Whenever and wherever a Chinese is in trouble he calls upon Heaven...The Chinese are never religious, but superstitious. They play with religion. Fatalism is the one and only belief to which they hold whole-heartedly. It is their only salvation, and enables them to suffer everything willingly and without complaint, and it brings a stability to their emotional life in their journey through this mortal world.
-- Liu Jung-en, Six Yuan Plays
I cry Injustice! let Earth be moved, let Heaven quake!
Soon my spirit will descend to the deep all-embracing Palace of Death.
How can Heaven and Earth not make complaint!
There the sun and moon hang by day and night,
There the spirits and gods dispense life and death.
Heaven and Earth!
It is for you to distinguish between right and wrong,
What confusion makes you mistake a villain for a saint?
The good suffer poverty and want, and their lives are cut short;
The wicked enjoy wealth and honour, and always live long.
Heaven and Earth!
You do but fear the strong and cheat the weak,
You too take the boat the current favors.
Earth! you cannot distinguish good and evil, can you yet be Earth!
Heaven! who mistake the fool for the sage, you are Heaven in vain!
Oh, nothing is left to me now but two streams of flowing tears.
-"The Injustice Done to Tou Ngo" by Guan Hanqing, translated by Liu Jung-en
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