The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei

by Roy, David Tod

  That would constitute ‘a fling in the spring breeze,’

  even though you would make a little less off the transaction.”

  “Quite aside from fifty taels of silver,” said Dame Wang, “I would not let you have her even for eighty taels of silver. Just yesterday, Magnate Ho, the silk merchant from Hu-chou, offered me seventy taels of silver for her. And Chang the Second from Main Street, who is currently serving as judicial commissioner, sent two adjutants offering eighty taels of silver, duly weighed out in two packets, but it was not enough, and they had to take it back with them. You’re just a youngster with:

  An empty mouth uttering empty words.

  And yet you have the nerve to try to take advantage of me. But I’m not about to let myself be fleeced.”

  There and then, she strode out into the street and called out in a loud voice, saying, “Just whose son-in-law is it who is brazen enough to propose to marry his mother-in-law, and has the nerve to come farting around my place in order to do it?”

  Ch’en Ching-chi was thrown into such consternation by this that he pulled the old woman inside with one hand, got down on his knees before her, and pleaded, “Dame Wang, pray be quiet. I’ll accept the price of a hundred taels of silver that you demand. The only problem is that my father is in the Eastern Capital. I’ll set out for the Eastern Capital tomorrow in order to get the money from him.”

  “Since you are doing this for me,” the woman said, “don’t you quibble over the price with my godmother, but go get the money as fast as you can. My only fear is that if you are too late, I may be married off to someone else and won’t end up belonging to you after all.”

  “I’ll hire a horse and travel by double stages, both day and night,” said Ch’en Ching-chi. “I should be back in half a month, at most, or as little as ten days.”

  Dame Wang said, “As the saying goes:

  The first one to cook the rice is the first to eat.

  In addition, there is my go-between’s fee of ten taels of silver. You must not come up short. I want to make that absolutely clear.”

  “There is no need to remind me,” said Ch’en Ching-chi.

  “Your kindness will be amply rewarded,

  I will never dare to forget it.”

  As soon as they finished their discussion, Ch’en Ching-chi said good-bye, went out the door, returned home, and packed his bags for the trip. Early the next morning, he hired a horse and set out for the Eastern Capital to get the money he needed. This trip of his was truly a case of:

  The Green Dragon and the White Tiger

  accompany each other;

  Good fortune and bad fortune cannot

  be safely predicted.

  If you want to know the outcome of these events,

  Pray consult the story related in the following chapter.

  Chapter 87

  DAME WANG HUNGERS AFTER WEALTH AND RECEIVES HER JUST REWARD;

  WU SUNG KILLS HIS SISTER-IN-LAW AND PROPITIATES HIS BROTHER

  If you devote your life to good works

  Heaven will reward you;

  If you insist on being tough you will

  surely elicit disaster.

  If you are gracious with your tongue

  you will suffer no harm;

  It is because your teeth are so hard

  that they suffer damage.

  When autumn comes, the apricots and

  peaches have all fallen;

  In the depth of winter, the pines

  and cypresses stay green.

  Good and evil acts inevitably bring

  their appropriate results;

  Though you fly high or travel far1

  you cannot escape them.2

  THE STORY GOES that Ch’en Ching-chi hired a horse for himself, called for a servitor of Militia Commander Chang Kuan to accompany him, and set out early in the morning for the Eastern Capital. But no more of this.

  To resume our story, the day after Wu Yüeh-niang had expelled P’an Chin-lien from the household, she sent Ch’un-hung to summon Auntie Hsüeh because she also wished to sell Ch’iu-chü.

  While Ch’un Hung was walking along Main Street on this errand, he happened to run into Ying Po-chüeh, who called him to a halt and inquired, “Ch’un-hung, where are you headed?”

  “The First Lady has sent me to summon the go-between Auntie Hsüeh,” replied Ch’un-hung.

  “What does she want with that go-between?” asked Ying Po-chüeh.

  “She plans to sell the maidservant Ch’iu-chü from the Fifth Lady’s quarters,” explained Ch’un-hung.

  “Why was the Fifth Lady expelled from the household?” Ying Po-chüeh went on to ask. “She is now at Dame Wang’s place, and I hear that Dame Wang is looking for someone to marry her off to. Is all this really true?”

  Ch’un-hung then proceeded to tell him, thus and so, “She was said to be having an affair with her son-in-law, and, when the First Lady found out about it, she first expelled the young lady Ch’un-mei from the household, after which she subjected her son-in-law to a beating and forced him to flee to his family home. It was only yesterday that she expelled the Fifth Lady from the household.”

  When Ying Po-chüeh heard this, he nodded his head and said, “So it turns out that your Fifth Lady was up to something with that son-in-law of yours. It’s not easy to tell what people are capable of.”

  He then addressed Ch’un-hung again, saying, “My child, since your master is already dead, why should you want to remain in his household? There’s no profit to be obtained by doing so. If you would like to go back to the south where you came from, why not look for someone here that might take you back there with him? What do you think?”

  “It is just as you say,” responded Ch’un-hung. “My master is already dead, and the First Lady has become extremely strict with us. She has closed up most of the businesses the master formerly engaged in, and sold off the premises where they were conducted. Ch’in-t’ung and Hua-t’ung have already left, and she is no longer able to support such a large number of people. I would like to be able to return to the south, but I don’t know of anyone who would find it convenient to take me, and I don’t know how to find anyone here in the city who would be willing to employ me.”

  “You silly child!” said Ying Po-chüeh.

  “If one is not farsighted,3

  One will never be secure.

  To return to the south, you would have to traverse:

  A thousand mountains and a myriad streams.4

  What would be the point of that, and who would take you there? You are able to perform quite a few songs, and consequently you should have no trouble finding someone here in town to employ you. Let me recommend a possibility to you, namely, the household of His Honor Chang the Second on Main Street. He disposes of property worth tens of thousands of strings of cash, owns buildings with a hundred rooms, and has been appointed to replace your former master in his posts as judicial commissioner and battalion commander. And at present he has also acquired the Second Lady from your household as a concubine. If I should take you to his place in order to seek employment, when he sees that you are adept at performing southern songs, I guarantee you’ll:

  Hit the bull’s-eye with the first arrow.

  If he retains you as a personal servant to wait on him, you’ll be better off than you are in your current situation. He has a good disposition, is still quite young, is unrestrained in his behavior, and is attracted by good looks. You would be a lucky fellow to obtain such a position.”

  Ch’un-hung then proceeded to prostrate himself before him and said, “I would be indebted to you for your help. If I meet with His Honor Chang the Second and succeed in:

  Advancing by so much as a single step,

  I will purchase a present and come kowtow to you.”

  Ying Po-chüeh pulled Ch’un-hung to his feet with one hand and said, “Silly child, stand up. I always do whatever I can to help people succeed. I don’t require any expressions of gratitude from you. Wher
e would you get the money for such a thing?”

  “If I should go with you,” said Ch’un-hung, “I fear that the First Lady back at home will wonder where I have gone. What should I do about that?”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Ying Po-chüeh. “I will ask His Honor Chang the Second to write a note to her and enclose a tael of silver. She probably won’t dare to accept the silver but, no doubt, will end up by handing you over to him with both hands.”

  When they had finished their conversation, Ch’un-hung went on to Auntie Hsüeh’s place and told her that she was wanted by his mistress. Upon meeting with her, Auntie Hsüeh led Ch’iu-chü away, after paying Yüeh-niang her asking price of a mere five taels of silver. But no more of this.

  To resume our story, Ying Po-chüeh took Ch’un-hung with him to pay a visit to Chang the Second and, on seeing how good-looking he was, and hearing that he could perform southern songs, Chang the Second agreed to retain him as a personal servant. He then wrote out a note, sealed it up with one tael of silver, and sent someone to the Hsi-men household to collect his trunk of belongings.

  That day, Wu Yüeh-niang was at home, entertaining Yün Li-shou’s wife, née Su,5 with a cup of wine. Some time before this, Yün Li-shou had succeeded to his elder brother’s hereditary post as vice commander of the Ch’ing-ho Left Guard. Upon witnessing the death of Hsi-men Ch’ing, and the fact that Yüeh-niang was set on maintaining her widowhood and still had substantial means at her disposal, he could not help salivating with excitement at the prospect of profiting from the situation. That day, his wife had purchased eight trays of preserved fruit and come to call on Yüeh-niang. Knowing that Yüeh-niang had given birth to a son named Hsiao-ko, and having a daughter of her own who was only two months old, she intended to form a marriage alliance with Yüeh-niang by betrothing the two children to each other and formalizing the pact by exchanging cuttings from the lapels of their blouses.6 She had also presented a gold ring as a betrothal gift.

  At this point, Tai-an came in with the note from His Honor Chang the Second and the tael of silver and explained that Ch’un-hung had accepted a job as a personal servant in his household, and that he had sent someone to collect his trunk of personal effects and his clothes. Yüeh-niang felt that since Chang the Second now held the post of judicial commissioner she could hardly object to this arrangement, but she refused to accept the proffered silver and duly turned over Ch’un Hung’s trunk of belongings.

  Before this, Ying Po-chüeh had said to Chang the Second, “P’an Chin-lien, the Fifth Lady in Hsi-men Ch’ing’s household, is really attractive, is adept at playing the balloon guitar, and, when it comes to the standard repertory of popular songs, backgammon and elephant chess, there is little she has not mastered. In addition, she is literate and knows how to read and write. Because she is still young, she is unable to maintain a chaste widowhood, and she has been so at odds with the First Lady that she has been expelled from the household and is currently residing at Dame Wang’s place waiting to be married off.”

  In response to this, Chang the Second had sent a servant with money in hand to Dame Wang’s place, again and again, to size up the situation; but Dame Wang had insisted that, pursuant to the orders of the First Lady, she would refuse to accept anything less than a hundred taels for her. The servant had gone back and forth several times to bargain with her and had raised the offered sum to more than eighty taels, but Dame Wang still refused to give her assent.

  Afterwards, when Ch’un-hung entered his household, and Chang the Second learned from him that the woman had engaged in adultery with her son-in-law, and that that was the reason why she had been expelled, he decided that he didn’t want her.

  “I have a fourteen-year-old son in my household,” he told Ying Po-chüeh, “who has not yet reached puberty but is going to school and studying his books. What would I want with a woman like that in my home?”

  Li Chiao-erh also told him, “Chin-lien originally poisoned her husband to death so that she could be taken into Hsi-men Ch’ing’s household. She later had an affair with a page boy and was also responsible for doing to death both the Sixth Lady and her baby son.”

  As a result, Chang the Second no longer wanted anything to do with her.

  At this point the story divides into two. To resume our story, when Ch’un-mei was sold into the household of Commandant Chou Hsiu, and the commandant saw that she was naturally:

  Both beautiful and clever, and

  Her deportment was enticing,

  he was utterly delighted and not only supplied her with a suite of three rooms to live in but also arranged for a young maidservant to wait upon her.

  He slept in her room for three nights in a row. At the third day celebration after her marriage into the household, he had two outfits of clothing tailored for her, rewarded Auntie Hsüeh with five mace of silver on her departure, and purchased another female servant to serve Ch’un-mei. In addition, he formally designated her as the Second Lady in his household. His first wife was blind in one eye, restricted herself to vegetarian fare, devoted herself to reciting the Buddha’s name, and:

  Did not concern herself with ordinary affairs.7

  Chou Hsiu also had a concubine named Sun Erh-niang, who had borne him a daughter and resided in quarters on the eastern side of the courtyard, while Ch’un-mei’s quarters were on the western side of the courtyard. He entrusted the keys to all the doors in the house to Ch’un-mei and conspicuously bestowed his favor upon her.

  One day, she heard from Auntie Hsüeh that P’an Chin-lien had also been expelled from the household and was residing at Dame Wang’s place, waiting to be married off.

  That evening, Ch’un-mei, wailing and weeping, addressed Chou Hsiu, saying, “My mistress and I kept each other company for many years, and she never so much as raised her voice in anger against me but treated me as though I were her own daughter. I knew that we had to separate but failed to anticipate that she, too, would now be expelled from the household. If you are willing to take her in marriage, the two of us could enjoy happy days together again.”

  She then went on to elaborate on her attractiveness, saying, “She can perform the lyrics and songs of a multitude of authors and is adept at playing the balloon guitar. She is:

  Both quick-witted and elegant,8

  just as clever as can be. She was born in the year of the dragon and is now only thirty-one years old. If she were to enter your household, I would be happy to cede my place to her and settle for the position of your Third Lady.”

  By so saying, she succeeded in arousing Chou Hsiu’s interest, and he proceeded to dispatch his servants Chang Sheng and Li An to Dame Wang’s place with two handkerchiefs and two mace of silver to look her over. Sure enough, they found her to be an exceptionally attractive woman. Dame Wang informed them at the outset that the First Lady from her former household demanded the sum of a hundred taels of silver for her. Chang Sheng and Li An bargained with her for what seemed like half a day and raised their offer to as much as eighty taels, but Dame Wang still refused to accept it. When they reported this to Chou Hsiu, he agreed to put up an additional five taels and sent the two of them back with the silver in hand to continue their bargaining with Dame Wang. Dame Wang, however, persisted in alleging that the First Lady would not settle for anything less than a hundred taels for herself, and that although her fee as the go-between might be negotiable:

  Heaven would hardly condone letting her go

  unrewarded for her pains.

  Chang Sheng and Li An had no alternative but to take the silver back with them and report the situation to Chou Hsiu.

  He let the matter drop for two days but could not withstand the weeping and wailing of Ch’un-mei, who said to him at night, “If you would only offer a few more taels of silver, for better or for worse, and contrive to marry her so that we can be together again:

  I’d be prepared to die if I must.”

  Dame Wang Craves Wealth and Ignores the Consequences

/>   When Chou Hsiu saw that Ch’un-mei continued to do nothing but weep bitterly, he felt compelled, once again, to direct his senior servant Chou Chung, along with Chang Sheng and Li An, to take the silver in a felt bag and open it up for Dame Wang to see. The sum offered had been increased to a full ninety taels.

  But Dame Wang responded more meretriciously than ever, saying, “If I had been willing to let her go for ninety taels, she wouldn’t be here now, for Judicial Commissioner Chang the Second would have carried her off in a sedan chair.”

  This response annoyed Chou Chung, who told Li An to put the silver back in the bag and said, “Though a three-legged toad may be nowhere to be found, a two-legged woman can be found anywhere. This inveterate whore doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. What reason do you have to mention that official Chang the Second? Do you think my master the commandant is incapable of dealing with you? It is only because that newly married secondary wife of his is constantly pressing him to do so that he wants to marry this woman. What need does he have for her that he should put up all this money?”

  “She has forced us to come back and forth two or three times,” said Li An. “The lousy old whore! She is repeating herself more and more like a parrot.”

  So saying, he took hold of Chou Chung and said, “Brother, let’s go home and report the situation to His Honor. How do you suppose she would like it if we had a jailer drag her into the yamen and give her a good taste of the squeezers?”

  Dame Wang, however, was still looking forward to the profit she expected to make off Ch’en Ching-chi and let them threaten her without saying a word in reply.

  Upon returning to his residence, they reported to Commandant Chou Hsiu, saying, “Even though we have raised our offer to ninety taels, she still refuses to accept it.”

  “In that case,” said Chou Hsiu, “tomorrow, we might as well weigh out the sum of a hundred taels and go bring her back here in a sedan chair.”