Trương Ba's Soul in the Butcher's Body

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Trương Ba's Soul, Butcher's Body (Hồn Trương Ba, da hàng thịt) is a Vietnamese folk tale about a gentle gardener who dies, but because of the carelessness of the gods he is reborn in the body of an oafish butcher.[1]

The most famous theatrical setting of the story is the 1985 play by Lưu Quang Vũ, translated Lorelle Lee Browning Truong as Ba's Soul [in] the Butcher's Skin: A Play 1998.[2][3]

Plot[]

Trương Ba is a very good chess player, famous for being gentle with his wife even though the couple does not have a single child. Unlike Trương Ba's family, the butcher's family is an unhappy family.

Then one day, Đế Thích saw that Truong Ba was playing chess so well, so he went down to the earth to play with Trương Ba and gave him some incense, so that when he wanted to play chess with him, he would burn a stick of incense. Not long after that, Trương Ba died. On the anniversary of his death, Trương Ba's wife was very sad and lit incense for him. Unknowingly she lit an incense stick without knowing that she had called Đế Thích.

Đế Thích appeared, but Trương Ba died a long time ago, so his body was damaged, unable to return to his soul. Because he felt sorry for his friend who died early and wanted Mrs. Trương Ba to be happy, he promised to bring Trương Ba back to life.

At that time, because of carelessness, the butcher near the house died. Đế Thich took the butcher's body so that Trương Ba's soul could enter it. Trương Ba at this time in the butcher's body happily returned to his wife. His wife, instead of being happy, was surprised and scared because at this moment she did not think it was Trương Ba. After listening to Trương Ba's story, she believed her words and was very happy. As for the butcher's wife, she was angry, jealous, and insisted that it was her husband, and then both wives sued the mandarin.

Mandarin asked the butcher who was his wife, he pointed to Trương Ba's wife and said that his ex-wife is the wife of the butcher in the neighborhood.

Mandarin asked how to make pigs for meat, he said he didn't know, when asked how to play chess, he answered very competently. The mandarin was embarrassed because one person's soul was another's body, so he called Trương Ba's wife to ask if she had done anything special while her husband was still alive. Trương Ba's wife honestly recounted how Đế Thích went down to play chess, promised that when her husband died, he would call him to save his life, but unfortunately she forgot, until her husband's dead body was crushed, she remembered to call. Fortunately, the butcher died, the fairy brought Trương Ba's soul into the butcher's body. The official asked the butcher privately, asked if he knew Đế Thích, he answered exactly like Trương Ba's wife said, so he was judged: "By day I will become a butcher, at night I will become Trương Ba. "

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Alice M. Terada Under the Starfruit Tree: Folktales from Vietnam - 1989- Page 76 " the butcher's wife said, tugging at his robe. "This is not where you live. Come home with me." "Oh, no," Truong Ba's wife said, watching him practice his game of checkers. "This is not your husband. He is Truong Ba, my husband, the master ..."
  2. ^ Lara D. Nielsen, Patricia Ybarra Neoliberalism and Global Theatres: Performance Permutations 2012 "The playwright is most famous for his two plays I and We and Truong Ba's Soul in the Butcher's Skin. Directed by Hoang Quan Tao and performed by the Hanoi Dramatic Theatre (Doan Kich Noi Ha N01) for the theatre festival in 1985 in Ho Chi Minh.
  3. ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama - Gabrielle H. Cody, Evert Sprinchorn - 2007 Volume 2 - Page 1423 "Truong Ba's Spirit in a Butcher's Body (Hon Truong Ba da hang thit, 1985) shows a gentle gardener who dies because of the carelessness of the gods and is reborn in a coarse butcher's body."
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