A wandering poet and the woman he left behind.
A noble who lost his memory with a wife who can’t forget.
And the boatman and bodhisattva who connect them all.
Welcome to the Gold Jade Way.
SYNOPSIS
Factions fight for power. Men are sent to battle while women mourn. And yet, poetry and art proliferate. Buddhism and Taoism beckon seekers to a higher calling, a deeper truth.
Our story begins as merchant JIANG SHOU acquires a sampan from GUANYIN, a mystical being in disguise.
Ready for a change, poet LUREN sneaks aboard the boat with as much wine as he can carry. He leaves behind FENG MIAN, a servant girl and florist who loves him and laments his abandonment. She finds solace, though, in noblewoman YING YUE, who longs for the return of her husband forced six years ago to join the fight.
The two women connect along the Yellow River while, further upstream, LUREN crashes the home of farmer ZHANG DENGLAI. A farmer who, we learn, is YING YUE’s long-lost husband. But it’s a truth he does not know, for a battle plunged him into the river and wiped his memory clean. The only fragment of his past is a bone hair pin clutched in his hand when he washed ashore.
Separated by distance, the two pairs 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 summons her to a distant temple. She says goodbye to YING YUE, who adorns her with a hairpin of yellow cassia, then 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. FENG MIAN freezes. Will she follow the way of GUANYIN or fall prey again to agony and despair? It is at this moment ZHANG DENGLAI sees the hair pin YING YUE had placed in FENG MIAN’s hair. And he remembers…
In Act II, FENG MIAN chooses to forgive LUREN and study with GUANYIN, where she excels. ZHANG DENGLAI gives his hut to LUREN, says farewell and hops aboard JIANG SHOU’s boat to return to his wife. But a storm comes, and ZHANG DENGLAI is thrown into the river. His body washes up on the shore he’d just left.
FENG MIAN finds his body and leads a ceremony in ZHANG DENGLAI‘s honor, then returns to YING YUE to share the news. Stricken with anguish, YING YUE hurls herself into the river to join him.
LUREN grieves his friend as FENG MIAN offers guidance to the remaining WOMEN of the court.
Seeing FENG MIAN’s education complete, GUANYIN appears for one final lesson as YING YUE and ZHANG DENGLAI rise from the river and fly away together, finally reconnected. On that same river JIANG SHOU drops LUREN at a new spot and carries on.
Her education complete, FENG MIAN is given control of the earthly sphere by GUANYIN, who ascends to the heavens. FENG MIAN assumes her new role as a Bodhisattva.