The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘All right, you look after it, then. But’ – his tone became entreating – ‘don’t, whatever you do, let her find out!’

  He said this to put her off her guard. As soon as her defences were relaxed he made a quick grab and snatched it from her.

  ‘Perhaps you’d better not have it, after all,’ he said with a grin of triumph. ‘If I have it I can burn it, and then it’s all over and done with.’

  He stowed the hair in the side of his boot as he said this. Patience clenched her teeth in anger.

  ‘You’re mean! Burn the bridge when you’re safely over the river – that’s your way, isn’t it ? All right then, you needn’t expect me to tell lies for you in future!’

  In Jia Lian’s lascivious eyes her anger made her adorable. He felt himself becoming excited, and throwing his arms around her, he asked her to let him take her. But Patience struggled free and ran from the room, leaving him doubled up in a fury of frustrated desire.

  ‘Little cock-teaser!’ he shouted after her. ‘You deliberately provoked me, and now you run away!’

  ‘Who provoked you?’ Patience giggled from outside the window. ‘You shouldn’t be so randy! Do you expect me to make the Mistress hate me just for the sake of making you feel comfortable ?’

  ‘You needn’t worry about her,’ said Jia Lian. ‘One of these days when I get my temper up I’m going to lay into that jealous bitch and break every bone in her body. Then perhaps she’ll know who’s master round here. She watches me like a bloody thief. She can talk to men when she likes, but I’m not supposed to talk to women, oh no! If I’m talking to a woman and just happen to get a bit close, she immediately starts suspecting something. But if she wants to go chattering and larking around with Bao or Rong or any other bloody male on the premises, that’s supposed to be all right! You wait! One of these days I’ll stop her seeing anyone at all!’

  ‘She’s every right to watch you,’ said Patience, ‘and you’ve no right at all to be jealous of her. She’s always been perfectly straight and above board where men are concerned; but you -whatever you do you’ve got something nasty in mind! You make even me worried, never mind about her!’

  ‘Oh, shut up!’ said Jia Lian.’ You’re all perfect, aren’t you ? It’s just me that’s always up to something nasty! One of these days I’ll make a clean sweep of the lot of you!’

  Just at that moment Xi-feng stepped into the courtyard and saw Patience standing outside the window.

  ‘If you want to talk,’ she said,’ why not talk inside the room ? What’s the idea of running outside and bawling through the window ?’

  ‘Don’t ask her!’ said Jia Lian’s voice from inside. ‘She thinks there’s a tiger in the room and she’s afraid of being eaten!’

  ‘He’s in there on his own,’ said Patience. ‘What should I be doing in there with him ?’

  ‘All the more reason for being in there, I should have thought, if he’s on his own,’ said Xi-feng, smiling rather spitefully.

  ‘Is that remark intended for me?’ said Patience.

  ‘Who else?’ said Xi-feng.

  ‘You’ll make me say something I shall feel sorry for in a minute,’ said Patience; and instead of standing aside and raising the door-blind for her mistress, she entered ahead of her, dropped it rudely in her face, and marched angrily through the sitting-room to one of the rooms at the back.

  ‘What’s the matter with Patience? The girl’s gone mad!’ said Xi-feng when she had raised the blind again and let herself in. ‘I really do believe she is trying to displace me. You’d better look out, my friend: I’ll have the hide off you!’

  ‘Bravo! Good for Patience!’ said Jia Lian, who had retreated on to the kang and was applauding the comedy from that safer eminence. ‘I didn’t know she had it in her. In future I shall take that girl more seriously.’

  ‘It’s you who’ve let her get above herself,’ said Xi-feng. ‘I hold you directly responsible for this!’

  ‘Oh no!’ said Jia Lian. ‘If you two want to quarrel, I’m not going to stand between you and take all the knocks. I’m getting out of here!’

  ‘I’m sure I don’t know where you think you’ll go to,’ said Xi-feng.

  ‘Don’t you worry, I’ve got somewhere to go to,’ said Jia Lian, and he began to go; but Xi-feng stopped him.

  ‘No, don’t go! There’s something else I want to talk to you about.’

  But if you want to know what it was, you will have to wait for the next chapter.

  Chapter 22

  Bao-yu finds Zen enlightenment

  in an operatic aria

  And Jia Zheng sees portents of doom in

  lantern riddles

  Hearing that Xi-feng wanted to consult him about something, Jia Lian halted and asked her what it was.

  ‘It’s Bao-chai’s birthday on the twenty-first,’ said Xi-feng. ‘What do you think we ought to do about it?’

  ‘How should I know?’ said Jia Lian. ‘You’ve managed plenty of big birthday celebrations before in your time. Why have you become so helpless all of a sudden?’

  ‘There are fixed rules for everything when you are planning a big grown-up celebration,’ said Xi-feng; ‘but in Bao-chai’s case she’s neither exactly grown-up nor exactly a child any longer. That’s why I wanted your advice.’

  Jia Lian lowered his head and thought for a moment.

  ‘Why, you’re being stupid!’ he said presently. ‘There’s a precedent right in front of you. What about Dai-yu ? All you’ve got to do is find what arrangements you made in the past for her and do exactly the same for Bao-chai now.’

  ‘Do you suppose I didn’t think of that?’ said Xi-feng with scorn. ‘I’m not that stupid! The point is that yesterday, because of something Grandma said, I started asking them all their birthdays and ages, and it seems that on this birthday of hers on the twenty-first Bao-chai is going to be fifteen. Now that doesn’t qualify for a full-scale celebration, but it is a sort of coming-of-age, and when Grandma heard about it she said she wanted to sponsor something for it herself. So obviously, whatever we do, it can’t be quite the same as what we’ve done in the past for Dai-yu.’

  ‘Well in that case,’ said Jia Lian, ‘take what you did for Dai-yu as a basis and just add on a bit.’

  ‘That’s what I’d thought of doing,’ said Xi-feng; ‘but I wanted to see what you thought before doing anything definite, because I didn’t want to go adding extras on my own initiative and then have you complaining that you hadn’t been properly consulted.’

  ‘You can cut that out!’ said Jia Lian – though not ill-humouredly. ‘You know you don’t really mean a word of it! Just stop snooping on me all the time, that’s all I ask. You won’t hear any complaints from me then about not being consulted!’

  With that he walked off: but whither, or to whom, our narrative does not disclose.

  It tells us instead that Shi Xiang-yun, having spent a considerable part of the New Year holiday with the Jias, was now on the point of returning home, but was urged by Grandmother Jia to wait for Bao-chai’s birthday and not go back until she had seen the plays. Xiang-yun agreed to stay and sent someone home with instructions to tell them that she would be returning a little later than planned and to fetch a couple of pieces of her own embroidery that she could give to Bao-chai as a birthday-present.

  Ever since Bao-chai’s first arrival, Grandmother Jia had been pleasurably impressed by her placid and dependable disposition, and now that she was about to spend her first ‘big’ birthday in the Jia household, the old lady resolved to make it a memorable one. Taking twenty taels of silver from her private store, she summoned Xi-feng and directed her to spend it on providing wine and plays for a celebration. Xi-feng made this the occasion for a little raillery.

  ‘If the old lady says she wants her grandchild’s birthday celebrated,’ she said, ‘then celebrated it must be, and we must all jump to it without arguing! But if she’s going to start asking for plays as well, all I can say to that is that if she�
�s in the mood for a bit of fun, I’m afraid she’s going to have to pay for it. She’s going to have to cough up something out of those private savings of hers she’s been hoarding all these years -not wait until the last minute and then fish out a measly little twenty taels to pay for the party: that’s just another way of telling us we’ve got to pay for it ourselves. I mean, if you were really hard up, it would be another matter: but you’ve got boxes and boxes of boodle – the bottoms are dropping out of them, they’re so full! It’s pure meanness, that’s what it is! You forget, Grannie, when you go to heaven young Bao-yu won’t be the only one who’ll walk ahead of the hearse. You’ve got other grandchildren too, don’t forget! You don’t have to leave everything to him. The rest of us may not be much use, but you mustn’t be too hard on us. Twenty taels! Do you really think that’s enough to pay for a party and plays?’

  At this point the entire company burst into laughter, which Grandmother Jia joined in herself.

  ‘Just listen to her!’ she said. ‘I thought I had a fairly sharp tongue, but I’m no match for this one: “Clack-clack, clack-clack” – it’s worse than a pair of wooden clappers 1 Even your mother-in-law daren’t argue with me, my dear! Don’t pick on me!’

  ‘Mother-in-law is just as soppy about Bao-yu as you are,’ said Xi-feng. ‘I’ve got no one to tell my troubles to. And you say I’m sharp-tongued!’

  Xi-feng’s mock-lugubriousness set the old lady off in another squall of laughter. She loved to be teased, and Xi-feng’s bantering put her in great good humour.

  That night, when the young folk had finished paying their evening duty and were standing round her laughing and talking a while before retiring to their own apartments, Grandmother Jia asked Bao-chai what sort of plays she liked best and what her favourite dishes were. Bao-chai was well aware that her grandmother, like most old women, enjoyed the livelier, more rackety sort of plays and liked sweet and pappy things to eat, so she framed her answers entirely in terms of these preferences. The old lady was delighted.

  Next day presents of clothing and various other objects, to which Lady Wang, Xi-feng, Dai-yu and the rest had all contributed, were sent round to Bao-chai’s. Our narrative supplies no details.

  At last the twenty-first arrived. A dear little stage had been erected in the courtyard outside Grandmother Jia’s apartment and a newly trained troupe of child actors able to perform both Kun-qu and the noisier Yi-qiang type of plays had been engaged. In the apartment’s main sitting-room a semicircle of little tables were arranged facing outwards towards the stage and laid in preparation for a feast. No outsiders were invited. The guests of honour were Aunt Xue, Shi Xiang-yun, “and Bao-chai herself. All the others invited were members of the family.

  Early that morning Bao-yu, not seeing Dai-yu around, went to look for her in her room and found her still reclining on the kang.

  ‘Get up and have something to eat!’ he said. ‘The players will be starting shortly. Tell me some play you like so that I shall know which one to choose!’

  ‘If you’re so anxious to please me,’ said Dai-yu coldly, ‘you ought to hire a troupe specially and put on all my favourites. It’s a cheap sort of kindness to treat me at someone else’s expense!’

  ‘Never mind!’ said Bao-yu. ‘When we hire a troupe for you, you’ll be able to return the compliment.’

  He hauled her up from the kang, and the two of them went off hand in hand together.

  As soon as they had eaten, it was time to talk about choosing the plays and Grandmother Jia called on Bao-chai to begin. Bao-chai made a show of declining; but it was her birthday, and in the end she gave in and selected a piece about Monkey from The Journey to the West. Grandmother Jia was pleased.

  Aunt Xue was now invited to pick a play, but as her own daughter had just chosen, she refused. Grandmother Jia did not press her and passed on to Xi-feng. Xi-feng would normally have refused to take precedence over her aunt and mother-in-law, who were both present, but Grandmother had commanded and must be obeyed. As she happened to know that the old lady’s partiality for lively plays was particularly strong in the case of those which had lots of jokes and clowning in them, she selected a piece entitled Liu Er Pawns His Clothes in order to make sure that this element was not lacking from the programme. As she had anticipated, Grandmother Jia was even more delighted by this second choice.

  Next Dai-yu was asked to choose. She deferred to Aunt Xing and Aunt Wang; but Grandmother Jia was insistent:

  ‘I’ve brought you young people here today for some fun,’ she said. ‘I want you to enjoy yourselves. Never mind about them! I didn’t go to all this trouble just for their sakes 1 They are lucky to be here at all, having all this good food and entertainment for nothing: you surely don’t think that on top of that I’m going to let them choose the plays?’

  The others all laughed, and Dai-yu chose a play. Then Bao-yu, Shi Xiang-yun, Ying-chun, Tan-chun, Xi-chun and Li Wan each chose a play in turn, after which the little players proceeded to perform them in the order in which they had been selected.

  When the time came to bring in the wine and begin the feast, Grandmother Jia invited Bao-chai to choose again. This time she asked for Zhi-shen at the Monastery Gate.

  ‘Why do you keep choosing plays like that?’ said Bao-yu.

  ‘To hear you talk, it doesn’t sound as if all your years of play-going have taught you much,’ said Bao-chai. ‘This is an excellent play, both from the point of view of the music and of the words.’

  ‘I can’t stand noisy plays,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I never could.’

  ‘If you call this a noisy play,’ said Bao-chai, ‘it proves that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Come over here and I’ll explain. This Zhi-shen at the Monastery Gate is a “Ruby Lips ” sequence in the Northern mode. That means, musically speaking, that it is in a vigorous, somewhat staccato style. In fact the musical excellence of this piece goes without saying. But apart from that, the libretto is good, too. The words of Zhi-shen’s “Clinging Vine” aria, which is the last but one in the sequence, are particularly fine.’

  Bao-yu was interested, drew his chair closer, and begged her to let him hear them. Lowering her voice so as not to disturb the others, she half-sang, half-recited them for his benefit:

  ‘I dash aside the manly tear

  And take leave of my monkish home.

  A word of thanks to you, my Master dear,

  Who tonsured me before the Lotus Throne:

  ‘Twas not my luck to stay with you,

  And in a short while I must say adieu,

  Naked and friendless through the world to roam.

  I ask no goods, no gear to take away,

  Only straw sandals and a broken bowl,

  To beg from place to place as best I may.’

  Bao-yu listened enthralled, tapping his knee and nodding his head in time to her singing. When she had done, he agreed enthusiastically about the excellence of the words and congratulated her on the extraordinary breadth of her knowledge.

  ‘Sh!’ said Dai-yu, looking round crossly in Bao-yu’s direction. ‘Can’t you be a bit quieter and attend to the play? This is Zhi-shen at the Monastery Gate we’re supposed to be listening to, not Jing-de Acts the Madman!’

  Xiang-yun found this very funny.

  They continued to watch plays until the evening. Grandmother Jia had taken a particular fancy to the little player who had acted the heroine’s parts and the one who had played the clown, and when the last performance was over, she asked for them to be brought in to see her. She found them very ‘sweet’ – even more so on a closer inspection – and asked them their ages. The leading lady turned out to be eleven and the clown only nine! There were murmurs and exclamations from all present when they heard this, and Grandmother Jia told someone to give them delicacies from the table and a present of money each, in addition to what they would receive as members of the troupe.

  Meanwhile Xi-feng appeared to be very much amused about something.

  ‘The way
that child there is made-up makes him look so like someone we know,’ she said. ‘Haven’t any of younoticed ?’

  Bao-chai knew whom she was referring to, but merely nodded her head slightly without replying. Bao-yu, too, nodded, but did not dare to reply. Only Xiang-yun was tactless enough to say anything:

  ‘Oh, I know!’ she blurted out. ‘Like Cousin Lin, you mean?’

  Bao-yu shot a quick glance in her direction; but it was too late. Xiang-yun’s reply had prompted the others to look more carefully, with the result that they all instantaneously burst out laughing, so striking was the resemblance. Shortly after this the party broke up.

  During the evening Xiang-yun ordered Kingfisher to start packing. Kingfisher remonstrated:

  ‘What’s the hurry ? Why not wait till we’re going? There’ll be plenty of time before we go.’

  ‘We’re going first thing tomorrow,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘What’s the point of staying any longer? You can see from the looks on their faces that we are not welcome here.’

  Bao-yu chanced to overhear this remark and hurried in to her:

  ‘You’re wrong to be offended with me, coz. The others all know how sensitive Cousin Lin is, and they wouldn’t answer because they were afraid of upsetting her. When you suddenly spoke up without realizing, I knew she was bound to be upset, and that’s the reason why I looked at you like that. I was worried for your sake, because I was afraid she would be offended with you. That you should now get angry with me is really rather unfair. If it had been anyone else but you, I shouldn’t have minded whether they offended her or not. I shouldn’t have felt that much concern about them.’

  Xiang-yun silenced him with an imperious wave of her hand:

  ‘You can save your fine speeches for someone else. They’re wasted on me. Obviously I’m not in the same class as your Cousin Lin. It’s all right for other people to laugh at her; but as soon as I say anything about her, I’m at once in the wrong. I’m not really worthy to speak about her at all. She’s the young lady of the house. I’m only a little nobody!’

  ‘I was only thinking of you,’ said Bao-yu in great agitation, ‘yet now you put me in the wrong. May I straightway turn into dust and be trodden beneath ten thousand feet if I had any but the kindest intentions!’