When Ch’en Ching-chi turned his head to look at him, he saw that it was an old friend of his named Yang the Elder, nicknamed the Iron Fingernail.
After the two of them had exchanged greetings, Yang the Elder said, “Brother, I haven’t seen you for some time. Where have you been?”
Ch’en Ching-chi told him all about his trip to the Eastern Capital and his father’s death and then said, “That woman who was slain recently was a concubine of my father-in-law’s, whose maiden name was P’an. I didn’t know that she had been murdered. It was only on reading that placard just now that I found out about it.”
“It was her brother-in-law Wu Sung who did it,” explained Yang the Elder. “He had been serving a term in military exile but was able to return home as the result of a general amnesty. I don’t know why he murdered the woman and also refused to let Dame Wang off. He has a young niece who was supported for the last three or four years by my maternal Uncle Yao the Second. The other day, when her uncle committed those murders and disappeared, who knows where, my uncle recovered the girl from the district yamen, and he is planning to look for someone he can marry her to. Right now, those two corpses have been buried in their temporary graves for some time and are a source of distress to the local constable and the head of the relevant mutual security unit, who don’t know on what day, month, and year the culprit Wu Sung will be arrested.”
When he had finished speaking, Yang the Elder invited Ch’en Ching-chi to join him for a drink in the tavern, saying, “It will serve to brush off the dust from your journey.”
Ch’en Ching-chi was so distressed at heart by the death of the woman that he was unable to enjoy the wine, and after drinking a mere three cups or so, he got up, went downstairs, said good-bye, and returned home.
That evening, he bought a hundred sheets of paper money and made his way to a spot by the stone bridge, some distance from Dame Wang’s house on Amethyst Street, and addressed the woman, saying, “Sister Six, née P’an, I, your younger brother Ch’en Ching-chi, am burning a hundred sheets of paper money on your behalf today. It is all because I arrived back a step too late that you forfeited your life.
Ch’en Ching-chi Moved by the Past Sacrifices to Chin-lien
While alive you were a human being;
Once dead you have become a spirit.6
Allow me to assure you that I will apprehend your enemy Wu Sung in order to:
Avenge your wrong and assuage your resentment.
Only when I see him dismembered on the execution ground will my aspirations of a lifetime be fulfilled.”
When he had finished speaking, he wept and then burned the paper money on her behalf.
Upon returning home, Ch’en Ching-chi shut the door, entered his bedroom, and went to bed, whereupon:
Seemingly asleep yet not asleep,
Chin-lien appeared to him in a dream, dressed all in white, with her entire body covered with blood, and wept before him, saying, “My brother, I died a gruesome death. I had hoped that I would be able to spend the rest of my life with you, but unexpectedly you failed to show up, and I was murdered by that rascal Wu Sung. At present, the Underworld will not admit me, so that, by day, I can only:
Drift aimlessly about;7
and, by night, I have to scrounge around everywhere in search of offerings made to the deceased. Just now, I received the hundred sheets of paper money that you burned for me, but that enemy of mine has not yet been apprehended, and my corpse is lying in a temporary grave on the street. If you are still moved by our old feelings for each other, you might buy a coffin, put my corpse into it, and see that I am properly buried, so that I will not have to lie there exposed for days on end.”
Ch’en Ching-chi wept on hearing this and said, “My sister, needless to say, I would like to see you properly buried. But I am afraid that my mother-in-law, that bitch who is utterly devoid of benevolence or righteousness from the Hsi-men Ch’ing household, who has it in for me, would seize upon this pretext to do me harm. Sister, what you ought to do is go to the residence of Commandant Chou Hsiu, and ask Ch’un-mei to see if she can take care of having you properly buried.”
“I have just been to the commandant’s residence,” the woman said, “but:
The Gate God and the Portal Sentinel,8
blocked my way and would not let me in. I will have to go back and plead with them again however long it may take.”
Ch’en Ching-chi wept on hearing this and reached out to take hold of her and discuss the problem further when he was assailed by the stench of blood from her body as she extricated herself from his grasp and disappeared. It turned out to be but:
A dream of the Southern Branch.
As he lay awake on his pillow he heard the watchman’s drum sound the second period of the third watch and said to himself, “How uncanny! Just now, I clearly saw Sister Six in a dream. She shared her innermost feelings with me and asked me to take care of giving her a proper burial; but we don’t know:
On what day of what year,9
Wu Sung will be apprehended. It’s really distressing.”
Truly:
Beset by limitless sorrow, communicated
in a dream;
He sits alone in an empty room, weeping
until dawn.
We will say no more for the moment about how Ch’en Ching-chi sought for information about the whereabouts of Wu Sung.
To resume our story, the authorities in the district yamen spent more than two months trying to locate and arrest Wu Sung but failed to apprehend him. Only then did they learn that he had fled to join the band of outlaws in Liang-shan Marsh. When the local constable, the head of the relevant mutual security unit, and the neighbors reported this to the authorities, it was decided that it would be appropriate to empower the relatives of the deceased to remove their bodies for burial. Dame Wang’s corpse was duly taken away and buried by her son Wang Ch’ao; but there was no one to take charge of P’an Chin-lien’s cadaver.
To resume our story, in the meantime, Ch’un-mei in Commandant Chou Hsiu’s residence had been sending Chang Sheng and Li An to the district yamen every two or three days to find out if there was any news about the situation; and they had been reporting back that the culprit had not yet been apprehended, that the bodies of the victims were still temporarily interred under the surveillance of the local constable, and that under the circumstances no one would dare to remove them. This situation continued until some time in the first ten days of the first month of the following year.
Unexpectedly, one evening, Ch’un-mei had a dream in which Chin-lien appeared to her:
In an illusory and hallucinatory manner;10
With her cloud-shaped chignon disheveled,
And her entire figure covered with blood;
and called out to her, saying, “Young lady P’ang, my good sister, I died a gruesome death. I have been unable to come and see you, having been prevented by the Gate Gods who shouted so fiercely at me that I did not dare try to come in. At present, my nemesis Wu Sung has managed to escape, and my corpse has been exposed in the street for a long time:
Blown by the wind, drenched by the rain,11
And stepped on by the chickens and dogs,
with no one to bury it. Since I am without any relatives to look to, if you can remember our former feelings for each other, like those between mother and daughter, bring yourself to purchase a coffin for me, and see to my burial:
Although I will be dead in the Underworld,
I will be able to close my mouth and eyes.”
When she had finished speaking, she wept unceasingly. Ch’un-mei attempted to take hold of her, wishing to question her further, but she extricated herself from her grasp and disappeared, leaving Ch’un-mei to wake up and find that it was merely:
A dream of the Southern Branch.
Upon wakening from her dream in tears, she was:
Hesitant and uncertain what to do.12
The next day, she called in Chang Sheng and Li
An and directed them, saying, “The two of you go to the front of the district yamen and see whether the corpses of that woman and Dame Wang are still buried there, or not.”
Chang Sheng and Li An accepted her instructions and set off on their errand.
Before long, they returned and reported, “The perpetrator of their murders is still at large. It is not convenient for the local officials to continue keeping watch over the corpses any longer, so they have empowered the relatives of the victims to remove their corpses and bury them. The corpse of Dame Wang has been removed by her son, but no one has come forward to take charge of the other woman’s corpse, which is still buried there on the street.”
Ch’un-mei said to them, “In that case, there is something I would like to ask the two of you to do for me, for which I will see that you are amply rewarded.”
The two of them knelt down and said, “Mistress, how can you say such a thing? If you are willing to put in a good word for us with the master, that will be more than sufficient.
Though we should have to go through fire and water,
we would not refuse your request.”
Ch’un-mei went into her room and came out with ten taels of silver and two bolts of muslin, which she turned over to the two of them, saying, “This murdered woman is actually a sister of mine, who married into Hsi-men Ch’ing’s household but has been murdered upon leaving it. I would like the two of you, without informing the master, to take this silver, purchase a coffin with it, see that her corpse is encoffined, and then carry it outside the city and take care of burying it properly in some convenient spot. If you do so, I will see that you are amply rewarded.”
The two of them responded, “That’s no problem. We will do what you ask.”
But Li An said, “I’m only afraid that the authorities in the district yamen will not let the two of us remove the corpse. It would be preferable if we could give them a note from the master authorizing our request.”
Chang Sheng responded, “If we simply tell them that our mistress is a younger sister of the deceased who married into the Hsi-men household, the authorities in the yamen will not dare not to comply with our request. What need is there for a note?”
P’ang Ch’un-mei Appeals to Chang Sheng to Bury Her Corpse
Thereupon, they took the silver and retired to the duty room, where Chang Sheng said to Li An, “I imagine that this murdered woman and our mistress must have lived together in the Hsi-men household and become intimate with one another. Otherwise, why should our mistress go to such pains on her behalf? I remember that when our mistress heard that this woman was dead, she did nothing but weep for two or three days and refused to eat, which disturbed our master to such an extent that he sent someone out onto the street to hire an itinerant acrobat to come in and try to entertain her, but her sorrow remained unassuaged. So, today, when there are no relatives to take possession of her corpse, how could our mistress fail to take care of having it decently buried? If we are able to carry this task out successfully, she is bound, sooner or later, to speak to the master on our behalf. Which means she will turn out to be our lucky star. At present, the master pays heed to everything she says and is:
Obedient to her every whim,
while our First Mistress and Second Mistress have had to take a back seat.”
When they had finished speaking, the two of them took the silver they had been provided with, went to the district yamen, and submitted a formal request that they be authorized to remove the corpse, explaining that their mistress, a member of His Honor Chou Hsiu’s household, was the younger sister of the deceased and had entrusted them with this task. They then spent six taels of silver on the construction of a coffin, disinterred the woman’s cadaver, replaced her heart and entrails in her abdominal cavity, employed thread to reattach her head to her body, wrapped the corpse in a shroud, and placed it in the coffin.
Chang Sheng then said, “We might as well take her out to be buried at the Temple of Eternal Felicity, our master’s family temple outside the South Gate, where there are empty grounds available, and then report back to our mistress.”
They then hired two men to carry the coffin out to the Temple of Eternal Felicity, where they explained to the abbot, Tao-chien, that the corpse was that of a relative of their mistress. The abbot, who did not dare to be remiss, chose a spot for the burial behind the temple, under a hollow-trunked white poplar tree.
Once the burial was completed, they returned home and reported to Ch’un-mei, saying, “There are still four taels of silver left over after buying a coffin and placing her corpse in the casket, which we hereby return to you.”
“I have put the two of you to a lot of trouble,” responded Ch’un-mei. “You should give two of the four remaining taels to Abbot Tao-chien, and ask him to arrange for the recitation of Buddhist sutras and litanies of repentance in order to ensure her rebirth in Heaven.”
She then presented them with a large flagon of wine, a leg of pork, and a leg of lamb and said, “As for these two remaining taels of silver, each of you should take one of them home with you to help with your household expenses.”
The two of them knelt down before her and refused to accept what she had offered, saying, “Mistress, if you will only put in a good word for us with the master, we will be more than adequately compensated. How could we accept payment in silver for such a meager accomplishment?”
“If I offer you a reward and you refuse to accept it,” said Ch’un-mei, “you will only make me angry.”
The two of them, consequently, felt obliged to kowtow to her and accept what she had offered before leaving her presence. As they drank the wine they had been given in the duty room, they expressed great appreciation for their young mistress.
The next day, Chang Sheng went to deliver the silver to Abbot Tao-chien and arrange for the scripture recitations. Ch’un-mei also spent five mace of silver to purchase paper money to burn on Chin-lien’s behalf. But no more of this.
To resume our story, Ch’en Ting had conducted the coffin of Ch’en Ching-chi’s deceased father, Ch’en Hung, and his dependents from the Eastern Capital to the outskirts of Ch’ing-ho district, where they proceeded to store the coffin temporarily in the Temple of Eternal Felicity until they could make the arrangements for scripture recitations, funeral rites, and the burial ceremony.
When Ch’en Ching-chi, who was living in the family home, heard that his mother, née Chang, their servants, and the carts with their belongings had arrived, and that his father’s coffin had been placed in storage at the Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the city, he proceeded to bring in the luggage, before kowtowing to his mother.
His mother was annoyed and asked him, “Why did you not come to meet me?”
Ch’en Ching-chi merely replied that he was depressed, on the one hand, and that there was no one to look after the place.
His mother then asked, “Why is your uncle not to be seen?”
To which he replied, “On hearing that you were coming home, he promptly moved out and returned to his own place.”
“You should have told your uncle to stay a while,” his mother said. “What need was there for him to move out so fast?”
Soon thereafter, his uncle, Militia Commander Chang Kuan, came to see his elder sister, and the two of them:
Embraced each other by the neck and wept.13
Wine was served and they proceeded to chat together, but there is no need to describe this in detail.
The next day, his mother sent Ch’en Ching-chi to deliver five taels of silver and several packets of paper money to Abbot Tao-chien at the temple outside the city gate, so he could arrange a scripture recitation on behalf of his deceased father. As he was riding his donkey along the street, he ran into two friends of his named Lu the Second and Yang the Elder and dismounted in order to greet them.
“Brother, where are you going?” the two of them asked.
Ch’en Ching-chi explained his errand, saying, “My deceased father’s coffi
n is in temporary storage at a temple outside the city gate. Tomorrow, the twentieth, is the time for the final weekly commemoration of his death, and my mother has sent me to deliver some silver to the abbot so he can arrange for a funeral ceremony and scripture recitation on his behalf.”
“The two of us did not know that your father’s coffin had arrived,” they responded. “We have been remiss in offering our condolences.”
They then went on to ask, “When will the funeral procession and the burial ceremony take place?”
“They will take place in another day or two,” said Ch’en Ching-chi. “After the scripture recitation has been held, he will be put to rest in the grave.”
When they had finished their conversation, the two of them raised their hands in a gesture of farewell and started to leave, but Ch’en Ching-chi called them back and asked Yang the Elder, “How is it that the cadaver of my father-in-law’s concubine, née P’an, that was temporarily interred in front of the district yamen is no longer to be seen? Who has taken it away?”
“About a fortnight ago,” said Yang the Elder, “because the local authorities had not been able to apprehend Wu Sung, they petitioned the district magistrate to allow the relatives of the deceased to take their corpses away for burial. Dame Wang’s cadaver was taken away by her son, but the body of the other woman was left where it was for another three or four days. In the end, someone from the household of Commandant Chou Hsiu of the Regional Military Command purchased a coffin and sent people to carry the bier outside the city and bury it on the grounds of the Temple of Eternal Felicity.”
When Ch’en Ching-chi heard this, he realized that it must have been Ch’un-mei, who was now a member of the commandant’s household, who had arranged for the burial of the body.
He then turned to Lu the Second and asked, “How many Temples of Eternal Felicity are there outside the city wall?”
“There is only the one Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the South Gate,” replied Lu the Second. “It is the family temple of His Honor Chou Hsiu. How could there be more than one temple of that name?”
The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei Page 26