The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  When Scholar Wen had finished the cards for Laian, he began again on those for Ying Bojue. When they were done, Bojue went across the road to Ximen’s house with Li Ming.

  Ximen Qing’s hair was still undressed. He was in the hall, accepting presents and sending cards in return. Tables were being set out for the reception. He asked Bojue to sit down. Bojue thanked him for the gifts he had sent some days before and asked why the tables were being arranged. Ximen told him that his Excellency An was making use of the house for a reception to the Imperial Tutor’s son.

  “Are you having actors or singing boys?” Bojue asked.

  “We are having the Haiyan company of actors,” Ximen Qing said, “but I have engaged four singing boys as well.”

  “Who are they, Brother?” Bojue asked.

  “Wu Hui, Zheng Feng, Zheng Chun and Zuo Shun,” Ximen said.

  “Why not Li Ming?”

  “He has climbed too high to care about my patronage any more,” Ximen said.

  “Why should you say that, Brother?” Bojue said. “He can hardly come if you don’t send for him. I didn’t know you were angry with him. And the business for which you are angry with him is really not his concern at all. He can’t help what happens at the bawdy house. We must not be unfair to him. This morning he called at my house and said, with tears in his eyes, that, apart from the relations that have existed between you and his sister, he has served you himself for several years. Now, he says, you send for the others and will have nothing to do with him. He swore on his oath that he had nothing to do with that business at the house. If you are angry with him, it will be very awkward indeed for him. He is only a boy. He can’t earn a great amount of money and, if you stop sending for him, his position will be impossible.”

  “Li Ming, come here!” he called. “Tell your father all about it. Why are you hiding there? Come here, I tell you. Even an ugly bride must meet her father-in-law sometime.”

  Li Ming was standing outside the hall. He bowed and then stood upright, like the image of a little devil. He had been listening to what they were saying and, when Bojue called him, he came in quickly and knelt down. He kowtowed repeatedly.

  “Father,” he said, “you must think about this again. If I had anything to do with that business, may my bones be broken to pieces by horses or carts, and may I die at the hand of the executioner. Your kindness to me in the past has always been so splendid. My people and I can never repay you. If you are angry with me, the others in my profession will laugh at me and look down on me. I can never find another master like you.”

  He cried aloud, knelt on the floor, and would not get up.

  “We must settle this,” Bojue said. “A gentleman never holds a lesser man’s faults against him. Besides, it wasn’t his fault and, even if it had been, you would have to forgive him now that he comes to apologize.” He said to Li Ming: “I am wearing black clothes so I have to stand near a black pillar. Now you have spoken to your father, I am sure he won’t be angry with you any more. But, in future, you must take care.”

  “Yes, Uncle,” Li Ming said, “I will amend my ways.”

  “Since your uncle asks me to forgive you, I will do so,” Ximen said slowly. “Stand up.”

  “Kowtow,” Bojue said.

  Li Ming kowtowed and rose to his feet.

  Ying Bojue asked Ying Bao for the cards of invitation and gave them to Ximen Qing. “It will be my baby’s month-day on the twenty-eighth,” he said. “I am inviting my sisters-in-law to my humble dwelling.”

  Ximen Qing looked at the cards, and told Laian to take them with the box to Wu Yueniang. “I don’t think they will be able to come that day,” he said. “Tomorrow is the Third Lady’s birthday, and there is this reception as well. On the twenty-eighth, my wife is going to call on Mistress Xia. I don’t see how she can manage to come to your place.”

  “Brother,” Bojue said, “would you seek my death? If my sister-in-law won’t go, whom else can I count upon? Since the fruits are in the garden, I will go myself and ask them.”

  But Laian came in with the box empty. “The Great Lady says I am to tell Uncle Ying she accepts his kind invitation.”

  Bojue gave the empty box to Ying Bao. “Brother,” he said, laughing, “you are always making game of me. If my sister-in-law had really refused to come, I would have bashed my head against the wall, and she would have been compelled to give way.”

  “Stay till I have done my hair,” Ximen Qing said to Bojue, “and we will have something to eat.” He went to the inner court.

  “Now what?” Bojue said to Li Ming. “If it hadn’t been for me, he would not have forgiven you. Don’t mind what he says. Wealthy people are always bad-tempered, but you mustn’t forget the proverb: An angry fist will never smite a smiling face. In these days, people like to be flattered. Even if you have money and set yourself up in business, you have always to be agreeable to your customers. If you pull a long face, nobody will bother about you. What you have to do is to fit yourself to circumstances and make yourself as adaptable as running water. Then you will make money. If you always try to ride the high horse, others will get good food but you will starve. You have served his Lordship for a long time, but you don’t understand him yet. Tell Li Guijie to come tomorrow. If she is hot upon your heels, she will kill two birds with one stone. It is the Third Lady’s birthday. She can come to congratulate her and apologize to him at the same time. Then everything will be well.”

  “Uncle,” Li Ming said, “you are right. I will go home at once and tell my aunt.”

  Laian came in to set the table. “Uncle Ying,” he said, “if you will wait a few moments, Father will be here.”

  Soon Ximen came in, properly dressed. They sat down.

  “I haven’t seen old Sun and Pockmarked Zhu for a long time,” Ximen said.

  “I told them to come,” Bojue said, “but they declared you were offended with them. I told them that, thanks to your generosity, when the mosquitoes and grasshoppers were brought before the court, they were allowed to escape. They swore to me they would never have anything to do with young master Wang again. I hear you were at Wang’s place yesterday. I hadn’t known of it before.”

  “Yes,” Ximen said. “There was a little party, and I was invited. I was asked if I would take the young man under my protection and treat him as a son. I didn’t get back until the second night watch. Why shouldn’t they go there any more? They can go if they like. It won’t worry me. Why should I bother about the young man? I’m not really his father.”

  “If you mean what you say, Brother,” Bojue said, “I am sure they will come to apologize and explain the whole business.”

  “There is nothing for them to apologize about,” Ximen said. “Tell them to come, that’s all.”

  Daian brought the food. There were all sorts of delicious things. Ximen Qing had porridge, and Bojue, rice.

  “Why haven’t the two singing boys come yet?” Ximen asked.

  “They are here,” Laian said.

  “Go and have something to eat with them,” Ximen said to Li Ming. One was Han Zuo, the other Shao Qian. They came and kowtowed before Ximen Qing, then went to have their dinner. Before long, Ying Bojue stood up. “I must be going now,” he said, “I expect my people are waiting anxiously for me. In humble families like ours, it is very hard to get anything done. We have to buy everything. Buy, buy, buy from the bottom of the cooking stove to the sitting-room door.”

  “Go and do what you have to do,” Ximen said, “and come back this evening to kowtow to the Third Lady and show what a good son you are.”

  “I will certainly come,” Bojue said, “and my wife will send some presents.” He went away.

  Footnote

  * A quotation from the Analects of Confucius, Book XIII, Chap. 11.

  CHAPTER 73

  Qiuju in Trouble

  I was called a great lover

  I remembered my love.

  He who called me a great lover and accepted my love

>   That man despised me.

  Because I am a great lover

  My love grows ever deeper and stronger

  If I die of love I shall not complain

  My love shall be ever steadfast.

  When Ying Bojue had gone, Ximen Qing went to the Cave of Spring to watch the masons putting in a warm bed. It was heated by a furnace outside the wall, so that the flowers should not be spoiled by the smoke.

  Ping’an brought him a card and told him that Major Zhou had sent a present. There was a box with five separate contributions from Major Zhou himself, General Jing, Captain Zhang, and the two eunuchs, Liu and Xue. Each of them sent five xing and two handkerchiefs. Ximen told a servant to accept the things, and gave a card to the man who had brought them.

  Aunt Yang, Aunt Wu and old woman Pan came early. Nun Xue, Nun Wang, the two novices, Miao Qu and Miao Feng, and Miss Yu came with gifts for Meng Yulou. Wu Yueniang gave them tea in her own room. The ladies were all there to welcome the guests, but after tea they went to their own rooms.

  Pan Jinlian was eager to make the red silk belt she had promised Ximen Qing. She went to her room and brought out her sewing box. From it she took a piece of red sarcenet. Then, from a porcelain box, she took some of the aphrodisiac drug and sewed it, with fine delicate stitches, into the material. Everything was now ready for the work of darkness. Suddenly, Nun Xue came to the door. She had brought Jinlian the potion she was to take to make her conceive. They sat down to talk. Nun Xue saw that nobody was about.

  “Wait until a Renzi day,” she whispered. “Then take it before you have anything to eat. That night, sleep with your husband and you will conceive without fail. The Great Lady has a big belly. It was I who gave her the medicine. And I will tell you something else. Make yourself a little bag, and I will give you a spell written in red ink to put in it. Carry it on your body, and you will bear a son. You have my word for that. It has never been known to fail.”

  Jinlian was delighted. She put the medicine and the charm into a box. Then she consulted a calendar. The next Renzi day was the twenty-ninth. She gave the nun three qian of silver. “This is very little,” she said. “It will buy you some vegetarian food. But when I have a baby, I will give you some silk to make clothes with.”

  “Don’t trouble about that,” the nun said, “I am not so greedy as Nun Wang. You remember when I held that service for the dead lady. She said I had done her out of it, and quarreled with me. Now, she never meets me without saying something horrid. But she can go to Hell. I am not going to argue with her. My only aim in life is to do all the good I can and save people from misfortune.”

  “Do the best you can,” Jinlian said. “We can’t expect everybody to be as kind as we are. Don’t mention this business to her.”

  “Oh, I shall say nothing about it,” Xue said. “It shall be a secret between ourselves. Last year, when I did this for the Great Lady, Wang said I had been too well paid, and nagged at me until I gave her half of what I got. A fine god-fearing creature she is! She never fasts, and she is far too fond of money. She takes alms from everybody and never does anything in return. When she dies and is born again, she will be something worse than a horned animal. I’m sure of it.”

  Jinlian told Chunmei to give the nun some tea. When she had drunk it, she went to Li Ping’er’s room to pay her respects to the tablet. Then she went back to the inner court.

  In the afternoon, Yueniang had tables laid in her room and invited all the ladies and the nuns. She also had a table set in the middle room and a fire lit, so that they could drink wine there in honor of Yulou’s birthday.

  The wine was poured into jade cups. Yulou, herself like a jade statue, raised a cup aloft. She offered it to Ximen Qing. Then she made a reverence to each of the other ladies in turn. Jingji and his wife were there. They greeted her. They all sat down, and special birthday dishes were brought in. While they were drinking, Laian came in with a box and said Ying Bao had brought presents. Ximen Qing asked Yueniang to accept them. He told Laian to get an invitation card written for Mistress Ying, and to invite Ying Bojue and Uncle Wu to come also.

  “I know Mistress Ying will not come,” he said, “so we had better ask Uncle Ying. We will send presents in return another day.” Laian gave Ying Bao a card, and the boy went home.

  Ximen Qing remembered Yulou’s last birthday, when Li Ping’er was still alive. Now, all the other ladies were there, but she was gone. The thought grieved him and he shed tears.

  Li Ming and the other two boys came in. “Can you sing the song of the lovebirds?” Yueniang asked them. Han Zuo said he knew it, took up his instrument and was going to sing, but Ximen Qing stopped him.

  “No,” he said. “Sing ‘I Remember the Flute Playing.’” The boys changed the tune and sang: “I remember the flute playing. Where is that exquisite creature now?” They went on till they came to the line: “For me she took off her silken skirt. There was blood on the red azalea flower.”

  Jinlian knew that Ximen Qing was thinking about Li Ping’er. and when this line was sung she deliberately teased him.

  “My son,” she said, “you are like Zhu Bajie sitting in a butcher’s shop without a fire. No one could look as sour as you do. She wasn’t a virgin: she was a married woman. Why do you think of the blood on the red azalea in connection with her? That is going too far. You are a shameless piece of goods.”

  “Listen to the song, you slave. I wasn’t thinking anything of the sort.”

  The two boys sang: “The lovesick maiden in the palace made up her mind to run away. But how shall I do so? I must gather the flowers upon the walls.”

  Ximen Qing listened with bowed head. When the song was over, Jinlian was so jealous she could not leave him alone. They began to bicker. Yueniang would not have this. “Sister,” she said, “be silent. What are you squabbling about? Aunt Yang and my sister-in-law are in the other room with nobody to keep them company. Perhaps two of you will go and join them. I will come myself in a few moments.”

  Jinlian and Li Jiao’er went to the inner room.

  Laian came back. “I took the card to Mistress Ying,” he said. “Uncle Ying and Uncle Wu are coming.”

  “Go and fetch Master Wen,” Ximen Qing said to him. He said to Yueniang: “Tell the cooks to bring food to the outer court. I will take my friends there.”

  Then, with Li Ming, he went to the room in the eastern wing. Bojue was waiting for him. Ximen thanked him for his presents and told him he must let Mistress Ying come the following day.

  “I’m afraid she won’t be able to come,” Bojue said. “There is nobody she can leave behind to look after the house.”

  Master Wen came in. Bojue bowed to him and said: “I am afraid I was a great trouble to you this morning.”

  “Not at all,” Master Wen said. “It was a pleasure.”

  Uncle Wu came and sat down. Qintong brought lights, and they all sat around the fire. Laian brought wine and cups and set them on the table.

  Ying Bojue noticed that Ximen Qing was wearing a dark green silken gown with a dragon in five colors embroidered upon it, over his white jacket. The dragon’s claws were outstretched, and it showed its teeth. The head and horns were noble and impressive. The whiskers were bristling and the hair stood on end. The gold and green seemed alive and the dragon was coiled around Ximen Qing’s body. Bojue was almost startled.

  “Where did you get that gown?” he said.

  Ximen Qing stood up. “Look at it,” he said. “Can you guess where it came from?”

  “I have no idea,” Bojue said.

  “Eunuch He of the Eastern Capital gave it to me,” Ximen said. “I was drinking with him one very cold day, and he gave it to me then. It is, as you see, a flying dragon. The Emperor had given him another, and he had no further use for this. But it was a great honor to me.”

  “It must be worth some money,” Bojue said. “Brother, it is a good omen. One of these days, you will become governor of a province and wear a dragon robe and a jade girdle. Yo
u will go a long way yet.”

  Qintong warmed wine and set the cups before them. Li Ming sang.

  “I must go and offer a cup of wine to your Third Lady,” Ying Bojue said. “Then I’ll come back and join you.”

  “My son,” Ximen said to him, “if you have such a sense of filial devotion, go, and don’t talk so much about it.”

  “I wouldn’t mind going and kowtowing to her,” Bojue said, “if the others wouldn’t be jealous. But, as a matter of fact, it wouldn’t do for me to kowtow to her, because I am the one in authority here. You must go and do it for me.”

  Ximen Qing tapped him on the head. “You dog,” he said, “what do you care about authority?”

  “I care a great deal,” Bojue said. “Haven’t you just hit me on the head?”

  They laughed and joked together. Qintong brought them some birthday noodles. Ximen Qing pressed them to set to, and went to eat his own with the ladies in the inner court. Li Ming had something to eat too, then came back to sing for them again. Ying Bojue asked Uncle Wu to tell him what to sing.

  “I will be kind to him,” Uncle Wu said. “He may sing anything he knows.”

  “Uncle Wu is very fond of ‘The Earthen Jar,’” Ximen Qing said. He told Qintong to fill up the cups. Li Ming tuned his instrument and sang: “She looked out over the countryside, and spoke no word. All day she stood there, and her lovely face grew sad.” Then Li Ming withdrew.

  Laian came and said: “In the kitchen they want to know how many cooks you will need tomorrow.”

  “Six cooks and two scullions,” Ximen said. “We must have five especially good courses.”

  Laian went away.

  “Who will be your guests tomorrow?” Uncle Wu said.

  Ximen Qing told him that Vice President An had invited the Imperial Tutor’s ninth son.

  “I am glad his Excellency will be taking wine here,” Uncle Wu said.

  “Why?”

  “Because of that old business of the granary,” Wu said. “My work is controlled by his Excellency’s department. I should be glad if you would ask him to look indulgently on me, and tell him that I hope he will speak well of my work when the inspection is over. I shall be very much obliged to you.”