Meanwhile, Ximen Qing said to Ying Bojue: “The beastly little strumpet! She is ready enough to go and sing for others, but, when I tell her to come here, she won’t come!”
“She is a little baggage,” Bojue said. “But she is not very experienced, and does not realize what a great man you are.
“I met her at a party,” Ximen said. “I thought she talked prettily so I told her to come and sing here, the young scamp.”
“Brother,” Bojue said, “the four wenches you have here today are as fine as any of their kind.”
“But you haven’t seen Zheng Aiyue, Uncle,” Li Ming said.
“Oh, yes I have,” Bojue said. “Your father and I went and drank wine at her place one day. She was very young then. But it is some years since I last saw her, and I don’t know what she is like now.”
“The girl is well made,” Li Ming said, “but she puts on rather too much paint. She knows a few songs, but she is not half as good as Li Guijie. And what kind of a place does she imagine this house to be that she dares to refuse to come here? She ought to be grateful for the chance. She certainly does not know her luck.”
While they were talking, Hu Xiu came back. “I have been to see Master Qiao,” he said. “Now I await your orders.”
Ximen Qing asked Chen Jingji to get fifty taels from Wu Yueniang and told Huatong to write a letter and seal it. Then he ordered a soldier to start early next morning and go with Hu Xiu to the customs office. “Go and see Master Qian,” he said, “and ask him to be lenient when he looks over the goods.”
Chen Jingji brought the money. It was handed to Hu Xiu, who took it with the letter and the papers connected with the payment of duty and arranged to leave the next morning.
Shortly after Hu Xiu’s departure, they could hear the shouts of men clearing the way. Ping’an came and announced the two eunuchs, Liu and Xue. Ximen put on his robes and received the two eunuchs in the great hall. When they had exchanged greetings, he invited them to go to the arbor to take off their ceremonial robes. They sat down, the two eunuchs in two large chairs in the place of honor, Ying Bojue in a more lowly seat.
“Who is this gentleman?” said Xue.
“You met him last year,” Ximen Qing said. “It is my old friend Ying the Second.”
“Ah,” said Xue, “the gentleman who made such excellent jokes!”
Bojue bowed. “Your Excellency has an excellent memory. It was I.”
Tea was brought. Ping’an came and said: “Major Zhou has sent a man with a card to say that he is engaged elsewhere and will not be able to come early. He asks that you will please not wait for him.”
Ximen Qing looked at the card. “Very good!” he said.
“Sir,” Eunuch Xue said, “who is this who is coming late?”
“Zhou Nanxuan. He is engaged elsewhere and has sent a man to ask us not to wait for him.”
“We will leave a place for him,” said the eunuch.
Then Wang Jing brought two cards and said: “The two scholars have arrived.” Ximen looked at the cards. On one was written Ni Peng, and, on the other, Wen Bigu. Wen was the man whom Master Ni wished to recommend to him. He hastened out to welcome them and found the two scholars in academic dress. He paid particular attention to Wen Bigu, who was a man of about forty years of age, of dignified and discreet appearance. There was hair upon his cheeks, and his manner was urbane and gentle.
Though he possessed incomparable talents
Often he went to the place where the Rites are despised.
His name and his achievements held no glory
And his ambition was, perforce, content with lowly things.
His fortunes had declined, and with them self-respect.
Philosophy and letters he left to Confucius.
The career of a public officer,
Or the desire to make a name for himself and his ancestors
Such notions as these he cast into the East River.
Now he foregathered with the scum of the earth
Only money was his goal.
Hail-fellow-well-met,
Without a care for shame or prudence.
He was tall of stature, and broad girdled
He could see no one before him.
He talked with an air and sang a pretty song
But his brain was empty.
Every three years, for the examination he would enter
But even a low degree was too much for him.
So now he has abandoned hope of climbing high
And sits with others to drink a cup of wine
To lessen melancholy,
Like a retired minister
Exiled to the mountains.
Ximen Qing took them to the hall and each of them offered him a book and a handkerchief as a birthday present. They sat down in the places appropriate to host and guests.
“I have often heard of your great learning,” Ximen Qing said. “Will you tell me your honorable name?”
“My second name is Rixin,” said Master Wen, “and Kuixuan is my honorific name.”
“Master Kuixuan, in what department of learning do you excel?”
“I am only a mean scholar,” Master Wen said, “so I have begun upon the Book of Changes. Your great renown has long been known to me, but I have never ventured to call upon you. Yesterday, my old school friend, Ni Guiyan, spoke to me of your extraordinary virtues, and I felt I must come and see you.”
“It is very kind of you to pay me the first visit. I shall hope to return your call one of these days. I am a military officer and know little of literature, and I have no one able to attend properly to my correspondence. The other day when I was visiting my colleague Xia, I made the acquaintance of Master Ni, and he spoke most highly of your attainments. I intended to call upon you, but you have come to me first and been good enough to bring me these gifts. I don’t know how to express my appreciation.”
“You flatter me,” said Wen. “I am really devoid of learning and virtue.”
When they had drunk tea, Ximen asked them to go to the arbor where the two eunuchs were sitting. Xue suggested that they should take off their academic robes, and they took off their gowns and joined the party, only taking their seats after they had been pressed to do so for some time.
As they were chatting, Uncle Wu and Captain Fan arrived, and Daian and Zheng Feng came to say that the four singing girls were now all present. “Is it true,” Ximen Qing asked, “that she had been sent for by the princely family of Wang?”
“Yes,” Daian said, “but she had not started. I was about to arrest the old woman; that frightened them, and Zheng Aiyue decided to come with me.”
Ximen Qing went out and stood on the steps to look at the four girls. They came forward together and kowtowed. Zheng Aiyue wore a long violet gown with a white-ribboned skirt beneath it. Her waist was like the willow, supple and full of the promise of delight. Her face was like a lotus blossom.
“Why did you not come when I sent for you?” Ximen Qing said to her. “Did you imagine you could escape me?”
Zheng Aiyue kowtowed without a word, then stood up and went smilingly to the inner court with the other girls. They kowtowed to Wu Yueniang and the others, and, finding Li Guijie and Wu Yin’er with the ladies, they greeted them too. “You came early,” they said.
“We have been here two days,” Guijie said. “What makes you so late?”
“It is all Zheng Aiyue’s fault,” said Dong Jiao’er. “We were ready, but she wouldn’t come and we had to wait.” Zheng Aiyue hid her face with her fan, laughed, but still said nothing.
“Who is this girl?” Yueniang said.
“Don’t you know her, Mother?” said Dong Jiao’er. “She is Zheng Aixiang’s younger sister, and her name is Zheng Aiyue. It is only six months since she was made a woman. ”
“She has a very fine figure,” Yueniang said.
Pan Jinlian pulled up Zheng Aiyue’s skirt and looked at her tiny feet. “Your shoes are too pointed; they are not like ours,” she said
. “In ours the proportions are as they should be, but your heels are too large.”
“How impertinent she is,” Yueniang said to Aunt Wu. “Why should she interfere in matters that do not concern her?”
Jinlian took a gold pin shaped like a fish from Zheng Aiyue’s head and said: “Where did you get this?”
“It was made by our own silversmith,” Zheng Aiyue told her. Tea and cakes were brought, and Yueniang told Guijie and Wu Yin’er to join the others. The six singing girls sat down together.
After tea, Guijie and Wu Yin’er invited the other girls to go to the garden with them, but Dong Jiao’er said; “We must go to the outer court first.” Li Guijie and Wu Yin’er went with Pan Jinlian and Meng Yulou. They kept away from the great arbor because there were many guests there, and, after looking at the flowers for a while, they went to Li Ping’er’s room to see Guan’ge. The baby was ill again. He kept waking up out of a bad dream and he would not take his milk. Li Ping’er had to spend all her time in her own room looking after him. When they came, she asked them to sit down.
“Is the baby asleep?” Guijie said.
“He has been crying all day long, but he has gone to sleep now,” Li Ping’er said.
“The Great Lady tells me she is going to send for old woman Liu,” Yulou said. “Why don’t you send a boy and ask her to come at once?”
“It is Father’s birthday today,” Li Ping’er said, I think I will wait until tomorrow.”
Then the four singing girls came with Ximen Dajie and Xiaoyu. “So you are here,” said Ximen Dajie. “We have been looking all around the garden for you.”
“There were so many people about we did not stay long,” Yulou said.
“What were you doing all that time in the inner court?” Guijie said to Hong Si’er.
“We were having tea in the Fourth Lady’s room.”
Pan Jinlian looked at Meng Yulou and Li Ping’er. Then she laughed. “Who told you she was the Fourth Lady?”
“She asked us to go and take tea in her room,” Dong Jiao’er said, “and, since we had not been presented to her before, we asked her what was her position in the household and she said: ‘I am the Fourth Lady.’ “
“The hussy!” Jinlian cried. “It would have been more becoming if somebody else had said so for her. In this house she is of no account at all. Nobody calls her the Fourth Lady. But she has had her husband in her room for one night. Now she has managed to scrape a little color together and is all agog to start a dye works. If it hadn’t been that Aunt Wu was in the Great Lady’s room, Guijie in the Second Lady’s room, Aunt Yang in the Third Lady’s room, the Wu Yin’er in the Sixth Lady’s room, and my mother in mine, he would never have dreamed of going to her.”
“You ought to have seen her this morning,” Yulou said. “When she had seen Father to her door, she flaunted herself about the courtyard, with a ‘Here, Zhang!’ and a ‘Now, you Li!’ making a tremendous fuss of herself.”
“Well,” Jinlian said, “the proverb says: Never indulge a slave, and never spoil a child.” She said to Xiaoyu: “I hear your father told the Great Lady he was going to buy that woman a maid. Last night, when he was in her room, he found it a complete mess. He asked her, and the little strumpet seized the opportunity and told him she was so busy all day she had not time to clean her room. She said she only went there to sleep and that was all. So he said: ‘Don’t worry about that any more. I will ask the Great Lady to get you a maid.’ Is this true?”
“I know nothing about it,” Xiaoyu said. “Perhaps Yuxiao heard it.”
“Your father would never have thought of going to her,” Jinlian said to Guijie, “if all our rooms had not been occupied. I am not one to talk about people behind their backs, but she is a very undiscerning sort of woman. And she has a very nasty tongue. I never speak to her if I can avoid it.”
Yingchun brought tea. While they were drinking it, sounds of music reached them from the outer court. The guests had all arrived and the banquet was ready. Daian came and called the four singing girls. Master Qiao did not come that day.
First there were some varied amusements, then music and songs and dances. After a few comic sketches, food was brought in. Cold appetizers were served, followed by a soup. Then Dr. Ren arrived, dressed in robes of ceremony. Ximen Qing took him to the great hall. Dr. Ren brought out a handkerchief with the symbol for longevity embroidered on it and offered it, with two pieces of white gold, to Ximen as a birthday present. “Yesterday,” he said, “Han Mingchuan told me of your birthday. I am sorry I am so late.”
“I am most grateful for your coming,” Ximen Qing said. “With these delightful presents too. And I must congratulate you on the wonderful medicine you were good enough to send us.”
Dr. Ren wished to offer a cup of wine to Ximen Qing as a mark of respect, but Ximen politely refused to allow it. Then Dr. Ren took off his ceremonial robes and they joined the others. He sat at the fourth seat on the left, next to Uncle Wu. When soup and rice had been served, Ximen Qing gave Dr. Ren’s servant a box of food. Dr. Ren thanked him and told the servant to take it away.
Then the four singing girls sang a suite of birthday songs, accompanying themselves with stringed instruments. More food was brought and wine was passed around. The actors brought their repertory list and the eunuchs selected the play Han Xiangzi Saves Chen Banjie. When the first act was done, they heard the noise of men clearing the way. Ping’an came in to announce the arrival of Major Zhou. Ximen Qing hastened to welcome him and, without waiting for the usual greetings, asked him to take off his ceremonial clothes. “But let me first offer you a cup of wine,” Major Zhou said.
“No,” said Eunuch Xue, “do not offer him wine, noble Zhou. Greet each other with a simple reverence.” This they did and Major Zhou bowed to the other guests. He sat down in the third place on the left. Food was brought for him, then soup, two types of snacks, two plates of meat, and two jars of wine. This was for Major Zhou’s servants. Major Zhou thanked his host and bade his servant take the food away. They passed wine to each other. With singing, dancing and music, they had a very happy time.
They drank until sunset. Dr. Ren was the first to leave. Ximen Qing took him to the gate. “How is your lady?” the doctor said. “Is she better?”
“She was better immediately after she took your medicine,” Ximen Qing said, “but for some reason or other she has been none too well these last few days. You must come and see her again.” Dr. Ren mounted his horse and rode away.
The two scholars Ni and Wen rose. Ximen urged them to stay longer but they would not. Ximen went to see them off. “I will come and see you,” he said to Wen. “I will have a study prepared for you to live in and you must bring your family. Every month I shall offer a small sum for your beans and water.”
“You are most kind,” said Master Wen.
Master Ni exclaimed: “A noble gentleman indeed, who recognizes literature so handsomely!”
When they had gone, Ximen Qing returned and drank with his guests. The party did not come to an end until the first night watch. The four singing girls went to Yueniang’s room and sang a few songs for the ladies. In the front court, Ximen asked Ying Bojue and Uncle Wu to stay. He gave food to the actors and dismissed them. The servants cleared the tables and Ximen called for dessert. Then he bade Li Ming, Wu Hui and Zheng Feng come and sing, and gave them wine.
“Brother,” Bojue said, “this has been a splendid entertainment and your guests have been well pleased.”
Li Ming said that the two eunuchs, Liu and Xue, had been very generous in their presents and they had left a packet of silver for Guijie and Wu Yin’er. “His Excellency Xue is younger than the other,” the boy said, “and that makes him more lively.”
Huatong brought dessert. Bojue noticed some pastries among the different dishes. He picked out one and put it in his mouth. It melted away at once. It seemed like exquisite dew falling upon his heart. “This is excellent,” he said.
“Oh, when it comes to eati
ng, you know well enough how to pick out something good,” Ximen said to him. “Your sixth mother made those.”
Bojue laughed. “To show her daughterly devotion to me,” he said. Then he said: “Uncle, won’t you try one?” picked one out and put it into Uncle Wu’s mouth. He gave one to Li Ming and Zheng Feng.
While they were drinking, Bojue said to Daian: “Go to the inner court and tell the four little strumpets to come here. I can do very well without them, but I want them to sing for your uncle. He cannot stay much longer and, after all, they have only sung one or two songs all day. It won’t do to let them off too lightly.”
Daian did not move. He said: “I did speak to them, but they are singing for the ladies now. Doubtless they will be here in a few moments.”
“When did you speak to them, you young rascal?” Ying Bojue said. He told Wang Jing to go, but Wang Jing paid no attention. “You won’t go, won’t you?” said Bojue. “Then I will go myself.” But, as he spoke, the scent of perfume came to them and they could hear laughing voices. The four singing girls came in, dabbing their faces with handkerchiefs.
“What!” cried Bojue, “are you going without singing for us? That’s too much of a good thing! Your sedan chairs alone cost four qian of silver, and for that money we could buy quite a lot of rice, enough to keep your whole households for a month.”
“Brother,” Dong Jiao’er said, “if you think we can earn a living so easily as all that, why don’t you come and join us?”
“It is very late,” Hong Si’er said, “almost the second night watch. We really must go.”
And Qi Xiang’er said: “We have to get up very early in the morning to go to a funeral.”
“Whose funeral?” said Bojue.
“At a house where the doors open underneath the eaves,” Qi Xiang’er replied.
“Doubtless young Master Wang’s,” said Bojue. “You got into trouble over that young man before, but luckily for you this gentleman sent to the Eastern Capital and had the matter hushed up for Li Guijie’s sake. You were forgiven too. Now you put on the airs of a bird that has escaped from a cage.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 7