The Debt of Tears

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘Tis Love that rules the minds of men,

  And of this Truth Eternal

  Obscures all trace:

  That even harvest moons must wane

  And purest beauty vernal

  Fade from grace.

  Alas, ’twas Mortal Love

  That veiled my sight,

  And all but stole me

  From my Orb of Light.’

  Next on the programme was ‘A wife Eats Husks’, from ‘The Story of the Lute’, followed by ‘Bodhidharma and his Disciple Crossing the River’, from ‘The Pilgrim’s Path’. This last scene was full of the most spectacular feats of acrobatic mime and other phantasmagorical effects. The excitement had just reached its height when one of the Xue family’s servants, his face dripping with sweat, burst into the courtyard auditorium and hurried over to Xue Ke’s table:

  ‘Master Ke! Come home quickly! And send word in to Madam that she must come too. It’s very urgent!’

  ‘What’s happened?’ asked Xue Ke.

  ‘I’ll tell you when we get home, sir!’ panted the boy.

  Without even stopping to thank his hosts, Xue Ke followed the boy out of the courtyard, sending one of the Jia maids in with a message to the ladies’ enclosure. When Aunt Xue heard the news, she went white in the face. Taking Bao-qin with her, she made a distracted farewell and went straight out to her carriage, leaving the whole assembly in a state of high alarm.

  ‘We had better send someone over with them,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘I am sure everyone is most anxious to learn what this is all about.’

  They all agreed.

  *

  The players continued with their programme. But we must leave them and follow Aunt Xue, who on her arrival at home saw two yamen runners waiting in the inner gateway. With them were some employees from the family pawnshop.

  ‘When Mrs Xue arrives,’ they were saying, ‘she’ll be able to explain everything.’

  When the yamen runners saw this elderly lady sweeping up to the gate with her large retinue of male and female attendants, and realized the distinguished position of the person they were dealing with, they stood to attention and let her pass. Aunt Xue went on through the reception hall and could already, hear the sound of heavy wailing coming from her daughter-in-law’s apartment. She quickened her step. Bao-chai came out to meet her, her face wet with tears.

  ‘Have you heard, Mama? Please don’t panic! We must try to do something!’

  They went inside together. Aunt Xue had already been told the main facts by one of the servants on her way in, and was still sobbing and trembling from the shock.

  ‘But who? Who was it?’ she asked agitatedly.

  ‘Madam,’ said one of the servants, ‘details like that are not going to make much difference at present. The law says “a life for a life”. So we must think what to do.’

  ‘Think!’ cried Aunt Xue hysterically. ‘What’s the earthly good of thinking at a time like this?’

  The best thing as we see it,’ continued the servant, ‘is this. First, send young Master Ke with some money tonight to visit Mr Pan in prison. Then, first thing tomorrow, Master Ke must get himself a good scrivener, someone well-versed in legal terminology. He must offer him a good fee to make sure this death-sentence is quashed. Then, when that’s been done, we must ask one of the Jia gentlemen here to pull a few strings. But first of all, we must tip the yamen runners outside a few taels. Then we can get on with the rest of the plan.’

  Aunt Xue was not convinced.

  ‘Just find the man’s family,’ she said. ‘Give them whatever they want for funeral expenses and compensation. If they don’t press the charge, surely he’ll be let off lightly?’

  Bao-chai’s voice could be heard through the door-curtain:

  ‘No, Mama, that will never do. The more money we hand out the more trouble we’ll cause in the long run. We should do as the boy says.’

  ‘What have I left to live for?’ sobbed Aunt Xue. ‘Let me go there and see him once! Then the two of us can die together!’

  Bao-chai begged her to take heart, and at the same time called out for the boy to set off with Xue Ke at once. The maids helped Aunt Xue indoors again. Xue Ke came by on his way out.

  ‘Send someone home with a letter as soon as you have any news,’ Bao-chai instructed him. ‘You must stay there. We’re counting on you.’

  Xue Ke promised to do his utmost and left.

  While Bao-chai applied herself once more to the task of soothing her agitated mother, Xia Jin-gui took the opportunity of launching an undisturbed attack on Caltrop:

  ‘So a murder was nothing to this family, was it?’ she screamed at her. ‘You all came straight up to town afterwards as if nothing had happened, did you? Well it looks as if you spoke once too often, Miss Swanky Panky! Because this time it’s the real thing, and look at you! Where’s all your money and all your fine friends and posh relatives now? You’re all so scared you don’t know if you’re coming or going! And in a few days, when they put Pan away, then I suppose you’ll bugger off and leave me here to carry the can single-handed!’

  She broke into one of her dramatic wails. Aunt Xue heard every word and was so furious that she fainted. Bao-chai was at her wits’ end. And in the midst of this pandemonium one of Lady Wang’s senior maids arrived, to ask ‘if there was any news’. This presented Bao-chai with an additional problem. She was fully aware of her delicate position since the official betrothal visit a few days previously, and knew that strictly speaking she should shun all contact with her future bridegroom’s family (including the domestic staff). However, the fact that the betrothal was still not finally settled, and the nature of the present emergency, seemed to justify a temporary waiving of the rules.

  ‘We don’t know the full story yet,’ she said to the maid. ‘All we’ve heard is that my brother has killed someone and that he has been arrested by the local magistrate. We don’t know exactly what kind of homicide he has been found guilty of, but Master Ke has gone to find out. We should have more definite news in a day or two and will let Her Ladyship know straight away. Please thank her for her kind inquiry and say that at a later stage we’ll be sure to need all the support Sir She and Sir Zheng can give us.’

  The maid returned with this message.

  The next two days were spent by Aunt Xue and Bao-chai waiting in unbearable suspense. At last on the third day a boy came back with a letter from Xue Ke, which he gave to a maid to hand to the ladies. Bao-chai opened it, and this is what she read:

  ‘Pan’s case is “fatal bodily harm by mischance”, not “intentional homicide”. I lodged an appeal in my own name first thing this morning and am still waiting for the magistrate’s rescript. Pan bungled his original statement, and once the appeal has been approved, we must change his plea at the rehearing. We should be able to get him off.

  ‘I urgently need Tls. 5oo. Have the pawnshop forward it without delay. Tell Aunt not to worry. The boy can tell you the rest.’

  When Bao-chai had finished reading the letter aloud to her, Aunt Xue wiped her eyes and said:

  ‘His life hangs in the balance, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Before you go upsetting yourself all over again, Mama,’ said Bao-chai, ‘let’s send for the boy and ask him what he knows.’

  A maid was sent to fetch the boy. When he came in, Aunt Xue told him to give them a full account of everything he had heard.

  ‘The evening we arrived,’ he began, ‘when I heard what Mr Pan told Master Ke, I nearly died of fright…’

  But for the rest of the account, please turn to the next chapter.

  Chapter 86

  Bribery induces an old mandarin to tamper with the course of justice

  And a discourse on the Qin provides a young lady with a vehicle for romantic feelings

  It was told in the last chapter how Bao-chai read Xue Ke’s letter aloud to her mother, who then summoned the boy and told him to repeat whatever Xue Pan had said about his misadventure.

  ‘I cou
ldn’t make out every word, ma’am,’ he began, ‘but I did hear Mr Pan tell Master Ke that…’

  He glanced quickly round the room, and having satisfied himself that there was no one else present, continued:

  ‘… that he couldn’t stand any more of the terrible scenes at home, and had decided to go on a business trip in the South. He knew someone in this town about seventy miles south of the capital, and - was thinking of asking him along on his travels. On his way to this man’s house, who should he meet but that fellow Jiang Yu-han he used to be friendly with, on his way to the capital with some young actors. The two of them went into a bar for a jug of wine and a bite to eat, and that’s when things started to go wrong. The waiter kept making eyes at Jiang, which made Mr Pan angry. Well, Jiang left that same day. But the next day, Mr Pan took this other man – the one he was planning to travel with – to the same bar for a drink. After a few rounds he remembered the waiter’s cheeky behaviour and made a point of complaining about the wine. The waiter took a long time coming with a fresh jug; Mr Pan picked up his cup and aimed it at the waiter’s face. Well, the waiter turned out to be a daring sort of rogue himself; he stuck his head out and challenged Mr Pan to hit him. Next thing, wham! Mr Pan smashed the cup right down on top of his head. Blood came spurting out, and the waiter went down, cursing and swearing. Then he came over all quiet…’

  ‘But why on earth did nobody try to stop them?’ asked Aunt Xue.

  ‘I didn’t hear Mr Pan say anything about that, ma’am. That’s all I know.’

  ‘All right. You may go and rest now.’

  ‘Thank you ma’am.’

  So saying, the boy went out.

  Aunt Xue went first to her sister and entrusted her with the task of enlisting Jia Zheng’s support. When Lady Wang brought the matter up and gave Jia Zheng a detailed account of what had happened, he hummed and hawed and said that he could do nothing until Xue Ke’s appeal had gone through the normal channels and the judge had issued his rescript.

  Aunt Xue had the five hundred taels weighed out in the family pawnshop and gave it to the boy to deliver posthaste to Xue Ke.

  Three days later, the letter they were waiting for arrived. It was handed to Aunt Xue, who sent a junior maid at once to fetch Bao-chai. She hurried over, and this is what she read:

  ‘Dear Aunt. Tls. 500 received and distributed as tips among the yamen staff. Pan is being reasonably treated in jail, so please don’t worry.

  ‘Our problem is that the people here are being very awkward. Neither the dead man’s family nor the eye-witnesses will cooperate. Even Pan’s so-called friend – the one he invited to travel with him – is on their side. It’s especially hard for Li Xiang and myself, as strangers, but luckily we have managed to find a good scrivener who has agreed to help us – for a pretty stiff fee. His advice was that we should get to work on Wu Liang (that’s the “friend”). First, since he was being held in custody as a primary witness, we should get someone to stand bail for him; then offer him money to corroborate our plea of death by mischance. If Wu refused to cooperate we were to try accusing him of being the murderer himself and of using an outsider as a scapegoat. He’d be too scared then not to play along.

  ‘So far so good. We got Wu out on bail, bribed the family and various other witnesses, and lodged our appeal the day before yesterday. The rescript was issued today. It speaks for itself.’

  Bao-chai went on to read out the copy of the appeal and appended rescript.

  APPEAL

  brought by Xue Ke, younger cousin of and proxy for the defendant, Xue Pan, wrongfully convicted of the Intentional Homicide by Blows of Zhang San, late of this county.

  STATEMENT OF FACTS: The defendant, registered domicile Nanking, at present resident in the capital, on the __ of the __ month, left home intending to do business in the Southern Provinces. Not many days later, his servant returned home with the news that the defendant had been involved in an incident in which another party had lost his life. The appellant came hither in all haste, to discover that the above-mentioned Mr Zhang had indeed met his death at the hand of the defendant, but that it was a case of Fatal Bodily Harm by Mischance and not of Intentional Homicide by Blows, as previously alleged.

  PLEA: On arrival at the County Jail, the appellant was a witness to the most earnest protestations of innocence on the part of the defendant, and hearty denial of any previous animosity towards Zhang, with whom indeed he had not been in the slightest degree acquainted before the incident in question, which had occurred solely as the result of a trivial disagreement over a jug of wine. The defendant, by way of complaint, emptied the contents of his cup onto the floor. At precisely the same instant, the deceased bent down to retrieve some object from an adjacent spot, slipping as he did so, with the unfortunate, but entirely accidental consequence that a fatal collision occurred between the defendant’s cup and the deceased’s os bregmatis.

  When Your Honour saw fit to apprehend the defendant and subject him to judicial interrogation, his terror of the rack was so extreme that he rashly admitted the charge of Homicide by Blows, thus bringing upon himself the sentence of Strangulation, with possibility of Commutation to Exile. Your Honour, in your great Wisdom and Clemency, aware no doubt of some latent injustice, has delayed passing sentence until the present time. The defendant, being in custody, is prevented by law from appealing pro sua parte. The appellant has therefore been emboldened by considerations of family loyalty to act on his behalf, most humbly and earnestly beseeching Your Honour to reopen the case and subject all parties concerned to a second examination. This would be a magnanimous course of action, and one that would earn the never-ending gratitude and lifelong devotion of the appellant and his entire family.

  Bao-chai now came to the judge’s rescript, which read as follows:

  RESCRIPT

  An inquest was held at the scene of the crime, and the evidence heard was conclusive. No torture of any kind was applied to the defendant, who freely admitted the charge, viz. Homicide by Blows. His admission of guilt has now been officially entered in the records.

  You, the appellant, an outsider with no first-hand knowledge of the case, in presuming to fabricate this unfounded appeal are guilty of contempt of court. In view of the mitigating circumstances of family loyalty, your offence will be overlooked in this instance.

  APPEAL REJECTED

  ‘There’s no hope left then!’ cried Aunt Xue. ‘What can we do now?’

  ‘That isn’t all,’ said Bao-chai. ‘There’s a P.S.’

  She read on:

  ‘For confidential instructions, ask the boy – urgent.’

  Aunt Xue immediately questioned the boy, who supplied the following information:

  ‘The people at the yamen know how rich we are, ma’am, and Master Ke says we’ll have to use family connections here in the capital, and send another large bribe, if we’re to get a rehearing and a lighter sentence. He says you must act quickly, ma’am, as delay now could mean hardship for Mr Pan.’

  Aunt Xue dismissed the boy and went at once to see her sister again. Lady Wang pleaded strenuously with Jia Zheng, but the most he was prepared to do was send someone to ‘have a word’ with the judge. He refused to contemplate the use of ‘pecuniary considerations’. Aunt Xue, fearing that this gesture would prove ineffective, begged Xi-feng to speak to Jia Lian. The judge’s price was high – the figure ran into several thousands of taels; but in the end an agreement was reached, and the way was clear for Xue Ke to proceed with his plan.

  The case was officially re-opened, and all the parties concerned were summoned once more to the district yamen – the beadle, eye-witnesses, relatives of the deceased, etc. Xue Pan was brought out from the cells. The clerk of the court called the roll, and the judge ordered the chief beadle to verify the original depositions. Then Mrs Zhang (née Wang) and Zhang Er, the deceased’s mother and uncle, were called to give evidence.

  ‘May’t please Yeronner,’ began Mrs Zhang, punctuating her delivery with sobs, ‘w
e Zhangs are country folk and live to the south of town. Papa Zhang’s been gone these eighteen years. We had the three boys, but our eldest and second have both passed away. The only one as I had left was our third, and now he’s gone too!’ (More sobs.)

  ‘Twenty-three this year he’d’ve been, anitplease Yeronner, and still a single lad. He’d took this job at Li’s Bar by way o’ helpin’ me out, seein’ as we’d so little comin’ in. It’d’ve been ’bout midday when this man come to the door – I can see ’im now – “There’s been a fight at Li’s Bar!” says he, “And your boy’s been killed!” My poor heart, Yeronner! I was took that bad! I runned to Li’s and there was my boy lyin’ on the ground, the blood runnin’ out ’is poor ’ead! I tried askin’ ’im what ’ad ’appened, but ’e couldn’t say nothing, ’e was ’ardly breathin’, and then … well, then ’e was gone! If I could only get my hands on that wickedevilmurderin’…’

  A growl of disapproval rippled through the ranks of the court underlings. Mrs Zhang rapidly kotowed to the bench:

  ‘All I’m askin’ for is reglar justice Yeronner! He was all I’ad left in the world!’

  ‘Next witness – Gaffer Li!’ called the judge peremptorily.

  Gaffer Li, proprietor of Li’s Bar, came forward and knelt before the bench.

  ‘Was this fellow Zhang employed for casual work on your premises?’ asked the judge.

  ‘He was a regular waiter,’ replied Li.

  ‘I see here that in your original deposition, as recorded at the Inquest, you state that Xue Pan dealt Zhang San a fatal blow on the head. Tell me, did you personally observe this blow?’

  ‘No, Your Honour. I was behind the counter at the time, in the tap-room. I heard that one of the customers in a private room had ordered some wine. Then a little later I heard that someone had been hurt. I ran in and saw Zhang San lying on the floor. He couldn’t speak. I informed the beadle, and sent someone to tell Mrs Zhang. I have no idea how the fight started. There was a gentleman sitting at Mr Xue’s table, Your Honour. Perhaps he could supply the necessary information…’