A wandering poet and the woman he left behind.
A noble who lost his memory with a wife who can’t forget.
And the bodhisattva and boatman who connect them all.
Welcome to the Gold Jade Way
Shaanxi, China. 760s. Years into a war of rebellion, the Tang Dynasty fights to hold power. Men are sent to battle while women grieve. Yet poetry and art proliferate. Buddhism and Taoism beckon seekers into the mountains to discover a deeper truth.
Our story weaves a tale of 6 characters along the Yellow River, each representing a piece of the Diamond Sutra: a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, a flash of lightening in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream.
In the end — after friendship, scholarship, death and rebirth — our characters learn they’re all part of a never-ending mystery.
And, hopefully, our audience does, too.
READ OUR SYNOPSIS BELOW
Our story begins as merchant JIANG SHOU acquires a simple boat from GUANYIN, a mystical being in disguise. Soon after, poet LUREN sneaks aboard with as much wine as he can carry and hides. Fearing commitment, he leaves behind FENG MIAN, an indentured attendant who loves him. FENG MIAN laments his abandonment but finds solace in noblewoman YING YUE, who longs for the return of her husband, forced to join the fight six years ago.
Upriver, LUREN hops off the sampan and crashes the home of farmer ZHANG DENGLAI. A farmer who, we learn, is YING YUE’s long-lost husband. But it’s a truth ZHANG DENGLAI does not know, for a battle plunged him into the river and wiped his memory clean. The only fragment of his past is half of a woman’s yellow cassia hair pin clutched in his hand.
Separated by distance, the men and the women bond over wine. But when FENG MIAN hears JIANG SHOU singing on the river, something inside of her stirs. A flash of lightning in a summer cloud and the otherworldly chanting of GUANYIN, NUNS and MONKS summon her to a distant temple. YING YUE adorns her with a yellow cassia hairpin, and FENG MIAN climbs aboard JIANG SHOU’s boat.
When FENG MIAN lands again, she comes face to face with LUREN as he proclaims love to several other women. She freezes. Will she follow the call of the nuns or fall prey again to agony and despair? It is at this moment ZHANG DENGLAI sees the yellow cassia hairpin YING YUE had placed in FENG MIAN’s hair. And he remembers…
In Act II, GUANYIN convinces FENG MIAN to study with the NUNS. ZHANG DENGLAI, eager to reunite with YING YUE, gives his hut to LUREN, then hops aboard JIANG SHOU’s boat. But a storm sweeps in, and ZHANG DENGLAI is cast into the river and drowns. His body washes up on the same shore he departed, the hairpin in his hand.
FENG MIAN find his body and leads a ceremony in ZHANG DENGLAI’s honor, then returns to YING YUE with the news. Stricken with anguish, YING YUE hurls herself into the river and drowns. LUREN grieves the loss of his friend as FENG MIAN offers guidance to the remaining WOMEN of the court.
GUANYIN offers FENG MIAN one final lesson, and the souls of YING YUE and ZHANG DENGLAI rise from the river and fly away together. LUREN and JIANG SHOU say their goodbyes as FENG MIAN, now transformed into a Bodhisattva, is given control of the earthly sphere by GUANYIN, who ascends to the heavens.