"Chu Yuan begged the king to give up his evil ways, but he would not listen. At last, in despair, the good poet decided to throw himself into the river. 'Perhaps then,' he said, 'the king will be sorry and will come to his senses.'
"When the people heard that Chu Yuan had jumped into the river they wept. They set out in boats to look for him. They searched and they searched, but the river was deep and no trace could be found. They made up packets of food which they threw into the river lest he should be hungry. But one of the officials saw Chu Yuan in a dream. 'I cannot get the food you send,' the poet seemed to say. 'It melts in the water! Wrap it in palm leaves so that it will keep dry.' And that, my children, is why on this day of the year we always roll up our steamed rice cakes in tender green leaves and tie them with palm fibers.
"Ever since that time when the people searched for Chu Yuan, on this Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, boats fill the lakes and the rivers in memory of the good poet. When it rains on this day we know that the gods in the sky also weep for Chu Yuan."
"But why couldn't they find Chu Yuan, Lao Lao?" asked Ah Shung.
"Who knows, Little Bear?" the Old Old One replied. "Perhaps he was hidden in the Dragon King's palace. They needed the magic gourd which Old Li used at the time when the Eight Old Ones crossed the sea. With it they could have seen the bottom of the river, no matter how deep it was, and they would surely have discovered Chu Yuan, just as the Old Ones found their lost comrade."
The children knew well the Eight Old Ones of whom their grandmother spoke. Upon vases in the family hall, on some of the teapots and the eating bowls, on fans, and on scroll paintings they had seen likenesses of these eight famous persons who possessed the gift of living forever, and who usually traveled together.
There was Old Li, with his iron crutch and his great gourd into which he jumped each night in order to sleep. There was Chung Li, who always carried a fine feather fan to show he had been an important official. And there was Old Chang on his white mule. The story said Chang's white mule was made out of paper and that when he did not need it he folded it up and put it away in his pocket. When he wished to travel again he had only to breathe on the paper steed and it was ready to carry him for thousands of miles. Sometimes Chang was painted riding with his face to the tail of his mule; sometimes, with it turned toward the mule's ears; and in his hand he held a rosy peach or a long phoenix feather.
Ah Shung liked Old Lu, with the magic sword which had been given him by the fire dragon and which helped him to hide in the Heavenly Kingdom, while Yu Lang's favorite Old Ones were Han, with his flower basket, who had made such strange plants to grow, and Ho, with her lotus blossom and peach-of-long-life. Ho was the only woman among the famous Eight Old Ones. The little girl was interested, too, in Lan, the Old One with the flute. She herself was learning to play tunes on a "pi-pa," an instrument with four strings, which in other lands is known as a lute. The most elegant of all the Old Ones, the children thought, was Tsao, who never forgot his wood tablet which showed he belonged to the Emperor's family.
These Eight Old Ones always seemed calm and happy. There were smiles on their painted faces. Because they were sure of living forever, their number, "eight," was said to be lucky.
"I thought the Eight Old Ones always traveled on clouds, Lao Lao," said Ah Shung when his grandmother spoke of their crossing the sea.
"Perhaps they were tired of riding back and forth through the sky. Perhaps they thought they should like to see the realm of the Dragon King under the sea," the old woman replied. "For one day they did come down from the clouds and set forth over the waters. A picture I have at home shows them in a boat, but the story says that they each rode by themselves, Li on his iron crutch, Chung on his fan, Chang on his white mule, and Lu on his sword. Han sat on his flower basket, and Ho in the heart of her lotus blossom, while Lan's boat was his flute, and Tsao's his wooden tablet.
"In these curious ways the Eight Old Ones traveled upon the sea safely, until the Dragon King's son, looking up from below, saw the flute of Old Lan. This Dragon Prince gave his father much trouble, for he was always forgetting the rules of behavior. This time he decided that he wanted that flute for himself, so he seized poor Old Lan and made him his prisoner under the sea.
"The Old Ones were alarmed when they found that Lan and his flute had disappeared under the waves. And it was then that Old Li brought forth his magic gourd. He turned its mouth downward toward the sea bottom, and at once there streamed forth such a strong light that every cranny and corner of the Dragon King's realm was as bright as the day.
"On the floor of the ocean the Old Ones could see the splendid palaces of colored stone through which the light shone. They could catch the shimmer of the Dragon King's pearls and the fiery lights from his opals. Before their eyes the fish swimming in the very deepest parts of the sea were as plain as the goldfish are to us out in our garden.
"But the Dragon King was alarmed at the strong beam of light that disturbed his dim kingdom, and he sent a messenger to find out whence it had come.
"'The Dragon King's peace is destroyed by that bright light,' the messenger said to the Old Ones. 'He bids you turn it away.'
"'Say to the Dragon King,' the Old Ones replied, 'that we seek for our comrade, Lan, and his flute. The Dragon Prince seized him. We can see that he is a prisoner down there in his palace.'
"When the messenger returned the Dragon King called his wicked son to him and he bade him give up Old Lan and his flute. But the prince refused to obey, and he set forth with his sword to attack the Old Ones who had dared send such a message to the Dragon King. As he drew near the Old Ones they let down a line with a great fishing hook on it. They caught the wicked prince and made him their prisoner. 'Tell the Dragon King,' they said, 'that we will restore his son to him when he has set our comrade free.'
"The Dragon King was reasonable. He knew his son had done wrong, and he was about to let Old Lan go free, when his court ministers objected. 'Who are these, mighty Dragon King,' they said, 'that they should dare to hold our prince prisoner just because of a flute and one aged man? Permit us to give them a taste of our power.'
"The court ministers insisted, until at last the Dragon King consented that the undersea armies should be sent forth to find the Old Ones who held the Dragon Prince prisoner. In the meantime these Old Ones had called upon all the men who, like themselves, had the power of living forever. They called on the gods in the Heavenly Kingdom and on the spirits who dwell on the mountains of Kun Lun in the realm of the Western Empress.
"What a battle there was when the two mighty armies came face to face with each other. The noise was so great that it woke the god who rules all the waters, and he came forth from his palace to see what it meant. When he heard the story he was angry with the Dragon King and his son, and he threatened to take their kingdom away.
"'Give back the flute and set free its owner,' the Water God ordered, 'and see that you make welcome to your kingdom those Eight Blessed Old Ones.'
"Well, the Dragon Prince was surly, but he made no more trouble, and the Dragon King opened up the waters so that the Eight Old Ones might explore his undersea realm. All the things they saw there and the adventures they had would take too long to tell, my children. The sky dragons have already drawn the sun's chariot to the edge of the world and it is time for us to go home."
XIX
THE WHITE SNAKE
I SHALL EAT the spider," Ah Shung said to his sister.
"I shall eat the toad," the little girl replied, as she chose a cake from the plate which a maid set on the table.
The Ling family was gathered for the evening meal in the family hall. After their long day at the dragon-boat races everyone was tired. The Old Old One made no move to rise from her seat at the head of the red-covered table, even though the last bowl of rice had long since been emptied.
"Mine is a centipede," and "Mine is a scorpion," two of the other children cried as they examined the sugar on the cakes they had selected. T
hese cakes with the likenesses of insects and animals on their round tops were always served at the Ling tables on this Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon.
"And I have a snake," Lao Lao called across to the children, whose excited voices she had overheard. "All the five poisonous creatures are here. It is well that we pay heed to them, for this is the day when they and their brothers crawl out of their holes. I trust Wang Lai has given each one of you the drink that keeps them away. We must take care, or trouble might come to us on this account, as it came on this day so long ago when the White Snake brought the flood."
"We do not quite understand those words, Lao Lao," Ah Shung said as his grandmother finished the last bite of her cake. "Please tell us what they mean. " With the other children, the boy left his place at the smaller table and crossed the great room to his grandmother's side.
"It is a story, Small Bear," the Old Old One said, "but it is not a long story, and if you are not too weary after your journey to the lake, I will tell it to you. One day, hundreds of years ago, a young man, whom we may as well call Ming, was walking along between the rice fields outside the town where he lived. In the distance he saw a crowd of young men, shouting and laughing and jumping about.
"Ming hurried to find out what they were doing, and when he had pushed his way through the group, he saw on the ground a snake as pale as white jade. The youths were tormenting it. They poked its coils with their staffs and they threw stones at its head. Almost they had killed it when the young man arrived.
"Now this lad had a kind heart. He could not bear to see anything suffer, not even a snake. He cried out to the young men who were worrying the poor creature and he bade them stop with such fierce words that they obeyed. When they had gone on their way, Ming brought the snake food to eat and water to drink.
"As Ming stood looking down at the white serpent, a strange thing happened, my loves. The creature began to writhe and to wriggle. All at once its snake's body disappeared and in its place there was a maiden so fair that Ming thought she must have flown down from the Heavenly Kingdom.
"'To reward your kind heart, O Noble Young Man,' the fair maiden said, 'I will wed you, and good luck shall dwell with us under your roof.' Ming by no means objected to marrying such a beautiful girl, and he gladly took her home with him to his family courts.
"The young man and his bride were happy together. Ming had no idea that there was anything wrong until one day he climbed the mountain near by on whose top there stood a temple to the great god, Buddha. There, saying his prayers, Ming found an old monk whose head was shaved bare as a pumpkin and whose long robe was yellow, the color of mustard.
"'Take care, young man,' the monk warned Ming. 'Take care! There is danger inside your gate.'
"'How can that be, Holy Man?' Ming said, 'Inside our gate there are only my father and my mother and my dear wife.'
"'But your wife is no ordinary wife, Good Young Sir,' the old monk replied, shaking his shaven head. 'She is a fairy. Whether she be a good fairy or a bad fairy, I do not know. But my advice to you is to stay hidden here in our temple out of her reach.'
"Ming was badly frightened. He remembered the white snake and how it had vanished just before his bride appeared. So he consented to take shelter with the yellow-robed monk.
"The young wife waited and waited for her husband to return. As the days and nights passed and he did not come back, she grew more and more angry. For, my children, it was indeed true that she was a fairy, the very white serpent which Ming had saved and which had the power of changing itself into a woman.
"'I will find out where my husband is,' the White Snake said to herself. 'I will send a great flood to cover the land. That will surely drive him forth from the place where he is hiding.' And she changed herself into a white serpent again and darted out of the house. Across the fields she twisted and turned until she came to the lake, and it was her magic power that caused its water to rise and flow over the banks.
"The people rushed from their houses and sought safety on the hills. Up, up, rose the flood waters. They spread over the countryside like a vast sea. Soon no land could be seen but the top of the mountain. The old monk spread his yellow robe out as far as it would go, and such is the greatness of the god Buddha, my small ones, that it covered the entire peak.
"When the White Snake's flood reached the edge of the monk's robe, its waters stopped short. For her power was as nothing against the power of Buddha. When the fairy saw that her husband did not come forth from his hiding place and that the waters would go no further, she knew that her plan had failed. She sent the waters back into the lake and she changed her snake's body into that of a woman once more. Under a willow tree she sat down to weep and to wait until her husband should return of his own accord.
"In the temple on the mountain top the old monk spoke to Ming. 'One seeing is worth one hundred tellings,' he said, 'and you have seen for yourself the trouble your fairy wife has caused. But I have looked into the future and I find it is safe now for you to go back to your own home. In a short time your wife will present you with a son. He will be a wonderful child, for the spirit that will dwell in his body will be that of a god from the Heavenly Kingdom. Through him, honor and fame will come to your house.
"'With this child,' the monk continued, 'your wife wipes out many of her sins of the past, but she cannot escape being punished for her wrongdoing in bringing the flood. No one, not even a fairy, can so go against the will of the gods.'
"'O-yo, my poor wife,' Ming cried in despair. 'What is to become of her?'
"'Do not fear, Good Young Man,' said the old monk. 'Your wife will not suffer. But she must spend the rest of her days beneath a pagoda, where she may prepare herself for the life-that-lasts-forever on the mountains of Kun Lun. Shut up so she will have no chance of raising the waters again.'
"And that is what happened to the White Snake, my children," Grandmother Ling said in ending her story. "A splendid pagoda, with five curving roofs, rose over her dwelling place under the earth. It was none other than the Thunder Peak Pagoda which still stands today near the West Lake and which some call the Pagoda of the White Snake. Inside it are kept the writings of the wise ones who set down the words of Buddha himself, and to it there go every year hundreds of scholars who wish to consult them."
"What happened to the baby that was born to the White Snake, Lao Lao?" asked Yu Lang.
"As the old monk foretold, Little Jade Flower," the Old Old One replied, "he was truly from heaven. He was wise. He was clever with the hair pen. Such splendid writings came from his hand that it was said he had to help him twelve tiny dragons, the messengers of the Black Pine whose oil helped make his ink. They lived in the well of his ink stone and they put such magic power into his ink that it was called Dragon Fragrance. It is because of this that we now often say of a poet, 'he has dipped his hair pen into the Dragon Fragrance.' And it is the son of the White Snake that we worship in these times as the God of Writings and Books."
XX
PRINCE CHU TI'S CITY
STRANGERS SIT TODAY with our father in the Hall of Politeness, Lao Lao," said Ah Shung when he came with Yu Lang for their afternoon visit in the Old Old One's apartment.
"I know," replied Grandmother Ling. "They are great men from Peking. I should like to hear the news they bring, but today I am tired and must rest. " The old woman was half sitting, half lying, under a green silken comforter upon the broad brick bed. Its curtains were pushed back so that she could look out of her open window at the sunny courtyard and watch the goings and comings of her household.
"Ai, Peking, where the Emperor lives, is a great city," Lao Lao said to the children. "I have been there. I have walked on the top of the mighty wall that surrounds it. And what a sight I saw from that high place! Roofs, roofs, roofs, and among them the tops of the trees in the gardens! Across the sea of their gray tiles I could pick out the wall which surrounds the part of Peking that is called the Imperial City. There lie the courts of the most important mandarins
, those fortunate men who hold high positions under the Emperor.
"I could even see the yellow-tiled roofs of the palaces of the Son of Heaven himself and pick out the high wall of pink brick that shuts them away from the rest of the world. The Emperor's courts are so many that they seem like a city. No one but princes and nobles may enter them. That is why, my little ones, the part of Peking where the Emperor dwells is called the Forbidden City."
"Did the Son of Heaven build Peking, Lao Lao?" Ah Shung asked.
"Not that one who now sits upon the Dragon Throne, Little Bear," was the reply. "How the present city of Peking was built is a long tale. But it is a good tale. I heard it from the lips of my own grandmother. Listen and I will tell it to you.
"Long, long ago the place of the Dragon Throne was in the city of Nanking, far to the southeast of our northern capital, Peking. There, in splendid palaces, the Emperor lived with his nobles about him. And thither from all parts of the land men journeyed to make their kowtows before him.
"The Son of Heaven of that time had several wives and the gods sent him many sons. It is not at all strange that the royal mothers should have been jealous of one another. Each was eager that her son should be chosen to take his father's place upon the Dragon Throne when the flower of the Emperor's life should have been plucked by the gods.
"The number one wife, the Empress herself, was more jealous than the rest. And this was strange because her son was the one whom the Emperor would have been most likely to choose. But as she saw the other princes grow up, she feared lest their father might take a strong fancy to this one or that one and put him in the place of her beloved son.
Tales of a Chinese Grandmother Page 11