“When I went to her room, she gave me a fine dressing down. She said I was to come if I had money and to stay away if I hadn’t. Let me tell you this: when I go away this time, I shall never come back. I won’t come here to be insulted. I give her up entirely. There are many cruel people in the world but none so cruel as she is. Sisters, I tell you: if I die tomorrow, I don’t know what the end of her will be. She will never take advice from anybody. You know, her father died when she was seven years old, and, from that day to this, I’ve never thought about anybody but her. When she was young, I taught her needlework and sent her to school. I dressed her carefully and took care that her hands and feet were well kept. She has been clever enough to rise to the position she holds now, and see how she treats her poor mother. Her eyes are never kind when they look on me.”
“Did your daughter go to school?” Ruyi’er said.“Now I understand why she is able to read all the characters.”
“Yes, she went to school when she was seven years old, and she spent three years there. She learned composition and how to read poems and songs and literature of all sorts.”
As they were talking, there came a knock at the door. “Who is there?” Ruyi’er said. “Go and see, Xiuchun.”
Xiuchun went to the door. When she came back, she said: “Sister Chunmei is here.” Ruyi’er squeezed the old woman’s hand.
“Don’t say anything,” she whispered. “Chunmei is here.”
“She and my daughter walk with the same leg,” the old woman said.
When Chunmei came in, she found them drinking wine with the old woman. “I have come to see how Grandmother is,” she said. Ruyi’er asked her to sit down. Chunmei arranged her skirt and sat down on the bed, with an air of great self-importance.
Yingchun sat next to Chunmei, Ruyi’er on the left-hand side, and the old woman in the middle.
“Have your father and mother gone to bed?” the old woman said.
“Yes,” Chunmei said, “I waited on them till they were in bed and then I came to see you. I have got some dishes and a cup of wine ready for you.” She said to Xiuchun: “The dishes are all ready. Go and ask Qiuju for them.” Xiuchun went out. She soon returned carrying a jar of wine. Qiuju brought a food box.
“Go back now,” Chunmei said to Qiuju, “and, if they want me, come and tell me.”
Qiuju went back. The dishes were put on the table. Xiuchun went to fasten the door, then came and joined them. When the wine was heated, Chunmei offered a cup to old woman Pan, then to Ruyi’er, Yingchun, and Xiuchun. She picked out all the tasty bits from the dishes and offered them to the old woman and the others. “Grandmother, do have some,” she said. “I assure you it has been prepared especially for you.”
“Sister,” the old woman said, “your mistress never bothers about what I eat, but you take pity on a poor old widow. I foresee that you will make progress day by day. My daughter has not a human heart. I have always been miserable on her account. Whenever I offer her advice, she storms at me. Sister, you know I came today to see her, not to cadge a few bits of cold food. And you see how she has treated me.”
“Grandmother,” Chunmei said, “you don’t understand. You only see one side: the other is hidden from you. My mistress is one of those people who are never satisfied so long as they are in a subordinate position. Compared with the Great Lady, who has money in plenty, she is in a most unfortunate position. My mistress is really poor, though you think she has a good deal and will not give you any. I know her better than anyone else does. My father leaves a great deal of money in her hands, but she will not touch a penny of it for her own purposes. If she wishes to buy flowers and things of that sort, she asks him straight out, instead of using his money and saying nothing about it. She will not allow the servants any handle against her. Grandmother, if you are angry with her, you are unjust. I am not standing up for her. I only want you to realize what the position is.”
“Perhaps the old lady did not quite understand her daughter,” Ruyi’er said. “After all, you are mother and daughter. If she had money, she would surely give it to you before anybody else. When you, old lady, come to your end, the Fifth Lady will have no one of her own to come and see her. She will be like the rest of us who have lost our mothers.”
“I am old,” the old woman said, “and I don’t know whether I shall die today or tomorrow. I am not angry with her.”
Chunmei saw that the old woman was becoming maudlin after her few cups of wine. She said to Yingchun: “Get the dice box and let us throw dice.” They got a box with forty dice. Chunmei played with Ruyi’er, then with Yingchun. They drank great cups of wine, and, before long, their peach-flower cheeks were flushed. They finished the jar. Yingchun brought half a jar of Magu wine, and they finished that too. By the second night watch, old woman Pan could not stay awake any longer. Her body swayed backwards and forwards; her head began to nod. The party broke up.
When Chunmei went home, she opened the corner door and went through the courtyard. Qiuju was in the middle room, standing on a small bench and peeping through the partition. She was spying on the pair in the other room, and was very interested in the remarks they made to one another and the different sounds she heard. Just when she was most delighted, Chunmei came up and slapped her face. “You young rascal!” she said. “What do you mean by listening there?”
Qiuju was taken by surprise. She stared at Chunmei and said: “I was dozing. I wasn’t listening at all. Why do you come and hit me?”
Jinlian overheard this. She called out to Chunmei: “Who is talking there?”
“I have told Qiuju to shut the door, but she won’t move,” Chunmei said.
Qiuju glared and went to shut the door. Chunmei took off the ornaments in her hair and went to bed.
The next day was Jinlian’s birthday. Mistress Fu, Mistress Gan, Ben the Fourth’s wife, Cui Ben’s wife, Miss Duan, Miss Zheng, and the younger Wu’s wife, came to congratulate her. Ximen Qing, with Uncle Wu and Ying Bojue, dressed in their best clothes, went on horseback to Captain He’s place. There were a great many guests, and four singing girls were there to entertain them. Major Zhou was present. In the evening, when the party broke up, Ximen Qing came back and spent the night with Ruyi’er.
On the tenth he sent out cards to invite the ladies.
“Why should we not invite Aunt Meng?” Yueniang said, “and my sister-in-law too? They will be very upset if they find we’ve left them out.”
“You are quite right,” Ximen said. He asked Jingji to write two more invitations and Qintong took them.
Jinlian overheard this and was annoyed. She went to her own room and urged old woman Pan to go away at once. As the old woman was leaving, Yueniang said to her: “Grandmother, why are you going away in such a hurry? You must stay another day at least.”
“Great Sister,” Jinlian said, “It is the New Year, and there is nobody to look after her boy. Please don’t keep her.”
Yueniang gave the old woman two boxes of cakes and a qian of silver for her sedan chair, and took her to the gate.
When the old woman had gone away, Jinlian said to Li Jiao’er: “The Great Lady is inviting her rich relations for the Feast of Lanterns, and my old mother would be out of place. I couldn’t let her stay. When the guests come, I can’t say she is a guest too, because her clothes make it quite obvious that she isn’t. And I can’t tell them she is one of the women from the kitchen, because she isn’t that. It puts me in a very awkward position.”
Ximen Qing told Daian to take two cards to Wang the Third’s place, one for Lady Lin and one for the younger lady, whose family name was Huang. He also told Daian to go to the bawdy house to tell Li Guijie, Wu Yin’er, Zheng Aiyue, and another girl to come, as well as the three boys, Li Ming, Wu Hui and Zheng Chun.
That day, Ben the Fourth came back from the Eastern Capital. In his best clothes, he came to kowtow to Ximen Qing and gave him a letter from Xia.
“What has kept you so long at the Capital?” Ximen asked him.
/> “I caught a very bad cold,” Ben the Fourth said, “and I wasn’t well enough to leave before the second of this month. His Lordship Xia sends you his best wishes and thanks you for looking after his house.”
Ximen Qing gave Ben the Fourth the keys of the thread shop again, but he set apart another room so that Uncle Wu the Second could sell silk there. He was going to let Uncle Wu the Second do business with Laibao when Laibao came back with merchandise from the South. He asked Ben the Fourth to get the firework makers to put up two set pieces ready for the party on the twelfth.
Then Ying Bojue came with Li the Third, who thanked Ximen Qing for all he had done for him in the past. They sat down and had tea. Ying Bojue began: “Brother Li knows of a piece of business, and he is anxious to find out if you would be interested in it.”
“What is the business?” Ximen Qing said.
“A document has come from the Eastern Capital,” Li the Third said “requiring the Thirteen Provinces each to send to the capital historic works of art to the value of tens of thousands of taels. Our Prefecture of Dongpingfu is to provide twenty thousand taels’ worth. The order is still in the governor’s hands and has not been sent down to the lower authorities. Zhang the Second, in the High Street, proposes to expend a hundred taels in getting the contract. There is about ten thousand taels profit to be made. I thought I would come with Uncle Ying to let you know about this so that, if you feel inclined, we can go into the business with Zhang the Second. It would mean five thousand taels from each of you. Brother Ying, Huang the Fourth, and I myself, would be your associates, and Zhang the Second would have two men in with him. We should share the profits in the proportion of two and eight. What do you think about it?”
“What kind of works of art do they want?” Ximen Qing said.
“Perhaps your Lordship has not heard,” Li the Third said. “The work on North Mount has just been finished at the Imperial City, and its name has been changed to the ‘Mountain of Long Life.’ A number of buildings are to be constructed there, the Palace of the Pure and Precious Secret, the Hall of the Immortals, and the Sanctuary of the Jade Spirit. There is also to be a dressing chamber for the Lady An. All these buildings are to be adorned with rare beasts and birds, Zhou bronzes, and Shang tripods, Han seals, and Qin incense burners, stone drums of the Xuanwang period, bronzes and copper of the successive dynasties—antiquities, in fact, of every sort. It is a very great undertaking, and his Majesty is going to spend a great deal of money.”
“I think it would be better if I managed the whole business myself,” Ximen said. “I might as well provide the ten or twenty thousand taels and go in for the thing with my own people.”
“It certainly would be better,” Li the Third said. “We need say nothing about it, and Brother Ying, Brother Huang and I will give you our assistance. Then there will be no outsiders.”
“Will you bring in one of your own people?” Bojue asked.
“When we have made all the arrangements, we will have Ben the Fourth to help us,” Ximen said. He asked where the orders were.
“They are still at the Censor’s office,” Li the Third said. “They have not been sent on yet.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Ximen said. “I will write to Song and send him some presents. That will be all right.”
“But you must act at once,” Li the Third said. “As the proverb says: Soldiers must always be on the alert, and he who cooks his rice first will be the first to eat. If we don’t look out, somebody may get the job before us.”
Ximen Qing laughed. “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Even if the orders had been sent to the office of the Prefecture, Song would recall them for me. Besides, Hu, the Prefect, is a friend of mine.”
He asked Li the Third and Ying Bojue to stay for a meal, and it was settled that Ximen Qing should send his letter the following day.
“I must tell you one thing,” Li the Third said, “His Excellency is not at his office now. The day before yesterday, he set out for an inspection at Yanzhou.”
“You shall go yourself with one of my boys tomorrow,” Ximen said.
“Very well,” Li the Third said, “I expect we shall manage it in five or six days. Whom will you send with me? Give him the letter and let him come and spend the night at my house so that we can start early in the morning.”
“The only one of my servants whom his Excellency knows is Chunhong, and he likes him. I will send him and Laijue with you.”
Ximen summoned the two boys and told them that they were to go on a journey with Li the Third and that they must spend the night at his house.
“You do well,” Bojue said. “We must waste no time, for, in matters like this, the man with the fastest legs has the advantage.”
When they had had something to eat, Ying Bojue and Li the Third went away. Ximen Qing told his son-in-law to write the letter, then measured about ten taels of gold leaf and gave it with the letter to Chunhong and Laijue.
“See that you go quickly and warily,” he said to them, “and come back as soon as you have got the document. If it has been sent to the Prefecture before you get there, ask his Excellency to give you a letter to the Prefect, instructing him to let us have it.”
“I understand,” Laijue said, “I have been to Yanzhou before, on an errand for Counselor Xu.”
They went to Li the Third’s house and, the next day, hired horses and set out.
On the twelfth, Ximen Qing gave a party and did not go to the office. He invited Uncle Wu, Ying Bojue, Xie Xida, and Chang Zhijie to come in the evening. Early in the morning, the musicians of the princely household of Wang came and, when the ladies arrived, they sounded the bronze drums and gongs in their honor. A servant came from Major Zhou to say that Mistress Zhou had trouble with her eyes and would not be able to come. But Mistress Jing, Mistress Zhang, Mistress Yun, Mistress Qiao, Mistress Cui and Aunts Wu and Meng came early. Captain He’s wife, Lady Lin, and Wang the Third’s wife did not arrive so early, so Ximen Qing sent soldiers several times to urge them to come, and dispatched old woman Wen to Lady Lin.
About noon, Lady Lin came in a large sedan chair, with a smaller chair following. After he had greeted her, Ximen Qing asked why her daughter-in-law had not come.
“My son is not at home and she is obliged to stay there,” Lady Lin said.
Sometime afterwards, Captain He’s wife came. She was in a sedan chair carried by four men. Behind her came a smaller one with a serving woman. A number of soldiers followed with her dressing case, and servants walked beside the chair. The chair was brought to the second door; the lady got out, and the musicians played. Wu Yueniang and the others went to the second door to welcome her. Ximen Qing stood quietly in one of the side rooms, and looked at the young lady through the blind. She was not more than twenty years old, tall and slender, and she looked as pretty as a jade carving. There were masses of pearls and ornaments on her hair. She wore a red gown with long sleeves embroidered in five colors. Her girdle was set with gold and jade, and below it was a blue skirt. As she moved, the tinkle of jade could be heard, and she brought with her the fragrance of orchid and musk.
Gracious and charming
Dainty and alert
Of manner fascinating
And of figure perfect
With eyebrows long and delicate, arching on the temples
Eyes, like a phoenix’s, delicately sloping.
Her voice was as sweet
As that of an oriole flying in the sunshine.
Her tender waist like the willow
Playing in the wind.
From the host of the most elegant she came
Without a trace of arrogance or common breeding
As though one bred in a thicket of pearls.
Her dress was chaste and dignified.
She was like a cherry tree in full bloom
Of whom no one knows how many flowers
Blossom in one night.
Like a willow slow in budding
So that no one c
an tell how far advanced
Is Spring.
Her lotus feet moved lightly
Gaily as the fairies.
With skirt raised just a little
Like the “Water-Moon” Guanyin.
A flower among flowers
But what the flowers do not know, she knows.
A precious jade among jades
But with a fragrance that no jade possesses.
Ximen Qing was entranced. Although he had not touched her, his heart was hers. Yueniang and the others took her to the inner hall and there they greeted one another. Then Ximen Qing was sent for. He hastily put straight his hat and clothes and rushed in. To him the young lady seemed like a tree of jade come to this world from paradise, an angel from the Wu Mountain. He bowed very low. His heart was beating fast and his eyes were dazzled. It was all he could do to control himself. When he had greeted her, he withdrew.
Yueniang entertained her guests in the arbor. They had tea. Then the musicians played and the guests took their places in the great hall. Lady Lin sat in the place of honor. The actors played two acts of Little T’ien Hsiang Worshipping the Stars at Midnight. Then the four singing girls came to sing the song of the lanterns.
Meanwhile, Ximen Qing and his friends were drinking wine elsewhere, and the three boys, Li Ming, Wu Hui, and Zheng Chun, sang for them. But, all the time, Ximen Qing was peeping through the window into the great hall.
Readers, the moon cannot always be at the full, and the most glorious clouds are soon dispersed. Happiness reaches its height, but sorrow follows after. So, too, when ill fortune reaches its climax, consolation is at hand. This is the will of Heaven. Ximen Qing thought of nothing but of gaining renown and increasing his riches: he spent himself in luxurious living and the pursuit of women, and never checked himself. He did not realize that Heaven abhors extremes. But the officers of Hell were coming to summon him. His days were nearly done.
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 51