The Orphan of Zhao: Story, Versions and Reading Guide

Published by Anthony
on November 11, 2026

Read The Orphan of Zhao with a guide to Cheng Ying’s choice, the Yuan play and its later text, the earlier historical account, and English editions to compare.

Quick Answer: What Is The Orphan of Zhao?

The Orphan of Zhao (赵氏孤儿, Zhàoshì Gū’ér) is a Yuan dynasty musical drama, or zaju (杂剧, zájù), attributed to Ji Junxiang (纪君祥, Jǐ Jūnxiáng). After the Zhao clan is attacked in the ancient state of Jin, Cheng Ying (程婴, Chéng Yīng) works to save its surviving infant heir. The identity of the child used as a substitute depends on the version.^[1][3]

The familiar stage story: In the later five-act text, Cheng Ying gives up his own child as a substitute for the Zhao heir.
The earlier account: The Records of the Grand Historian (史记, Shǐjì) tells a related story with another person’s child as the substitute.
Two surviving forms: A fourteenth-century printing preserves song suites. A later collection provides a fuller script with an added fifth act.
Where to start in English: Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema’s anthology contains both dramatic forms.

The guide discusses the central substitution. Read the version label before comparing plot details from a book or a production.

A guide to the Zhao heir, the substitute child, and two surviving forms of the play.

The Zhao heir can survive only if someone can move him out of danger and keep him alive under another identity. Ji Junxiang’s play makes those two jobs feel different. At the gate, a man must decide in a moment whether to let the child pass. Later, Cheng Ying must live with a plan whose success cannot be acknowledged for years. Start with those two decisions and the argument about duty becomes easier to follow.^[1][5]

How Cheng Ying Saves the Zhao Heir

In the later dramatic text, the court official Tu’an Gu (屠岸贾, Tú’àn Gǔ) moves against the Zhao household and searches for its last heir. The child’s mother entrusts the infant to Cheng Ying, who tries to take him out. At the gate, Han Jue (韩厥, Hán Jué) recognizes what Cheng is doing and lets him go.^[1][5]

The escape buys time, but it does not end the search. Cheng Ying and Gongsun Chujiu (公孙杵臼, Gōngsūn Chǔjiù) arrange a false discovery. In this version, Cheng’s own son is the child presented as the orphan. Gongsun lets himself be discovered with the substitute while Cheng takes responsibility for raising the Zhao heir.^[5][7]

The younger Zhao has to grow up before he can act on what happened. Read the protection plot by asking what each person agrees to do before knowing whether the child will survive. From the audience’s position, an apparent betrayal can be the very thing that keeps the plan working.

What Changes Between the History and the Play

The account of the Zhao house in the Records of the Grand Historian names the surviving heir Zhao Wu (赵武, Zhào Wǔ). Cheng Ying and Gongsun Chujiu procure another infant as the decoy. The record does not identify that child as Cheng Ying’s own.^[2][8]

The five-act play changes that relationship. It puts the child’s protector in the position of offering up his own child to save the Zhao line.^[7] A reader who has just come from the historical account can see where the playwright places more of the burden. Cheng Ying’s public part in the ruse still matters, but he has something different to lose at home.

The difference also matters when someone asks whether the play tells a true story. It uses the history of an ancient lineage, but early accounts of the Zhao house do not all tell the same story of massacre and revenge.^[2] Read the historical account alongside the drama and mark where their accounts diverge.

What the Stage Form Adds

The fourteenth-century printing has a short opening unit called a wedge followed by four suites of songs. West and Idema note that the surviving print preserves tune titles and lyrics. No prose dialogue or stage directions survive in that printing of this play.^[3] The later Ming anthology preserves a version with fuller spoken material and a fifth act.^[4][7] Four versus five is therefore a clue to the text you have open.

Pay attention to who sings at the point of a decision. The early printing assigns songs to a lead performer who represents several characters in the course of the play.^[3] Follow the role labels so you can tell whose point of view the singer takes in each suite. For more on the forms that surround the play, see the Yuan dynasty overview and the guide to Chinese opera.

Which English Version to Read

West and Idema’s The Orphan of Zhao and Other Yuan Plays includes both the fourteenth-century form and the version from A Selection of Yuan Plays. Read the later text first if you want a fuller spoken sequence, then compare how the earlier print carries some of the same decisions in songs. Pi-Twan Huang and Wai-Yee Li’s The Zhao Orphan in The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama is another English reading route.^[2][4]

James Fenton’s text for the Royal Shakespeare Company is a modern stage adaptation. The RSC production opened in 2012, and Fenton describes writing new songs for it.^[6] Use it to see how a production handles the substitution and its moral difficulty. For another Yuan play in which the people in power decide whose story they believe, see The Injustice to Dou E.

FAQs About The Orphan of Zhao

Who wrote The Orphan of Zhao?

The Yuan drama is traditionally attributed to Ji Junxiang. The historical account came earlier, and editors and adapters have since produced several different forms of the play.

Is it based on a true story?

The Zhao lineage was historical, and the Records of the Grand Historian contains a version of the orphan story. The ancient records differ, and the play reshapes the account for the stage.