Yüeh-niang objected to this, saying, “There’s no need to cater to that worthless creature. If you want to provide something for Manager Fu Ming, go ahead and provide something for him to enjoy, but there is no need to cater to that creature.”
But Meng Yü-lou rejected this advice, and Ch’un-hung took what she had prepared out and set it down on the counter in the shop. The jar of wine she had provided was large but was soon emptied, and Ch’en Ching-chi told Lai-an to go back and ask for more.
Manager Fu Ming objected to this, saying, “Son-in-law, there is no need to ask for more wine. This amount is adequate, and I am not going to drink any more.”
But Ch’en Ching-chi rejected this advice and insisted on sending Lai-an back to get some more.
They had to wait for quite a while, before Lai-an came back and reported, “There is no more wine to be had.”
Ch’en Ching-chi was already half drunk on the wine he had consumed and tried to send him back again, but when Lai-an refused to budge, he went out and bought some wine with his own money.
He then berated Lai-an, saying, “You lousy little slave, you just wait. Since your mistress is unwilling to countenance me, you slaves have also started to defy me, refusing to so much as move when I tell you to do something. Since I entered your household as a son-in-law, it can hardly be said that I have eaten enough to deplete your supply of wine or meat. When your master was alive, how did you treat me? But now that your master is dead, you’ve had a change of heart and begun to ignore me, doing whatever you can to get rid of me. My mother-in-law has paid heed to the slanders of you slaves and started to act defensively toward me, entrusting everything to you slaves, and nothing to me. But let her do as she pleases. I’m:
Quite inured to such alarms.”
“My good son-in-law,” expostulated Manager Fu Ming, “don’t continue to talk that way. If they don’t respect you, who do they respect? I imagine they must be too busy in the rear compound, or they would scarcely have refused to supply you with wine. It’s no big deal that you should scold them that way, but:
Walls have cracks,
Fences have ears,
and someone is likely to say that you have been drinking too much.”
“Venerable manager,” said Ch’en Ching-chi, “you don’t know what’s going on. As for me:
Though wine is in my belly,
My concerns are on my mind.7
My mother-in-law is credulous enough to believe the slanders that petty persons have lodged against me and treats me as though I have been guilty of intercourse with someone who is not guilty of intercourse with me. What if I were to have carried on affairs with every woman in the household? If I were taken to court, it would only be a case of intercourse with my stepmothers-in-law, which would result in no more than a charge of misconduct.8 At present, I might as well divorce that daughter of yours and then draft a complaint and take you to court. Or else, I may go to the Eastern Capital and submit a memorial to the throne inside the Myriad Years Gate. Your family has possession of trunkloads of my family’s gold and silver, all of which were originally ill-gotten gains accumulated by Yang Chien and are subject to confiscation by the state. How would you like it if I were to succeed in getting these several damned houses of yours confiscated, and the women of the household all sold into servitude by the judiciary? It’s not as though:
I were not out to catch fish,
But only to muddy the waters,
for the fun of it. If she had any sense, she’d acknowledge me once again as her son-in-law and treat me as she did before, which would be for the benefit of all those concerned.”
When Manager Fu Ming heard these threatening words, he said, “Son-in-law, you’re drunk.
Wang Ten-plus-nine,
Let’s sip our wine,
and set these wanton allegations aside.”
At this, Ch’en Ching-chi opened his eyes wide and glared at Manager Fu Ming, saying, “You lousy old dog! How can you accuse me of making wanton allegations, or allege that I am drunk? It’s not as though I’ve been drinking any wine of yours. Unworthy though I may be, I am the favored son-in-law in her family, and you are no more than a cashier employed by her household. Are you also trying to get rid of me? Don’t worry, you old dog. You have made more than enough money off my father-in-law over the years, and have had more than enough to eat, and yet you want to join the cabal that is seeking to drive me out, do you? No doubt, you hope to be given sole charge of the business so you can skim off the cash to support your family. In the future when I lodge a complaint and take her to court I’ll be sure to include your name in the indictment.”
Manager Fu Ming was not a courageous man. When he saw that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, he put on his outer garments and, surreptitiously heading for home, disappeared in a cloud of dust. A page boy came out to collect the utensils and take them back to the rear compound, after which Ch’en Ching-chi collapsed onto the k’ang and fell asleep. Of the events of that evening there is no more to tell.
The next day, early in the morning, Manager Fu Ming went into the rear compound to see Yüeh-niang and told her everything that had happened the night before. Weeping and wailing, he said that he wanted to quit his job and return to his original home, turn over his account books, and engage in trade no longer.
Yüeh-niang endeavored to dissuade him, saying, “Manager Fu, just relax and carry on your business as before. Don’t pay any attention to that worthless piece of goods. He is as expendable as a piece of stinking shit. Originally, on account of the fact that his family was implicated in a legal proceeding, he was sent to seek temporary refuge in our household. There were no such things as gold and silver or other valuables involved. There were only several items from Hsi-men Ta-chieh’s dowry, and the luggage that they brought with them. Meanwhile, his old man went into hiding in the Eastern Capital, while the members of our household were left in fear, day and night, that some petty person might inform on him and get us into trouble. When he came here he was no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, a mere fledgling, and he has had the good fortune to be supported by his father-in-law’s family for all these years, and trained to be proficient in various enterprises. But now that:
His wing feathers are dry enough for flight,
he is:
Requiting kindness with enmity,
and:
Trying to sweep it all under the rug with a
single stroke of the broom.
He’s just a youngster whose words cannot be trusted. What does he understand of Heavenly principle? But, in the future, Heaven will not fail to observe his conduct. Manager Fu, just relax and carry on your business as before. Don’t pay any attention to him. He will surely come to feel ashamed of himself.”
In this way, Yüeh-niang succeeded in placating Manager Fu Ming. But no more of this.
One day it was one of those occasions on which:
Something is destined to happen.
The pawnshop was crowded with customers who had come to redeem their belongings, when who should appear but the wet nurse Ju-i, carrying Hsiao-ko, who had come to deliver a kettle of tea for Manager Fu Ming to drink. As she set it down on the table Hsiao-ko, in the wet nurse’s arms, began to cry for all he was worth.
On seeing this, Ch’en Ching-chi, in front of the crowd of customers, addressed himself to the baby, saying:
Half facetiously but in earnest,9
“Little brother, my precious child, you stop that crying.”
He then turned to the customers, and said, “This child behaves just as though I were his father, in that he does what I tell him to do. When I tell him to stop crying, he stops crying.”
This remark stunned the customers, and Ju-i admonished him, saying, “Son-in-law, what kind of talk is that? You even went so far as to address him as your son. Just see if I don’t report this to the First Lady when I go back inside.”
At this, Ch’en Ching-chi ran up to her and gave the wet nurse a
couple of kicks, saying in a jocular but abusive manner, “Why you crazy louse of a stinker! Go ahead and report it; but if you do, I’ll kick your ass hard enough to produce a sounding fart.”
The wet nurse, with the baby in her arms, promptly went back to the rear compound and wept as she told Yüeh-niang, thus and so, what Ch’en Ching-chi had said about the child in front of the crowd of customers.
If Yüeh-niang had not heard this, nothing might have happened; but having heard it, while she was combing her hair in front of her mirror stand, she was rendered speechless for what seemed like half a day, and then:
Fell to the floor in a faint,10
Oblivious to human affairs.
Behold:
The jade from the Ch’u mountains is damaged;
Much to be lamented is Hsi-men Ch’ing’s
lawfully wedded wife.
The bloom in the jeweled mirror is withered;
Despite the ninety days of spring given
by the Lord of the East.
Her flowery countenance looks dispirited;
Like the herbaceous peony in the West Garden
clinging to the red railing.11
Her sandalwood mouth remains speechless;
Like the Bodhisattva Kuan-yin of the South
Seas engaging in meditation.
In the little garden last night the spring
wind was disastrous;
Scattering the blossoms of the river plums
all over the ground.12
This threw Hsiao-yü into such consternation that she called together the members of the household, high and low, to help Yüeh-niang up into a sitting position on the k’ang. Sun Hsüeh-o then jumped onto the k’ang, administered artificial respiration for some time, and poured a dose of ginger extract into her throat, but it seemed like half a day before she regained consciousness. Yüeh-niang’s breathing was obstructed at first, so that all she could do was choke, without being able even to sob out a sound.
The wet nurse Ju-i told Meng Yü-lou and Sun Hsüeh-o about the facetious remarks Ch’en Ching-chi had made about Hsiao-ko in front of the customers in the pawnshop and went on to say, “I endeavored to admonish him with the best of intentions, but he chased after me and kicked me a couple of times, nearly causing me to faint with anger on the spot.”
Sun Hsüeh-o continued to support Yüeh-niang in an upright position until the others had left and then, while they were alone together in the room, quietly said to her, “Mother, there is no need to get angry. If you allow yourself to get so upset that:
Anything untoward should happen to you,
that would be an even greater calamity. That youngster, because Ch’un-mei has been sold, and he can no longer have his way with that whore from the P’an household, has been frustrated enough to give vent to such allegations. Right now, one must either:
Refuse to do something;
Or not stop at anything.
Since Hsi-men Ta-chieh has already been married off, she is like a plot of land that has been sold, and there is not much we can do for her. As the saying goes:
All you get for raising toads is dropsy.
What’s the point of keeping that youngster around the house anyway? Tomorrow, we ought to inveigle him into coming back to the rear compound, give him a real beating, and then drive him out the door to return to his own family. After that, we ought to summon Dame Wang. Since:
She is the one who produced this problem,
She should be the one who eliminates it.
We should get her to take that whore away from here and sell her off, just as one would dispose of dog shit or stinking piss. In this way the whole problem could be solved in a single day. What’s the point of letting them continue to reside here, and thereby run the risk of their dragging us into the soup in the future?”
“What you say makes sense,” responded Yüeh-niang.
They decided upon their plan there and then.
The next day, after the morning meal, Yüeh-niang arranged to have seven or eight maids and servants’ wives lie in wait, armed with sticks and cudgels, and then sent the page boy Lai-an to trick Ch’en Ching-chi into coming into the rear compound for a talk.
Once he was inside, and the ceremonial gate had been closed behind him, she ordered him to kneel down in front of her and demanded, “Do you acknowledge your crime?”
Ch’en Ching-chi refused to kneel and exhibited as haughty an air as ever, while Yüeh-niang proceeded to interrogate him. There is a long set piece of parallel prose that testifies to this.
At the outset, Yüeh-niang did not offend him,
but now her countenance altered.
After this, Ch’en Ching-chi, responding to her
dressing down, raised his head,
Saying, “You need not waste your breath
with this incessant bickering.
I’ve got to arrive at some sort of an
understanding with you.”
Yüeh-niang said, “This is your father-in-law’s
private dwelling place;
It is not a Verdant Spring Bordello, or a Nest
of Orioles and Swallows.
How can you have the effrontery to flirt with
one of his womenfolk?
As your father-in-law’s beloved concubine, she
is living as a widow.
How can you feel yourself entitled to engage in
flirtation with her?
And there is also that shamelessly wanton slave
who has ensnared you.
From of old, if the bitch does not wag her tail,
dogs will not engage her.
These are all offenses that besmirch the family,
and are hard to forgive.”
Ch’en Ching-chi cried, “By unleashing a horde of
witches to bind Chung K’uei,13
You have sprung a trap so you could beat this
culprit to your heart’s content.
The cheeks of my bottom find this flagellation
almost impossible to endure.
You maidservants, cease your agitation; First
Lady, forgo your perturbation.
If you don’t watch out, these pitiless sticks
will end up breaking my back.”
Yüeh-niang retorted, “You lousy nincompoop! Do
you dare to give me your lip?
As they say, when the ice is three feet thick,
it is not due to one day of cold.14
You are guilty of such unpardonable acts that
they are difficult to forgive.
You are lucky to be subjected merely to this
flailing with stalks of reed.
But if you should have the temerity to think
of doing any such thing again,
I’ll cut off this perishable prick of yours
and leave you celibate for life.”
Yüeh-niang, at this juncture, directed the squad of women, including Sun Hsüeh-o, Lai-hsing’s wife Hui-hsiu, Lai-chao’s wife “The Beanpole,” Chung-ch’iu, Hsiao-yü, and Hsiu-ch’un, to proceed, hugger-mugger, to hold Ch’en Ching-chi down on the floor and give him a drubbing with their sticks and cudgels. Hsi-men Ta-chieh saw what was going on but merely withdrew and did nothing to save her husband.
They beat the young scamp until, in desperation, he tore off his pants and exposed his organ, which was standing up as straight as a stick. This so startled the women that they dropped their sticks and cudgels and fled in all directions.
Yüeh-niang, for her part, was both annoyed and amused by this display and berated him, saying, “What a fine phony of a cuckold’s spawn you are!”
As for Ch’en Ching-chi:
From his mouth no word was uttered, but
In his heart he thought to himself,
“Had it not been for this ploy of mine, how could I have escaped?”
Thereupon, he crawled to his feet, pulled up his pants with one hand, and fled out to the front compound. Yüeh-niang deputed a
page boy to follow him and tell him to settle his accounts and turn them over to Manager Fu Ming. Ch’en Ching-chi realized that, under the circumstances, he could no longer remain there. After gathering up his clothes and bedding, without even saying good-bye, he proceeded to walk out of Hsi-men Ch’ing’s household in a huff, and head for his family’s old home, now occupied by his maternal uncle Militia Commander Chang Kuan, to find a place to stay. Truly:
It has always been true that gratitude for kindness
and festering resentment;
Even in a thousand years or ten thousand years
will never be allowed to gather dust.
When P’an Chin-lien heard that Ch’en Ching-chi had been beaten and expelled from the household, she felt:
Worry piled upon worry, and
Depression augmented by depression.
One day, Yüeh-niang, inspired by Sun Hsüeh-o’s suggestion, sent Tai-an to summon Dame Wang. Ever since Dame Wang’s son Wang Ch’ao returned home from his apprenticeship to a merchant in the Huai River region, from whom he had purloined a hundred taels of silver entrusted to him for the purchase of stock, she had felt affluent enough to give up her business of selling tea. Her son had purchased two donkeys, a set of millstones, and a sieve frame, and set himself up as a miller. When she heard that she was being summoned to Hsi-men Ch’ing’s residence, she promptly donned her outer garments and started off.
Sun Hsüeh-o Instigates the Beating of Ch’en Ching-chi
Along the way, she said to Tai-an, “Brother, I haven’t set eyes on you for a long time, but I see that you’re old enough to have started wearing your hair in a bun. Have you taken a wife already?”
“No I haven’t,” replied Tai-an.
“Since your master is dead,” said Dame Wang, “which member of your household is it who is calling for me, and what am I wanted for? No doubt the Fifth Lady is about to bear a son and would like me to help with the delivery.”
“The Fifth Lady is not bearing a son,” responded Tai-an, “but she has been caught carrying on an affair with her son-in-law. The First Lady would like you to take her away and marry her off to someone.”
“My Heavens!” exclaimed Dame Wang. “You see, it is just as I thought, that whore, on losing her husband, could not be expected to maintain her chastity. Just as:
The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei Page 21