He then opened the door of the wardrobe and took out a white satin handkerchief, and a silver chatelaine with three pendant toothpicks, and gave them to her as a reward for her efforts. Thereupon, he embraced Ch’un-mei and laid her on the k’ang, after which the two of them fell to kissing and sucking each others’ tongues, unable to contain their delight. Truly:
Failing to consummate his assignation
with Ts’ui Ying-ying;
He settled for a tryst with Hung-niang
to relieve his lust.
There is a lyric to the tune “Partridge Sky” that testifies to this:
Her eyebrows lightly penciled,
her comb stuck askew;
She has no heart to continue
doing her embroidery.
Deep within cloudy windows,
in misty chambers;
Quietly seated in her study she
practices calligraphy.
Beautiful as can be,
Ever more lovely;
She is a goddess incarnate,
unknown to this world.
At first glance, one might say she
resembles a plum blossom;
But on closer examination, the plum
blossom is not her equal.23
At the time, after the two of them had played with each other for a while, Ch’un-mei took the straw and returned to Chin-lien’s quarters, where she told the woman, word for word, about what had happened, saying, “I summoned him, and he will be here momentarily. Upon reading that note of yours, he was as pleased as could be and bowed deeply to me, rewarding me with a handkerchief and a set of silver toothpicks.”
“You go outside and take a look,” the woman said. “He may be on his way in. Don’t let the dog bite him.”
“I’ve already put the dog out of the way,” said Ch’un-mei.
It so happens that it was the sixteenth or seventeenth day of the eighth month at the time, just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, so the moon was shining brightly.
To resume our story, after Ch’en Ching-chi had gone over to the pharmaceutical shop next door and called on P’ing-an to come take his place, he took off for the garden so fast that his feet:
Beat out a festive paradiddle as he went.
Finding the front gate to the garden locked, he made his way in through the postern gate, headed straight for Chin-lien’s quarters, and shook the branches of the woody hibiscus tree as a signal of his arrival. When Ch’un-mei saw the flowery branches moving on the other side of the wall, she promptly responded with a cough and told the woman he had come. Ch’en Ching-chi pushed open the gate, slipped inside, and proceeded straight to her room.
The woman greeted him at the door with a smile, saying, “A fine person you are, not to have visited me for so long!”
“I was concerned not to make trouble for either of us,” he said, “so I chose to stay away for a few days. I didn’t know that you were so unhappy about it.
I have been remiss about keeping in touch with you.”24
The woman said, “There is a song to the tune ‘Four Variations’ that testifies to this:
Simply because of some idle gossip,
You have let our love, as deep as the sea,
suddenly go awry.
For these several days, you have not even
approached my door;
Keeping my heart on tenterhooks.
My tenderhearted lover,
How can you thus forsake me?”25
The two of them sat down together, while Ch’un-mei secured the postern gate, set up a table in the room, and laid out an array of wine and delicacies on it. The woman and Ch’en Ching-chi sat down:
Shoulder to shoulder and thigh over thigh.
Ch’un-mei seated herself to one side and poured the wine.
With the raising of glasses and passing of cups,
Hugging the turquoise and cuddling the red,
they drank for a time, while the three of them set out the pieces for the game of Turtle Pachisi and proceeded to play it together. As they began to become inebriated, the woman, with:
Her captivating eyes all a blur,
Her raven locks somewhat askew,
got out Hsi-men Ch’ing’s bag of sexual implements, including the “Ladies Delight,” the aphrodisiac called “The Quavery Voices of Amorous Beauties,” the silver clasp, and the “Titillating Bell,” a full complement of sexual aids, and instructed Ch’en Ching-chi in how to use them.
Under the gleam of lamplight, the woman then:
Stripped her body completely naked,
and reclined faceup on a “Drunken Old Gentleman’s” lounge chair. Ch’en Ching-chi also stripped himself so that not a stitch of silk remained on his body, above or below, sat down on a chair facing her, took up an album illustrating the twenty-four positions26 for sexual intercourse, and set out to emulate the behaviors depicted.
The woman then said to Ch’un-mei, “You get behind our son-in-law and give him a push when he needs it. I’m afraid he’s worn himself out.”
Ch’un-mei actually went behind him and proceeded to push as Ch’en Ching-chi’s organ penetrated the woman’s vagina and he:
Moved back and forth, retracting and thrusting,27
Producing a pleasurable sensation,
That was completely indescribable.28
To resume our story, Ch’iu-chü slept in the kitchen at the rear of the premises until the middle of the night, when she got up to relieve herself. Finding herself unable to open the door into the courtyard because it was latched shut on the other side, she managed to reach around with her hand and detach the latch. Under the brightly shining moon, she proceeded with:
Skulking step and lurking gait,
to make her way up to the front window, where:
Moistening a hole in the paper,29
with her saliva, she was able to look inside.
Within the room, illuminated by lamps and candles shining ever so brightly, she saw the three persons, all quite drunk and stark naked, carrying on for all they were worth. The three of them were clustered together, two of them going at it while seated on facing chairs, while Ch’un-mei stood behind Ch’en Ching-chi propelling him forward like a cart. Behold:
One of them shows total disregard
for the status of her husband;
The other does not discriminate between
above and below, exalted or humble.
One of them, panting for all he is worth,
Sounds like an ox snoring in the willow’s shade.
The other, as her coy cries reverberate,
Resembles an oriole warbling among the flowers.
One of them, seated on his chair, shows off
the passions evoked by clouds and rain;
Ch’un-mei Transmits a Note to Facilitate a Lovers’ Tryst
The other swears into her partner’s ears
to be as faithful as the hills and seas.
One of them, in her widow’s chamber,
transforms it into a pleasure ground;
The other, before his mother-in-law,
turns things into a realm of lechery.
One of them takes all Hsi-men Ch’ing’s sexual aids
and bestows them on her son-in-law;
The other, emulating Han Shou’s stealing of perfume,30
conveys it all to his light of love.31
Truly:
Signing a compact never to be separated
during this lifetime;
They agree to be happily bound together
in the life to come.32
At the time, all of this was clearly observed by Ch’iu-chü.
From her mouth no word was uttered, but
In her heart she thought to herself,
“She still persists in protesting her own virtue in front of other people and intends to beat me, but today I have seen the truth of the matter with my own eyes. Tomorrow, I’ll report it to the First Lady, and she can hardly claim that I am falsely accusing t
hem with my:
Deceitful mouth and duplicitous tongue.”
Thereupon, after spying on them until she might well have ejaculated:
“Is it not delightful?”
she returned to the kitchen and went to sleep.
The three of them kept at it until the third watch before finally going to sleep.
The next morning, before dawn, Ch’un-mei got up before the others and went to the kitchen, where she found the door to be ajar, and interrogated Ch’iu-chü about it.
“You might well ask,” responded Ch’iu-chü. “I had an urgent need to urinate and went outside to piss. I had to unlatch the door in order to get into the courtyard to relieve myself.”
“You preternatural slave!” said Ch’un-mei. “Why didn’t you use the chamber pot in the room?”
“I didn’t know there was a chamber pot in the room,” responded Ch’iu-chü.
The two of them continued to bicker there at the rear of the premises, while Ch’en Ching-chi got up at dawn and vanished into the front compound. Truly:
With two hands he tore open the road
between life and death;
Flopping over and leaping out through
the gate to perdition.
Chin-lien subsequently asked Ch’un-mei, “What was that fuss out back about?”
Upon Ch’un-mei telling her, thus and so, how Ch’iu-chü had managed to open the door during the night, the woman was enraged and planned to give Ch’iu-chü a beating.
Ch’iu-chü, meanwhile, had gone back to the rear compound once again to report to Yüeh-niang about what she had seen, but Yüeh-niang responded with a shout and cursed her, saying, “You lousy slave, you’re just trying to do your mistress in!. The other day, you came back here for no good reason and started:
Talebearing and embroidering on the facts,
saying that your mistress was hiding our son-in-law, Ch’en Ching-chi, in her room, where they were:
Sleeping from morning to night,
And then from night to morning.
You urged me to go see for myself, but when I arrived your mistress was sitting in front of a bed table, stringing beads for a floral ornament, and Son-in-law Ch’en was nowhere to be seen. Later on, he came in from the front compound. You’re nothing but a slave who is bent on destroying her mistress. How could she have hidden a full-grown man in her room? Even a sugar figurine or a wooden doll would turn up, no matter where you concealed them. You can hardly suggest that she managed to secrete him in her cunt. If word of this should get out, those who know the truth of the matter will say that it was you slaves who did in your mistress; but those who don’t will say that in the past Hsi-men Ch’ing managed to subdue any number of women, but it did not take long after his death for the women of his household to end up:
All at sevens and eights.
They may even go so far as to question the paternity of this child of mine.”
Thereupon, she threatened Ch’iu-chü with a beating, but she was so intimidated that she fled back to the front compound:
Running as fast as though she had wings,33
and no longer dared to report anything to the rear compound.
When Chin-lien heard that Yüeh-niang had expelled Ch’iu-chü from her presence, and refused to believe her allegations, she became even bolder than before and amused herself by composing a song for Ch’en Ching-chi’s benefit, to the tune “Red Embroidered Slippers,” that testified to her feelings:
When we meet to enjoy the clouds and rain,
don’t let any word leak out.
As for idle gossip, it’s not worth paying
more attention to than a fart.
What reason is there to be deterred by the
securest lock or tightest knot?
Those who wield spades to unearth the facts
will only hurt their wrists;
Those who seek to expose what we are up to
will wear out their throats.
The ardor of our feelings for each other will
only end up being enhanced.34
When Hsi-men Ta-chieh heard about this episode, she privately interrogated Ch’en Ching-chi about it.
“How can you believe that delirious slave?” Ch’en Ching-chi responded. “Yesterday it was my turn to sleep overnight in the shop, so how could I have gone into the garden? Besides, the gate to the garden is kept locked all the time.”
“You lousy jailbird!” retorted Hsi-men Ta-chieh. “You had better stop shooting off your mouth. As for your doings:
If the wind so much as stirs a blade of grass,
and word of it comes to my ears, or causes Mother to criticize me, while you continue to carry on:
As free as you please,
you can give up any idea of continuing to share these quarters with me.”
Ch’en Ching-chi replied:
“Gossip about pros and cons goes on all day;
If you pay no heed to it, it will disappear.35
No wonder talebearing slaves like her never come to a good end. It is clear that the First Lady doesn’t take her seriously.”
“That’s enough of that!” responded Hsi-men Ta-chieh. “As long as you’re telling the truth, everything will be all right.”
Truly:
Who could know that the heart of the young man
is as flighty as a willow catkin,
Or anticipate that the mind of his mistress is
as capricious as tangled silk?
If you want to know the outcome of these events,
Pray consult the story related in the following chapter.
Chapter 84
WU YÜEH-NIANG CREATES A STIR IN THE TEMPLE OF IRIDESCENT CLOUDS;
SUNG CHIANG UPRIGHTLY FREES HER FROM THE CH’ING-FENG STRONGHOLD
Winter and summer forever green, such phenomena
are seldom seen in this world;
The marvelous transformations wrought by Heaven
and Earth have created them.
Her virtuous example is not besmirched by the
grime of the mundane world;
She is chastely resolved to abide by her oath to
be united in the world below.
Her conspicuous rectitude has a numinous quality
that is utterly incomparable;
The patience with which she bears her widowhood
generates a lingering fragrance.
If the people of this world are curious about the
secret of everlasting life;
The truth of the matter is that virtuous behavior
is conducive to longevity.
THE STORY GOES that, one day, Wu Yüeh-niang invited her elder brother Wu K’ai to come and consult with her about her wish to make a pilgrimage to the summit of Mount T’ai in T’ai-an prefecture in order to burn incense in the Temple of the Goddess of Iridescent Clouds.1 When Hsi-men Ch’ing was on his last legs, she had sworn an oath to do so. Wu K’ai agreed to escort her on this mission and took care of procuring the incense, candles, paper money, and sacrificial offerings that she would need. Tai-an and Lai-an were also to accompany her, and donkeys were hired for them to ride.
Before taking her seat in her curtained sedan chair, she enjoined Meng Yü-lou, P’an Chin-lien, Sun Hsüeh-o, and Hsi-men Ta-chieh to look after the house and instructed the wet nurse Ju-i, and the maidservants, to look after Hsiao-ko.
She went on to say, “The ceremonial gate between the front and rear compounds is to be locked early if there is no reason to do otherwise, and you are not to venture outside the premises. Ch’en Ching-chi also must be instructed not to go out, and to look after the front gate along with Manager Fu Ming. I will probably be able to return home by the end of the month.”
On the morning of the fifteenth day of the ninth month, she burned paper money to convey her intentions to the gods, and that evening, after announcing her departure before Hsi-men Ch’ing’s spirit tablet, shared a farewell drink with her fellow wives. She also turned the keys to
the master suite and the storerooms over to Hsiao-yü and enjoined her to look after the premises carefully.
The next morning, she got up at the fifth watch and prepared to depart. The whole entourage led out the mounts they had hired, and her sister wives came out to the front gate to see her off.
It was late autumn, and the weather was cold and the days short. They traveled two stages each day, covering sixty or seventy li, and sought out village inns before dusk in order to spend the night, resuming their journey early the next morning. On their way:
The autumn clouds were austere,
The frigid geese were desolate,
The trees were shedding leaves,
The landscape had turned bleak,2
Their gloom was insurmountable.3
There is a poem that testifies to the way Yüeh-niang traversed the distant mountains and passes in order to fulfill the vow she had made on her husband’s behalf:
For her entire life her determined fidelity
will rival ice or frost;
Her little specimen of an immaculate heart4
is able to move Azure Heaven.5
For her husband’s sake she promised to go as
far as the sacred mountain;
Along the thousand li of mountains and passes
her name exudes fragrance.
To make a long story short, of the events of their trip there is nothing to tell. After traveling for several days, they arrived at T’ai-an prefecture and were able to contemplate Mount T’ai. In truth, it is:
The number one famous mountain under Heaven.6
Its coiling base is rooted in the earth;
Its peak rises into the heart of Heaven.7
It lies between the ancient states of Ch’i and Lu;
And emanates an atmosphere of precipitous majesty.
When Wu K’ai saw that it was getting late, he conducted them into an inn to spend the night.
The next morning, they got up early in order to begin their ascent and headed toward the Tai-yüeh Temple, or Temple of the Eastern Peak, which is located at the foot of the mountain.
Sacred rites were observed here dynasty after dynasty;
Feng and Shan Sacrifices were held here age after age.8
The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei Page 15