SCENE 04 EXILE OF A PARIAH

HANEUL tells BAI, a quiet shy young man who has been treated
as a pariah and the offspring of a demon, to go to the
Chinese court (the oldest Korean son is a guest/hostage) ??
19 years later.

HANEUL
Ye ministers accomplish naught but
stare, beetle-browed in feeble
contemplation, at scrolls of law
and decorum! Fat and slothful
creatures who fret much, yet with
little done. Think you I know not
councils of war lull aged eyelids
to slumber?
(beat)
Inform me of the proper course for
action.

MINISTER 1
(aside)
Is it not said, “To cover the eyes
and snatch at swallows is to fool
oneself?”
(beat)
O king, inauspicious signs have
revealed themselves, of black
clouds, turbid mists on a summer
day. And the seer dreamt of a
resplendent jade sent from the
heavens fallen into mire.

HANEUL
Truly? Be this specious uttering
only? I of a surety place faith in
the gods; yet I suspect timidity on
your parts. But silence on this
primordial scheme.

Enter Bai.

BAI
I answer to the order of the king.
(aside)
Ever a cloud ov??rhangs his brow at
the sight of me, gloom darkness
hovering about his head.

HANEUL
For near twenty years of
upbringing, I have received but
scanty expression of gratitude.

BAI
My lord, I am content to grind ink
and wash the slabs if such labor be
in your service.

HASUEL
This I know: rolling vapors lie
floating beneath the lofty aureole
of serenity surrounding the
mountain.
(beat)
Like the mother, of steadfast gaze,
radiant gold eyes as glittering
blades with incisive stroke,
keen-fanged hounds of the hunt
tearing flesh–snowflakes like
pear-blossoms shed with every step.

BAI
If so, the sire frowning stern,
allow me in evanescence to wane
from sight, and haunt as a phantom
where shadows roam.

HASUEL
In clemency I have indulged
unavailing, indolent pursuits of
your choosing; dilatory, fond of
leisure and ease, no aimed
ambition.

BAI
I beg forgiveness for having
angered your majesty; how may I
bring about conciliation?–for to
have displeased you is to have
liver and gall torn from within.

HANEUL
The Emperor of _________ has
commanded that my eldest son be
sent to his empire as a guest in
all affluence and honors for an
undetermined period.
(aside)
If you pretend not to sluggish
intellect, lucidly fathom the
import.

BAI
(aside)
I am cognizant of the gist–to be
an opulent puppet-hostage in a
foreign court.
(beat)
Have I no duties to bind me to the
kingdom?

HANEUL
Heaven treads down difficulties.
(aside)
Your meager contributions, fit only
for tomb guardians or a reciter of
poems, I miss no more than a
flourishing tree a single leaf, a
millet of grain from a prosperous
granary. What I have viewed as an
evil may be a means of deliverance
from it, removing the blight of
harmony.

BAI
Common birds understand the flight
of cranes. I do with alacrity as
you command, O king.
(aside)
In plaintive melody I have mourned
the unceasing disfavoring eye my
father has cast upon me, as a sheet
of ice draped on rock and ridge.?

Exit Bai.

HANEUL
(aside)
Could I, who in vain clasp statues
of cold stone, only blot out
utterly the heated remembrance,
uproot with complete destruction!
Yet I remain blunt in resolve,
unhappy beset each night, full of
gall and bitterness. ?

SCENE 05 “IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED” — GOD (IN THE BIBLE)

2nd son SUK, a brave warrior, is the darling of HANEUL.
HANEUL demonstrates his fondness, emphasizes the role he
will play in the rise of the kingdom.

HANEUL paces anxiously, expecting SUK at any moment.

HANEUL
You return, and the days allotted
by heaven to me, come with you.

SUK
Father, whose valor frightens
rushing streams, makes high
mountains fall, you speak of?
guarding borders as a recital of
dangers?

HANEUL
Tell me all; expurgate nothing.

SUK relates to HANEUL his experiences on the Chinese-Korean
border as a spy.

SUK
Father, the inexorable face of the
_____ Empire grows increasingly
fierce.
(beat)
Aye, some like reeds and rushes
thick the populace lines roads to
hail the Emperor, but more a column
of dust rising up to hide the face
of the sun. More commotion and
delight in festivities, this
praise. Not so steady as mountains
is this overlong occupation of the
Dragon Seat.

HANEUL
Indeed, this aggregate of divisions
cannot long remain tenacious, for
memorial of their cumbersome
passage on all subjects lies heavy.
(beat)
My son Suk, fondly I look to the
coming time sovereignty decks your
brow, and you sit crowned on a
throne independent of any foreign
imperial power–for when this
moment occurs, I will abdicate in
your favor.

SCENE 06 SALTED AND EMBALMED REMNANT

SUN HI, a timid, lovely young girl of a high-standing
family, is engaged to be married to SUK, but she loves BAI
(who loves her as a sister). They bid each other farewell.

BAI
The king commands that my labors
here conclude, and in bounden duty
I obey.

SUN HI
(aside)
O, scattering clouds fleet, and how
transient flowers!

BAI absently picks a flower.

BAI
Departure mayhap abate the ravings
of serpents hissing with cloven
tongues, curled around many a
winding fold.

SUN HI
These hearsay mongers amplify their
speech with empty falsehoods, witty
malice studious to defame,
spreading as spilt crimson wine on
white cloth.

BAI covers his hand, then lets SUN HI peek. Instead of the
flower stalk on his palm, a tiny gleaming green snake curls
around his fingers. It lowers its head to SUN HI and hisses
softly.

BAI
Perhaps. In the suspect human
frailty of mine, I cannot unmoved
as death remain. Yet, as the sun
slopes and autumn’s reddened leaves
eddy to ground, am I to fall at the
first roll of drums?

Two maids hurry up to ask them if anything is needed. BAI
closes his hand, then opens it to reveal a flower stalk. He
lightly asks the maidservants to dispose of it.

SUN HI
The sounds speak of impermanence,
the vanity of human projects. Pray
weary yourself not with them.

BAI
To prosecute this enterprise of
entering the mysterious unknown, I
ought, as my brother Suk would,
“seize the tiger’s whelps by going
into her den.”

SUN HI
In such a course, retribution’s
dread avenging hand would come
without fail, the banners of an
endless host filling the horizon,
swords as trees in the forest.

BAI
The king strengthens Suk as lips
protect teeth. Would that I could
obtain so exalted a place in the
heart!
(aside)
I fear for the honorable Suk, and
dare not rely on the feeble props
of trust.
(beat)
But, let us say these farewells no
more. Dear sister Sun Hi, like a
heavenly maiden in flower-bedecked,
fairy clothes fluttering in the
wind, and coiffure a cumulus! You
have that in your countenance I
would fain call mistress!

SUN HI
(aside)
The unwitting seek to open a
fragile persimmon with thrown
spears.
(to BAI)
Recall me to mind in times of
leisure.

BAI
Assuredly remembrance never will
leave his post in drunken absence.

SUN HI
(aside)
I lie weeping, heart-smitten at
this prize, of jade leaf on a
golden branch, wrenched from my
wannish eyes.

BAI
(aside)
… my shelter a precipice.

SCENE 07 SERPENT COILED ON THE DRAGON THRONE

BAI meets Chinese Emperor SHOU SHAN, an kindly, scholarly
older man, a figurehead for the powerful Prime Minister JIAN
GUO and his minions.

SERVANT 1
The emperor and his court welcome
you to this fair cloud dwelling.
(beat)
I have presumed to find suitable
quarters and hospitable
entertainment, Prince Bai. In
proper order of precedence, may it
please Prince Bai to seat himself
…
(beat)
And so the sage bearded Dragon of
the Imperial Throne, whose days of
glory have not looked on night …
just yesterday he presided over the
celebration of the Moon Festival,
and …

BAI
(aside)
This Son of Heaven’s affairs are as
raveled hemp, without end, yet each
strand the width of a hair.
(beat)
Who am I to say, who store my mouth
with speeches smoothly filed?

SERVANT
… The foremost minister JIAN GUO
attends to our emperor as a filial?
son, nay, as he cares for his own
eye!

Enter JIAN GUO. SERVANT 1 bows and exits.

JIAN GUO
Greetings to you, Prince Bai of
________. I trust your stay to be
one of merit to your kingdom and
ours. Though doubtless you long for
familiar surroundings, know that
greatness abounds in sacrifice.
Mere dastard cowardice utters
sounds of complaint when mischance
befalls.

BAI
(aside)
The _____ Prime Minister looks upon
me as when lions glare battle.

JIAN GUO
–for truly this great empire
wishes only peace with her, at
times, unruly children.

BAI
(aside)
In his voice and in King Haneul’s
as an echo I hear the naves of
heavy-laden axles creak, the clash
of brass-rimmed shields.

Exit JIAN GUO. Enter SHOU SHAN.

SHOU SHAN
Welcome, son Bai.

BAI
Humbly I thank my gracious
sovereign for this kind reception
and abiding of this unworthy
bond-slave. Such a gesture
refulgent shines of undeserved
generosity.

SHOU SHAN
Such grateful notes do not prolong,
for they sound discord between
thought and speech. You speak well,
but mouth only wind.

BAI
Even a reproach ranks to me a
privilege from heaven.

SHOU SHAN
Come now, give some token of
intelligence. Let the ether of
sense diffuse common light. Think
you I hide a serpent in the waving
grass? Ah, your bulwarks stand
high. We shall speak of other
things.

SCENE 08 SMOKE, QUIVERING SISTER OF FIRE

INT. EMPRESS’S CHAMBERS. DAY.

BAI meets Chinese Empress XIU LAN, a high-spirited saucy
young woman who frets in the bindings of etiquette and
custom.

XIU LAN
Enriched with the spoils of costly
stuff from felled kingdoms, I but
chew wax (devoid of zest).

Enter Bai.

BAI
Happiness betide the Shining
Phoenix! High Empress, a
fresh-blown rose glimmering with
heavenly dew. As the moon in its
full brightness outshines the
stars, so you shame mortals of
lesser beauty.

XIU LAN
Yet, is not the moon but a
reflection of greater stars? And
from whom do I seek light?

BAI
The Emperor, the Great Consort, the
Imperial Dragon.

XIU LAN
Dissemble not, careful Bai of no
impetuous tongue. Climb you the
great fastness of mountains, plumb
inscrutable depths of waters? Or
exist as a broken halberd buried in
arid sand, with deep rust eaten?

BAI
Dare I fan a blaze directed to the
heavens? Did I so, clamor would
echo to the skies. Nay, the
consecrated smoke ascends to divine
inspiration and whorls ever elusive
and beyond my grasp.

XIU LAN
You totter as a man without limbs!

BAI
Forgive me; I fear penetration of
the wind to bone. In the palace one
lives in the tiger?? mouth.

XIU LAN
Appear I a monster whom none may
look on and retain breath of life?
(beat)
A venial error. Very well; let us
speak of other matters.

BAI
Gentle lady, surely you transport
in dove-drawn carriage.

XIU LAN
Have horses grazed this meadow, or
remains it uncut?

BAI
I humbly beg your majesty?? pardon
… I am but a fallow youth …

XIU LAN
Then, as satin petals falling in
the tide of vernal spring, without
an admirer to behold their rich and
luxuriant beauty.

BAI
depth of hue = imperial lineage,
soon fades

XIU LAN
Indeed, to bask in unreproved
pleasures, have the freedom of bees
who flit from one rooted flower to
another.
(beat)
Taste I the frothy remnants of love
once heady with innocence but no
longer? Come now, be not
spendthrift of tongue when mutinous
winds rage within. I would fain
ride upon the surges, quaff with
zest the fermented waters of life.

BAI
(aside)
I beheld a girdle of dragons
interlaced with flowers. Lovely,
and to be feared.

SCENE 10 STARS CLUSTER THICK

HANEUL speaks with the other two Korean kingdoms on
overthrowing the Chinese yoke ??there is consent with one
(3RD KING), disagreement with the other (ISEUL). Someone
brings up the point that HANEUL’s oldest son, a hostage at
the Chinese court, will surely be killed. HANEUL replies
that sacrifices must be made.

HANEUL
We must with all speed marshal a
mighty martial host such as to
shiver ocean trident and convulse
the earth. Are we to cringe to each
passing ruler of the day? What
affliction more grievous exists,
than to impose an aged leaden hand
stifling to a nation proud in its
youth and ability? Come, let us
despoil this tyrannical scepter,
and harrow by agonies incalculable
past injury done us. What clamorous
remonstrance sought and failed to
achieve, we will capture!

MINISTER 1
But surely the ______ shall then
clamor for the execution of our
surety, his highness Prince Bai.

HANEUL
At any time the treacherous
________ would avail themselves of
the while to defraud and destroy.
Though a father, for the sake of
our glorious country, I am willing
to commit the sacrifice. What,
then, have you all to say? Don you
the Buddhist dress and toss
joss-sticks, scatter and flee in
base ignominy? Or be of fixed
determination and fight for
freedom?

3RD KING
Aye, I hold absurd and perverse any
design to the contrary of war.

ISEUL
With strict restraint, not extolled
speech, I regrettably withhold
consent to join my kingdom to this
cause. The people under my rule
implore me for peace and
prosperity, and such will not come
from the consequences of the day.

HANEUL
Do you think us an army of paper
tigers? You presume much on former
prestige.

SHIN
Violent blusterer–

3RD KING
How dares this man, not full noble
born, address the gathering?
Reckless and rude, insolence
ominous–

ISEUL
He speaks as the king’s voice.
(beat)
I am not enamored of conflict,
delighting to march in bright
crests and blazrony. What begets
the toils of battle but bitter
fruit? Rather would I behold the
bounteous soil with luxuriant
harvests graced.

HANEUL
Then, suggest you that we labor
forever under a foreign burden,
gleaning for others what we have
produced? Our heroism will envelop
the enemies like clouds the sky in
a storm.

ISEUL
Before the vehemence of high
spirits irrepressible, how am I to
frame with care my words to
convince?
(aside)
These warmongers, “even as a man
who steps into a deep pool bearing
a stone in his arms.”

HANEUL
In a cangue, perhaps. Proclaim the
truth, that your youth houses a
heart of caitiff cowardice!

ISEUL
So you prick your reasons at a
weapon’s end. “If righteousness be
lacking then are wealth and honor
but as a floating cloud.”
(beat)
I am afraid. Caught between the
wolf and the tiger, I fear the
limits of a growing ambition closer
to me than a sedate condescension
distant. Where will he turn in
search of fresh conquest for near
lands?

SCENE 15 AN EFFIGY OF BOUGHS AND GRASS

SHOU SHAN speaks with XIU LAN and BAI ??BAI is to take his
place in the marital bed with XIU LAN ??BAI reluctantly
agrees

SHOU SHAN
My dear ones, firstly know I speak
wisdom in fondness.

XIU LAN
My lord, what would you say to us?

BAI
Of a certainty we hear and obey.

SHOU SHAN
Commit not so quickly yourselves to
the task, though perhaps your
hearts will not so mind.

XIU LAN
Do we tread the ooze of salty
depths, that so hesitantly we go
forward?

BAI
Hasty Xiu Lan! The case may be as
the maple tree made to gape and the
syrup poured out–then the sap
cannot return to the mother’s
mouth.

SHOU SHAN
I ought not to prevaricate longer:
Xiu Lan, you have realized I cannot
father a son, not by any woman.
Therefore, Bai, who is as my
dearest blood child, and my lively
sister wife Xiu Lan, I ask the both
of you to remedy my deficiency
through your actions together.
(beat)
The times grow dire for us, my
children. A son must be begot to
stem the rising tide of discontent
and rebellion, and it seems the
Heavens have deemed me unworthy as
the father, a man of years past
youth.

XIU LAN
I …

BAI
My lord emperor, I … I know not
what to utter in response.

SHOU SHAN
Well I know I have pegged the both
of you in knotty entrails difficult
to escape. Pray forgive me for the
necessity. Ere this moment, our
companionship remained undefiled by
dregs terrene, but presently
teeters on the edge of a precipice.

BAI
My father!

XIU LAN
If all is as you say, and I know it
to be true from maids’ gossip and
the like, then indeed we must act.

BAI
If truly no other recourse exists,
I beg forgiveness for the
transgression, and …

SHOU SHAN
And in the knowledge of Bai as sire
of the child, I rest easy. Xiu Lan
the mother … that thought gives
me some just cause for worry, but I
take care not to choose in too?
particular a fashion.

SHOU SHAN, BAI, and XIU LAN laugh a little, uneasily.

SCENE 16 A DOVE STEALS FROM THE MAGPIE’S NEST

XIU Lan and BAI sleep together.

INT. Bedchamber. Night.

XIU LAN
Hear you the strains of music? And
the words decorating the wall?

BAI
Pray it not be a threnody or
inscriptions on a tomb. I am
nine-tenths a corpse, my lady,
though you shine a gleaming pearl
in the darkness.

XIU LAN
Strange to say, this mild
disposition of yours I feel within
tonight. In truth I cannot contrive
courage.

BAI
We have eaten of our lord’s bounty,
and fear to continue in his
absence. Empress–Xiu Lan, ere this
moment I acted always to curb and
repress. What do I now?

XIU LAN
Of ever hasty temperament, despite
flirtatious speech I have kept
dutiful chastity; now with somber
words I am to engage in ardent
action. Yet this comes not to whet
insatiable appetite, but in
exercise of princely virtue. Let us
cease these plaintive melody and
dispel melancholy.

BAI
I doubt a complete abstinence from
distress attainable. But you are in
the right.

XIU LAN settles on the bed.

XIU LAN
Where love guards the gate, freely
enter.

SCENE 17 A FASTENING GIVES WAY

Prime Minister JIAN GUO monologue on himself.

JIAN GUO
Fools call me the image of a wild
beast, possessed of the malady
attached to tyranny, but I know
myself of great shape and mighty
mold. No lord of brief span am I,
changing time shall not cleft the
power of my repute, who ride on the
winds of outstanding eminence.
Tempests may enraged rebound from?
the stalwart rocks set amidst the
frenzied sea, buffets of surge.
Yes, in defiance of anserine legal
procedure I proceed, that this
doddard of an emperor make way for
better men than he. Do not we all
serve in offices of profit to us,
and do I no more than demonstrate
that for which the zeitgeist calls?

SCENE 19 A MOON SO BRIGHT AS DAY

SUN HI longs for BAI even as she waits for SUK in the bridal
chamber

SUN HI
I have become as shattered tile,
lying prostrate. Fleetness of foot
no avail, irreconcilable to this
circumstance, I must become
complaisant to my liege lord.

SCENE 22 SOFT BREEZE THE GROVES WITH MURMUR FILL

Unhappy in her marriage, SUN HI opens BAI’s letters, which
she has not dared to look at until now. She begins to weep.
SUK, who genuinely cares for his emotionally fragile wife,
asks what is wrong. SUN HI reveals that she is pregnant.

BAI
Hurled out from the refuge of my
desolate solitary crag, a forgotten
wisp in storm-tossed strife and the
sport of sovereign winds, I now
forlorn roam the hallowed abode of
the Son of Heaven.

SUN HI
What a timorous wretch am I, gnawed
to the heart at his recital of
afflictions, though with overdrawn
words my beloved lightly jests at
them!

BAI
Within this divine allotment of
precious stone and metal,
finest-woven vestments, and more
such fancifully wrought work as man
can skillfully coax from dead
matter, I a poor rustic, traverse
unplowed fields in unseen sights
and unimagined realities. The
rustling of eunuchs passing,
courtiers going about their
business, and the clanking of
guards din as the snorting of farm
animals but newly acquired and so
strange.
(beat)
But, dear sister Sun Hi, be of iron
heart; weep not for my sorrows! The
composition of mild remedies
condoles accordingly with my
trivial toils.

SUN HI
Bai makes no mention of having
sated his heart, and well I know it
as no easy prize.

BAI
And what of this fair maiden,
yourself, enthralled unhappy in the
hardship of existence? When last I
beheld Sun Hi, to my dull senses as
the bright blush of the peach,
gentle green of the willow, she
quietly wilted as a lily on a tomb.
Too late I feared a blundered
culling of blooming flowers, an
ambrosial plate of vibrant fruit
defiled with smoke–that you were
to wed a savage ruffian in
sufferance of filial piety. A
boonless spectator of suffering, I
make but a faint-hearted friend,
though dearly wish to stand
staunch.

SU HI
Fearful mists of tears dart over
mine eyes. Though knowing by rote
proper action, and shrinking from
dereliction of duty, I floundered,
irresolute. Gladly would I have
forfeited favor and reputation for
a mere sign, yet you remained only
affable and courteous. And my
father, a powerful minister in high
standing, decried you as a pallid
imitation of shades, tracing steps
already taken by better men.

BAI
Yet I heard good tidings to ease
this dread. Now in connubial
relation you are joined to
honorable Prince Suk, the chosen
vessel in whom King Haneul pours
his ambition with abundance. Great
happiness, many children, and long
life to you!

SUN HI
Where am I to find solace, when I
must bitterly lament and
despondently sigh over the loss of
a marvelous recluse and blockhead!

She begins to weep. Enter SUK.

SUK
Dear wife, what is the matter?

SUN HI
Oh, account these foolish tears to
a woman’s frailty when with child.

SUK’s face lights up in joy.

SCENE 27 FLOWER HAS FRAGRANCE, MOON HAS GLOW

Informed by a maid of the Korean rebellion, SUN HI runs to
SUK and demands to know everything. SUK complies, surprised
by her sudden interest where before she had professed
nothing of the sort. Terrified at the thought of BAI’s fate,
SUN HI collapses and goes into early labor.

A maid combs SUN HI’s long hair into the proper knot.

SUN HI
(teasing)
Why so silent, girl? Has a young
man clipped your wings of wit with
his imprisoning love?

MAID
Oh, mistress, no such thing. I
ponder the monetary strain on my
family now.

SUN HI
Now? What of now?

MAID
A war has begun, mistress, which
will surely straiten purses and
inflate prices.

SUN HI starts violently and turns.

SUN HI
Not that much talked-of revolt
against the Chinese?

MAID
That very one.

SUN HI
I thought it only the sound of
thunder rolling over the skies,
without lightning to strike!
(beat)
Bai!

SUN HI rises quickly and runs out of the room to find SUK.
Distressed, the maid runs after her.

MAID
My lady–have a care–the child–!

SUK pores over his maps and strategy manuals in his study as
SUN HI enters. He smiles distractedly in welcome, but soon
sobers when he sees her closely.

SUK
My dear, what brings you here in
such hurry?

SUN HI
Did you think I drift on clouds
oblivion? How can you countenance
any attack on the Chinese, when
they have your brother in their
grasp?

SUK
Worry not for him. I have ordered
that matter cared for. Bai will be
safe.
(beat)
Why care you so for his fate? I had
not realized him so dear to you.

SUN HI
Our efforts will be as dust against
a storm, bees stinging a turtle in
his shell.

SUK
I see you of the doves and not the
court hawks, wife. My father and I
are not of this mind, however.

SUN HI
I fear we bring upon ourselves such
rage as to carve up generations of
achievements, much like the
filleting of a fish.
(aside)
Oh, Bai!

SCENE 30 A TUMULUS OF YELLOW EARTH

BAI monologue, muses on his life as he runs to Japan.

BAI
Deftly woven in the woof of life
are all creatures, yet am I of a
stray thread escaping the dress?
Behold, the sun setting, in dark
relief against a glowing sky. To
put off today and postpone tomorrow
is only a misguided course. Now in
the grip of that which levels
mountains and turns rivers, I
cannot return lest I be ground to
powder. After a full term of
journeying, shall I come to the
home I seek?

Winnie Khaw (2012)

Creative Writing

Winnie Khaw is an aspiring writer who hopes to be a successful published author in the near future. She is fascinated by (East) Asian and (Western European) culture, history, and literature.