In sorrow and distress.
Han Tao-kuo, for his part, feared that it was getting late and hired two horses to speed them on their way. Truly:
When the horse is slow and the mind beset56
the road ahead is endless;
One’s person resembles floating duckweed57
or tosses like tumbleweed.
There is only the moon as it hovers over
the gates of the capital;
That shines indifferently on the grief of
those going west and east.58
If you want to know the outcome of these events,
Pray consult the story related in the following chapter.
Chapter 100
HAN AI-CHIEH SEEKS HER FATHER AND MOTHER IN HU-CHOU;
CH’AN MASTER P’U-CHING RESCUES SOULS FROM PERDITION
Some words of admonition
In this human life people should not
rely upon heroism;
Their degrees of skill at their jobs
are sure to differ.
Even fierce tigers are bound to meet
more ferocious beasts;
The most poisonous serpents are also
fearful of centipedes.
His seven captures of Meng Huo made
Chu-ko Liang famous;1
For prevailing over Kuan Yü twice
Lü Meng was admired.2
The judiciousness of Li An marked
him as a prudent man;
And enabled him to fly high and
evade his predicament.3
THE STORY GOES that when Han Tao-kuo and Wang Liu-erh returned to the Hsieh Family Tavern without their daughter, they were faced with the prospect of:
Sitting at home as their resources ran out.4
They therefore sent Ch’en the Third to invite Magnate Ho to visit them as before. When Magnate Ho found out that Liu the Second had been killed by the local authorities, so that the threat that he posed was eliminated, he came back and resumed his affair with Wang Liu-erh.
In the course of a conversation with Han Tao-kuo, he said, “Since your daughter, Han Ai-chieh, is preserving her chastity as a member of the commandant’s household, and refuses to come back, I propose that once I have sold off my shipment of merchandise, and collected what I am owed, the two of you can come with me on my return to my home in Hu-chou. That would surely be preferable to carrying on this business of yours here.”
“If you deign to be so considerate of us, sir,” responded Han Tao-kuo, “that would be wonderful.”
One day, after Magnate Ho had sold off his merchandise, and collected what was owed him, he hired a boat and set out for Hu-chou, taking Han Tao-kuo and Wang Liu-erh with him.
To resume our story, when Han Ai-chieh had settled into Chou Hsiu’s household, she and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing both remained chaste out of respect for Ch’en Ching-chi, addressed each other as sisters, and got along very well, spending their days keeping company with Ch’un-mei. At the time, Chou Chin-ko was already five years old, Sun Erh-niang’s daughter Chou Yü-chieh was nine, and the women had nothing to do but look after the children.
Who would have thought that after the death of Ch’en Ching-chi, and Chou Hsiu’s departure on his military campaign, despite the fact that every day Ch’un-mei enjoyed:
Delicacies of every variety, and
Clothes of satin and brocade;
while on her head:
What glitters is gold,
What is white is silver,
What are round are pearls,
What sparkle are jewels; and
She lacked for nothing;5
she found the nights difficult to endure:
Sleeping in solitude on her lonely pillow,6
While flames of desire consumed her heart.
She noticed that Li An was a handsome fellow and was impressed by the way in which, after the death of Chang Sheng, he had continued conscientiously to patrol the premises, both early and late.
One day, during the winter, he was on the night shift in the duty room when he heard someone knocking on the rear gate and promptly asked who it was; to which the only response was, “Just open the door.”
Li An hastily unfastened the door only to see someone force their way inside and hide out of the lamplight. When Li An took a look at the person, he saw that it was the wet nurse Chin-kuei.
“Nurse,” said Li An, “what are you doing here at such an hour?”
“I have not come on my own initiative,” said Chin-kuei. “It is my mistress in the rear compound who sent me here.”
“What did the mistress send you here for?” asked Li An.
Chin-kuei laughed, saying, “You wouldn’t understand it. She wanted me to see if you had gone to sleep or not, and entrusted me with something to give to you.”
So saying, she pulled a bag of clothing off her shoulder and said, “These are for you, and this bag also contains some women’s clothing for your mother. The mistress feels much indebted to you for escorting His Honor’s cartloads of luggage on the way home, and for saving her life. If it had not been for you, she also would have been slain by that rascal Chang Sheng.”
When she had finished speaking, she left the clothes behind and went out the door.
After going only two steps, she turned around and said, “There is another item of importance.”
So saying, she pulled out a large ingot of silver weighing fifty taels and tossed it to Li An, after which she continued on her way. The rest of the night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, Li An got up and went straight to his home, taking the clothes with him to give to his mother.
“Where did these things come from?” his mother asked.
Li An told her what had happened the night before; but when she had heard him out, his mother became upset and said, “At the outset, Chang Sheng committed a crime, for which she had him beaten to death with a hundred strokes of the bamboo. What could there be behind her giving you these things today? I am already more than sixty years old at present, and since the death of your father, you are the only person I have left to look to. If you do something that gets you into trouble, who would there be for me to depend on? You had better not go back there tomorrow morning.”
“If I don’t return,” said Li An, “and she should send someone to fetch me, what will you have to say?”
“I will just tell them that you have come down with a severe cold,” his mother said.
“If I should end up not returning,” said Li An, “wouldn’t that serve to make His Honor annoyed with me?”
“You might as well go visit your uncle the Shantung Yaksha Li Kuei,” said his mother. “After staying there for a few months, you can come back to check out the situation.”
Li An, who was both a filial and obedient son, opted to take his mother’s suggestion and proceeded to pack up his luggage and set out for Ch’ing-chou prefecture in order to seek refuge with his uncle Li Kuei.
When Ch’un-mei saw that Li An had not returned, she sent a junior servant to summon him on three or five occasions. At first, his mother said that he was at home recuperating from an illness, but when she saw that people came back to check on the situation, she explained that he had returned to his native place to try to make a living. Ch’un-mei suffered heartfelt frustration at this news. But no more of this.
Time flies by swiftly;7
The sun and moon shoot back and forth like shuttles.8
The twelfth month ended and spring began,
During the primal decade of the first month.
Commander-general Chou Hsiu, at the head of his twelve thousand troops, had been encamped at Tung-ch’ang prefecture for some time, when he sent his servant Chou Chung to deliver a letter to his family, directing them to send Ch’un-mei and Sun Erh-niang to join him there, along with his children Chin-ko and Yü-chieh. When his dependents were ready to get into their carts and set out, they left only Chou Chung behind, having instructed him to go and invite Chou
Hsiu’s cousin Chou Hsüan to leave his country estate and come to look after the household during their absence.
It so happens that Commander-general Chou Hsiu had a cousin named Chou Hsüan who lived on his country estate, and who agreed to join Chou Chung in looking after the household along with Ko Ts’ui-p’ing and Han Ai-chieh, while Chou Jen and a contingent of military guards escorted the vehicles of the other family members on their way to Tung-ch’ang prefecture. With regard to this trip, truly:
It was not to save their lives or reputations
that they left their home;
But how could they have known how few persons
survive such expeditions?
There is a set of verses that describes the heroic leadership of Commander-general Chou Hsiu. At this time, when the Central Plain was in a state of turmoil, it was his ambition to overcome the barbarians. Behold:
In all four quarters bandits arise
like swarming bees;
The flames of beacon fires flare up
turning the sky red.
A display of the general’s wrath may
pacify the realm;
Sweeping away the barbarians, and
making them submit.
He has long chosen to prefer public
over private interests;
And pledged his life to his country
as if it were not his.
His dagger-axe can shroud the sun
to aid him in battle;
He is able to win the first place
in the Hall of Fame.
Beyond the Yen-men Pass the autumn
wind is tempestuous;
Clad in metal armor he must sleep
under the cold moon.
He has forced his steed to sweat
for twenty years;
Only to achieve streaks of snowy
white in his hair.
The Son of Heaven sees his worth
from miles away;
And has rewarded his efforts with
praise repeatedly.
A golden seal hangs at his elbow,
as big as a dipper;
As surely befits a hero of such
imposing stature.9
One day, under the supervision of Chou Jen, the vehicles that were carrying Chou Hsiu’s dependents arrived in Tung-ch’ang. When the commander-general saw that Ch’un-mei, Sun Erh-niang, Chin-ko, and Yü-chieh, along with their attendants, had arrived, and that:
Their journey had been a safe one,10
he was utterly delighted and arranged for them to be housed in the rear compound of his headquarters.
Chou Jen told him, “I invited your cousin Chou Hsüan from your country estate to come and look after your household, along with my father Chou Chung.”
Commander-general Chou Hsiu also asked, “Why is Li An nowhere to be seen?”
“Why bring up the subject of Li An?” Ch’un-mei expostulated. “Because I was feeling grateful to that rascal for apprehending Chang Sheng, I gave him two sets of clothes for his mother to wear. But that evening, while patrolling the premises, he went into the rear compound and made off with a package of fifty taels worth of rental income from your country estate that was lying on a table in the parlor. I sent servants to his mother’s place to summon him a number of times, but he claimed to be sick and failed to return. And the last time I sent someone after him, he was told that he had absconded to his native place in Ch’ing-chou.”
“That rascal,” responded Chou Hsiu. “I had always treated him favorably, and he has turned out to be as ungrateful as that. When I have the time, I will send people there to arrest him.”
Ch’un-mei chose not to mention anything about the affair of Han Ai-chieh. After some time had passed, Ch’un-mei observed that Chou Hsiu was preoccupied every day with military affairs and was utterly devoted to serving the national interest on the Emperor’s behalf:
Straining his heart and taxing his mind,11
while not even taking the time to eat during the day. As for the gratification of sexual desires within the bed curtains, it was a long time since he had indulged in them. She observed that Chou I, the second son of the old family servant Chou Chung, was eighteen years old, possessed:
Clear-cut brows and sparkling eyes;
and was willing to:
Exchange looks with eyes and eyebrows.
Consequently, the two of them began a clandestine affair and became attached to each other.
Morning after morning and evening after evening,
the two of them played board games and drank wine together in her room, while the only person who remained unaware of what was going on was the commander-general.
Who could have anticipated that, one day, Emperor T’ai-tsung of the northern state, the Great Chin, having overcome the state of Liao, and observed that in the Eastern Capital of the Sung dynasty Emperor Ch’in-tsung had ascended the throne, assembled a powerful contingent of barbarian troops and launched a two-pronged invasion of the Central Plain. The grand marshal Nien-mo-ho led a force of one hundred thousand infantry and cavalry through the Ching-ching Pass in T’ai-yüan prefecture in an attempt to invade the Eastern Capital; while the secondary marshal Wo-li-pu led his forces from T’an-chou in an attempt to seize Kao-yang Pass. The Sung armies defending the frontier:
Proved unable to resist them.12
This information threw the minister of war Li Kang and the general-in-chief Ch’ung Shih-tao into a panic, and that very night they issued urgent military dispatches ordering the commander-generals of Shantung, Shansi, Honan, Hopei, Kuan-tung, and Shensi to muster the infantry and cavalry in their six jurisdictions, and occupy the strongholds therein, in order to defend their territories, and fend off the enemy. Consequently, Liu Yen-ch’ing, the commander-general of the Shensi region, led the forces of Yen-sui; Wang Ping, the commander-general of the Kuan-tung region, led the forces of Fen-chiang; Wang Huan, the commander-general of the Hopei region, led the forces of Wei-po; Hsin Hsing-tsung, the commander general of the Honan region, led the forces of Chang-te; Yang Wei-chung, the commander-general of the Shansi region, led the forces of Tse-lu; and Chou Hsiu, the commander-general of the Shantung region, led the forces of Ch’ing-yen against the Chin invaders.
To resume our story, when Commander-general Chou Hsiu learned that a powerful contingent of barbarian troops had come to attack the frontier, and received the urgent military dispatch from the Ministry of War, he mustered his infantry and cavalry:
Donned his complete suit of armor,13
And marched away at double stages.
By the time his mounted scouts reached the Kao-yang Pass the Chin marshal Wo-li-pu’s infantry and cavalry had already penetrated the pass and slain an enormous number of men and horses.
This happened during the first decade of the fifth month.
The armies endeavored to arrest each other; but
Yellow sand flew up in all four directions, and
The tempestuous winds blinded their vision.
Chou Hsiu led his troops into battle, but the Chin commander Wo-li-pu, while urging his cavalry forward in a counterattack, launched an arrow that buried its shaft in his neck, penetrating his throat and causing him to fall off his horse and die. The enemy officers tried to secure his corpse with hooks and cords, but his own men dashed forward, seized his body, and carried it away on horseback. The soldiers wounded in this engagement were without number. Alas, on the day that Commander-general Chou Hsiu died in battle, he was only forty-six years old. Truly:
Loyal generals exert themselves to serve
their home and country;14
But the blood of both the worthy and the
stupid stains the sand.15
A man of yore whose thoughts on this subject were inexhaustible has left us a quatrain to express his feelings, which reads:
Victory and defeat are outcomes that military
men cannot anticipate;16
Security and danger in the final analysis are
<
br /> things decided by fate.
Advancing to battle without obtaining victory
he dies before his time;17
The sun sets and the rivers flow in spite of
one’s insuperable grief.18
There is also a lyric to the tune “Partridge Sky” that reads:
A handsome hero whose aim it was to stabilize
the state and pacify the land;19
His heart was motivated by correct principles20
and the will to rout the enemy.
He was as given to planning national affairs
as dealing with family matters;
And was practiced at carrying secret tallies
and wearing tiger-head tallies.21
The barbarian cavalry was invincible,
While the prowess of his men was lax.
His troops were unwilling to risk their lives
and his officers were inept.
It was a pity that he suffered such a death
upon the sandy battlefield;
And that for untold years his heroic spirit
could not find expression.
When the grand coordinator Chang Shu-yeh saw that Commander-general Chou Hsiu had perished on the battlefield, he immediately:
Sounded the gong for his troops to retire,22
took stock of his losses, withdrew to defend Tung-ch’ang, and submitted an urgent memorial to the throne. But no more of this.
When the retreating troops carried Chou Hsiu’s corpse back to Tung-ch’ang, Ch’un-mei and her entire household, both high and low, were so upset that:
Their cries shook the heavens,
as they proceeded to encoffin the body and turn over his military credentials and official seals to the authorities. One day some time later, Ch’un-mei, along with her servant Chou Jen, took charge of the coffin and returned with it to Ch’ing-ho district. But no more of this. At this point our story divides into two.
To resume our story, ever since Ch’un-mei departed, Ko Ts’ui-p’ing and Han Ai-chieh had stayed at home, where they:
The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei Page 58