Miao Jin Feng (Embroidery of Golden Phoenix) is a feature-length traditional piece of Suzhou Tanci. According to playbooks handed down from early days, the piece was perhaps created before the Guangxu reign (1875-1909) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
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| A scene from Embroidery of Golden Phoenix |
Miao Jin Feng tells about the love story of Xu Huilan, an intellectual in Suzhou of Zhejiang Province. The dramatics personae Xu Huilan and Qian Yucui love each other deeply and Miao Jin Feng (embroidery of golden phoenix) is a love-promise gift sent by Qian Cuilan to Xu Huilan. Xu Huilan is falsely incriminated of killing on his way to Kaifeng (in present-day Henan Province) and is about to be executed. Fortunately, he meets Jin Jichun, a man once helped out of danger by him, and Jin sacrifices himself and replaces Xu so as to get Xu out of the prison. Just before execution, a forest outlaw Dong Wuchang rescues Jin Jichun. Later, Qian Huilan's father Qian Dudu writes a memorial to the throne and Xu Huilan's injustice finally gets exonerated.
The major scenarios of Miao Jin Feng include Qian Yucui Sends Love-Promise Gift, Jin Jichun Rescues Xu Huilan, Qian Dudu Asks for Rain and so on.
In the 1960s, staffs of Shanghai People's Pingtan Troupe re-arranged the playbook of Miao Jin Feng and the theme and artistic elements of the works became more outstanding. Miao Jin Feng, written in a vivid language and with compact plots, is one of the representative books on Suzhou Tanci.