by Cao Xueqin
‘From now on I can no longer stay in this family. You must get my things ready and let me go.’
To the old lady the words were a tearing of heart from body; but Aunt Zhao, who also heard them, had the temerity to urge their acceptance:
‘Your Ladyship shouldn’t take it so hard. It’s already all up with the boy. We should be getting his graveclothes ready so that he can go in peace. It will be better that way. If we won’t let him go now, when he’s ready, it will only make more suffering for him in the world to come…’
She would have gone on, but Grandmother Jia spat in her face. No empty gesture: it was a full gob of spittle.
‘Evil woman! May your tongue rot! How do you know it’s all up with him? You want him to die, don’t you? But if you think you will gain by his death, you must be dreaming; because if he does die, I shall hold you responsible. It’s your spiteful meddling that has forced him to do all this studying. You have reduced the poor child to such a state that the mere sight of his father makes him more scared than a mouse with the cat after it. You have done this, you and the others of your kind. And now I suppose, if you succeed in murdering him, you will be satisfied. But don’t imagine you will escape me -any of you!’
She railed and wept. Jia Zheng was close at hand while she was saying all this and was deeply distressed by it. Peremptorily dismissing the concubine, he tried to calm his mother and reasoned against the injustice of her charges.
It was unfortunate that just at that moment a servant should have come in to announce that ‘the two coffins that had been ordered were now ready’. The words were as oil upon fire. The old lady blazed.
‘Who gave orders for those coffins to be made? Where is the man who made them? Go and get the man who made those coffins! Flog him to death!’
Suddenly, as she raged and stormed, the faint tock tock of a holy man’s wooden fish was heard upon the air and a high monotone chant that kept time with the beat:
‘Na-mah A-mi-ta-bha Bo-dhi-satt-va!
Mer-ci-ful de-li-ve-rer !
All a-fflic-ted and tor-men-ted,
All a-ttacked by e-vil spi-rits,
All de-mo-ni-ac po-sse-ssion,
I cure,
I cure,
I cure.’
Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang at once sent someone into the street to see who it was. The source of the chanting proved to be a disreputable-looking Buddhist monk. Stone describes him in the following quatrain:
A bottle nose he had and shaggy brows,
Through which peeped eyes that twinkled like bright stars.
His robe was patched and torn, his feet straw-shod,
His unclean pate blotched with unsightly scars.
He was accompanied by a lame Taoist, for whom a similar quatrain has been supplied by our poetical Stone:
Up, down he hopped on his unequal legs,
From mud and puddle not a stitch left dry.
Yet, if you asked him where his dwelling
was, ‘Westward of Paradise’ he would reply.
Jia Zheng had them invited in and asked them what monastery they were from. The monk was genially dismissive:
‘There is no need for Your Worship to waste time on formalities. Suffice it to say that I heard you had sickness in this house and have come to cure it.’
‘Two members of this family have, indeed, fallen victims to some kind of witchcraft,’ said Jia Zheng. ‘Might one inquire what charm you intend to cure them with?’
‘Charm ?’ The monk laughed.’ You already possess in your own house a precious object capable of curing them. What other charm is necessary ?’
Jia Zheng gave a start.
‘To be sure. My son was born with a piece of jade whose inscription makes some such claim – “Dispels the harms of witchcraft”. But as you see, it does not appear to possess the power it lays claim to.’
‘That is because the world and its temptations have confused it,’ said the monk. ‘It certainly used to have the power. If you will have the goodness to fetch it for me and allow me to hold it in my hand and say a wee prayer over it, I think I can undertake to bring the power back again.’
Jia Zheng took the Magic Jade from Bao-yu’s neck and handed it to the monk, who held it on the palm of his hand and addressed it with a sigh:
‘Thirteen years, old friend, since we first met under Greensickness Peak! Time certainly flies. But you have not finished with this world yet, you know. Dear, dear, dear! You aren’t the Stone you were, are you ?
-Time was you lived in perfect liberty,
Your heart alike from joy and sorrow free,
Till, by the smelter’s alchemy transformed,
Into the world you came to purchase misery.
By the bye, I am sorry you have been having such a disagreeable experience these last few days.
-Vain sensual joys the jade’s sheen have besmirched;
The poor bird droops, in its close prison perched.
From drunken dreaming one day you’ll recover:
Then, when all debts are paid, the play will soon be over.’
When the monk had finished apostrophizing the stone, he rubbed it and polished it between his hands and muttered some strange-sounding words over it.
‘There! Its power has now been restored.’ He handed it back to Jia Zheng. ‘But you must be careful that it does not become contaminated again. Hang it above the threshold of the bedroom and let no women apart from the patient’s own mother and grandmother go inside. If you will do that, I can guarantee a complete recovery in thirty-three days.’
Jia Zheng would have liked to detain the monk for tea and offer him some remuneration, but he and the Taoist slipped quietly away and could not be traced.
The monk’s directions were scrupulously followed. Lady Wang guarded the doorway in person and prevented any unauthorized person from getting into the bedroom. By evening the sufferers had regained consciousness and said they were hungry. This news, so precious to the ears of Lady Jia and Lady Wang, who at once had rice gruel brought in to feed them with, was relayed to the girls in the outer room.
‘Bless His Holy Name!’ Dai-yu murmured fervently.
Bao-chai laughed, but said nothing. The others were mystified.
‘Why do you laugh, Cousin Bao?’ Xi-chun asked her.
‘I was thinking how busy He of the Holy Name must be,’ Bao-chai said. ‘Apart from working for the salvation of all sentient beings, He has to protect the sick and hasten their recovery – not to mention watching over plighted couples to make sure that they marry and live happily ever after. What a lot He has to keep Him busy! Don’t you find the thought rather amusing ?’
Dai-yu affected scorn, but was blushing hotly.
‘You are all horrid. Instead of following good examples, you all imitate Feng and make nasty, cheap jokes all the time.’
She raised the portiere and went out.
But if you wish to know more, you will have to wait for the next chapter.
Chapter 26
A conversation on Wasp Waist Bridge is a cover for
communication of a different kind
And a soliloquy overhead in the Naiad’s House reveals
unsuspected depths of feeling.
By the time the thirty-three days’ convalescence had ended, not only were Bao-yu’s health and strength completely restored, but even the burn-marks on his face had vanished, and he was allowed to move back into the Garden.
It may be recalled that when Bao-yu’s sickness was at its height, it had been found necessary to call in Jia Yun with a number of pages under his command to take turns in watching over him. Crimson was there too at that time, having been brought in with the other maids from his apartment During those few days she and Jia Yun therefore had ample opportunity of seeing each other, and a certain familiarity began to grow up between them.
Crimson noticed that Jia Yun was often to be seen sporting a handkerchief very much like the one she had lost. She nearly asked him about it, but
in the end was too shy. Then, after the monk’s Visit, the presence of the menfolk was no longer required and Jia Yun went back to his tree-planting. Though Crimson could still not dismiss the matter entirely from her mind, she did not ask anyone about it for fear of arousing their suspicions.
A day or two after their return to Green Delights, Crimson was sitting in her room, still brooding over this handkerchief business, when a voice outside the window inquired whether she was in. Peeping through an eyelet in the casement she recognized Melilot, a little maid who belonged to the same apartment as herself.
‘Yes, I’m in,’ she said. ‘Come inside!’
Little Melilot came bounding in and sat down on the bed with a giggle.
‘I’m in luck!’ she said. ‘I was washing some things in the yard when Bao-yu asked for some tea to be taken round to Miss Lin’s for him and Miss Aroma gave me the job of taking it. When I got there, Miss Lin had just been given some money by Her Old Ladyship and was sharing it out among her maids; so when she saw me she just said “Here you are!” and gave me two big handfuls of it. I’ve no idea how much it is. Will you look after it for me, please?’
She undid her handkerchief and poured out a shower of coins. Crimson carefully counted them for her and put them away in a safe place.
‘What’s been the matter with you lately?’ said Melilot. ‘If you ask me, I think you ought to go home for a day or two and call in a doctor. I expect you need some medicine.’
‘Silly!’ said Crimson. ‘I’m perfectly all right. What should I want to go home for?’
‘I know what, then,’ said Melilot. ‘Miss Lin’s very weakly. She’s always taking medicine. Why don’t you ask her to give you some of hers ? It would probably do just as well.’
‘Oh, nonsense!’ said Crimson. ‘You can’t take other people’s medicines just like that!’
‘Well, you can’t go on in this way,’ said Melilot, ‘never eating or drinking properly. What will become of you ?
‘Who cares?’ said Crimson. ‘The sooner I’m dead the better!’
‘You shouldn’t say such things,’ said Melilot. ‘It isn’t right.’
‘Why not?’ said Crimson. ‘How do you know what is on my mind ?
Melilot shook her head sympathetically.
‘I can’t say I really blame you,’ she said. ‘Things are very difficult here at times. Take yesterday, for example. Her Old Ladyship said that as Bao-yu was better now and there was to be a thanksgiving for his recovery, all those who had the trouble of nursing him during his illness were to be rewarded according to their grades. Well now, I can understand the very young ones like me not being included, but why should they leave you out ? I felt really sorry for you when I heard that they’d left you out. Aroma, of course, you’d expect to get more than anyone else. I don’t blame her at all. In fact, I think it’s owing to her. Let’s be honest: none of us can compare with Aroma. I mean, even if she didn’t always take so much trouble over everything, no one would want to quarrel about her having a bigger share. What makes me so angry is that people like Sky-bright and Mackerel should count as top grade when everyone knows they’re only put there to curry favour with Bao-yu. Doesn’t it make you angry?’
‘I don’t see much point in getting angry,’ said Crimson. ‘You know what they said about the mile-wide marquee: “Even the longest party must have an end” ? Well, none of us is here for ever, you know. Another four or five years from now when we’ve each gone our different ways it won’t matter any longer what all the rest of us are doing.’
Little Melilot found this talk of parting and impermanence vaguely affecting and a slight moisture was to be observed about her eyes. She thought shame to cry without good cause, however, and masked her emotion with a smile:
‘That’s perfectly true. Only yesterday Bao-yu was going on about all the things he’s going to do to his rooms and the clothes he’s going to have made and everything, just as if he had a hundred or two years ahead of him with nothing to do but kill time in.’
Crimson laughed scornfully, though whether at Melilot’s simplicity or at Bao-yu’s improvidence is unclear, since just as she was about to comment, a little maid came running in, so young that her hair was still done up in two little girl’s horns. She was carrying some patterns and sheets of paper.
‘You’re to copy out these two patterns.’
She threw them in Crimson’s direction and straightway darted out again. Crimson shouted after her:
‘Who are they for, then? You might at least finish your message before rushing off. What are you in such a tearing hurry about? Is someone steaming wheatcakes for you and you’re afraid they’ll get cold?’
‘They’re for Mackerel.’ The little maid paused long enough to bawl an answer through the window, then picking up her heels, went pounding off, plim-plam, plim-plam, plim-plam, as fast as she had come.
Crimson threw the patterns crossly to one side and went to hunt in her drawer for a brush to trace them with. After rummaging for several minutes she had only succeeded in finding a few worn-out ones, too moulted for use.
‘Funny!’ she said. ‘I could have sworn I put a new one in there the other day…’
She thought a bit, then laughed at herself as she remembered:
‘Of course. Oriole took it, the evening before last.’ She turned to Melilot. ‘Would you go and get it for me, then?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ said Melilot. ‘Miss Aroma’s waiting for me to fetch some boxes for her. You’ll have to get it yourself.’
‘If Aroma’s waiting for you, why have you been sitting here gossiping all this time?’ said Crimson. ‘If I hadn’t asked you to go and get it, she wouldn’t have been waiting, would she? Lazy little beast!’
She left the room and walked out of the gate of Green Delights and in the direction of Bao-chai’s courtyard. She was just passing by Drenched Blossoms Pavilion when she caught sight of Bao-yu’s old wet-nurse, Nannie Li, coming from the opposite direction and stood respectfully aside to wait for her.
‘Where have you been, Mrs Li?’ she asked her. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’
Nannie Li made a flapping gesture with her hand:
‘What do you think, my dear: His Nibs has taken a fancy to the young fellow who does the tree-planting – “Yin” or “Yun” or whatever his name is – so Nannie has to go and ask him in. Let’s hope Their Ladyships don’t find out about it. There’ll be trouble if they do.’
‘Are you really going to ask him in?’
‘Yes. Why?’
Crimson laughed:
‘If your Mr Yun knows what’s good for him, he won’t agree to come.’
‘He’s no fool,’ said Nannie Li. ‘Why shouldn’t he?’
‘Any way, if he does come in,’ said Crimson, ignoring her question, ‘you can’t just bring him in and then leave him, Mrs Li. You’ll have to take him back again yourself after-wards. You don’t want him wandering off on his own. There’s no knowing who he might bump into.’
(Crimson herself, was the secret hope.)
‘Gracious me! I haven’t got that much spare time,’ said Nannie Li. ‘All I’ve done is just to tell him that he’s got to come. I’ll send someone else to fetch him in when I get back presently – one of the girls, or one of the older women, maybe.’
She hobbled off on her stick, leaving Crimson standing there in a muse, her mission to fetch the tracing-brush momentarily forgotten. She was still standing there a minute or two later when a little maid came along, who, seeing that it was Crimson, asked her what she was doing there. Crimson looked up. It was Trinket, another of the maids from Green Delights.
‘Where are you going?’ Crimson asked her.
‘I’ve been sent to fetch Mr Yun,’ said Trinket. ‘I have to bring him inside to meet Master Bao.’
She ran off on her way.
At the gate to Wasp Waist Bridge Crimson ran into Trinket again, this time with Jia Yun in tow. His eyes sought Crimson’s; and hers, as she
made pretence of conversing with Trinket, sought his. Their two pairs of eyes met and briefly skirmished; then Crimson felt herself blushing, and turning away abruptly, she made off for Allspice Court.
Our narrative now follows Jia Yun and Trinket along the winding pathway to the House of Green Delights. Soon they were at the courtyard gate and Jia Yun waited outside while she went in to announce his arrival. She returned presently to lead him inside.
There were a few scattered rocks in the courtyard and some clumps of jade-green plantain. Two storks stood in the shadow of a pine-tree, preening themselves with their long bills. The gallery surrounding the courtyard was hung with cages of unusual design in which perched or fluttered a wide variety of birds, some of them gay-plumaged exotic ones. Above the steps was a little five-frame penthouse building with a glimpse of delicately-carved partitions visible through the open doorway, above which a horizontal board hung, inscribed with the words
CRIMSON JOYS AND GREEN DELIGHTS
‘So that’s why it’s called “The House of Green Delights ”‘Jia Yun told himself.’ The name is taken from the inscription.’
A laughing voice addressed him from behind one of the silk gauze casements:
‘Come on in! It must be two or three months since I first forgot our appointment!’
Jia Yun recognized the voice as Bao-yu’s and hurried up the steps inside. He looked about him, dazzled by the brilliance of gold and semi-precious inlay-work and the richness of the ornaments and furnishings, but unable to see Bao-yu in the midst of it all. To the left of him was a full-length mirror from behind which two girls now emerged, both about fifteen or sixteen years old and of much the same build and height. They addressed him by name and asked him to come inside. Slightly overawed, he muttered something in reply and hurried after them, not daring to take more than a furtive glance at them from the corner of his eye. They ushered him into a tent-like summer ‘cabinet’ of green net, whose principal furniture was a tiny lacquered bed with crimson hangings heavily patterned in gold. On this Bao-yu, wearing everyday clothes and a pair of bedroom slippers, was reclining, book in hand. He threw the book down as Jia Yun entered and rose to his feet with a welcoming smile. Jia Yun swiftly dropped knee and hand to floor in greeting. Bidden to sit, he modestly placed himself on a bedside chair.