not a single drop will drip onto the ground.
• There will be heavy snowfall in the sixth lunar month (in the midst of summer) and the thick snow will cover her dead body.
• Chuzhou will experience a drought for three years.

All three events happened after Dou E's death.

Act 4

Three years later, Dou E's ghost appears before her father, Dou Tianzhang, who has become a lianfangshi (廉訪使; a senior government official) in the Anhui and Jiangsu region, and tells him all her grievances. Dou Tianzhang orders a reinvestigation of the case and the truth finally comes to light. Dou E is posthumously proclaimed innocent while the guilty parties receive their due punishments: Sai Lu Yi is exiled to a distant land; Tao Wu is dismissed and barred from entering office again; Zhang Lü'er is given the death penalty.

Dou E also wishes that her father can allow her mother-in-law to live with him, and that he will help to take care of her mother-in-law. Dou E's father agrees. The play ends here.

Main characters

• Dou E (竇娥), the main character, originally named Dou Duanyun (竇端雲). She was a devoted daughter-in-law who was framed for killing Zhang Lü'er's father and sentenced to death. Subsequently, she was ultimately proven innocent after her death.
• Dou Tianzhang (竇天章), Dou E's father. He became an official in the end and played a major role to posthumously prove his executed daughter's innocence.
• Dou E's mother-in-law, referred to as Granny Cai (蔡婆) in the play. She was originally meant to be killed by Zhang Lü'er through lethal poisoning, but in a twist of fate, she escapes death as Zhang's father was the one who drank the poison instead.
• Zhang Lü'er (張驢兒; literally "Zhang the mule" or "Zhang the donkey"), the main antagonist of the play, and the man responsible for Dou E's plight. He was eventually
  executed by lingchi
  , as retribution for his crimes.
• Zhang Lü'er's father, referred to as Zhang's father (張父) in the play. He was killed by the poison that was meant for Dou E's mother-in-law.
• Sai Lu Yi (賽盧醫; literally "equivalent to the Physician from Lu"), the physician who provided the poison that killed Zhang Lü'er's father. "Physician from Lu" (盧醫) is the nickname of Bian Que, a famous physician in ancient China. Guan Hanqing was probably adding a touch of satire or irony when he named this character.^{[citation needed]}
• Tao Wu (桃杌), the corrupt prefecture governor who sentenced Dou E to death. He was later dismissed from office upon the revelation of Dou E's innocence and given a lifetime ban from taking up any governmental post.

Problems of text and translation

The scholar

Almost all English translations before those in the anthology by West and Idema were based on Zang's recensions. David Rolston remarks that "West and Idema are clearly very interested in the levels of language in the plays they translate (their translations do not shy from highlighting the rawer or racier elements of plays in ways generally ignored or suppressed by other translators)." Their translations, he says, will be more useful to those who are interested in the history of the theater and the plays, while the emphasis on readability in translations based on Zang's texts, such as that by George Kao in the Columbia Anthology, will be more appealing to general readers.^[3]

Adaptations

Chinese opera

The play has been adapted into

A contemporary reimagining of the play was staged in 2017 by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play was directed by Justin Audibert, translated by Gigi Chang, and specially adapted by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig.^[7] It premiered in the US at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2018.^[8]

Film and television

The play has been adapted into films and television series:

• Snow Storm in June (六月雪; luk⁶ jyut⁶ syut³), a 1959 film
  Yam Kim Fai
  (任劍輝) as Cai Changzong (蔡昌宗), her husband. Both actresses had the same roles in Tang Ti-sheng's 1956 adaptation for stage performance.
• Chinese Folklore (民間傳奇), a 1976 Hong Kong television series produced by TVB, about various Chinese folk tales. One part is about Dou E, starring Louise Lee.
• Tianshi Zhong Kui (天師鍾馗; Heavenly Master Zhong Kui), a 1994 Taiwanese-Singaporean co-produced television series about Zhong Kui. One part of the series, titled Liu Yu Xue (六月雪; Snow in the Sixth Month), is about Dou E, starring Fu Juan (傅娟).
• Qian Nü Qiyuan (倩女奇冤), a 1998 Chinese television series adapted from the story of Dou E and other tales.
• Zhongguo Chuanshi Jingdian Mingju (中國傳世經典名劇), a 2005 Chinese television film series based on several well-known Chinese operas and plays. One section, spanning three episodes, is about Dou E, starring Su Jin (蘇瑾).

It is also at the centre of the plot of a 2023 Malaysian film, Snow in Midsummer.

Notes