The Warning Voice

by Cao Xueqin

  The failure to account for Mrs You’s disappearance is so obviously due to an editorial oversight that I thought no reader could object to my liquidating her myself. Xi-feng’s turning up at the house in half mourning was almost certainly meant to be a reminder that Jia Lian had married Er-jie illegally in a period of national and family mourning – what we should nowadays call a ‘put-down’. I have deliberately misinterpreted it as a gesture of sympathy for Er-jie’s bereavement in order to have an excuse for introducing a couple of lines about old Mrs You’s demise. They are not to be found in any Chinese text.

  APPENDIX V

  Fivey, Bao Er and The Mattress

  In one of the two versions of chapter 64 the domestic arrangements made for the house in Little Flower Lane where Er-jie is to be installed after her secret marriage are entirely in the hands of Cousin Zhen. They include the transfer to this new establishment of a married couple called Bao Er and his wife from the staff of Ning-guo House. Thereafter, in chapter 65 et seq., the woman is invariably referred to as ‘Bao Er’s wife’. In the more colourful version followed by Gao E it is Jia Lian who chooses the couple and Bao Er is identified with the servant whom Jia Lian cuckolded in chapter 44 and whose unfortunate wife hanged herself after the discovery of her adultery by Xi-feng. His new wife, we are told, is none other than our old friend The Mattress. Her husband, the drunken cook Droopy Duo, had finally succumbed to the drink and she had married Bao Er en secondes noces. That this is a late afterthought in the development of the plot is confirmed by the fact that in chapter 65 the wife is referred to merely as ‘Bao Er’s woman’.

  This late identification of Er-jie’s housekeeper with The Mattress creates problems farther on in the novel. In chapter 77, when Bao-yu visits the dying Skybright in her cousin’s squalid house and is nearly seduced by his wife, one version identifies the cousin and his wife with Droopy Duo and The Mattress. (The Chinese name for The Mattress in this chapter is slightly different from the one given in chapter 21, but it is fairly clear that the same person is intended.) In this version the woman abandons her assault on Bao-yu’s virtue out of respect for his decency towards Skybright. In the version which Gao E followed, Skybright’s cousin is a young man called Wu Gui – a pun on the Chinese word for ‘cuckold’ – and his wife is left anonymous. Bao-yu is rescued not by the wife’s change of heart but by the arrival of Fivey and her mother on an errand from Aroma.

  The earlier version is in no sense a ‘better’ one, because what it tells us about Droopy conflicts with what we are told about him in chapter 21. (In chapter 21 he appears to be a houseborn servant with parents still living; in chapter 77 he appears to be an orphan who was originally in service outside.) My translation fairly consistently follows the version found in Gao E’s edition, but I have left Skybright’s cousin anonymous.

  The duplication of the name ‘Bao Er’ found in the earlier version of chapter 64 (one a servant of Jia Lian and one a servant of Cousin Zhen) was no doubt unintentional. If we regard it as an error, we can say that nevertheless it was a creative one, since it suggested the wholly successful identification of the two characters – the cuckold of chapter 44 and the housekeeper’s husband of chapter 65. It can be paralleled by other, less creative duplications which I have deliberately not reproduced in my translation in order to avoid confusion. In the Chinese text there are two pages called ‘Shou-er’. One, in chapter 28, is Bao-yu’s page. I call him ‘Oldie’. The other is Cousin Zhen’s page and appears in chapter 65. I call him ‘Lively’. There are also two pages called ‘Xing-er’. One, who appears in chapter 53, is Cousin Zhen’s page. I call him ‘Merry’. The other is Jia Lian’s page ‘Joker’, who appears in chapters 65, 66, 67 and 68.

  APPENDIX VI

  Euergesia and the Little Actresses

  In the Chinese text of chapter 77 there are not one but two nuns staying with Lady Wang after the Mid-Autumn Festival, one from Water Moon Priory and one from the Convent of the Saviour King. The names given them do not appear anywhere else in the novel. That given to the nun from Water Moon Priory, ‘Zhi-tong’, is reminiscent of the Chinese names of Euergesia’s little acolytes in chapter 15, Zhi-shan (whom I call ‘Benevolentia’) and Zhi-neng (whom I call ‘Sapientia’). It is presumably Mother Euergesia – although the Chinese text does not name her there – who visits the mansion with Sapientia in chapter 7 (The Golden Days, p. 172). In chapter 77 Parfumée goes off with Zhi-tong to Water Moon Priory while the other two ex-actresses, Étamine and Nénuphar, go with the other nun to the Convent of the Saviour King. Later on, in chapter 93, however, it seems to be implied that the three girls are all living together at Water Moon Priory. Chapter 93 contains a further confusion involving the name of the priory and that of the family’s Temple of the Iron Threshold which my friend John Minford has explained in an Appendix to Volume Four. In order to anticipate what is said in chapter 93, I have eliminated one of the two nuns in chapter 77 and transformed the other one into Mother Euergesia. I have, in any case, a strong suspicion that Euergesia is intended here and that Xueqin simply forgot what he had called her in that much earlier part of the novel.

  CHARACTERS IN VOL 3

  ABBOT ZHANG an old Taoist, chief priest of the Lunar Queen Temple

  ACADEMICIAN MEI Xue Bao-qin’s prospective father-in-law

  ADAMANTINA a genteel and eccentric young nun residing in Prospect Garden

  ADVENT Caltrop’s maid

  ALTHÉE one of the Jia family’s troupe of child actresses, later attached to Shi Xiang-yun

  AMBER maid of Grandmother Jia

  AROMA principal maid of Bao-yu

  ARTÉMISIE one of the Jia family’s troupe of child actresses, later attached to Tan-chun

  AUBERGINE one of the Jia family’s troupe of child actresses, later attached to You-shi

  AUNT ER see YOU ER-JIE

  AUNT FENG see WANG XI-FENG

  AUNT SAN see YOU SAN-JIE

  AUNT XING see LADY XING

  AUNT XUE widowed sister of Lady Wang and mother of Xue Pan and Bao-chai

  AUNT ZHAO concubine of Jia Zheng and mother of Tan-chun and Jia Huan

  AUNT ZHOU Jia Zheng’s other concubine

  AUTUMN concubine given to Jia Lian by his father

  AVENTURIN see PARFUMÉE

  AVIS

  }

  maids of Lady Wang

  AVOCET

  AZURE one of Jia She’s girl concubines

  BAO-CHAI see XUE BAO-CHAI

  BAO ER servant of Jia Lian cuckolded by his master and later installed by him in Er-jie’s household

  BAO-QIN see XUE BAO-QIN

  BAO-YU see JIA BAO-YU

  BRIGHTIE

  }

  couple employed by Xi-feng in various

  kinds of confidential business

  BRIGHTIE’S WIFE

  BUTTERFLY You-shi’s maid

  CALTROP Xue Pan’s ‘chamber wife’; originally daughter of Zhen Shi-yin, kidnapped in infancy

  CANDIDA maid of Li Wan

  CARDAMOME youngest of Jia family troupe of child actresses, later attached to Xue Bao-qin

  CARMINE concubine purchased by Jia She

  CASTA maid of Li Wan

  CHAI see XUE BAO-CHAI

  CHAMBERLAIN ZHOU eunuch official in the Imperial Palace

  CHEERFUL page employed by Xi-feng

  CHESS principal maid of Ying-chun

  CICADA junior maid working for Tan-chun

  CIGGY see CICADA

  CITRONELLA see NUMBER FOUR

  ‘CLOUD MAIDEN’ poetry club pseudonym of SHI XIANG-YUN

  COOK LIU chief cook in the Prospect Garden kitchen; mother of Fivey

  COUSIN BAO see JIA BAO-YU

  COUSIN CHAI see XUE BAO-CHAI

  COUSIN DAI see LIN DAI-YU

  COUSIN FENG see WANG XI-FENG

  COUSIN LIAN see JIA LIAN

  COUSIN LIN see LIN DAI-YU

  ‘COUSIN OAF’ see XUE PAN

  COUSIN PAN see XUE PAN

  COUSIN T
AN see JIA TAN-CHUN

  COUSIN WAN see LI WAN

  COUSIN XING see XING XIU-YAN

  COUSIN YING see JIA YING-CHUN

  COUSIN ZHEN son of Jia Jing; acting head of the senior (Ning-guo) branch of the Jia family

  DADDY XIA see XIA BING-ZHONG

  DAI-YU see LIN DAI-YU

  DOVE concubine of Cousin Zhen

  DOWAGER PRINCESS OF NAN-AN, THE high-ranking acquaintance of Grandmother Jia

  DR WANG see WANG JI-REN

  EBONY maid of Tan-chun

  ÉLÉGANTE member of the Jia family troupe of child actresses, later attached to Grandmother Jia

  EMERALD maid of Bao-yu

  ER-JIE see YOU ER-JIE

  ÉTAMINE member of the Jia family troupe of child actresses, later attached to Bao-chai

  EUERGESIA elderly nun in charge of Water Moon Priory

  FAITHFUL principal maid of Grandmother Jia

  ‘FARMER SWEETRICE’ poetry club pseudonym of LI WAN

  FATHER WANG see ONE PLASTER WANG

  FELICITY maid attendant on Xi-feng

  FENG see WANG XI-FENG

  FIVEY consumptive daughter of Cook Liu

  FLOWER concubine of Cousin Zhen

  FORTUNE maid of Aunt Zhao

  ‘FROWNER’ see LIN DAI-YU

  GOODY FEI trusted elder servant of Lady Xing

  GRANDMOTHER Jia widow of Bao-yu’s paternal grandfather and head of the Rong-guo branch of the Jia family

  GRANDMOTHER YOU see MRS YOU

  HAPPY page of Cousin Zhen

  HU JUN-RONG a dangerously incompetent physician

  HU-SHI Jia Rong’s second wife

  HUAN see JIA HUAN

  JIA BAO-YU incarnation of the Stone; the eldest surviving son of Jia Zheng and Lady Wang of Rong-guo House

  JIA BIN obscure member of the Jia family in the same generation as Cousin Zhen and Jia Lian

  JIA CHANG junior member of the clan given casual employment by the Jias

  JIA CONG little son of one of Jia She’s concubines

  JIA GUANG obscure member of the clan in the same generation as Cousin Zhen and Jia Lian

  JIA HENG (I) obscure member of the clan in Jia Guang’s generation

  JIA HUAN Bao-yu’s half-brother; the son of Jia Zheng and his concubine ‘Aunt’ Zhao

  JIA JING father of Cousin Zhen and nominal head of the Ningguo branch of the family, living in retirement in a Taoist monastery outside the city

  JIA JUN young schoolboy attending the Jia family school

  JIA LAN Li Wan’s little son

  JIA LIAN son of Jia She and Lady Xing and husband of Wang Xi-feng

  JIA LING junior member of the clan given casual employment by the Rong-guo Jias

  JIA QIAO-JIE little daughter of Jia Lian and Wang Xi-feng

  JIA QIONG obscure member of the Jia family in the same generation as Cousin Zhen and Jia Lian

  JIA RONG son of Cousin Zhen and You-shi

  JIA SHE Jia Zheng’s elder brother; father of Jia Lian and Ying-chun

  JIA SI-JIE younger sister of Jia Qiong made much of by Grandmother Jia

  JIA TAN-CHUN daughter of Jia Zheng and ‘Aunt’ Zhao; half-sister of Bao-yu and second of the ‘Three Springs’

  JIA XI-CHUN daughter of Jia Jing and younger sister of Cousin Zhen; youngest of the ‘Three Springs’

  JIA XI-LUAN younger sister of Jia Bin, made much of by Grandmother Jia

  JIA YING-CHUN daughter of Jia She by a concubine; eldest of the ‘Three Springs’

  JIA YUAN-CHUN daughter of Jia Zheng and Lady Wang and elder sister of Bao-yu; the Imperial Concubine

  JIA ZHEN see COUSIN ZHEN

  JIA ZHENG Bao-yu’s father; the younger of Grandmother Jia’s two sons

  JIN-GUI see XIA JIN-GUI

  JOKER trusted page of Jia Lian

  KINGFISHER Shi Xiang-yun’s maid

  LADY JIA see GRANDMOTHER JIA

  LADY WANG wife of Jia Zheng and mother of Jia Zhu, Yuan-chun and Bao-yu

  LADY XING wife of Jia She and mother of Jia Lian

  LADY ZHEN wife of Sir Zhen of Nanking and mother of Bao-yu’s double

  LAI DA Chief Steward of the Rong-guo mansion

  LAI SHENG Chief Steward of the Ning-guo mansion

  LI GUI Nannie Li’s son; Bao-yu’s foster-brother and chief groom

  LI QI Li Wan’s cousin; younger sister of Li Wen

  LI WAN widow of Bao-yu’s deceased elder brother, Jia Zhu, and mother of Jia Lan

  LI WEN Li Wan’s cousin; elder sister of Li Qi

  LIAN see JIA LIAN

  LILY name given to Caltrop by Xia Jin-gui

  LIN DAI-YU incarnation of the Crimson Pearl Flower; orphaned daughter of Lin Ru-hai and Jia Zheng’s sister, Jia Min

  LIN ZHI-XIAO

  LIN ZHI-XIAO’S WIFE

  }

  domestics holding the highest position

  in the Rong household under the Chief

  Steward Lai Da

  ‘LITTLE XUE’ poetry club pseudonym of XUE BAO-QIN

  LIU XIANG-LIAN young man of independent means friendly with the younger Jias; later betrothed to You San-jie

  LIVELY page of Cousin Zhen

  LOTUS junior maid of Ying-chun

  LOU-SHI Jia Jun’s mother

  LOVEY concubine of Cousin Zhen

  MAGPIE maid of Aunt Zhao

  MAMMA HE Swallow’s mother and foster-mother of Parfumée

  MAMMA XIA old woman assigned share of work in Garden; Swallow’s aunt and Cicada’s maternal grandmother

  MAMMA SONG old servant attached to Bao-yu’s apartment, mainly employed on errands

  MAMMA TIAN old servant in charge of gardening at Sweet-rice Farm

  MAMMA YE old woman in charge of gardening at Green Delights; Tealeaf’s mother and godmother of Bao-chai’s maid Oriole

  MAMMA ZHU old woman in charge of bamboo cultivation in Prospect Garden

  MARQUIS OF JIN-XIANG, THE nobleman on visiting terms with the Jia family

  MASTER BAO see JIA BAO-YU

  MASTER HUAN see JIA HUAN

  MASTER LAN see JIA LAN

  MASTER RONG see JIA RONG

  MATTRESS, THE widow of Droopy Duo; later installed with her second husband Bao Er as Er-jie’s housekeeper

  MERCY maid assigned to You Er-jie by Wang Xi-feng

  MISS BAO see XUE BAO-CHAI

  MISS LIN see LIN DAI-YU

  MISS LIS, THE see LI WEN and LI QI

  MISS QIN see XUE BAO-QIN

  MISS SHI see SHI XIANG-YUN

  MISS TAN see JIA TAN-CHUN

  MISS XI see JIA XI-CHUN

  MISS XIA see XIA JIN-GUI

  MISS YING see JIA YING-CHUN

  MISS YUN see SHI XIANG-YUN

  MOONBEAM maid of Xia Jin-gui favoured by Xue Pan

  MOONRISE younger sister of Lady Wang’s maid Sunset

  MOTHER EUERGESIA see EUERGESIA

  MR LIU see LIU XIANG-LIAN

  MR ZHANG see ZHANG DE-HUI

  MR ZHEN see COUSIN ZHEN

  MRS ER see YOU ER-JIE

  MRS FEI see GOODY FEI

  MRS LI Li Wan’s widowed aunt; mother of Li Wen and Li Qi

  MRS LIAN see WANG XI-FENG

  MRS LIN see LIN ZHI-XIAO’s WIFE

  MRS LIU see COOK LIU

  MRS SHAN see WIDOW SHAN

  MRS WANG see WANG SHAN-BAO’s WIFE

  MRS XIA Xia Jin-gui’s widowed mother; Xue Pan’s mother-in-law

  MRS XUE see AUNT XUE

  MRS YOU You-shi’s widowed step-mother; mother of You Er-jie and You San-jie

  MRS ZHAO see AUNT ZHAO

  MRS ZHEN see YOU-SHI

  MRS ZHU see LI WAN

  MUSK maid of Bao-yu

  NANNIE LI Bao-yu’s former wet-nurse

  NÉNUPHAR member of the Jia family troupe of child actresses, later attached to Dai-yu

  NIGHTINGALE principal maid of Dai-yu

  NUMBER FOUR junior maid of Bao-yu, formerly called CITRONELLA

  ‘OAF KING, THE’ see XUE PAN


  OLD MRS ZHU official marriage-broker acting for the Sun family

  ONE PLASTER WANG a Taoist quack-doctor acting as priest-in-charge at the Tian Qi Temple

  ORFIE junior maid of Xia Jin-gui

  ORIOLE principal maid of Bao-chai

  PAN see XUE PAN

  PAN TOU-AN cousin and childhood sweetheart of Ying-chun’s maid Chess

  PARFUMÉE member of the Jia family troupe of child actresses later attached to Bao-yu and renamed by him first YELÜ HUNNI and then AVENTURIN

  PARROT maid of Grandmother Jia

  PATIENCE chief maid and confidante of Wang Xi-feng

  PEARL maid of Grandmother Jia

  PERIWINKLE Bao-qin’s maid

  PICTURE principal maid of Xi-chun

  ‘PLANTAIN LOVER’ poetry club pseudonym of JIA TAN-CHUN

  PRINCE OF BEI-JING, THE see SHUI RONG

  QIAN HUAI Aunt Zhao’s nephew; unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Cook Liu’s daughter Fivey

  QIAO-JIE see JIA QIAO-JIE

  QIN see XUE BAO-QIN

  QIN XIAN’s WIFE aunt of Chess given brief control over Cook Liu’s kitchen

  RICH trusted page of Jia Lian

  RIPPLE maid of Bao-yu

  ‘RIVER QUEEN’ poetry club pseudonym of LIN DAI-YU

  RONG see JIA RONG

  SAN-JIE see YOU SAN-JIE

  SCRIBE principal maid of Tan-chun

  SHI XIANG-YUN orphaned great-niece of Grandmother Jia

  SHUI RONG Prince of Bei-jing; princely connection of the Jia family friendly with Bao-yu

  SI-JIE see JIA SI-JIE

  SIGNET Xing Xiu-yan’s maid

  SILVER maid of Lady Wang; younger sister of her deceased maid Golden

  SIMPLE half-witted maid of Grandmother Jia

  SIR JING see JIA JING

  SIR SHE see JIA SHE

  SIR WANG see WANG ZI-TENG

  SIR ZHENG see JIA ZHENG

  SKYBRIGHT maid of Bao-yu, posthumously worshipped by him as a flower-spirit