Courtesans and Opium

by AnonYMous

  One day Phoenix was sitting at home when a man in his thirties walked in. It was her brother, whose childhood name was Changshanzi. He had come back from Anhui province, and his sister, Mistress Lin, had sent her son to show him the way to Phoenix’s house. For both brother and sister, meeting again after a long separation, the joy was mixed with sadness. Phoenix had him stay in the house, saw to his food and drink, and gave him money for incidental expenses, including the barber and the bathhouse. After many years away from Yangzhou, she rejoiced in being reunited with her own flesh and blood.

  But at the height of joy, sorrow is born. Jia Ming suddenly developed erysipelas on one of his feet and took to his bed, unable to walk. Phoenix was alarmed, and early every morning she went over to the house to visit him. There she personally prepared his medicine, heated the water, and bathed his foot, then rubbed ointment on both feet, undeterred by the filthy matter. Mistress Li, who was on good terms with her, was perfectly content to yield when it came to preparing medicine and applying ointment, and Phoenix threw herself into the task of attending on Jia and proved far more assiduous than his wife. She went there early and came home late and was on tenterhooks the whole day lest Orchid’s playing in the house might irritate him. After ten days or more, his condition began to improve, but only when he was convalescing at home did she cease worrying and give up her daily visits.

  A few days later his foot had completely healed, and he could walk again. One day after lunch he walked slowly over to see her. Zhang Er,2 Maid Gao, and Changshanzi saw him coming and went forward to welcome him and ask about his health. As for Phoenix, she was beside herself with joy—it was as if a miracle had occurred. Taking his hand, she led him into her room, where Maid Gao followed with tea and tobacco.

  “Congratulations on your recovery!” she said. “Have you had anything to eat?”

  “Thanks to you, I’m completely better, and I’m ever so grateful. I had some lunch just now. I haven’t been out of the house in over half a month, and I became terribly bored, so I strolled over here to have a chat with you and cheer myself up.”

  “Perhaps you’re hungry? Shall I get you something to eat? You’ve just come through a crisis, and you mustn’t go hungry.”

  “I’ve only just eaten, and I’m still full. Let’s wait a while.” Phoenix called on Maid Gao to light the lamp so that Jia Ming could smoke.

  “While I was suffering with my foot, you were kind enough to visit me many times. You prepared the medicine and applied the ointment, and you weren’t put off by all the filth. You were so attentive, and I feel sorry that I caused you such trouble. While I was recuperating at home with nothing to occupy my time, I wrote a pair of scrolls and six poems that I’d like to offer you.” He drew from his sleeve a pair of scrolls mounted on apple green wax paper, as well as several sheets of pink paper flecked with gold. He spread out the scrolls, which read:

  The phoenix alights only in the finest places;

  The performer constantly sings the most loving songs.

  The first attribution read: “For the Perusal of Phoenix the Divine Lady.” The second read: “Presented by the Exceedingly Foolish Student.”

  Jia Ming also set out the sheets, all of which were written in cursive script.

  In the second month of spring in the dingyou year, my friends invited me to join them at the Scent of Bamboo house, where I first set eyes on Miss Phoenix. I took note of her elegance and grace, her sweet nature, her sparing use of makeup, and her cloth dress and silver jewelry; she was dressed like a girl of good family and had none of the vulgar brothel manner. And then at the banquet I heard her wonderful singing and dancing, which quite ravished my senses. We conversed for a long time, and she favored me with a heart-to-heart exchange, after which we became close friends. For two years we were constantly together, almost without missing a day. Then in the first month of autumn of the yihai year, I happened to be confined to bed because of an infected foot, and Miss Phoenix took the time to attend on me every day, personally preparing the medicine, and washing and applying ointment to the infected part, undeterred by either the filthy matter or the hard work. I have now had the good fortune to make a complete recovery. While recuperating at home I had nothing to occupy my time, so in a playful mood I composed these six poems for her, in the hope that she would read and correct them.

  POEM 1

  Although for years I feared to fall in love,

  With her I had no choice, try as I might.

  The bond that we share must be foreordained;

  How could it be merely love at first sight?

  POEM 2

  An orphan child with none to cherish you,

  (She lost both parents while still a child)

  Taken from Yangzhou for many a long year.

  (She was born in Yangzhou but was taken to Qingjiang by her mother-in-law and spent many years there before returning.)

  If we had but met each other before,

  You would not as a child have dressed your hair.3

  POEM 3

  Pear-blossom cheeks, waist like a willow frond,

  As she trips with tiny steps, her garments sway.

  But then, when flushed with wine, she turns all shy—

  Her drunken look quite takes your breath away.

  POEM 4

  I’ve seen you knit your brows all day, poor love,

  And at your dressing table stream with tears.

  What was the reason for the gloomy silence?

  Because at home you were beset by fears.

  POEM 5

  By falling ill I gave you endless trouble;

  On nine days in ten you came to nurse me.

  I own I have been heartless up to now;

  What made you care for me to this degree?

  POEM 6

  I have no bower to receive you in;

  My response to your love has been remiss.

  But if our hearts are truly loving now,

  Let’s live out our next lives in married bliss.

  “When I heard that you were suffering with your foot,” said Phoenix, “I was scared out of my wits. I went to visit you every day, but I was still worried when I got home in the evening. I burned ever so many sticks of incense and made ever so many promises in my prayers! And I was never able to calm down enough to sleep at night. Now, thanks to heaven, you’ve completely recovered from your ordeal. One day I shall hold a great service and repay all the promises I made in my prayers so as to protect you from disaster in the future. I’m most grateful to you for favoring me with the poems and the scrolls, but unfortunately I can’t read, so please read them out to me.” Jia Ming asked someone to hang the scrolls up on the wall, then read the couplet and the six poems out loud and explained them one by one to Phoenix.

  She was delighted with them. “As soon as you can, please have them sent to the art shop for mounting. I want to hang them up in my room,” she said. “Later on you can teach me to memorize them line by line, so that when I have some free time I can cheer myself up by quoting them. Although I know nothing about literature, when I heard you say the line that goes ‘Let’s live out our next lives in married bliss,’ I felt I just couldn’t wait for the next life. If you really do love me, why not put up the cost of a woman who could earn a living for my husband and take me home with you? Wouldn’t that be married bliss in this life? Why do we need that depressing reference to the next life?”

  “I was recuperating at home and had nothing to occupy me, so I concocted these few lines of doggerel4 to cheer myself up. You can’t mount them as poetry! If anyone saw them, he’d laugh his head off.”

  “Myself, I wouldn’t know whether they’re good or bad. I just enjoyed hearing them when you read them out together. Please have them mounted, for my sake.”

  “If you insist that I make a fool of myself, I’ll take them to the shop and bring them back once they’re mounted so that you can hang them up and enjoy yourself—and make me into a laughingstock.”

  “If
they’re hanging up in my room, who’s going to see them and make fun of you?”

  Jia Ming called Orchid in and said, “I haven’t been here in ten days or more, and I expect you’ve forgotten all the characters you learned. Take a look at the characters on those scrolls. How many do you recognize?”

  Orchid looked closely at the scrolls. She remembered all of the characters she had been taught, which included seven or eight of those on the scrolls, and Jia Ming was more than pleased with her. “I thought that with no one here to test you every day, you’d probably have forgotten all the characters, but you didn’t forget a single one. You’re so smart, it’s a pity you’re a girl.” He found a few dozen cash in his pocket and gave them to her. “Here, take this and buy yourself some fruit. I’m pleased with you because you worked hard at learning your characters.” Orchid took the money and went gleefully off to play in the reception room. Jia Ming smoked a little, and Phoenix sent out for pastries for their afternoon tea. That evening Jia Ming had dinner there and stayed the night.

  A few days later Mistress Dai returned from Suzhou. She stepped out of the sedan chair, came inside, and began a steady moaning and groaning. Phoenix came out of her room and asked, “Ma’am, why are you in such a state?”

  “I took Ailin to Suzhou, and she went to work at the House of Great Joy on Cabin Lane inside Xu Gate. The only reason I came back to Yangzhou is that I got sick!” Phoenix paid the boat fare for her as well as the cost of the sedan chair bearers and the porter, and also called in a doctor to check her pulse. Her illness proved to be nothing more than a stasis of the blood brought on by a chill, but she had to be treated with medicine for more than a month before she was completely cured.

  Time flew by, and soon it was the end of the year. All of the New Year expenses were borne by Jia Ming. On New Year’s Eve, he provided the gift money, in graded amounts, for Phoenix’s entire household. In the evening, he and Phoenix drank to see the old year out, and he cleared up all the business that had to do with the house. Not until the fourth watch did he go home and celebrate the new year. On the afternoon of New Year’s Day itself, he went back to Phoenix’s house. When they saw him coming, Maid Gao and Zhang Er set off fireworks and offered him compliments of the season. Then, when he came inside, Mistress Dai, her eldest son Lan Da, and Changsanzi all offered him their compliments. In Phoenix’s room he found a blazing charcoal fire and on the table a pair of tall wax candles glowing. Phoenix greeted him, and they exchanged compliments. Orchid was called in, and she kowtowed before Jia Ming and offered him her compliments. Maid Gao brought in ingot tea with brown sugar and set a hamper on the table. Phoenix took New Year cakes, dried longan, dates, peanuts, and melon seeds from the hamper and offered them to Jia Ming together with a number of New Year’s prints bearing good wishes, such as “Wisdom and distinction,” “A sweet and happy life,” “Prosperity,” “May you soon have a son,” “May you live to a ripe old age,” “May you have numerous descendants.” Jia Ming ate a New Year date, then took out several pink paper notes and gave one each to Mistress Dai, Lan Da, Changshanzi, Maid Gao, and Zhang Er. He also handed Phoenix a note for her husband, Lan Er, and gave Phoenix herself a silver dollar. To Orchid he gave a note to buy fruit with. Phoenix called in Maid Gao to light the opium lamp and invited Jia Ming to smoke. Dinner that night consisted of twelve dishes and a pot of wine, and after he and Phoenix had enjoyed their meal, he stayed the night.

  On the thirteenth, which was the day lanterns were put up, Jia Ming went to the Yuan Gate Bridge and bought a pomegranate-style nest of lanterns as well as four crickets and several carousels,5 which he hung in Phoenix’s room. He also bought a mandarin fish lantern for Orchid to light and amuse herself with. On the evening of the fifteenth he bought two boxes of fireworks and various kinds of crackers—meteors, nine-tailed dragons, weeping willows, threaded peonies, gold and silver candleholders, flying fish, brighter-than-the-moons, plus several buckets of squibs. He drank wine with Phoenix as the Lantern Festival was celebrated. On the eighteenth they had a meal of noodles together and took down the lanterns.

  In the middle of the second month Jia Ming’s eyes suddenly began to hurt. He thought it was merely conjunctivitis and paid no attention, but after five or six days both eyes had swollen up like peaches, and it was hard for him to open and close them. A doctor examined him, and Jia Ming took medicines and used ointments. He even underwent a special bathing treatment combined with massage, but nothing worked. The pain increased until it began to affect his intestines, and he took very little food or drink but lay on Phoenix’s bed and moaned day and night. She was so alarmed that she stayed at his side until the middle of the night, then got up, rinsed her mouth out with cold water, and began licking the pus and blood from his eyelids with the tip of her tongue. She kept on licking until almost daybreak, when Jia Ming felt that the pain had eased a little, and he closed his eyes and dozed. She did this for three nights in succession before the pain ceased and the swelling went down.

  “My eyes hurt so badly, and there was so much pus that it gummed them both up. Even my own wife couldn’t have licked them for me. Luckily for me you weren’t put off by all the muck, and you licked my eyes for several nights until they got better. The love you showed me is etched on my heart, and I shall never forget it.”

  “So long as you’re in good health and spirits, and we enjoy a lasting friendship, I’ll die content,” she replied. “No one is asking you to get all emotional over it.” After a few days Jia Ming’s eyes were completely better, and he was able to walk outside again.

  Time flew by, and soon it was the Pure Brightness Festival. Several days before, Phoenix had asked Jia Ming to hire a boat and invite Mistress Lin and her children as well as Changshanzi to go with them to sweep their parents’ graves.6 On the day of the festival, Jia Ming, Phoenix, and Orchid paid a visit to the City God Temple. When the tree peonies and the herbaceous peonies were in full bloom, Phoenix also asked Jia Ming to hire a boat to go and enjoy them. And at the Upright Sun Festival,7 Jia Ming hired a pleasure craft and took Phoenix to see the dragon boats. Theirs was a harmonious relationship, and they were inseparable.

  One day as they were lying down opposite each other on her bed smoking opium, they heard a visitor saying something to Maid Gao.

  If you are wondering who the visitor was and why he came there, please turn to the next chapter.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Phoenix breaks her vows and marries another man;

  Lucky takes her lover’s money and returns home.

  Phoenix had been smoking opium in her room with Jia Ming when they heard someone in the reception room. Maid Gao asked who he was and why he had come. “My name is Ge Ren,” he replied, “and I’m manager of the Lüxing Garden Guesthouse on Ridge Street. Yesterday a gentleman from Shandong surnamed Lu arrived at the guesthouse. His father used to be a grand secretary, and he himself is an official in one of the ministries and wears a crystal button on his cap.1 He has brought a large retinue with him and has rented a whole separate courtyard of the guesthouse. Today he told me to fetch a courtesan who can sing and play for him. I’ve heard that your Miss Phoenix is an accomplished singer and musician, and I’ve brought her an invitation.”

  “Our Miss Phoenix has already been retained by someone. She doesn’t go out on assignments anymore. You should try somewhere else.”

  “But I came especially on her account, and I’d appreciate your having a word with her. I’ll wait here to see if she’s coming.”

  Maid Gao went to Phoenix’s room and told her what the visitor had said. “Ever since I moved here,” said Phoenix, “I’ve never been out on an assignment. You shouldn’t have brought this to me. I shan’t go. Send him away.”

  Maid Gao was about to leave the room when Jia Ming called on her to wait. Turning to Phoenix, he said, “You don’t have anything to do at home, anyway. When there’s a traveler of this sort passing through, why not go over there and make a little money? You could buy a few o
unces of opium for us to roast, which would be all to the good.”

  “It’s not that I’m unwilling to go. But you’re here, and if I did go, you’d be left on your own. That’s why I turned him down.”

  “Let’s dispense with the blarney. Maid Gao, go and ask him how much he would pay for the assignment.”

  The maid went back to the reception room and asked Ge Ren. “How much did that man Lu say that he would pay for the assignment?”

  “I explained to him that it would be a five-tael assignment. However, my own gratuity can’t be set at the standard rate. I would expect to benefit handsomely from the occasion.”

  Maid Gao reported this to Phoenix and Jia Ming, but Phoenix still wavered. Jia Ming said to Maid Gao, “Tell him he can go back now and say that the courtesan will be along as soon as she’s ready.” Maid Gao sent Ge Ren off.

  Phoenix satisfied her opium habit, then washed and combed again, changed her clothes, and told Jia Ming not to go home but to wait there for her return. Then she stepped into a sedan chair. Zhang Er carried her lute case, and she also called in an opera musician to accompany her to the Lüxing Garden.