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This drama is also known as 感天动地窦娥冤,but there is nothing the heaven and earth do to save the life of this girl. She yells at them 叫声屈动地惊天。我将天地合埋怨，天也，做得个怕硬欺软，地也，你不分好歹难为地...

Another point that doesn't make sense is that her father as a senior official of the central government cannot find her after leaving her with a Mistress Cai蔡婆婆 for 13 years.他邻里街坊道：“自当年蔡婆婆不知搬在那里去了，至今音信杳无。” But this lady is a money lender according to the drama, her business is well known to her clients and one of them wants to strangle her when pressed to pay back. And then Old Zhang and his son after saving her again want to strangle her if she and her daughter-in-law (窦娥) do not marry them.

So it is confusing and groundless,what is the logic behind this story?

NanningYouth
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  • If she had been saved, there'd have been no 冤, would there? At least it'd not have been 感天动地. – joehua Jan 17 '23 at 10:03

1 Answers1

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her father . . . cannot find her

well, 竇娥, aka 竇端雲, her father 竇天章 “sold” his daughter as child bride (童養媳), to repay his debt (先借的四十兩銀子), had money to attend imperial examination (春榜動，選場開) [at the capital]. he did not try to find his daughter.

the norm, or presumption is:

  • female discrimination
  • selling one’s own child is infamous, mr 竇 didn’t want people to discover it

https://www.arteducation.com.tw/shiwenv_8c0bdd4aacb9.html

there is nothing the heaven and earth do to save the life of this girl

well, it presumed reader agreed, or known about Unity of Heaven and humanity 天人合一

roughly, “societal phenomena such as physiology, ethics, and politics of humanity are direct reflections of Tian, "heaven" or "nature."

that, normal societal or ethics phenomenon would reflect a normal natural phenomenon (summer is hot, winter is cold)

if there’re wronged, injustices, there would be flood, drought; or, adverse events in inappropriate season

so, when ms 竇 beheaded, snowing at once, in june (雪飛六月), which is abnormal; then, 3 years drought afterward.

in which, everyone would think that ms 竇 died wrongly.

btw, the heaven and earth will do nothing to save anyone’s life.

天地不仁・以萬物為芻狗 lah

水巷孑蠻
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  • What does "lah" mean? 啦? – r13 Jan 17 '23 at 13:14
  • @r13, you guess it well, i understood the presumptions, but i don’t believe their correctness lah – 水巷孑蠻 Jan 17 '23 at 16:23
  • Thanks. But if she was married to the old woman's son, she must have had her old family name changed. That old official daddy of Dou did send people to search her because he loved her so much, as you could see in his words with the old lady and his thoughts later. As a money lender, Ms. Cai could not have lost her track completely. With the underdeveloped traffic conditions at that time, even she wanted to relocate, she could not have traveled far. – NanningYouth Jan 18 '23 at 09:15
  • @NanningYouth, you detected the glitches lah i agreed that ms 竇 ought to change her naming, and her father sent people to find, normally, ought to be found. – 水巷孑蠻 Jan 18 '23 at 11:29