The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘This place where we are now is not so very far from my home. I have not much to offer you, but would you like to come back with me and let me try to entertain you ? I have some fairy tea, which I picked myself. You could have a cup of that. And I have a few jars of choice new wine of my own brewing. I have also been rehearsing a fairy choir and a troupe of fairy dancers in a twelve-part suite which I recently composed called “A Dream of Golden Days”. I could get them to perform it for you. What do you think?’

  Bao-yu was so excited by this invitation that he quite forgot to wonder what had become of Qin-shi in his eagerness to accompany the fairy. As he followed her, a big stone archway suddenly loomed up in front of them on which

  THE LAND OF ILLUSION

  was written in large characters. A couplet in smaller characters was inscribed on either side of the arch:

  Chapter 1

  Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true;

  Real becomes not-real when the unreal’s real.

  Having negotiated the archway, they presently came to the gateway of a palace. The following words were inscribed horizontally above the lintel:

  SEAS OF PAIN AND SKIES OF PASSION

  whilst the following words were inscribed vertically on the two sides:

  Ancient earth and sky

  Marvel that love’s passion should outlast all time.

  Star-crossed men and maids

  Groan that love’s debts should be so hard to pay.

  ‘I see,’ said Bao-yu to himself. ‘I wonder what the meaning of “passion that outlasts all time” can be. And what are “love’s debts ” ? From now on I must make an effort to understand these things.’

  He could not, of course, have known it, but merely by thinking this he had invited the attentions of the demon Lust, and at that very moment a little of the demon’s evil poison had entered Bao-yu’s body and lodged itself in the innermost recesses of his heart.

  Wholly unconscious of his mortal peril, Bao-yu continued to follow the fairy woman. They passed through a second gateway, and Bao-yu saw a range of palace buildings ahead of them on either hand. The entrance to each building had a board above it proclaiming its name, and there were couplets on either side of the doorways. Bao-yu did not have time to read all of the names, but he managed to make out a few, viz:

  DEPARTMENT OF FOND INFATUATION

  DEPARTMENT OF CRUEL REJECTION

  DEPARTMENT OF EARLY MORNING WEEPING

  DEPARTMENT OF LATE NIGHT SOBBING

  DEPARTMENT OF SPRING FEVER

  DEPARTMENT OF AUTUMN GRIEF

  ‘Madam Fairy,’ said Bao-yu, whose interest had been whetted by what he had managed to read, ‘couldn’t you take me inside these offices to have a look around ?’

  ‘In these offices,’ said the fairy woman, ‘are kept registers in which are recorded the past, present and future of girls from all over the world. It is not permitted that your earthly eyes should look on things that are yet to come.’

  Bao-yu was most unwilling to accept this answer, and begged and pleaded so persistently that at last Disenchantment gave in.

  ‘Very well. You may make a very brief inspection of this office here.’

  Delighted beyond measure, Bao-yu raised his head and read the notice above the doorway:

  DEPARTMENT OF THE ILL-FATED FAIR

  The couplet inscribed vertically on either side of the doorway was as follows:

  Spring griefs and autumn sorrows were by yourselves provoked. Flower faces, moonlike beauty were to what end disclosed ?

  Bao-yu grasped enough of the meaning to be affected by its melancholy.

  Passing inside, he saw a dozen or more large cupboards with paper strips pasted on their doors on which were written the names of different provinces. He was careful to look out for the one belonging to his own area and presently found one on which the paper strip said ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of, Main Register’. Bao-yu asked Disenchantment what this meant, and she explained that it was a register of the twelve most outstanding girls of his home province.

  ‘People all say what a big place Jinling is,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Surely there should be more than just twelve names ? Why, even in my own home, if you count the servants, there must be altogether several hundred girls.’

  ‘Certainly there are a great many-girls in the whole province,’ said Disenchantment with a smile, ‘but only the most important ones have been selected for recording in this register. The registers in the cupboards on either side contain two other selections from the same area. But of the host of ordinary girls outside those three dozen we keep no records.’

  Bao-yu glanced at the other two cupboards referred to by Disenchantment. One was labelled ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of, Supplementary Register No. 1’; the other was labelled ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of, Supplementary Register No. 2’. Stretching out his hand he opened the door of the second one, took out Supplementary Register No. 2, which was like a large album, and opened it at the first page.

  It was a picture, but not of a person or a view.1 The whole page was covered with dark ink washes representing storm-clouds or fog, followed on the next page by a few lines of verse:

  Seldom the moon shines in a cloudless sky,

  And days of brightness all too soon pass by.

  A noble and aspiring mind

  In a base-born frame confined,

  Your charm and wit did only hatred gain,

  And in the end you were by slanders slain,

  Your gentle lord’s solicitude in vain.

  Bao-yu could not make much sense of this, and turned to the next page. It was another picture, this time of a bunch of fresh flowers and a worn-out mat, again followed by a few lines of verse.

  What price your kindness and compliance,

  Of sweetest flower the rich perfume?

  You chose the player fortune favoured,

  Unmindful of your master’s doom.

  Bao-yu was even more mystified by this than by the first page, and laying the album aside, opened the door of the cupboard marked ‘Supplementary Register No. 1’ and took out the album from that.

  As in the previous album, the first page was a picture. It represented a branch of cassia with a pool underneath. The water in the pool had dried up and the mud in the bottom was dry and cracked. Growing from it was a withered and broken lotus plant. The picture was followed by these lines:

  Your stem grew from a noble lotus root,

  Yet your life passed, poor flower, in low repute.

  The day two earths shall bear a single tree,

  Your soul must fly home to its own country.

  Once more failing to make any sense of what he saw, Bao-yu picked up the Main Register to look at. In this album the picture on the first page represented two dead trees with a jade belt hanging in their branches and on the ground beneath them a pile of snow in which a golden hairpin lay half-buried. This was followed by a quatrain:

  One was a pattern of female virtue,

  One a wit who made other wits seem slow.

  The jade belt in the greenwood hangs,

  The gold pin is buried beneath the snow.

  Still Bao-yu was unable to understand the meaning. He would have liked to ask, but he knew that Disenchantment would be unwilling to divulge the secrets of her immortal world. Yet though he could make no sense of the book, for some reason he found himself unable this time to lay it down, and continued to look through it to the end.

  The picture that followed was of a bow with a citron hanging from it, followed by what looked like the words of a song:

  You shall, when twenty years in life’s hard school are done,

  In pomegranate-time to palace halls ascend.

  Though three springs never could with your first spring compare,

  When hare meets tiger your great dream shall end.

  Next was a picture of two people flying a kite. There was also a large expanse of sea with a boat in it and a girl in the boat who had buried her face in he
r hands and appeared to be crying. This was followed by a quatrain:

  Blessed with a shrewd mind and a noble heart,

  Yet born in time of twilight and decay,

  In spring through tears at river’s bank you gaze,

  Borne by the wind a thousand miles away.

  The next picture showed some scudding wisps of cloud and a stretch of running water followed by these words:

  What shall avail you rank and riches,

  Orphaned while yet in swaddling bands you lay ?

  Soon you must mourn your bright sun’s early setting.

  The Xiang flows and the Chu clouds sail away.

  Next was a picture showing a beautiful jade which had fallen into the mud, followed by words of judgement:

  For all your would-be spotlessness

  And vaunted otherworldliness,

  You that look down on common flesh and blood,

  Yourself impure, shall end up in the mud.

  Next was a striking picture of a savage wolf pursuing a beautiful girl. He had just seized her with his jaws and appeared to be about to eat her. Underneath it was written:

  Paired with a brute like the wolf in the old fable,

  Who on his saviour turned when he was able,

  To cruelty not used, your gentle heart

  Shall, in a twelvemonth only, break apart.

  After this was an old temple with a beautiful girl sitting all on her own inside it reading a Buddhist sutra. The words said:

  When you see through the spring scene’s transient state,

  A nun’s black habit shall replace your own.

  Alas, that daughter of so great a house

  By Buddha’s altar lamp should sleep alone!

  Next was an iceberg with a hen phoenix perched on the top of it, and these words:

  This phoenix in a bad time came;

  All praised her great ability.

  ‘Two’ makes my riddle with a man and tree:

  Returning south in tears she met calamity.

  Next was a cottage in a deserted village inside which a beautiful girl sat spinning, followed by these words:

  When power is lost, rank matters not a jot;

  When families fall, kinship must be forgot.

  Through a chance kindness to a country wife

  Deliverance came for your afflicted life.

  This was followed by a picture of a vigorously growing orchid in a pot, beside which stood a lady in full court dress. The words said:

  The plum-tree bore her fruit after the rest,

  Yet, when all’s done, her Orchid was the best.

  Against your ice-pure nature all in vain

  The tongues of envy wagged; you felt no pain.

  The picture after that showed an upper room in a tall building in which a beautiful girl was hanging by her neck from a beam, having apparently taken her own life. The words said:

  Love was her sea, her sky; in such excess

  Love, meeting with its like, breeds wantonness.

  Say not our troubles all from Rong’s side came;

  For their beginning Ning must take the blame.

  Bao-yu would have liked to see some more, but the fairy woman, knowing how intelligent and sharp-witted he was, began to fear that she was in danger of becoming responsible for a leakage of celestial secrets, and so, snapping the album shut, she said with a laugh, ‘Come with me and we will do some more sight-seeing. Why stay here puzzling your head over these silly riddles?’

  Next moment, without quite knowing how it happened, Bao-yu found that he had left the place of registers behind him and was following Disenchantment through the rear parts of the palace. Everywhere there were buildings with ornately carved and painted eaves and rafters, their doorways curtained with strings of pearls and their interiors draped with embroidered hangings. The courtyards outside them were full of deliciously fragrant fairy blooms and rare aromatic herbs.

  Gleam of gold pavement flashed on scarlet doors,

  And in jade walls jewelled casements snow white shone.

  ‘Hurry, hurry! Come out and welcome the honoured guest!’ he heard Disenchantment calling to someone inside, and almost at once a bevy of fairy maidens came running from the palace, lotus-sleeves fluttering and feather-skirts billowing, each as enchantingly beautiful as the flowers of spring or the autumn moon. Seeing Bao-yu, they began to reproach Disenchantment angrily.

  ‘So this is your “honoured guest”! What do you mean by making us hurry out to meet him ? You told us that today at this very hour the dream-soul of our darling Crimson Pearl was coming to play with us, and we have been waiting I don’t know how long for her arrival. And now, instead, you have brought this disgusting creature to pollute our pure, maidenly precincts. What’s the idea?’

  At these words Bao-yu was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the uncleanness and impurity of his own body and sought in vain for somewhere to escape to; but Disenchantment held him by the hand and advanced towards the fairy maidens with a conciliatory smile.

  ‘Let me tell you the reason for my change of plan. It is true that I set off for the Rong mansion with the intention of fetching Crimson Pearl, but as I was passing through the Ning mansion on my way, I happened to run into the Duke of Ning- guo and his brother the Duke of Rong-guo and they laid a solemn charge on me which I found it hard to refuse.

  ‘“In the hundred years since the foundation of the present dynasty,” they said, “several generations of our house have distinguished themselves by their services to the Throne and have covered themselves with riches and honours; but now its stock of good fortune has run out, and nothing can be done to replenish it. And though our descendants are many, not one of them is worthy to carry on the line. The only possible exception, our great-grandson Bao-yu, has inherited a perverse, intractable nature and is eccentric and emotionally unstable; and although his natural brightness and intelligence augur well, we fear that owing to the fated eclipse of our family’s fortunes there will be no one at hand to give the lad proper guidance and to start him off along the right lines.

  ‘“May we profit from the fortunate accident of this encounter, Madam, to entreat you to take the boy in hand for us ? Could you perhaps initiate him in the pleasures of the flesh and all that sort of thing in such a way as to shock the silliness out of him? In that way he might stand a chance of escaping some of the traps that people fall into and be able to devote himself single-mindedly to the serious things of life. It would be such a kindness if you would do this for us.”

  ‘Hearing the old gentlemen so earnest in their entreaty, I was moved to compassion and agreed to bring the boy here. I began by letting him have a good look at the records of the three grades of girls belonging to his own household; but the experience did not bring any awareness; and so I have brought him to this place for another attempt. It is my hope that a full exposure to the illusions of feasting, drinking, music and dancing may succeed in bringing about an awakening in him some time in the future.’

  Having concluded her explanation, she led Bao-yu indoors. At once he became aware of a faint, subtle scent, the source of which he was quite unable to identify and about which he felt impelled to question Disenchantment.

  ‘How could you possibly know what it was,’ said Disenchantment with a somewhat scornful smile, ‘since this perfume is not to be found anywhere in your mortal world ? It is made from the essences of rare plants found on famous mountains and other places of great natural beauty, culled when they are new-grown and blended with gums from the pearl-laden trees that grow in the jewelled groves of paradise. It is called “Belles Se Fanent”.’

  Bao-yu expressed his admiration.

  The company now seated themselves, and some little maids served them with tea. Bao-yu found its fragrance fresh and clean and its flavour delicious, totally unlike those of any earthly blend he knew. He asked Disenchantment for the name.

  ‘The leaves are picked in the Paradise of the Full-blown Flower on the Mountain of Spring Awakening,�
� Disenchantment informed him. ‘It is infused in water collected from the dew that lies on fairy flowers and leaves. The name is “Maiden’s Tears”.’

  Bao-yu nodded attentively and commended the tea.

  Looking around the room he noticed various musical instruments, antique bronzes, paintings by old masters, poems by new poets, and other hallmarks of gracious living. He was particularly delighted to observe some rouge-stained pieces of cotton-wool lying on the window-sill – evidently the aftermath of some fairy-woman’s toilet. A pair of calligraphic scrolls hung on the wall, making up the following couplet:

  Earth’s choicest spirits in the dark lie hid:

  Heaven ineluctably enforced their fate.

  After reading the scrolls, Bao-yu asked to be introduced to the fairy maidens. They had a strange assortment of names. One was called Dream-of-bliss, another was called Loving-heart, a third Ask-for-trouble, a fourth Past-regrets, and the rest all had names that were equally bizarre.

  Presently the little maids came in again and proceeded to arrange some chairs around a table and to lay it with food and wine for a feast. In the words of the poet,

  Celestial nectar filled the crystal cup,

  And liquid gold in amber goblets glowed.

  The wine’s bouquet was delectable, and once again Bao-yu could not resist asking about it.

  ‘This wine,’ said Disenchantment, ‘is made from the petals of hundreds of different kinds of flowers and extracts from thousands of different sorts of trees. These are blended and fermented with kylin’s marrow and phoenix milk. Hence its name, “Lachrymae Rerum”.’