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

by Roy, David Tod

Old Mother T’ao responded by saying, “As for me:

  If I did not have a reason to do so, I would not

  visit the Hall of the Three Treasures.9

  I have come at the behest of the son of the district magistrate, who asked me to respectfully report that there is a lady in your household who wishes to be married, and to propose a match with her.”

  “Even if there were a lady in the household who wished to be married,” responded Yüeh-niang, “no word of this has been noised abroad, so how did the young squire find out about it?”

  “The young squire told me,” reported Old Mother T’ao, “that on the day of the Ch’ing-ming Festival, out in the suburbs, he had observed the lady in question with his own eyes, and seen that she had a tall and slender figure, and a face shaped like a melon seed, and that there were a few inconspicuous white pockmarks on her face. That is the lady he is interested in.”

  When Yüeh-niang heard this, needless to say, she realized that he was referring to Meng Yü-lou.

  Thereupon, she ushered Old Mother T’ao over to Meng Yü-lou’s quarters, where they sat down in the parlor, and waited for some time before Meng Yü-lou, after performing her ablutions and putting on her makeup, came out to receive them.

  Old Mother T’ao greeted her with a bow and said, “So this is the lady in question. Sure enough:

  The story is not untrue.

  Her caliber is outstanding,10

  Without peer in this world.

  She is clearly fit to be the legitimate wife of the young squire. Just look:

  If scanned from top to bottom,

  Her glamour is incomparable;

  If surveyed from head to foot,

  Her glamour runs downward apace.”

  Meng Yü-lou laughed at this and said, “Mother, don’t talk such nonsense. Just tell us the present age of the young squire, whether he is married or not, whether he has any concubines at his disposal, what his name is, the location of his native place, and whether he holds any official position or not. Be sure to tell us only the truth, without lying about anything.”

  “My Heavens,” protested Old Mother T’ao, “I am the go-between officially appointed by the district magistrate and am not given to lying like the others may do.

  If I’ve got a sentence,

  I’ll say that sentence,

  without any falsification. His Honor the district magistrate is more than fifty years old, and the young squire in question is his only offspring. He was born on the twenty-third day of the first month at eight o’clock in the morning during the year of the horse, so this year he is thirty years old. He is currently enrolled in the Superior College of the National University and is destined soon to become a provincial graduate or a holder of the chin-shih degree. He not only:

  Commands a bellyful of literature,11

  but is also:

  Adept at archery and horsemanship.12

  As for the works of the hundred schools, there is little that he has not mastered. His wife died some two years ago, so all he has at his disposal now is a maidservant who entered his household as part of his wife’s dowry and doesn’t amount to anything. That is why he is looking for a wife to take charge of his household but has not so far found one of:

  Appropriate social and economic standing.13

  That is why I have respectfully come here to propose a match on his behalf. I have been promised that if the marriage is successfully arranged, I will no longer be required to report for duty at the district yamen and will receive a substantial reward to boot. If the mistress of your household agrees to this match, His Honor has also promised that in the future the household will be relieved of any requirements for corvée labor, or land taxes on your family graveyard; and that if anyone should try to take advantage of you, all you need do is report it, and he will have the culprit arrested and subjected to punishment before the bench.”

  Meng Yü-lou responded by asking, “Does the young squire have any male or female children, and where is his native place? I fear that when his father’s term of office expires, I may be made to traverse:

  A thousand mountains and a myriad streams.

  My relatives are all here, but I would probably have to leave them behind in order to accompany him.”

  “The young squire has fathered no male or female children,” responded Old Mother T’ao. “He is quite companionless. He is a native of Tsao-ch’iang district in Chen-ting prefecture in the vicinity of the Northern Capital, which is no more than six or seven hundred li north of the Yellow River. The wealth of his household is such that:

  The paths run crisscross between the fields,

  The mules and horses compose teeming herds,

  And the male dependents are without number.

  The memorial arches spanning the horse path,

  bear placards inscribed by the grand coordinator and the regional investigating censor, with an inscription by the Emperor himself standing above them all. It is all:

  Resplendent enough to impress anyone.

  Now if he should succeed in taking you into his household as his legitimate wife, and go on to obtain an appointment as an official in the future, you would then be entitled to receive a patent of nobility inscribed on patterned damask, to ride in a carriage embellished with seven aromatic spices, and to be addressed by the honorific title of lady. Is that not an appealing prospect?”

  Meng Yü-lou was so impressed by this single speech of Old Mother T’ao’s that she expressed herself to be:

  Willing a thousand times if not ten thousand times.

  She then summoned her maidservant Lan-hsiang and had her set up a table and provide tea and snacks for the go-between, saying, “Please don’t take offense at the fact that I have insisted on asking so many questions, but the number of you go-betweens who resort to telling falsehoods is extremely great. You start out by eloquently describing things as if:

  A flurry of flowers were descending from Heaven,14

  Or golden lotuses were bursting from the ground;15

  but when they are concluded, they don’t amount to anything at all. I have, myself, had the experience of being grievously deceived.”

  “My good lady,” protested Old Mother T’ao, “you must evaluate each case individually.

  The clear is ever clear,

  The turbid ever turbid.

  The reputation of the good is often damaged by the bad. I do not purvey falsehoods but try my best as a matchmaker to bring about good matches for people. If you agree to accept the proposal, give me a card stating the year, month, day, and hour of your birth, so I can report back to the young squire with it.”

  Meng Yü-lou, accordingly, got out a piece of scarlet silk and had Tai-an take it out to Manager Fu Ming in the shop upfront so he could inscribe it with the eight characters that determined her horoscope.

  Wu Yüeh-niang then said to her, “Originally, it was Auntie Hsüeh who arranged your marriage into the household. At present, it would be appropriate to send a page boy to summon Auntie Hsüeh, so the two go-betweens can proceed together to deliver the card with your vital statistics, and arrange the match between you.”

  Shortly thereafter, they sent Tai-an to summon Auntie Hsüeh, and when she saw Old Mother T’ao, she greeted her with a bow, in the way that:

  Fellow professionals acknowledge each other;

  and the two of them set out together with the card in hand, going out the gate of Hsi-men Ch’ing’s residence and heading for the district yamen in order to report back to the young squire.

  One of them was the matchmaker

  from this side;

  The other was the go-between

  from that side.

  With their two mouths, they had a total of

  forty-eight teeth between them.

  On this mission, they could be counted on to boast that:

  The Goddess in the Moon, Ch’ang-o,16

  is looking for a mate;

  The Goddess of Witch’s Mountain17

 
is wedding King Hsiang.18

  As they went their way, Old Mother T’ao asked Auntie Hsüeh, “So you were the original go-between for this lady, were you?”

  “That’s right, I was,” replied Auntie Hsüeh.

  “Originally,” asked Old Mother T’ao, “what family was she a daughter of, and was this marriage that you arranged for her a second marriage?”

  Auntie Hsüeh responded by giving her a full account, word for word, of how Hsi-men Ch’ing had originally married her as a widow from the Yang family.

  Old Mother T’ao, on noticing that the card with the eight characters that determined her horoscope stated that she was a thirty-six-year-old woman who was born at 12:00 A.M. on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, said, “I fear that the young squire may consider her to be too old for him. What are we to do about that? He is only thirty years old at present, so she is six years older than he is.”

  “Let’s take this card,” responded Auntie Hsüeh, “and show it to a fortune-teller along the way, so he can calculate whether her horoscope presents any obstacles or not. If there are any problems with it, we would not be overstepping the bounds if we were to make her out to be a few years younger than she is.”

  As they continued on their way, they did not encounter any itinerant fortune-tellers sounding their clappers in the street, but in the distance,

  on the south side of the road, they saw a fortune-telling booth of blue cotton fabric, on which there were displayed two columns of large characters that read:

  Tzu-p’ing19 will predict your fate,

  be it noble or base;

  The iron brush will determine your

  success or failure.

  Whoever should come to have their

  fortunes foretold;

  Will be dealt the truth without

  any prevarication.

  Within the booth a table had been set up, behind which there sat a practitioner who was:

  Adept at calligraphy and quick at calculation,

  named Master Ling. The two go-betweens approached him and bowed in greeting, at which he asked them to be seated.

  Auntie Hsüeh addressed him, saying, “We would trouble you, sir, to calculate the fortune of a certain woman for us.”

  She then reached into her sleeve and pulled out three coins in lieu of a fee, saying, “Pray don’t disdain this meager sum, but deign to accept it for the time being. We happened to be passing by and did not have any more money with us.”

  “If this relates to a marriage proposal,” said Master Ling, “tell me the eight characters that designate the horoscope of the person in question.”

  Old Mother T’ao then handed him the card with this information on it, so he could evaluate her age and the eight characters of her horoscope.

  Master Ling said, “So this does concern a marriage proposal.”

  He then:

  Calculated on the joints of his fingers,

  gave his abacus a shake, and proceeded to pronounce, “The horoscope for this woman indicates that she is thirty-six-years-old at the present time, and that she was born at 12:00 A.M. on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month; that is to say, in a chia-tzu year, in a ping-tzu month,20 on a hsin-mao day, during the keng-tzu hour, which calls for the analysis of the horoscopic category ‘seal ribbon.’21 Working backwards, as one does with female horoscopes, she is now in the ‘decennial period of fate’ designated by the combination ping-shen. When the stems ping and hsin occur in the same horoscope, it indicates that in the future she is sure to hold a position of authority and enjoy the prestige of a principal wife. In the ‘four pillars’ of her horoscope the ‘husband star’ occurs more than once. Although this prosperous portent indicates that she is fated to benefit her husband, gain wealth, and enjoy her husband’s favor, eventually she is sure to suffer some adversities. Has she met with any such setbacks, or not?”

  “She has already lost two husbands,” responded Auntie Hsüeh.

  “If that is so,” continued Master Ling, “in the future she will find a husband who was born in the year of the horse.”

  “Will she bear any sons in the future?” asked Auntie Hsüeh.

  “Her horoscope indicates,” said Master Ling, “that it will not be until she is forty-years-old that she will bear an only son to support her in her old age. She will be blessed with good fortune for the rest of her life, and enjoy incomparable wealth and honor, glory and luxury.”

  Taking up a brush, he then proceeded to compose a poem of eight lines about her future prospects, which read as follows:

  The time when flowers and fruits have bloomed

  and been harvested is noteworthy;

  She is delighted to marry a husband with the

  prospect of attaining high office.

  Her seductive appearance has lost nothing of

  the loveliness of the river plum;

  She will doff her bridal veil thrice and let

  two husbands paint her eyebrows.22

  Holding each other’s hands, they will embark

  along the way to the jade palace;

  Hiding her bashfulness, she will undertake to

  proffer the golden wedding goblet.

  Looking forward to the day when the horse’s

  head will ascend into the heavens;

  She will consent to abandon the tiger’s skin

  so she can opt for something better.

  Auntie Hsüeh questioned him, saying, “Sir, what is the meaning of the two lines:

  Looking forward to the day when the horse’s

  head will ascend into the heavens;

  She will consent to abandon the tiger’s skin

  so she can opt for something better?

  We don’t understand their significance. Pray be good enough to explain them to us.”

  “As for the horse’s head,” said Master Ling, “the lady in question is about to marry a husband who was born in the year of the horse, which is an auspicious star in her horoscope, indicating that she is fated to:

  Enjoy a life of glory and luxury.23

  The tiger’s skin refers to her deceased husband who was born in the year of the tiger. Although he did care for her, she was only a concubine in his household. In the future, her husband will have a successful career, and she will live to the age of sixty-seven, with a son to look after her, before her life comes to an end.

  Husband and wife will grow old together.”24

  The two go-betweens, upon receiving this statement of her prospects, went on to say, “It is true that the man she hopes to marry was born in the year of the horse, but we fear that the match may be rejected on the grounds that she is too old for him. It would look better if you could alter the horoscope to make her two years younger than she is.”

  “If you want to change it,” Master Ling responded, “I’ll alter the year of her birth from chia-tzu to ting-mao, which would make her out to be thirty-three years old.”25

  Auntie Hsüeh went on to ask, “Will this alteration of her horoscope accord with that of someone born in the year of the horse, or not?”

  Master Ling responded, “The stem ting is associated with the element fire, and the stem keng is associated with the element metal. When fire is employed to smelt metal a superior vessel may be produced. It should be propitious.”

  Thereupon, he altered the horoscope to make her thirty-three years old, and the two go-betweens took their leave, exited the fortune-telling booth, and headed straight for the district yamen.

  The young squire was sitting inside at the time, and the gate-keeper went in to announce their arrival. After a time, the two go-betweens were summoned before him, knelt down on the ground, and kowtowed.

  “Where does that other woman come from?” the young squire inquired.

  “She is the go-between who negotiated her former marriage,” replied Old Mother T’ao.

  She then proceeded to recount the progress they had made, saying, “The lady in question is a person of incomparable cali
ber, but she is a little older than you are, and I did not have the presumption to act on my own. In order to let Your Honor decide, I have acquired a card with her horoscope for your perusal.”

  So saying, she handed the card to him.

  When the young squire, Li Kung-pi, saw that it stated that she was thirty-three years old and was born at 12:00 A.M. on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, he said, “It doesn’t matter if she is two or three years older than I am.”

  “Your Honor is an experienced observer,” interjected Auntie Hsüeh. “It has always been true that:

  When the wife is two years older,

  Yellow gold never molders;

  When the wife is three years older,

  Yellow gold piles up like boulders.

  As for this lady:

  Her caliber is outstanding.

  She is:

  Good-natured and agreeable in disposition;

  and as for her familiarity with the works of the hundred schools, and the ability to take charge of a household:

  That naturally goes without saying.”26

  “If she’s as good as all that,” the young squire responded, “and I’ve already had a chance to look her over, there’s no need to arrange a formal viewing. We can have the yin-yang master select a propitious day and hour for the wedding, and go to her place to perform the tea-presentation ceremony.”27

  The two go-betweens asked, “When shall we come back to receive your instructions?”

  “There is no reason to delay,” the young squire replied. “The two of you can come back to check with me tomorrow, and then return to her place to settle matters.”

  He then instructed his attendants, saying, “Give each of them a tael of silver as a reward for their efforts.”

  The two go-betweens were pleased at this and went happily on their way. But no more of this.

  When the young squire, Li Kung-pi, realized that the match was going to take place, he was so delighted he could scarcely contain himself and called in his friend on the yamen staff, Ho Pu-wei, to consult about it. He informed his father, District Magistrate Li Ch’ang-ch’i, of his intentions and sent for the yin-yang master, who selected the eighth day of the fourth month for the betrothal ceremony, and the fifteenth day of the month as a propitious day and hour for him to bring the bride over his threshold. He then weighed out a quantity of silver and commissioned Ho Pu-wei and Trifler Chang to purchase the tea, auspicious red ornaments, wine, and other gifts for the occasion, but there is no need to describe this in detail.