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

by Roy, David Tod

  When Dame Wang heard this, all she could do was to complain bitterly to herself, saying, “What a simpleton you are! Now that you’ve told him the truth, how will I ever be able to cover up my own complicity?”

  Wu Sung, for his part, held the woman down in front of the spirit tablet with one hand, while pouring a libation with the other, and burning some paper money.

  “Elder Brother,” he said, “hear me, if your departed soul be not too far away. I, Wu the Second, will now undertake to:

  Avenge your wrong and assuage your resentment.”21

  When the woman saw that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, she was about to cry out loudly, but Wu Sung plucked up a handful of ashes from the incense burner and stuffed it into her mouth, so that she was unable to utter a sound, and then roughly doubled her over on the floor. The woman struggled so violently that the fret on her hair, and her pins and earrings, rolled off onto the ground.

  Wu Sung was afraid that she might succeed in struggling free, so he kicked her in the ribs with his waxed boots and then stamped on her two arms, saying, “You whore! It is said that you’re really intelligent, but I don’t know what sort of a heart you have, so I’m going to take a look at it.”

  So saying, he pulled open her bodice with one hand, and then:

  The telling is slow, but

  What happened was quick;

  he took the dagger and cut open her pale and fragrant breast with a single slash, producing a blood-filled cavity from which fresh blood gushed out. As for the woman:

  Her starry eyes blinked half open,

  and her two feet kicked spasmodically. Holding the dagger in his teeth, Wu Sung then pulled open her breast with his two hands and, with a popping sound, tore her living heart and entrails, dripping with blood, out of the cavity, and laid them as a sacrifice before the spirit tablet. After which, with a single swipe of the dagger, he cut off her head, as a result of which:

  The flow of blood inundated the ground.22

  On seeing this from one side, Ying-erh, who was still only a young girl, was so frightened all she could do was to cover her face with her hands. It is clear that Wu Sung was truly a ruthless man, and that the woman had suffered a pitiable fate. Truly:

  So long as one has three inches of breath,

  one uses it a thousand ways;

  But when the messenger of death shows up,

  everything comes to an end.

  She was thirty-one years old at the time of her death. Behold:

  On falling into his hands, the springtime

  of her youth came to an end;

  When his dagger fell, the pink-powdered

  beauty’s life was terminated.

  Her seven material souls have floated

  into the distance,

  And have arrived at the Sen-lo Palace

  in the underworld.

  Her three ethereal souls have vanished

  into invisibility,

  And have doubtless reached the City of

  the Unjustly Dead.

  Her starry eyes are tightly closed;

  Stretched out straight, her body lies

  on the bare ground.

  Her silver teeth are half-clenched;

  Dripping with blood, her head lies

  fallen to one side.

  It is just like:

  The heavy snowfall of early spring,

  Which breaks the golden threads of

  the willow branches;

  Or the wild wind of the twelfth month,

  That blows off the jade blossoms of

  the flowering plum.

  As for this woman:

  Who knows where her alluring beauty

  has vanished to;

  Or whose home her fragrant soul has

  been reborn in?23

  A poet of yore has left us a poem lamenting the gruesome nature of Chin-lien’s death:

  The grievous destiny suffered by Chin-lien

  was certainly pitiable;

  As, stripped of her clothes, she knelt down

  before the spirit tablet.

  How could she have known that Wu Sung would

  slay her with his dagger,

  When she expected him to tie her up as Hsi-

  men did in the Grape Arbor?

  Past events tend to inspire sighs of regret,24

  though ephemeral as a dream;

  The present life is not even worth so much

  as half of a copper cash.25

  In this world, every single life must be

  repaid with another life;26

  Just retribution is clear and inescapable,27

  and occurs for all to see.

  When Dame Wang saw that Wu Sung had killed the woman, she called out in a loud voice, “A murder has been committed!”

  Upon hearing this, Wu Sung stepped forward and cut off her head as well with a single swipe of his dagger, after which he dragged her corpse to one side. He then took Chin-lien’s heart and entrails and pinned them up with his dagger under the eaves at the back of the house. By then, it was the first watch of the night, and he proceeded to lock Ying-erh into the room.

  “Uncle,” complained Ying-erh, “I’m frightened.”

  “My child,” Wu Sung responded, “there is nothing I can do for you under the circumstances.”

  Wu Sung then vaulted over the wall into Dame Wang’s house next door, intending to kill her son Wang Ch’ao; but it turned out that Wang Ch’ao was not fated to die at this juncture. Upon hearing his mother’s cry, he realized that Wu Sung was bent on wreaking havoc and tried unsuccessfully to open both the front and back doors. In a state of consternation, he ran out onto the street to find the head of the local mutual security unit. The neighbors to either side knew full well how violent and ruthless Wu Sung was, and none of them ventured to come forward.

  When Wu Sung had vaulted over the wall and entered Dame Wang’s house, he saw that, though the lanterns were lighted, nobody was present. He then proceeded to open Dame Wang’s trunks and scatter her clothing all over the floor. Of the hundred taels of silver he had paid her, she had turned over only twenty taels to Yüeh-niang, so there were eighty-five taels left over, together with a number of hairpins, earrings, and other head ornaments. Wu Sung wrapped all these things up into a bundle, picked up his sword, vaulted over the back wall, and waited until the fifth watch, when he was able to slip out through the city gate and head toward Shih-tzu P’o, where he hid out in the inn operated by Chang Ch’ing and his wife. He subsequently disguised himself as a Buddhist ascetic and went to join the band of outlaws in Liang-shan Marsh.28 Truly:

  If you do nothing in your lifetime to make people

  raise their eyebrows;

  There should be no one in the world prepared to

  gnash his teeth at you.

  If you want to know the outcome of these events,

  Pray consult the story related in the following chapter.

  Chapter 88

  P’AN CHIN-LIEN APPEARS IN A DREAM IN COMMANDANT CHOU HSIU’S HOME;

  WU YÜEH-NIANG CONTRIBUTES A GIFT TO A SUBSCRIPTION-SEEKING MONK

  Above, one is exposed to the scrutiny

  of Heaven;

  Below, one is watched by the spirits

  of the Earth.

  In the world of light there is imperial law1

  to restrain one;

  In the darkness there are ghosts and spirits

  to follow one.2

  Loyalty and uprightness should be embedded

  in one’s heart;

  Joy and anger should be governed by one’s

  vital spirits.

  It is lack of integrity that causes one

  to lose one’s home;

  It is dishonesty that results in losing

  one’s position.

  You are urged to be vigilant about this

  throughout your life;

  Lest you have cause to sigh, be alarmed,

  or become afraid.3

  THE STORY GOE
S that after Wu Sung had killed the woman and Dame Wang and taken their valuables, he went to join the band of outlaws in Liang-shan Marsh.

  To resume our story, after Wang Ch’ao ran out onto the street to look for the head of the local mutual security unit, he noticed that both the front and rear doors to Wu Sung’s house were locked, and that the valuables had been taken from Dame Wang’s house and the clothing scattered:

  Higgledy-piggledy,

  all over the floor. Upon realizing that Wu Sung had killed both women and made off with their valuables, he felt compelled to break open both the front and rear doors, only to find their two corpses dripping with blood where they lay on the floor, Chin-lien’s heart and entrails pinned up with a dagger under the eaves at the back of the house, and Ying-erh locked up inside the room. When he asked her what had happened, all she could do was to weep bitterly.

  The next day, at the early session of the court, he submitted a report to the district magistrate and laid the dagger that had been used as the murder weapon before him. The newly appointed district magistrate was named Li Ch’ang-ch’i and was a native of Tsao-ch’iang district in Chen-ting prefecture of Hopei province. On hearing that it was a case of homicide, he promptly deputed the docket officer on duty to round up the neighbors, the head of the local mutual security unit, and the family members of the victims, Wang Ch’ao and Ying-erh, so that the corpses could be carried out into the street for all to see while a formal inquest was performed as the law required. It was determined that the two victims, P’an Chin-lien and Dame Wang, had been murdered by Wu Sung in a fit of drunken rage, and this tentative conclusion was:

  Duly drawn up as a file on the case.4

  The local constable and the head of the relevant mutual security unit were ordered to arrange for the temporary interment of the two bodies and to keep watch over them. Public placards describing the fugitive were hung up announcing that officers were being deputed to pursue the culprit Wu Sung in all directions, and that a reward of fifty taels of silver was being offered by the authorities for anyone who could provide evidence of his whereabouts.

  Meanwhile, Chang Sheng and Li An from Commandant Chou Hsiu’s residence showed up at Dame Wang’s place with a hundred taels of silver, only to find that Dame Wang and the woman had both been murdered by Wu Sung, and that the district yamen had sent people to perform an inquest on the corpses and apprehend the murderer. The two of them then returned and reported this at the commandant’s residence. When Ch’un-mei learned that Chin-lien was dead, she did nothing but weep for two or three days and refused to partake of either tea or food. This threw Commandant Chou Hsiu into such a state of consternation that he sent someone out onto the street to hire an itinerant acrobat to come in and entertain her, but her sorrow was not assuaged. He also dispatched Chang Sheng and Li An every day to find out if the culprit Wu Sung had been apprehended and report back to him. But no more of this. Let us put this strand of our narrative aside for a moment.

  To resume our story, Ch’en Ching-chi had started out for the Eastern Capital in order to get the money needed to ransom Chin-lien, with whom he had set his heart on becoming man and wife. Who could have anticipated that when he was halfway there, he should run into his family’s servant Ch’en Ting, who had set out from the Eastern Capital to tell him that his father was in a parlous state of health.

  “My mistress sent me to ask you to come home,” he said, “so she can turn over to you the responsibility for the future of the household.”

  No sooner did Ch’en Ching-chi hear these words than he set out faster than ever:

  Covering two stages in the time for one,

  and duly arrived, one day, at the house of his father’s brother-in-law, Chang Shih-lien, in the Eastern Capital.

  Chang Shih-lien had already died, so only his aunt was there, and he learned that his father, Ch’en Hung, had passed away about three days earlier, so the whole household was wearing mourning garb. Ch’en Ching-chi paid his respects before his father’s spirit tablet and kowtowed to his mother, née Chang, and his aunt, née Ch’en, the elder sister of Ch’en Hung. His mother saw that he had already reached manhood, and the two of them, mother and son, wept together and then consulted with each other about the situation.

  “Right now,” his mother said:

  “On the one hand, there is reason to be happy,

  While on the other, there is reason to be sad.”5

  Ch’en Ching-chi asked, “What reason is there to be happy, and what reason is there to be sad?”

  “The reason to be happy,” his mother responded, “is that the Emperor has designated an heir apparent to reside in the Eastern Palace, and that at the Suburban Sacrifice to Heaven on the day of the winter solstice a general amnesty has been issued to celebrate the occasion. The reason to be sad is that your father has taken ill and died unexpectedly, your uncle has also died, and your aunt is maintaining her widowhood. Under the circumstances, for us to remain living here:

  Is not a long-term solution.

  That is why I sent Ch’en Ting to summon you. If we can arrange together to take your father’s coffin back to his native place for burial, it would be a good thing.”

  When Ch’en Ching-chi heard these words:

  In his heart he thought to himself,

  “If I should have to be responsible for preparing the coffin, and loading the bulky belongings of our family and its dependents into carts for the journey, it is bound, at the very least, to hold me up for a considerable period of time and cause me to miss out on this opportunity to marry Sister Six. It would be better for me, thus and so, to propose setting out for home immediately with two carts loaded with trunks of valuables. It would not be too late for me then to come back and take care of my father’s coffin after marrying Sister Six.”

  He then said to his mother, “At present, the roads are beset with bandits and are hazardous to travel. If we were all to set out together, with my father’s coffin and our trunkloads of bulky household belongings loaded onto any number of carts and beasts of burden, it would be difficult to avoid arousing attention; and if we were to encounter a bunch of brigands along the way, what would we do?

  It is better to be late than to be sorry.

  I ought to set out for home right now with two carts loaded with trunks of valuables, and take care of getting the house in shape. You and Ch’en Ting, along with the other household dependents, can then accompany father’s coffin, and return home during the first month, after the New Year’s Festival is over. It will not be too late then to deposit the coffin in a temple outside the city walls, arrange a funeral ceremony and scripture recitation, and see that it is properly entombed.”

  His mother, being the woman that she was, though she ought not to have done so, allowed herself to be persuaded by Ch’en Ching-chi’s artful arguments; set out to pack two trunks with valuables; and loaded them onto two large carts that bore banners identifying them as pilgrimage vehicles. He departed from the Eastern Capital on the tenth day of the twelfth month and arrived not many days later at the gate of the family home in the Ch’ing-ho district of Shantung province.

  Upon his arrival, he told his maternal uncle Militia Commander Chang Kuan, “My father is already dead, and my mother is going to accompany the cart with his bier and should arrive sometime in the near future. I have brought two cartloads of belongings with me and have come ahead to take care of getting the house in shape and sweeping it out prior to her arrival.”

  When his maternal uncle heard this, he said, “In that case, I had better move out and return to my own home.”

  He then, forthwith, told his servants to move his belongings and vacated the premises.

  Upon seeing his maternal uncle move out, Ch’en Ching-chi was utterly delighted and said to himself:

  “At long last my enemy has been removed from my sight,

  which will enable me to marry Sister Six and enjoy her here at home to my heart’s content. Since my father is already dead, and my mot
her dotes on me, I can first divorce that whore of mine, and then lodge a formal complaint against my mother-in-law and have her haled into court in order to recover the things that my family originally entrusted to her. Under the circumstances, she is no longer in a position to say no to this demand, since the members of my family are no longer threatened with military exile.”

  Truly:

  Though men may plan to do thus and so:

  Heaven’s principles may yet deny them.

  Ch’en Ching-chi, as soon as he had succeeded in getting his maternal uncle to move out, put a hundred taels of silver into the wallet at his waist, and another ten taels into his sleeve as a gratuity for Dame Wang, and proceeded to make his way to the door of her house on Amethyst Street.

  Strange as it may seem,

  what should he see but the temporary tombs of two corpses buried on the side of the street in front of her door, with a pair of spears crisscrossed above them, and a lantern suspended from them. On the door there hung a handwritten placard that read as follows:

  Notice concerning a case of murder posted by the district yamen. The culprit, Wu Sung, has murdered the woman née P’an and Dame Wang. Anyone who is able to apprehend him, or provide information to the authorities, will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver.

  Ch’en Ching-chi raised his head and gazed at it for some time.

  What should he see at this juncture but two men who emerged from a temporary shelter and shouted at him, “Who are you? And why are you gazing at that placard? At present, the real culprit has not been apprehended. Who are you anyway?”

  The two of them advanced toward him in large strides as though they wished to take him into custody. Ch’en Ching-chi was thrown into such consternation by this that he fled from the scene as fast as he could go.

  As he was passing by the tavern below the stone bridge on Lion Street, he ran into someone wearing a flat-topped cap and a black jacket, who came up behind him from under the bridge and said, “Brother, you’re really foolhardy. What were you staring at back there for no good reason?”