115th Year Shennong Cultural Festival Celebration - Hsin Chuan Taiwanese Opera Troupe (薪傳歌仔戲劇團): "Secret History of the Song Palace" (宋宮秘史)

Play: Secret History of the Song Palace (宋宮秘史)
Synopsis: During the reign of Emperor Chen-tsung of the Sung dynasty, two consorts, Liu and Li, both became pregnant. Consort Liu, in order to seize the position of empress, replaced the prince born by Consort Li with a skinned civet cat in the delivery room, falsely accusing her of giving birth to a monster, causing Consort Li to be banished to the cold palace. Palace maid Kou-chu (寇珠), unable to bear killing the prince, risked her life with eunuch Chen-lin (陳琳) to escort him to the Southern Purity Palace (南清宮), where he was raised by the Eighth Virtuous Prince (八賢王). Years later, Consort Liu's son died young, so she adopted the son of the Eighth Virtuous Prince (actually Consort Li's biological son) as the heir apparent. Consort Liu, suspicious, interrogated Kou-chu, who sacrificed her life to preserve her integrity, her spirit drifting to Chen-chou (陳州). In the end, the upright official Pao-cheng (包拯), guided by the wronged spirit, encountered Consort Li, who had been living among the people, and finally brought the truth of this great palace injustice of the kuei-wei year to light.