The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘Yes.’ Jia Zheng bowed deferentially.

  The Prince of Bei-jing removed a rosary from his wrist and handed it to Bao-yu.

  ‘Today is our first meeting, but as it was an unforeseen one, I have not come prepared with a suitable gift. All I can offer you is this rosary made of the aromatic seeds of some Indian plant. It was given me by His Imperial Majesty. I hope you will accept it as a little token of my esteem.’

  Bao-yu took the rosary and turning back offered it respectfully to Jia Zheng, who made his son join him in formally thanking the prince for his gift.

  At this point Jia She and Cousin Zhen knelt before the prince and invited him to return.

  ‘The Departed is now in paradise,’ said the prince.’ Though I enjoy imperial favour and princely rank, I would not presume to go past her carriage, Heavenly honours take precedence over earthly ones!’

  When they saw that the prince was adamant, Jia She and the rest bowed their thanks, then, having ordered the musicians to vail their instruments and march by in silence, they caused the front part of the procession and the hearse to pass over the junction. As soon as the hearse had gone over, the prince and his retinue crossed in the other direction, after which the rear part of the procession moved forward and caught up with the rest.

  The liveliness which attended the procession during the whole of its progress through the city reached a climax as it approached the city gate, for it was along this last stretch that the colleagues and office juniors of Jia She, Jia Zheng and Cousin Zhen had arranged their bowers, and it was necessary to stop and thank each one of them as they made their offerings to the passing hearse. They did at last succeed in getting out of the city gate, however, after which a clear road lay ahead all the way to the Temple of the Iron Threshold. Cousin Zhen went round with Jia Rong to the senior men among the mourners and invited them to proceed from there onwards by the transport provided. The upshot was that those of Jia She’s generation got into carriages and sedans, while Cousin Zhen and the younger men mounted on horseback.

  Xi-feng was worried about Bao-yu. Out in the country, she thought, he was liable to become wild and disobedient. She felt sure that he would get up to some kind of mischief now that he was removed from Jia Zheng’s restraint. Accordingly she sent one of her pages to summon him, and presently he rode up to her carriage.

  ‘Bao dear,’ said Xi-feng, ‘a person of your refinement belongs here with us. You don’t want to go clomping around the countryside like apes on horseback with those horrid men!

  Why not get in with me? The two of us will keep each other company.’

  Bao-yu at once dismounted and climbed up into the carriage, and the two of them drove on, laughing and chattering as they went. They had not been driving very long when two horsemen galloped up beside them, dismounted, and leaning into the carriage, informed Xi-feng that they were now near her stopping-place, in case she wished to get out and ‘stretch her legs’. Xi-feng sent them on ahead to ask Lady Xing and Lady Wang for instructions. The latter sent back word that they had no desire to stop, themselves, but that Xi-feng was welcome to do so if she wished. Xi-feng accordingly gave orders for a short halt. At once the pages led the horses out of the main stream of traffic and headed northwards down a small side-road.

  Bao-yu hurriedly sent someone off to fetch Qin Zhong, who was riding along behind his father’s sedan. As the page came hurrying up and asked him to stop with Bao-yu for a little refreshment, he turned round and saw Bao-yu’s horse in the distance, jogging along in a northerly direction with an empty saddle on its back behind Xi-feng’s carriage, and he realized that Bao-yu must be inside the carriage with Xi-feng. Turning his horse’s head about, he hurried after, and followed them into the gateway of a farm.

  Apart from the barns and outhouses, the farmhouse consisted of little more than a single large room, so that there was nowhere the farmer’s womenfolk could go to be out of the way of the visitors. The sudden appearance in their midst of Xi-feng, Bao-yu and Qin Zhong with their fashionable clothes and delicate city faces seemed to these simple countrywomen more like a celestial visitation than a human one.

  As soon as they were inside the thatched central building, Xi-feng asked the boys to amuse themselves outside. Bao-yu realized that she needed to be alone, and conducted Qin Zhong and the pages on a tour of the farmyard. He had never in his life seen any of the farming implements before, and was very curious. One of his pages who had some experience of country matters was able to name each implement for him and explain its functions. Bao-yu was impressed.

  ‘Now I can understand the words of the old poet,’ he said:

  ‘Each grain of rice we ever ate

  Cost someone else a drop of sweat.’

  At that moment they came to an outhouse in which was a kang with a spinning-wheel on it. Bao-yu was even more intrigued.

  ‘That’s for spinning yarn with to make cloth out of,’ said the pages.

  Bao-yu at once got up on the kang and had just started to turn it when a country lass of seventeen or eighteen summers came running up:

  ‘Don’t! You’ll spoil it!’

  She was shouted at fiercely by the pages, but Bao-yu had already stayed his hand.

  ‘I’m sorry. I’ve never seen one before. I was just turning it for fun, to see how it works.’

  ‘You don’t know how to turn it properly,’ said the girl. ‘Let me show you how ‘tis done.’

  Qin Zhong gave Bao-yu a sly tug:

  ‘A comely damosel, thinkest thou nottest?’

  ‘Shut up, or I’ll clout you!’ said Bao-yu, pushing him.

  During this muttered exchange the girl had begun spinning. She did, indeed, make a charming picture as she bent over her work. Suddenly an old woman’s voice called out from the other side of the yard:

  ‘Ertie! Come here at once my gal.’

  The girl jumped up from her spinning and hurried over. Bao-yu’s spirits were quite dashed by her abrupt departure.

  But just then someone came from Xi-feng inviting the boys indoors. They found her washed and changed. She asked them if they wanted to ‘change’ too, but Bao-yu replied that they did not. Then a variety of cakes and sweets were brought in by the servants, and fragrant tea was poured for them to drink. When the three had taken their fill of these refreshments and everything had been cleared away and repacked by the servants, they rose up and got back into their carriage.

  Outside in the yard Brightie handed the farmer’s family their payment, which he had brought with him ready-wrapped in coloured paper, and the womenfolk hurried up to the carriage to express their thanks. Bao-yu scanned their faces carefully, but could not see his spinning-girl amongst them. They had not driven far, however, when he caught sight of her at the end of the village. She was standing watching for him beside the road, a baby brother in her arms and two little girls at her side. Bao-yu could not repress a strong emotion on seeing her, but sitting there in the carriage there was not much he could do but gaze back at her soulfully; and soon, as the carriage bowled along at a smarter pace, Ertie was lost to sight for ever.

  With talk and laughter to beguile them, the journey passed quickly. Soon they had caught up with the main procession; soon the sound of drums and cymbals was heard and they could see ahead of them the banners and umbrellas of the monks from the Temple of the Iron Threshold who had come out in procession and lined either side of the road to welcome them; and soon they were inside the temple, where further ceremonies awaited them, a new staging having been erected for this purpose. The coffin was installed in one of the side-chapels leading off the inner hall, and Jewel arranged her sleeping-quarters near by to continue her watch over it.

  In the outer hall Cousin Zhen was busy attending to his guests, some of whom were staying on, while others wished to leave immediately. To each he tendered formal thanks for their trouble in coming. They left in order of seniority; duke’s kin going first, then those of marquises, then those of earls, then those of viscounts, then those of
barons, and so on downwards. It was three o’clock by the time the last of them had gone.

  Xi-feng received the lady guests inside. They, too, left in order of precedence and had not finally dispersed until around two o’clock. Only members of the clan and a few very close friends stayed behind to see the ceremonies through to their conclusion two days later.

  Lady Xing and Lady Wang were among those who left. They could see that Xi-feng would be unable to return that day and wanted to take Bao-yu back with them into town. But Bao-yu, after his first taste of the countryside, was extremely loth to return and begged to stay with Xi-feng; so Lady Wang went without him, leaving him in Xi-feng’s charge.

  The Temple of the Iron Threshold was a private foundation of the Dukes of Ning-guo and Rong-guo which still had some land of its own in which members of the clan who died in the capital could be given temporary burial. The thoughtful Dukes had provided accommodation not only for the dead but also for the living, in the form of guest-rooms in which mourners might temporarily reside until their funereal business was over. What the old gentlemen had not foreseen was that their multitudinous progeny would come in time to exhibit differences of wealth and temperament so extreme as often to render their possessors mutually intolerable and that, whereas the more hard-up members of the clan gladly occupied the accommodation provided, the more affluent or pretentious found it ‘inconvenient’ to stay there and preferred to seek alternative accommodation in the farmsteads and convents round about.

  Xi-feng was among those who found the Iron Threshold accommodation ‘inconvenient’. Some time previously she had sent someone to Wheatcake Priory to make arrangements on her behalf with the prioress Euergesia, and the old nun had turned out several rooms in readiness for her arrival. ‘Wheat-cake Priory’ (so-called because of the excellent steamed wheatbread made in its kitchens) was the popular name for Water-moon Priory, an offshoot of Water-moon Abbey situated at no great distance from the Temple of the Iron Threshold.

  Presently, when the monks had finished their service and the evening offering of tea had been made, Cousin Zhen sent Jia Rong in to Xi-feng with a message inviting her to retire. Having first glanced round to ascertain that a sufficient number of Jia ladies were present to look after the still remaining guests, Xi-feng bade the company good night and left for Wheatcake Priory with Bao-yu and Qin Zhong. Qin Zhong had attached himself to the other two when his father Qin Bang-ye, unable by reason of his age and frail state of health to risk a night away from home, had gone back to the city, leaving him to await the conclusion of the requiem services on his own.

  They soon arrived at the priory and were met by Euergesia, who had brought her two little disciples Benevolentia and Sapientia to welcome them. As soon as the first greetings were over, Xi-feng retired to her room to wash and change. Emerging refreshed, she observed how much taller Sapientia had grown and how radiantly good-looking, and inquired of Euergesia why she and her two charges had lately not been into town to see them.

  ‘It is on account of Mr Hu’s good lady,’ said the old nun. ‘She has lately been brought to bed of a boy, and sent us ten taels of silver for a three-day recital of the Lake of Blood sutra by some of the sisters to purge the stain of childbirth. We have been so busy with the arrangements that we haven’t had time to call.’

  Let us leave Xi-feng in conversation with the prioress and turn to the other two.

  Qin Zhong and Bao-yu were amusing themselves in the main hall of the priory when Sapientia happened to pass through.

  ‘Here’s Sappy,’ said Bao-yu with a meaningful smile.

  ‘Well, what about it?’ said Qin Zhong.

  ‘Now, now, stop play-acting!’ said Bao-yu. ‘I saw you holding her that day at Grandma’s when you thought nobody else was about. You needn’t think you can fool me after that!’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘All right then. Never mind whether you know what I’m talking about or not. Just ask her to pour me out a cup of tea, will you, and then we’ll let the subject drop.’

  ‘What sort of joke is this ? Why can’t you ask her yourself? She’d pour it out just the same for you. Why ask me to tell her?’

  ‘I couldn’t do it with the same feeling as you. There’ll be much more feeling in it if you ask her.’

  He finally prevailed upon Qin Zhong to make the request.

  ‘Oh, all right! – Sappy, pour us a cup of tea, will you?’

  Sapientia had been a regular visitor at the Rong-guo mansion ever since she was a little girl and was familiar with all its inmates. The innocence of her childish rompings with Bao-yu and Qin Zhong had latterly, however – now that she had reached adolescence – given way to a more mature emotion. She had fallen in love with Qin Zhong, whose every feature and lineament now inspired her with romantic feelings; and Qin Zhong, captivated by her developing charms, had responded by loving her back. Although nothing serious had as yet passed between them, in their inclinations and affections they were already united.

  Sapientia hurried out and returned with a cup of tea.

  ‘Give it to me, Sappy!’ said Qin Zhong.

  ‘No, give it to me, Sappy!’ said Bao-yu.

  She stood between them, pouting prettily, and gave a little laugh:

  ‘Surely you’re not going to fight over a cup of tea? I must have honey on my hands I’

  Bao-yu snatched the cup before Qin Zhong could do so and began drinking. He was about to say something when Benevo-lentia came in and fetched Sapientia away to help her lay the table. She was back again presently to invite the two boys to tea and cakes; but neither of them felt much enthusiasm for such feminine repasts, and after sitting a short while for the sake of politeness, were soon off to amuse themselves elsewhere.

  Xi-feng, too, soon left, and retired to her private room to rest, Euergesia accompanying her. By this time the older servants, seeing that there was nothing further for them to do, had one by one drifted off to bed, leaving only a few personal maids, all of whom were in Xi-feng’s confidence, in attendance. The old nun deemed it safe to broach a private matter in their hearing.

  ‘There is something I have been meaning to call at your house and ask Her Ladyship about, but I should like to have your opinion on it first before I see her.’

  ‘What do you want to ask her?’ said Xi-feng.

  ‘Bless his Holy Name!’ the prioress began piously. ‘When I was a nun at the Treasures in Heaven Convent in Chang-an, one of the convent’s benefactors was a very wealthy man called Zhang, who had a daughter called Jin-ge. A certain young Mr Li, who is brother-in-law to the Governor of Chang-an, met her once when she was making an incense-offering in our temple and took a violent liking to her. He at once sent someone to the parents to ask for her hand in marriage, but unfortunately she was already betrothed to the son of a captain in the Chang-an garrison and the betrothal-presents had already been accepted. The Zhangs would have liked to cancel the betrothal but were afraid that the captain would object, so they told Li’s matchmaker that the girl was already engaged. But oh dear! young Mr Li wouldn’t take no for an answer, and the Zhangs were quite at their wit’s end, being now in trouble with both parties. You see, when the captain got to hear of these goings-on he was most unreasonable. He came rushing along in a great rage and made a most terrible scene. “Just how many young men is this girl betrothed to ? ” he said, and so on and so forth. He refused outright to take back the betrothal-gifts and straightway began an action for breach of promise. By now the Zhangs were really upset and sent to the capital for some moral support for they are now quite determined to break off their daughter’s engagement, seeing that the captain has been so unreasonable.

  ‘Well, it occurred to me that the Area Commander for Chang-an, “General Yun, is on very good terms with your husband’s family, and I thought I might try to find some way of persuading Her Ladyship to talk to Sir Zheng about this and get him to write a letter to General Yun and ask him to have a word with this captain.
It is hardly likely that he would refuse to obey his commanding officer. The Zhangs would gladly pay anything – even if it meant bankrupting themselves -in return for this kindness.’

  Xi-feng laughed.

  ‘It doesn’t sound very difficult. The only difficulty is that Lady Wang doesn’t touch this kind of thing any more.’

  ‘If Her Ladyship won’t, what about you, Mrs Lian?’

  Xi-feng laughed again.

  ‘I’m not short of money; and besides, I don’t touch that sort of thing either.’

  Euergesia’s face assumed an expression of great benignity. After sitting for a while in silence she sighed.

  ‘It’s a pity I let the Zhangs know that I was going to talk to you about this,’ she said. ‘Now if you don’t do this favour for them, they will never believe that it is because you haven’t the time or don’t want the money; they will take it as a sign that you are not able.’

  This put Xi-feng on her mettle.

  ‘You’ve known me a long time,’ she said. ‘You know that I’ve never believed all that talk about hell and damnation. If I decide that I want to do something I do it, no matter what it is. Tell them that if they are prepared to pay out three thousand taels of silver, I will undertake to relieve them of their trouble.’

  The prioress was delighted.

  ‘They will! They will! No doubt about it!’

  ‘Mind you,’ said Xi-feng, ‘I’m not one of your money-grubbing run-of-the-mill go-betweens. I’m not doing this for the money. Every bit of this three thousand taels will go into the pockets of my boys or towards their expenses. l shan’t touch a penny of it. If it was money I wanted, I could lay my hands on thirty thousand taels at this very moment.’