Photo provided by the author shows the Six-Chi Lane in east China’s Anhui province.
By Chen Yicheng
The historic story of the Six-Chi Lane, (chi, a Chinese unit, 1/3 meter), rendered in the Huangmei opera, "Prime Minister of Qing Dynasty", was warmly received at culture publicity week held at Shanghai International Arts Festival lately.
This is due to its high artistic value and sound moralism.
Huangmei opera, a local opera form of east China’s Anhui province, always eulogizes romantic or heavy-hearted love relationship to win tears.
However, to our surprise, "Prime Minister of Qing Dynasty", is on the political subject of officialdom rectification and corruption crack-down.
And the story the Six-Chi Lane is the main thread linking up the characters of different nature and disposition in a sentimental conflict.
The plot of the opera is simple, instructive and thought-provoking.
It happened during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) in Chinese history.
The Liu and Wu, two families with power and influence, happened to have their mansions built very close to one another, sharing a passageway between their walls in Tongcheng city, Anhui province.
One day, the Wu family planned to enlarge its mansion and attempted to encroach on the narrow passageway.
A land dispute followed between the two families.
And in a huff, they decided to bring the case to court and ignored the importance of friendly negotiation.
However, Zhang Ying, the young master of the Zhang family and an enlightened official, felt sad.
He was sad because the two close neighbors of years wanted go to court merely because of a narrow lane.
"What if we make a room for them?" he asked his families.
"The Great Wall today is still winding and stretching there, yet its initiator, Emperor Qing Shi Huang, was long ago for his permanent rest underground," he told them.
At last, the Zhang family volunteered to yield a three-chi strip for the lane.
And the Wu family was deeply moved and made its own three-chi strip for the lane as well.
Legend or not, there still lies in Tongcheng city the Six-Chi Lane, cobblestone paved, 100 meters long.
The lane still teaches people today how to use the ancient Chinese wisdom to settle disputes and the value of inclusiveness and courteousness.
