“Not for a few days yet,” Jingji said. “We shall not bury him until after this ceremony.”
The two men bowed to him and were going on, but he called them back. “Yang,” he said, “do you know who has taken away the body of that woman Pan?”
“About a fortnight ago,” Yang said, “when it was clear that the police would not be able to lay hands on Wu Song, I told the magistrate, and the magistrate told the relatives they might remove the bodies. Old woman Wang’s body was taken by her son, but the other remained for several days. Then somebody from Major Zhou’s place brought a coffin and buried it at the Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the city.”
Then Jingji guessed that Chunmei had taken it. “Are there many Temples of Eternal Felicity outside the city?” he asked.
“There is only one,” Yang told him, “the one where Major Zhou worships. How many would you like?”
Jingji was delighted. It seemed to him that it was by a special dispensation of providence that Jinlian should be buried there. They went their ways. Jingji mounted his horse and rode on to the temple. Before he mentioned the service for his father, he said to the Abbot: “I hear that Major Zhou’s people have buried a woman here recently. Can you tell me where the grave is?”
“Behind the temple, under the poplar tree,” the Abbot told him. “The dead woman was the young lady’s sister.”
Jingji did not go to his father’s coffin, but took the paper money and other offerings to Jinlian’s grave. There he burned the paper money for her. “Sister,” he cried, “this is your young brother, Chen Jingji, come to make an offering to you. Find a pleasant place in which to live, and spend the money when you are in need of it.”
Then he went to the place where his father’s coffin rested and burned paper money there. He gave the money to the monks and said: “May we have eight monks on the twentieth, to perform the service for the last week’s mind?” The Abbot took the money and went to see about preparing the necessary things. Jingji went home and told his mother.
On the twentieth day, they all went to the temple for the service. When it was over, they selected a day of good omen and buried the dead gentleman in his ancestral tomb. After this they went home and mother and son settled down in their house.
At the beginning of the second month it was very warm. Wu Yueniang, Meng Yulou, Sun Xue’e, and Ximen Dajie, with Xiaoyu, went and stood at the gate to look down the street. Everything seemed lively and busy. They suddenly caught sight of a crowd of people following a monk. He was very fat and tall; there were three bronze figures on his head, and lamps all over his body. His robes were apricot colored and had broad sleeves. His feet were bare, and his ankles splashed with mud.
He sits and gives himself to meditation
Expounds the sacred scriptures, preaches the gospel.
Broad shoulders, sunken eyes
Themselves exemplify the manner of the Buddha.
He begs his food and preaches
According to the rule of his religion.
By day he goes with staff and tinkling bell
At night brings out the spear and club.
Outside the door he beats his bald head to the ground
On the street he strikes his lips.
Reality is emptiness
And emptiness reality.
Who shall say what happens to this earthly life?
Some go, some come
Some come, some go.
But who has found a welcome
In the paradise of the west?
When he saw Yueniang and the other women standing at the gate, he came over to them and saluted them.
“Most charitable ladies,” he said. “I see that you belong to an exalted family. This is a most opportune meeting. I have come from Mount Wu begging for alms, because I seek to build a temple for the ten Lords of Virtue and the Three Precious Ones. I rely entirely upon the charitable, who cultivate the field of generosity and give me alms. So this admirable work will be brought to a happy end, and a reward in the next life assured. I am but a wandering monk.”
Yueniang told Xiaoyu to go and get a hat, a pair of shoes, a string of coppers, and a measure of white rice. She was always inclined to be generous to monks, and this one attracted her. She kept a store of hats and shoes especially for them. When Xiaoyu brought the things, Yueniang said: “Ask his Reverence to come and take them.”
“You, monk, who will become a donkey in your next life,” Xiaoyu said in her sweetest voice, “come here. My lady offers you these things. Why don’t you kowtow to her?”
Yueniang scolded her. “You little scamp,” she said. “He is a monk, a disciple of Buddha. You mustn’t talk to him like that. It is his duty to ask for alms. You little strumpet, you will certainly be punished sooner or later.”
Xiaoyu laughed. “That thievish monk!” she said. “What does he mean by letting his eyes roam over my body from head to feet?”
The monk accepted the gifts in both hands, made a reverence, and thanked them.
“Shaven rogue!” Xiaoyu said to him. “Where are your manners? There are several ladies here, as you see. Why do you content yourself with bowing twice to us, and why don’t you make a reverence to me?”
“Do be quiet, you little rascal,” Yueniang said. “He is a son of Buddha, and you have no right to expect a reverence from him.”
“Lady,” Xiaoyu said, “if he is a son of Buddha, who are Buddha’s daughters?”
“The nuns are Buddha’s daughters,” Yueniang said.
“Oh, now I understand,” Xiaoyu said. “Nun Xue and Nun Wang and the Abbess are all Buddha’s daughters, are they? Well, I wonder who are Buddha’s sons-in-law?”
Yueniang could not help laughing. “You little strumpet!” she said, “It is only lately you have learned to talk such nonsense. You are always being rude nowadays.”
“You mustn’t scold me only, Lady,” Xiaoyu said. “That monk, with his thievish eyes, is looking at me all the time.”
“If he looks at you,” Yulou said, “I suppose it is because he wishes to make you give up the things of this world.”
“Then I will go with him,” Xiaoyu said.
They all laughed, but Yueniang said. “You are a little strumpet. You are always insulting monks and saying wicked things about Buddha.”
The monk took the things and went away haughtily, the three images on his head. “Lady,” Xiaoyu said, “that thievish monk had another look at me before he went away. Really, you shouldn’t scold me.”
As they were standing there, old woman Xue came to them, carrying her box of artificial flowers. She made a reverence to them.
“What have you been doing?” Yueniang asked. “It is a long time since I even saw your shadow.”
“I hardly know myself what I have been doing,” the old woman said. “A few days ago, his Lordship Zhang the Second, the new magistrate, was arranging a marriage with the Xu family. Xu’s niece is going to marry Zhang’s son. Old woman Wen arranged that. Yesterday was the third day and they had a splendid banquet. The young lady at the Major’s place sent for me, but I was too busy to go.”
“Where are you going now?” Yueniang said.
“I have come especially to see you,” old woman Xue said. “There is something I want to talk to you about.”
“Come in, then,” Yueniang said, and took the old woman to her room. When she had had tea, the old woman said: “Lady, there is something you don’t know. Last year, your kinsman Chen, at the Eastern Capital, died. His wife sent for your son-in-law to bring his father’s body and the whole household here. They reached here in the first month, held a service, and buried the old gentleman. I thought that, if you had known, you would certainly have gone to burn some paper offerings for the old gentleman.”
“But I would never have known, if you hadn’t come to tell me,” Yueniang said. “How was I to hear of it? I heard that Pan Jinlian had been killed by her first husband’s brother, and that she and old woman Wang had been buried, but I have
heard nothing of what happened since.”
“If the Fifth Lady had not misbehaved herself and had stayed here, it would have been much better for her,” the old woman said. “But she forgot her womanly virtue and behaved so badly that you had to send her away. If she had still been living with you, her brother-in-law would not have had a chance to kill her. Indeed, debts always demand that they who owe shall pay, and hatred never fails to find its victim. But Chunmei did not forget how she had loved that lady in the past. She bought a coffin and buried Jinlian, or the body would be lying there still. Wu Song has not been caught, and there was nobody else to care about her.”
“Chunmei has only been at Major Zhou’s house a short time,” Xue’e said. “How comes she to be in such a position that she can afford to buy a coffin and bury the woman? Didn’t the Major have anything to say in the matter? How does he treat her?”
“Ah! You can’t imagine how fond he is of her,” the old woman said. “He spends every night with her and obeys her slightest wish. As soon as she went there and he found how beautiful she was, he gave her three rooms and a maid. He spent three nights with her and had all the clothes she needed for a year made for her. On the third day he gave a feast and presented me with a tael of silver and a roll of silk. His first wife is now about fifty. She is blind, eats vegetarian food, and does not take any part in the management of the house. His second wife, Sun, has a little daughter and spends all her time looking after the child. Chunmei has all the keys. The Major does everything she suggests, and she never has any difficulty in getting money out of him.”
Yueniang and Xue’e said nothing. When the old woman was preparing to go away, Yueniang said: “Come again tomorrow. I will get a food offering ready, a roll of silk, and some paper money, and you must go with my daughter to offer them to her dead father-in-law.”
“Won’t you go yourself, Lady?” the old woman said.
“Tell them I am not very well,” Yueniang said. “I will go and see them another day.”
“Then tell your daughter to have everything ready. I will be here about dinnertime.”
“Where are you going now?” Yueniang asked. “Must you always be going to the Major’s place?”
“If I don’t go, they will be angry with me. They have sent for me several times.”
“Why do they send for you?” Yueniang said.
“Lady, Chunmei is now four or five months gone with child and the Major is delighted. I shall certainly get a present when I get there.”
The old woman went off with her box. “What a liar that old strumpet is!” Xue’e said. “Chunmei has only been there a short time. How can she be so far gone with child? The Captain has more than one wife already. Is it likely that he devotes himself entirely to her?”
“He has a first wife, and another lady who has a little girl “ Yueniang said.
“These go-betweens,” Xue’e said, “always talk about water a foot deep having waves ten feet high.”
CHAPTER 89
Wu Yueniang Meets Chunmei Again
A beautiful woman’s lot is grievous.
Alas, that one so exquisite
Should turn to a handful of yellow dust.
Is it that Heaven pays no heed,
That good and evil are but matters of chance?
It granted her beauty and intelligence
Then let her go as though she had been nothing. It seems unjust.
And when we ask the Heavens why it happens,
No answer is vouchsafed us.
It is sad.
The beauty of the earth combined with Heaven’s fragrance
Passes like the seasons.
They are many who lie buried.
May we not ask where there is gaiety?
Yet there are palaces where people dance and sing,
Where people walk in springtime on the purple path,
And, in the evening, sit beside green-painted windows,
Graceful and exquisite.
Surely the life of man seems purposeless,
Now as in the days long past.
Wu Yueniang prepared the food offering and paper things, and Ximen Dajie, in mourning dress, went in a sedan chair to her husband’s house, with old woman Xue in attendance. When they came to the house, Chen Jingji was standing outside the door. He asked the old woman where the things had come from. She made a reverence.
“Your mother-in-law has sent them as an offering to your late father,” she said, “and your wife has come too.”
“Curses on my mother-in-law!” Jingji cried. “She is half a month too late. It is as if she set up the god of the door on the sixteenth day of the first month. My father has been buried a long time, and she comes now with her tribute of respect.”
“Good Brother-in-law, as your wife’s mother says, now she is a widow she is like a crab without legs. She knew nothing about your father’s coffin coming, and you must forgive her if she is late.”
As they were talking, Ximen Dajie’s sedan chair came up.
“Who is this?” Jingji said.
“Whom do you expect? Your mother-in-law is not well and she has sent your wife to come and burn paper offerings for your father.”
“Take the whore away,” Jingji said scornfully. “Better people than she have died by thousands. What have I to do with her?”
“You should not talk like that. When a woman marries a man, she does so to live with him.”
“I don’t want anything to do with the whore. Be off at once.”
The chair men were standing by, and Chen Jingji went up and kicked them. “Take her away,” he cried, “or I will break your beggarly legs and pull that whore’s hair out.
The sedan-chair men could only take the chair away. By the time old woman Xue was able to speak to Jingji’s mother, it had been gone for some time. The old woman could do nothing, so she gave the things to Mistress Chen and came back to tell Yueniang what had happened.
Yueniang was so angry that she nearly fainted. “The rogue is utterly unprincipled!” she cried. “He came here to escape the law, and his father-in-law kept him all those years. This is how he repays us. What a pity that my dead husband kept such a rascal in the place and so gave us all this trouble today. It puts me in the position of a rotten rat, and he dares to insult me.”
“Daughter,” she said to Ximen Dajie, “you saw with your own eyes that neither my husband nor I ever treated him badly. So long as you live, you belong to the Chen family, and, when you die, you will be a Chen ghost. I can’t keep you here. Go to him tomorrow. Don’t be afraid. I don’t think he will be quite so desperate as to push you into a well. He dare not kill you, because, fortunately, law still has some force in this world.”
The next day Yueniang told Daian to go with her daughter. The young woman went in a sedan chair. When they came to the house, Jingji was out. He had gone to his father’s grave to put earth on the mound. His mother was a lady of breeding and received her daughter-in-law.
“Go home and tell your mistress that I am very much obliged to her,” she said to Daian. “Ask her not to be angry with the young man. He had taken too much to drink yesterday and that is why he behaved so strangely. I will bring him around by degrees.” She gave Daian something to eat and dismissed him.
In the evening Chen Jingji came back. The moment he saw his wife he began to kick her and curse.
“You whore!” he cried, “why have you come back? You told me I begged my food from your family. The real truth is that your people have stolen a lot of my property, and that is how they got their wealth. If your people won’t keep a son-in-law for nothing, why should I keep you now, you whore? Better people than you have died by thousands, yes, and by tens of thousands.”
Then his wife cursed him in return. “You shameless rascal, you unprincipled scamp!” she cried. “Just because that strumpet was murdered, why do you vent your spite on me?”
Jingji pulled her hair and struck her violently with his fist. His mother came and tried to separate
them, but he pushed her away and threw her on the floor. The old lady cried. “You rascal! Are your eyes so red that you do not even know your own mother?”
That same night Ximen Dajie was sent back again. Her husband said to her: “If you don’t make them give me back my things, I will kill you.” This frightened her so much that she stayed at home and never again tried to go and see her husband.
At the Festival of Pure Brightness in the third month, Yueniang prepared incense, candles, paper money, and other things and went outside the city to offer them at her dead husband’s grave. She left Sun Xue’e, Ximen Dajie, and one or two maids to look after the house. She, with Meng Yulou, Xiaoyu, and the nurse Ruyi’er carrying the baby, went to the grave in sedan chairs. She asked Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu to go and join them there.
When they came outside the city, everything looked beautiful. The willows were green and the flowers fresh. Hosts of people were celebrating the coming of Spring, for there is no season more delightful. Then the sun is beautiful and the wind gentle, as the eyes of the willow open and the hearts of the flowers are unfolded. The very earth seems perfumed. A myriad flowers seem to compete with each other for the prize of beauty; the herbs put forth new shoots. They are the message of Spring. The light is soft and bright; the scenery warm and perfectly harmonious. The little peach flowers have painted their faces a deep red; the young willows bend their slender waists, tender and narrow as the palace gates. Orioles sing a hundred melodies, and wake people from their midday dreams. Purple swallows sing, and the melancholy of early spring is banished. The sun makes the days longer and warmer, and little yellow ducks splash in the pools. Through the green duckweed they dash. Beyond the river on some estate, we know not whose, the swing hangs high among the mist of green willows.
It is the festival of Spring
And mist is everywhere.
Outside the town the gentle breeze blows away the paper money
And hangs it in the trees.
People laugh and sing on the tender grass.
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 66