Synopsis: Bao Zheng, a high-ranking official of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), stages a play for Emperor Zhao Zhen at the Lantern Festival about an undutiful son who is killed by a thunderbolt. This angers Zhao because it suggests he has been an undutiful son. The emperor learns, however, that his mother has been driven out of court by another concubine of his father and is leading a miserable life in a village. The emperor immediately orders her back to the court. The mother censures her son and tells Bao Zheng to give him a beating for having been so unfilial. Bao asks the Emperor to take off his robe and beats that instead.