The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  It is the season of apricot blossom

  When the rain comes suddenly

  And suddenly is gone again.

  The gentle oriole chatters in the cherry trees,

  Under the willows, guests who have drunk their fill

  Sleep on the riverbank.

  Charming women are busy to the strains of music

  They bring a rope and make it fast, Swing to and fro

  Like a flight of angels.

  Yueniang and the others came to Wuliyuan, where the grave was. Daian took the food boxes to the kitchen; they made a fire and the cooks prepared the dishes. Meanwhile, Yueniang, Yulou, Xiaoyu, and Ruyi’er with the baby, went to the hall. There they had tea and waited for Aunt Wu. Daian set out the offerings before Ximen Qing’s grave, and still they waited for Aunt Wu. She was delayed because she had not been able to get a sedan chair, and it was almost noon before she came along with Uncle Wu, both on donkeyback.

  “I don’t know how you manage to ride a donkey,” Yueniang said to her.

  Aunt Wu drank some tea, then she changed her clothes and they all went together to make their offering. Yueniang took five sticks of incense, kept one for herself, and gave the others, one to Yulou, one to Ruyi’er for the baby, and one each to her brother and his wife. She first put incense in the burner and bowed before the grave. “Brother,” she said, “when you were alive, you were a man; now you are a spirit. Today is the Festival of Spring. Your dutiful wife Wu, sister Meng, and your son Xiaoge, who is now a year old, have come to your grave to burn paper money for you. Protect your son’s life, that he may live long and come to do worship at your grave. Brother, you and I were once husband and wife. I treasure in my memory the remembrance of your features and your way of speaking, and I am sad.”

  She covered her face and sobbed. Then Yulou came forward, offered incense, made a reverence and cried with Yueniang. The nurse, Ruyi’er, with the baby in her arms, knelt down. Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu also offered incense and made reverence. Then they went to the arbor and there had food and wine. Yueniang asked Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu to take the places of honor. She and Yulou sat opposite, Xiaoyu and Ruyi’er and Aunt Wu’s old maid sat at the side.

  That day, Major Zhou also went to visit his ancestral tombs. Before the festival, Chunmei slept with him. She pretended to have a dream and cried during the night. Zhou asked her what was the matter.

  “I had a dream,” Chunmei said, “and in my dream, my mother came to me. She cried and said to me that she had brought me up, yet I was not going to burn paper offerings for her at the Festival of Spring. Then I cried and awoke.”

  “If she brought you up, you must do your duty as a daughter. But where is she buried?”

  “At the Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the Southern Gate.”

  “Then you must not trouble any more,” Major Zhou said. “That temple is my own place of worship. Tomorrow, I shall be going there to visit our family tombs and I will tell a servant to take something to the place where your mother is buried.”

  The next day, the Major told his servants to take food, wine, and fruit and go to his ancestral tombs outside the city. At the grave he had a large house with halls, rooms and a garden, a place for worship, and shrines. His two wives and Chunmei went with him each in a sedan chair carried by four men. Soldiers marched before them.

  Yueniang drank wine with Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu. She was afraid it was getting late, and told Daian and Laian to clear everything away. They went to the village of Apricot Blossom. There was a hill near the village and a wineshop at the foot of the hill. Many people were strolling about, and she told the servants to take their food there. Aunt Wu had no sedan chair, so they all walked and the sedan chairs followed empty behind them. Uncle Wu came last, leading the two donkeys. They walked over the green grass for about three li, then came to the Peach Flower inn, and, when they had gone five li, saw the village of Apricot Blossom. The red and green dresses of the people seemed like masses of flowers and willows. They had all come to visit their graves. In the distance they could see a temple beneath the shade of a locust tree. It was a building of more than usual magnificence.

  Yueniang asked what this building was called.

  “It is the place where Major Zhou worships,” Uncle Wu said, “and it is called the Temple of Eternal Felicity. Don’t you remember how, when my brother-in-law was alive, he gave a great deal of money to repair the building? That is why it looks so new and beautiful.”

  “Let us go and have a look at it,” Yueniang said.

  Some of the novices saw them coming and went to tell the Abbot. When he saw a number of people coming, he came out to receive them. He made a reverence to Uncle Wu and then to Yueniang, and told one of the young monks to unlock all the shrines that they might see the different images of Buddha. When they had had tea, all the doors were opened. Yueniang and the others looked everywhere. Then they went back to the Abbot’s apartments, and he offered them tea.

  “May I ask your name in religion?” Uncle Wu said.

  “My name is Daojian,” the Abbot said, “and this monastery is the place of worship of his most generous lordship Major Zhou. Under my instruction are more than a hundred monks, and, at the back, is a place for the wandering monks who come here to meditate. They make intercession for the charitable.” He asked them if they would not take something to eat.

  “We must not put you to inconvenience,” Yueniang said. She took five qian of silver and asked Uncle Wu to give them to the Abbot. “It is only a trifle to pay for incense to burn before the Buddhas,” she said.

  The Abbot made a reverence. “I have really nothing to offer you,” he said, “but I should be glad if you would take a cup of tea. Thank you for this gift.”

  Novices set the table and brought vegetarian food and cakes. The Abbot sat down with them and took up his chopsticks to encourage them to eat something.

  Suddenly two men in black clothes burst into the room and shouted in a voice like thunder. “Teacher, why don’t you come out to welcome the young lady?”

  The Abbot put on his robes and hat, told the young monks to clear everything away, and asked the ladies to go into a small room.

  “I must go and see the young lady,” he said. “When she has finished her worship, I will come back to you.”

  Uncle Wu suggested that they should leave, but the Abbot would not hear of it.

  The monks, ringing bells and beating drums, went to the main gate to receive the visitor. A host of men in black clothes followed a large sedan chair, coming from the east like a flying cloud. The chair men’s clothes were wet with sweat.

  The Abbot bowed. “I did not know you were coming, Lady,” he said. “I beg your pardon for not being ready to welcome you.”

  “Teacher,” Chunmei said, who was sitting in the sedan chair, “I am sorry to put you to so much trouble.”

  The servants took the offerings and went to the back of the temple where Pan Jinlian was buried. They set out paper money and other offerings before the grave. Chunmei did not go into the temple but straight around to the back. There she left the sedan chair. The servants stood ready to do anything she might wish and, slowly and gracefully, she walked between them to the grave. There she offered incense and made reverence four times.

  “Mother,” she said, “I have come to offer paper money for you. I trust that you may rest in paradise and make use of this money when you are in need. If I had only known you would be killed, I would have made a plan to bring you to me. It is my fault that I was too late. Now I repent, but it is still too late.”

  She told the servants to burn the paper money, and sobbed loudly.

  Yueniang, in the temple, only knew that some young lady had come and that the Abbot had gone to meet her. When he did not come back, she asked the young monk what was happening.

  “A little while ago,” the young monk said, “the young lady buried one of her sisters. It is the Festival of Spring today, and she has come to burn paper offerings.”

/>   “I should not be surprised if this were Chunmei,” Yulou said.

  “But she has no sister buried here,” Yueniang said. “What is the young lady’s name?” she asked the young monk.

  “Her name is Pang,” the young monk said. “A few days ago she gave the Abbot five taels of silver to hold a service for her sister.”

  “I remember our husband telling me that Chunmei’s family name was Pang,” Yulou said. “It must be she.”

  As they were talking, the Abbot returned and told the young monk to prepare tea. A sedan chair was brought to the second door and Yueniang and Yulou looked through the lattice to see what manner of young lady this might be. They recognized Chunmei. She was taller than before. Her face was like the full moon and she looked as exquisite as a figure of jade. Her head was covered with pearls and ornaments, and phoenix pins were thrust obliquely through her hair. She wore a crimson embroidered coat and a blue skirt with trimmings of gold, and little ornaments that tinkled as she walked. She was very different from the Chunmei they had known.

  The Abbot set a large chair in the place of honor and asked Chunmei to sit down in it. The young monk made a reverence to her and brought tea. The Abbot offered it with his own hands. “Really,” he said, “I did not expect you today. You must forgive me for not coming to meet you.”

  “I feel that I have been a great trouble to you,” Chunmei said. “The other day I asked you to hold a service for me.”

  “That was nothing,” the Abbot said. “I should have done it out of gratitude for the kindness you have shown. We had eight monks, and in the evening, when the ceremony was over, I burned paper offerings. Then I sent your servant away and bade him tell you all about it.”

  Chunmei drank tea, and the young monk took away the teacup. But the Abbot sat with her and talked, and Yueniang and the others could not come away. Yueniang was afraid because it was getting very late, and she bade the young monk go and tell the Abbot she would like to say goodbye to him. The Abbot would not hear of it.

  “May I mention something to you?” he said to Chunmei.

  “Say anything you like, Teacher,” Chunmei said.

  “There are a few ladies here who came to see the place. We did not know you were coming. Now they wish to go away.”

  “Teacher,” Chunmei said, “why do you not ask them to come and see me?”

  The Abbot went and told Yueniang what Chunmei had said, but Yueniang did not wish to go. “It is late and we must go home,” she said. “We have not time to come and see her.”

  The Abbot was very much embarrassed. He felt that he had accepted Yueniang’s money and had entertained her very inadequately. He implored them to go and see Chunmei. Then they could refuse no longer. Yueniang, Yulou, and Aunt Wu came out.

  “Mothers and Aunt!” Chunmei cried. She made Aunt Wu take the place of honor, then, like a branch of blossoms, swaying in the wind, knelt down and kowtowed. Aunt Wu hastily greeted her in return.

  “Sister,” she said, “things are very different now. I dare now allow you to make such reverence to me.”

  “Good Aunt,” Chunmei said, “you must not say that. I am not that sort of woman. I know the correct behavior of an inferior to a superior.”

  When she had kowtowed to Aunt Wu, she turned to Yueniang and Yulou. They wished to salute her, but she would have none of it. She kowtowed to them four times. They helped her to her feet.

  “I did not know you were here,” Chunmei said. “If I had known, I would have asked you to come before.”

  “Sister,” Yueniang said, “since you left us, I have not been able to come and call on you. I am sorry.”

  “Lady,” Chunmei said, “who am I that you should call on me? Why should you be sorry?”

  Then she saw Ruyi’er with the baby Xiaoge. “The young master is quite big now,” she said.

  “Come here and make a reverence to your sister,” Yueniang said to Xiaoyu. Then Xiaoyu and Ruyi’er, both smiling, came and made a reverence to Chunmei and she returned their greeting.

  “Sister,” Yueniang said, “you should accept their reverence.”

  Then Chunmei took a silver pin with a gold head from her hair and put it in Xiaoge’s cap.

  “You must thank your sister,” Yueniang said. “Why don’t you say something to your sister?”

  Then, indeed, the baby did babble something. Yueniang was very pleased.

  “Sister,” Yulou said, “if you had not come here today, we might never have met.”

  “I came because my mother is buried behind this monastery,” Chunmei said. “I lived with her for several years and she had no relatives of her own. The least I could do was to come and burn some papers for her.”

  “Now I remember,” Yueniang said. “Some years ago your mother died, and you told us you did not know where she was buried.”

  “You don’t understand, Sister,” Yulou said. “She means our sister Pan. It is due to her kindness that Jinlian is buried here.”

  Yueniang said no more.

  “Would anyone else have been as kind as you, Sister?” Aunt Wu said. “You did not forget one who had been your friend, and you gave her burial. And at this festival you have come to burn paper offerings for her.”

  “Lady,” Chunmei said, “you know how well she treated me when she was alive. It was such a tragic end. Her body was lying there exposed. I could do no less for her than bury her.”

  The Abbot told the young monks to set the table again. They brought in two large tables with all kinds of vegetarian dishes and cakes. The tea was made with golden tea leaves as tiny as sparrows’ tongues, and the purest of water. They enjoyed their food and, when they had finished, the things were taken away. Uncle Wu was entertained elsewhere by some of the monks.

  Yulou rose and said she would like to see the grave of Jinlian. She wished to burn paper offerings too, for they had been as sisters. But seeing that Yueniang did not intend to go, Yulou took five fens of silver from her sleeve and asked one of the young monks to buy some paper money.

  “Don’t trouble to buy any, Lady,” the Abbot said. “I have plenty. Take what you wish.”

  Then Yulou gave the money to the young monk and asked him to lead the way to the grave under the poplar tree. There she found a mound of yellow earth about three feet high and a few grasses growing on it. She offered incense and burned some paper money. Then she made a reverence, and said: “Sister, I did not know that you were buried here. By chance I came to this monastery, and now I offer you this paper money. May it be of use to you.” She sobbed loudly.

  When Ruyi’er saw that Yulou had gone to the back, she decided to go too. Yueniang, who was talking to Chunmei, said to the nurse: “Don’t take the baby, you may frighten him.”

  “Don’t be alarmed, Lady,” Ruyi’er said. “I will see he comes to no harm.”

  Then she went to the grave, where Yulou was burning paper offerings and weeping as she did so.

  The ladies changed their clothes and powdered their faces. Chunmei ordered one of her servants to bring a food box, and all kinds of dainties were set out on the table before them. Wine was heated. The cups were of silver; the chopsticks of ivory. She asked Aunt Wu, Yueniang, and Yulou to take the places of honor, and she took the hostess’s seat. Ruyi’er and Xiaoyu sat at the side. Uncle Wu had wine in another room.

  While they were drinking, two servants came in and knelt down. “Our master would like you to come and see some performers,” they said. “The other ladies are there already, and he asks you to come at once.”

  Chunmei showed no sign of hurry. “Very well,” she said, “you may go back to him.”

  The two men did not dare to go away, and waited outside the door. Aunt Wu and Yueniang rose. “Sister,” they said, “we have troubled you long enough. It is late, and you have other matters to attend to. We must go.”

  Chunmei would not listen, and still told her servants to fill the cups with wine. “Ladies,” she said, “it was not easy for us to meet, but now that we have c
hanced to come upon each other, I trust we may keep on good terms. I have no relatives of my own, and perhaps you will allow me to come and see you on your birthdays.”

  “Sister,” Yueniang said, “it is extremely kind of you to suggest it, but I dare not put you to so much inconvenience. Will you not allow me to come to you first?”

  Yueniang drank another cup of wine and then said she could drink no more. “Aunt Wu has no sedan chair,” she said. “It will be very awkward if we are late.”

  “If she has no chair, I shall be glad to let her have one of my ponies,” Chunmei said.

  Aunt Wu thanked her and declined. They stood up again and made ready to go. Chunmei sent for the Abbot and gave him a roll of cloth and five qian of silver. He thanked her and went with all the ladies as far as the main gateway. There Yueniang said good-bye to Chunmei. The girl watched Yueniang and the others get into their sedan chairs, and then got into her own. The two parties went in different directions. Chunmei with her servants went to Xinzhuang.

  CHAPTER 90

  Sun Xue’e’s Elopement

  The dodder clings to the raspberry bush

  Its tendrils are not very long.

  To lose one’s virtue at a rake’s hands

  Is worse than to be thrown out in the street.

  In the night he is kind to me

  But the mattress of my bed is not warm enough.

  He comes in the evening and goes in the morning

  Is this not too hasty of him?

  I am going to my end

  And the old pain stabs my heart.

  Uncle Wu took Wu Yueniang and the others along the bank shaded by many great trees. Daian had already prepared for them at a small hill not far from the wineshop in the village of Apricot Blossom, where everything was busy and lively. He had been waiting for them a long time. Then the sedan chairs arrived with Yueniang and the other ladies, and the donkeys with Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu. He asked Yueniang why they were so late, and she told him of the meeting with Chunmei at the Temple of Eternal Felicity. Wine was served and they all sat down in the open air.