The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘Now I come to the Rong household – it was there that this strange event occurred that I was telling you about. When the old Duke of Rong-guo died, his eldest son, Jia Dai-shan, inherited his emoluments. He married a girl from a very old Nanking family, the daughter of Marquis Shi, who bore him two sons, Jia She and Jia Zheng.

  ‘Dai-shan has been dead this many a year, but the old lady is still alive. The elder son, Jia She, inherited; but he’s only a very middling sort of person and doesn’t play much part in running the family. The second son, though, Jia Zheng, has been mad keen on study ever since he was a lad. He is a very upright sort of person, straight as a die. He was his grandfather’s favourite. He would have sat for the examinations, but when the emperor saw Dai-shan’s testamentary memorial that he wrote on his death bed, he was so moved, thinking what a faithful servant the old man had been, that he not only ordered the elder son to inherit his father’s position, but also gave instructions that any other sons of his were to be presented to him at once, and on seeing Jia Zheng he gave him the post of Supernumerary Executive Officer, brevet rank, with instructions to continue his studies while on the Ministry’s payroll. From there he lias now risen to the post of Under Secretary.

  ‘Sir Zheng’s lady was formerly a Miss Wang. Her first child was a boy called Jia Zhu. He was already a Licensed Scholar at the age of fourteen. Then he married and had a son. But he died of an illness before he was twenty. The second child she bore him was a little girl, rather remarkable because she was born on New Year’s day. Then after an interval of twelve years or more she suddenly had another son. He was even more remarkable, because at the moment of his birth he had a piece of beautiful, clear, coloured jade in his mouth with a lot of writing on it. They gave him the name “Bao-yu” as a consequence. Now tell me if you don’t think that is an extraordinary thing.’

  ‘It certainly is,’ Yu-cun agreed. ‘I should not be at all surprised to find that there was something very unusual in the heredity of that child.’

  ‘Humph,’ said Zi-xing. ‘A great many people have said that. That is the reason why his old grandmother thinks him such a treasure. But when they celebrated the First Twelve-month and Sir Zheng tested his disposition by putting a lot of objects in front of him and seeing which he would take hold of, he stretched out his little hand and started playing with some women’s things – combs, bracelets, pots of rouge and powder and the like – completely ignoring all the other objects. Sir Zheng was very displeased. He said he would grow up to be a rake, and ever since then he hasn’t felt much affection for the child. But to the old lady he’s the very apple of her eye.

  ‘But there’s more that’s unusual about him than that. He’s now rising ten and unusually mischievous, yet his mind is as sharp as a needle. You wouldn’t find one in a hundred to match him. Some of the childish things he says are most extraordinary. He’ll say, “ Girls are made of water and boys are made of mud. When I am with girls I feel fresh and clean, but when I am with boys I feel stupid and nasty.” Now isn’t that priceless’ He’ll be a lady-killer when he grows up, no question of that.’

  Yu-cun’s face assumed an expression of unwonted severity. ‘Not so. By no means. It is a pity that none of you seem to understand this child’s heredity. Most likely even my esteemed kinsman Sir Jia Zheng is mistaken in treating the boy as a future libertine. This is something that no one but a widely read person, and one moreover well-versed in moral philosophy and in the subtle arcana of metaphysical science could possibly understand.’

  Observing the weighty tone in which these words were uttered, Zi-xing hurriedly asked to be instructed, and Yu-cun proceeded as follows:

  ‘The generative processes operating in the universe provide the great majority of mankind with natures in which good and evil are commingled in more or less equal proportions. Instances of exceptional goodness and exceptional badness are produced by the operation of beneficent or noxious ethereal influences, of which the former are symptomatized by the equilibrium of society and the latter by its disequilibrium.

  ‘Thus,

  Yao,

  Shun,

  Yu,

  Tang,

  King Wen,

  King Wu,

  the Duke of Zhou,

  the Duke of Shao,

  Confucius,

  Mencius,

  Dong Zhong-shu,

  HanYu,

  Zhou Dun-yi,

  the Cheng brothers,

  Zhu Xi and

  Zhang Zai

  – all instances of exceptional goodness – were born under the influence of benign forces, and all sought to promote the well-being of the societies in which they lived; whilst

  Chi You,

  Gong Gong,

  Jie,

  Zhou,

  the First Qin Emperor,

  Wang Mang,

  Cao Cao,

  Huan Wen,

  An Lu-shan and

  Qin Kuai

  – all instances of exceptional badness – were bom under the influence of harmful forces, and all sought to disrupt the societies in which they lived.

  ‘Now, the good cosmic fluid with which the natures of the exceptionally good are compounded is a pure, quintessential humour; whilst die evil fluid which infuses the natures of the exceptionally bad is a cruel, perverse humour.

  ‘Therefore, our age being one in which beneficent ethereal influences are in the ascendant, in which the reigning dynasty is well-established and society both peaceful and prosperous, innumerable instances are to be found, from the palace down to the humblest cottage, of individuals endowed with the pure, quintessential humour.

  ‘Moreover, an unused surplus of this pure, quintessential humour, unable to find corporeal lodgement, circulates freely abroad until it manifests itself in the form of sweet dews and balmy winds, asperged and effused for the enrichment and refreshment of all terrestial life.

  ‘Consequently, the cruel and perverse humours, unable to circulate freely in the air and sunlight, subside, by a process of incrassation and coagulation, into the bottoms of ditches and ravines.

  ‘Now, should these incrassate humours chance to be stirred or provoked by wind or weather into a somewhat more volatile and active condition, it sometimes happens that a stray wisp or errant flocculus may escape from the fissure or concavity in which they are contained; and if some of the pure, quintessential humour should chance to be passing overhead at that same moment, the two will become locked in irreconcilable conflict, the good refusing to yield to the evil, the evil persisting in its hatred of the good. And just as wind, water, thunder and lightning meeting together over the earth can neither dissipate nor yield one to another but produce an explosive shock resulting in the downward emission of rain, so does this clash of humours result in the forcible downward expulsion of the evil humour, which, being thus forced downwards, will find its way into some human creature.

  ‘Such human recipients, whether they be male or female, since they are already amply endowed with the benign humour before the evil humour is injected, are incapable of becoming either greatly good or greatly bad; but place them in the company of ten thousand others and you will find that they are superior to all the rest in sharpness and intelligence and inferior to all the rest in perversity, wrongheadedness and eccentricity. Born into a rich or noble household they are likely to become great lovers or the occasion of great love in others; in a poor but well-educated household they will become literary rebels or eccentric aesthetes; even if they are born in the lowest stratum of society they are likely to become great actors or famous hetaerae. Under no circumstances will you find them in servile or menial positions, content to be at the beck and call of mediocrities.

  ‘For examples I might cite:

  Xu You,

  Tao Yuan-ming,

  Ruan Ji,

  Ji Kang,

  Liu Ling,

  the Wang and Xie clans of the Jin period,

  Gu Kai-zhi,

  the last ruler of Chen,

&nbs
p; the emperor Ming-huang of the Tang dynasty,

  the emperor Hui-zong of the Song dynasty,

  Liu Ting-zhi,

  Wen Ting-yun,

  Mi Fei,

  Shi Yan-nian,

  Liu Yong and

  Qin Guan;

  or, from more recent centuries:

  Ni Zan,

  Tang Yin and

  Zhu Yun-ming;

  or again, for examples of the last type:

  Li Gui-nian,

  Huang Fan-chuo,

  Jing Xin-mo,

  Zhuo Wen-jun,

  Little Red Duster,

  Xue Tao,

  Cui Ying-ying and

  Morning Cloud.

  All of these, though their circumstances differed, were essentially the same.’

  ‘You mean,’ Zi-xing interposed,

  ‘Zhang victorious is a hero,

  Zhang beaten is a lousy knave?’

  ‘Precisely so,’ said Yu-cun. ‘I should have told you that during the two years after I was cashiered I travelled extensively in every province of the empire and saw quite a few remarkable children in the course of my travels; so that just now when you mentioned this Bao-yu I felt pretty certain what type of boy he must be. But one doesn’t need to go very far afield for another example. There is one in the Zhen family in Nanking – I am referring to the family of the Zhen who is Imperial Deputy Director-General of the Nanking Secretariat. Perhaps you know who I mean ?’

  ‘Who doesn’t?! said Zi-xing. ‘There is an old family connection between the Zhen family and the Jias of whom we have just been speaking, and they are still on very close terms with each other. I’ve done business with them myself for longer than I’d care to mention.’

  ‘Last year when I was in Nanking,’ said Yu-cun, smiling at the recollection, ‘I was recommended for the post of tutor in their household. I could tell at a glance, as soon as I got inside the place, that for all the ducal splendour this was a family “though rich yet given to courtesy”, in the words of the Sage, and that it was a rare piece of luck to have got a place in it. But when I came to teach my pupil, though he was only at the first year primary stage, he gave me more trouble than an examination candidate.

  ‘He was indeed a comedy. He once said, “I must have two girls to do my lessons with me if I am to remember the words and understand the sense. Otherwise my mind will simply not work.” And he would often tell the little pages who waited on him, “The word ‘girl’ is very precious and very pure. It is much more rare and precious than all the rarest beasts and birds and plants in the world. So it is most extremely important that you should never, never violate it with your coarse mouths and stinking breath. Whenever you need to say it, you should first rinse your mouths out with clean water and scented tea. And if ever I catch you slipping up, I shall have holes drilled through your teeth and lace them up together.”

  ‘There was simply no end to his violence and unruliness. Yet as soon as his lessons were over and he went inside to visit the girls of the family, he became a completely different person – all gentleness and calm, and as intelligent and well-bred as you please.

  ‘His father gave him several severe beatings but it made no difference. Whenever the pain became too much for him he would start yelling “Girls! girls!” Afterwards, when the girls in the family got to hear about it, they made fun of him. “Why do you always call to us when you are hurt ? I suppose you think we shall come and plead for you to be let off. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” But you should have heard his answer. He said, “Once when the pain was very bad, I thought that perhaps if I shouted the word ‘girls’ it might help to ease it. Well,” he said, “I just called out once, and the pain really was quite a bit better. So now that I have found this secret remedy, I just keep on shouting’ Girls! girls! girls!’ whenever the pain is at its worst.” I could not help laughing.

  ‘But because his grandmother doted on him so much, she was always taking the child’s part against me and his father. In the end I had to hand in my notice. A boy like that will never be able to keep up the family traditions or listen to the advice of his teachers and friends. The pity of it is, though, that the girls in that family are all exceptionally good.’

  ‘The three at present in the Jia household are also very fine girls,’ said Zi-xing. ‘Sir Jia Zheng’s eldest girl, Yuan-chun, was chosen for her exceptional virtue and cleverness to be a Lady Secretary in the Imperial Palace. The next in age after her and eldest of the three still at home is called Ying-chun. She is the daughter of Sir Jia She by one of his secondary wives. After her comes another daughter of Sir Zheng’s, also a concubine’s child, called Tan-chun. The youngest, Xi-chun, is sister-german to Mr Jia Zhen of the Ning-guo mansion. Old Lady Jia is very fond of her granddaughters and keeps them all in her own apartments on the Rong-guo side. They all study together, and I have been told that they are doing very well.’

  ‘One of the things I liked about the Zhen family,’ said Yu-cun, ‘was their custom of giving the girls the same sort of names as the boys, unlike the majority of families who invariably use fancy words like “chun”, “bong”, “xiang”, “yu”, and so forth. How comes it that the Jias should have followed the vulgar practice in this respect ?’

  ‘They didn’t,’ said Zi-xing. ‘The eldest girl was called “Yuan-chun” because she was in fact born on the first day of spring. The others were given names with “chun” in them to match hers. But if you go back a generation, you will find that among the Jias too the girls had names exactly like the boys’.

  ‘I can give you proof. Your present employer’s good lady is sister-german to Sir She and Sir Zheng of the Rong household. Her name, before she married, was Jia Min. If you don’t believe me, you make a few inquiries when you get home and you’ll find it is so.’

  Yu-cun clapped his hands with a laugh. ‘Of course! I have often wondered why it is that my pupil Dai-yu always pronounces “min” as “mi” when she is reading and, if she has to write it, always makes the character with one or two strokes missing. Now I understand. No wonder her speech and behaviour are so unlike those of ordinary children! I always supposed that there must have been something remarkable about the mother for her to have produced so remarkable a daughter. Now I know that she was related to the Jias of the Rong household, I am not surprised.

  ‘By the way, I am sorry to say that last month the mother passed away.’

  Zi-xing sighed. ‘Fancy her dying so soon! She was the youngest of the three. And the generation before them are all gone, every one. We shall have to see what sort of husbands they manage to find for the younger generation!’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ said Yu-cun. ‘Just now you mentioned that Sir Zheng had this boy with the jade in his mouth and you also mentioned a little grandson left behind by his elder son. What about old Sir She ? Surely he must have a son ?’

  ‘Since Sir Zheng had the boy with the jade, he has had another son by a concubine,’ said Zi-xing, ‘but I couldn’t tell you what he’s like. So at present he has two sons and one grandson. Of course, we don’t know what the future may bring.

  ‘But you were asking about Sir She. Yes, he has a son too, called Jia Lian. He’s already a young man in his early twenties. He married his own kin, the niece of his Uncle Zheng’s wife, Lady Wang. He’s been married now for four or five years. Holds the rank of a Sub-prefect by purchase. He’s another member of the family who doesn’t find responsibilities congenial. He knows his way around, though, and has a great gift of the gab, so at present he stays at home with his Uncle Zheng and helps him manage the family’s affairs. However, ever since he married this young lady I mentioned, everyone high and low has joined in praising her, and he has been put into the shade rather. She is not only a very handsome young woman, she also has a very ready tongue and a very good head – more than a match for most men, I can tell you.’

  ‘You see, I was not mistaken,’ said Yu-cun. ‘All these people you and I have been talking about are probably examples of that
mixture of good and evil humours I was describing to you.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ said Zi-xing. ‘Instead of sitting here setting other people’s accounts to rights, let’s have another drink I’

  ‘I am afraid I have drunk quite a lot while we were busy talking,’ said Yu-cun.

  Zi-xing laughed. ‘There’s nothing like a good gossip about other people’s affairs for making the wine go down! I’m sure an extra cup or two won’t do us any harm.’

  Yu-cun glanced out of the window. ‘It’s getting late. We must be careful we don’t get shut out of the city. Why not continue the conversation on our way back? Then we can take our time.’

  The two men accordingly rose from their seats, settled the bill for the wine, and were just about to start on their way, when a voice from behind called out, ‘Yu-cun, congratulations! I’ve got some good news for you.’

  Yu-cun turned to look.

  But if you wish to know who it was, you will have to read the next chapter.

  Chapter 3

  Lin Ru-hai recommends a private tutor

  to his brother-in-law

  And old Lady Jia extends a compassionate welcome

  to the motherless child

  When Yu-cun turned to look, he was surprised to see that it was Zhang Ru gui, a former colleague who had been cashiered at the same time and for the same reason as himself. Zhang Ru-gui was a native of these parts, and had been living at home since his dismissal. Having just wormed out the information that a motion put forward in the capital for the reinstatement of ex-officials had been approved, he had been dashing about ever since, pulling strings and soliciting help from potential backers, and was engaged in this activity when he unexpectedly ran into Yu-cun. Hence the tone of his greeting.