The Golden Lotus, Volume 1

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Ah,” Aunt Wu said, laughing, “even a baby of his age seems to know the meaning of love.”

  “Think who is his father,” Yueniang said. “When he grows up, he will assuredly be a very gay young man.”

  “If he is anything of the sort, I shall ask you to beat him,” Yulou said.

  “Baby,” Li Ping’er said, “Sister is carrying you, and you must not soil her clothes. If you do, I shall beat you.”

  “I don’t mind whether he does or not,” Guijie said. “I love to have him in my arms and play with him.”

  Dong Jiao’er said: “We have been here a long time but we have not yet sung for the ladies.” Han Yuchuan took her lute and Dong Jiao’er her zither: Wu Yin’er sang. She sang the song “Splendor of Riches Like the Moon at the Full. The Golden Chain Hangs on the Wu T’ung Tree.” Her voice echoed through the rafters and stirred the dust there. It seemed powerful enough to pass through rocks and mount even to the skies.

  Guan’ge was frightened. He lay still against Guijie’s breast and dared not lift his head. Yueniang saw this. “Take the child,” she said to Li Ping’er, “and let Yingchun take him to your room. What a delicate child he is. Look at his pale face.” Li Ping’er took the baby. She bade Yingchun cover his ears with her hands and take him out.

  The girls were still singing when Daian came in. “I have been to Mistress Qiao’s,” he said. “Mistress Chu and Master Shang’s wife were ready; they were only waiting for Lady Qiao the Fifth. They will be here in a few moments. The musicians are ready both at the gate and in the hall. Ladies, you will do well to expect them at any moment.”

  Yueniang saw that many beautiful things were set about in the back hall, and the chairs put in their proper places. The lattices were suspended by golden chains and the air was sweetly perfumed. Chunmei, Yingchun, Yuxiao and Lanxiang were dressed in their new clothes. All the maids and serving women wore ornaments of gold and silver, and, in their dresses of green and gold, waited to do honor to the new relative of the household.

  The first person to arrive was Ying Bojue’s wife. Ying Bao was in attendance upon her. Yueniang welcomed her and took her to her room. Madam Ying made reverence after reverence to Yueniang. “We are always troubling you,” she said, “troubling you beyond all reason.”

  “Not at all,” Yueniang said, “it is we who are always troubling your worthy husband.”

  Soon they heard the shouts of men clearing the way; then the musicians in the outer hall began to play. Ping’an came and announced Lady Qiao’s sedan chair. A host of people surrounded the five sedan chairs that had stopped outside the gate. The first was that of Lady Qiao the Fifth. It was covered with a canopy of sky-blue and had a double gold fringe around it. The men who cleared the way carried rattans. Behind the large chair were smaller ones for the maidservants. Then four soldiers with dressing cases and braziers. Then two black-robed attendants riding on ponies. After Lady Qiao the Fifth came Mistress Qiao, then Mistress Zhu, Master Shang’s wife and Miss Duan, a sister-in-law of an officer named Cui.

  Ximen Qing’s six ladies, most exquisitely dressed and looking like jade carvings, came to the second door to welcome their guests and escorted Lady Qiao the Fifth to the hall. Lady Qiao was about seventy years old. She was not very tall. She wore a headdress of pearls with many precious stones and a scarlet gown embroidered in the palace fashion. Her hair was perfectly white and her eyebrows like two strips of snow. Her eyes were like autumn water, perhaps rather dark. Hair like a bundle of silk fell, not in too great abundance, over her temples. It was like the cloud resting on the Chu Mountain.

  When they came to the hall, she made a reverence first to Aunt Wu, then to Wu Yueniang and the others. Yueniang asked Lady Qiao to accept a reverence from her, but the old lady refused. Even after much discussion, she would only accept a half reverence. Then Yueniang greeted Mistress Qiao in the manner appointed for relatives. After the greetings they thanked one another for the presents that had been exchanged. Then they took their seats. Lady Qiao the Fifth sat upon a chair with an embroidered cushion in front of the screen. Yueniang asked Mistress Qiao to sit next to her, but she said: “I must not sit next to the Fifth Lady, for I am her niece.” Mistress Zhu and Master Shang’s wife were invited to take the next places. They made a show of hesitation and the matter was settled after much discussion, with Lady Qiao the Fifth in the most honorable place and the others according to their rank.

  In the midst of the hall was a great square stove with fire burning. It made the room as warm as though it were spring. Chunmei, Yuxiao, Yingchun and Lanxiang, dressed in their best clothes, served the wine.

  “Will you not introduce me to your distinguished husband?” Lady Qiao the Fifth said. “I should like to salute him in accordance with the rites between relatives.”

  Yueniang told her that Ximen Qing had gone to his office and had not yet returned.

  “What office does he hold?” Lady Qiao asked.

  “He was only a private citizen,” Yueniang said, “but the Imperial Court was gracious and made him Captain of a Thousand Families, and he has duties at the law courts. I fear that this betrothal will lower the prestige of your house.”

  “What is that you say?” Lady Qiao the Fifth said. “We are quite content to be allied to one of such high rank as your worthy husband. My niece told me the other day about the matter and I was delighted. That is why I have come to see you today, and I trust that in future we shall see more of each other.”

  “My only fear,” Yueniang said, “is that we shall damage your reputation.”

  “Do not say that,” Lady Qiao replied, “even an Emperor sometimes marries the daughter of a commoner. If you do not mind my telling you rather a long story, I will explain to you that the present Empress of the Eastern Palace is a niece of mine. Her parents died and I looked after her. When my husband was alive, he succeeded to the post of High Commander. But he died, alas, when he was only fifty. I have no children and have always lived with my nephews, of whom none is wealthy but this one. Though he has no great position, he is able to live very comfortably, and I don’t think your family need be ashamed of him.”

  After they had talked for a while, Aunt Wu said to Yueniang: “Send for the baby and let her Ladyship see him and give him her blessing.” Li Ping’er at once bade the nurse take the baby and kowtow to the old lady. Lady Qiao the Fifth admired Guan’ge and said he was a very fine boy. She told her servants to open her bag, and from it took a piece of yellow silk shot with purple, such as is used at the Court, and a pair of golden armlets. These she presented to the child. Yueniang thanked her. Then she asked her to go to an inner room to change her clothes.

  In the outer court four tables were laid and tea was waiting. Upon each table there were forty dishes and every kind of delicacy imaginable. After tea Yueniang took them to see the gardens.

  By this time Chen Jingji had come back from the service at the temple, and, when he had taken a religious meal, he, with Shutong and Daian, arranged the tables in the outer hall. Then the ladies were invited to come to dinner, and a very magnificent banquet they had.

  Musicians and singers were posted near the tables. Wu Yueniang and Li Ping’er themselves served wine, while, outside the door, the musicians played. Then Mistress Qiao and the other ladies offered wine to Li Ping’er in celebration of her birthday and, afterwards, all took their places again. Guijie, Wu Yin’er, Han Yuchuan and Dong Jiao’er stood before them and sang the song “Long Mayest Thou Live Like the Southern Mountain.” The actors brought the list of their plays, and Lady Qiao the Fifth asked them to play the drama “On the Night of the Feast of Lanterns, Wang Yueying Lost a Shoe.” The cooks brought in small slices of roast goose, and were rewarded with five qian of silver. Five courses of meat were served and three of soup. The fourth act of the play was ended, and it began to grow dark. The candles in the hall and all kinds of lanterns were lighted. They looked like embroidered ribbons floating, like strings of color waving in the air. Then the full moon
rose and the moonbeams mingled with the lights within the hall. The musicians took their instruments and played the melody of the lanterns.

  When the music was done, Lady Qiao the Fifth and Mistress Qiao gave two taels of silver to the actors and two qian to each of the four singing girls. In the hall of the inner court, Yueniang had arranged for more tables to be prepared with fruits and other things. Now she asked the ladies to go there. The four tables were piled high; the singing girls sang, and the musicians played. They drank again.

  Several times Lady Qiao said, “It is late, and I must go.” At last Yueniang and the others were unable to dissuade her any longer, and they escorted her as far as the great gate. There they again offered her wine and stayed to see the fireworks. On both sides of the street, people were crowding, as close together as the scales on a fish, or as bees in a swarm. Ping’an and the soldiers kept the crowd back with their sticks, but still the people pushed forward. Then one of the fireworks was burnt out, and the people began gradually to drift away.

  Lady Qiao and her companions said farewell to Yueniang, got into their chairs and departed. It was about the third night watch. Ying Bojue’s wife went away too.

  Yueniang and the others then went to the inner court and told Chen Jingji, Laixing, Shutong and Daian to see to the clearing away of everything and to give the actors and their two leaders refreshments, pay them five taels of silver for their performance, and dismiss them.

  Yueniang said that some food and half a jar of wine that was left should be given to Clerk Fu, Ben the Fourth and Chen Jingji. “They have worked very hard,” she said, “and it is only right that they should have a cup of wine.” A table was set in the great hall. “I do not know when the master will return,” Yueniang told them, “so do not put out the lanterns.”

  Clerk Fu, Ben the Fourth, Chen Jingji and Laibao sat in the upper seats, Laixing, Shutong, Daian and Ping’an in the lower. The wine was poured out.

  “You had better put a man at the gate,” Laibao said to Ping’an. “If our master comes home, there will be no one to receive him.”

  “It is all right,” Ping’an said. “I have already posted Huatong there.”

  Then they amused themselves playing Guess Fingers and drinking wine.

  “Don’t let’s guess fingers,” Jingji said, “we must choose a quieter game. We shall be heard in the inner court if we make so much noise. Let each one recite a line of poetry. If he can do so, well and good, but if not, he must drink a large cup of wine. Now, Clerk Fu, you begin.”

  “At the Feast of Lanterns, I laughed at the streamers,” Clerk Fu said. “Happiness in life is only for dreamers,” added Ben the Fourth. “The moonlight and the lanterns are our joy today,” said Jingji. “So we’ll enjoy life as long as we may,” said Laibao. “I invited my girl, why isn’t she here?” said Laixing. “I, like the Great Lady, inspire with fear,” Shutong continued. Then Daian said, “Though the wine has been left us, the lanterns are dim.” “And the cup of enjoyment is full to the brim,” Ping’an said.

  They all laughed very merrily.

  CHAPTER 44

  The Thief Is Discovered

  Chen Jingji and the others drank their wine in the outer court. Aunt Wu’s sedan chair came for her. She got her things together and prepared to take her leave, but Wu Yueniang begged her not to go.

  “Sister-in-law,” she said, “please stay tonight. Go tomorrow instead.”

  “But I have stayed here and with the Qiaos for three or four days. There is no one at home, and your brother’s business keeps him busy at the office. I hope you will all come to see me tomorrow, and in the evening we will walk off the hundred illnesses.”

  “We will gladly come,” Yueniang said, “but it must be in the evening.”

  “No,” Aunt Wu said, “come early in your sedan chairs, and you can return on foot in the evening.”

  Yueniang filled one box with the pasties that are made for the Feast of Lanterns and another with spiced cake, and ordered Laian to accompany Aunt Wu. Then Li Guijie and the other singing girls kowtowed to Yueniang and made ready to leave.

  “Why are you in such a hurry?” Yueniang said. “You must wait for your father. He told me not to let you go before he came back. I fancy he has something to say to you, and I dare not let you go before he comes.”

  “But Father has gone to a party,” Guijie said, “and there is no telling when he will return. I don’t think we can wait for him. So please, Lady, let Wu Yin’er and me go. The others can stay. They only came today, but we have been here two days already, and I am sure my mother is anxious about me.”

  “I only want you to stay one night more,” Yueniang said.

  “Mother,” Guijie said, “it is very kind of you, but there is no one at home. My sister is engaged elsewhere. I will sing a song for you, and then you will let me go, won’t you?”

  While they were talking, Chen Jingji came in to give an account of the money that he had spent on the servants. “I gave the sedan men one qian of silver apiece, so, in all, I paid out about ten packets, about three taels. Here are ten packets left.” Yueniang took the silver.

  “Uncle,” Guijie said, “may I trouble you to go and see whether my sedan chair has come yet?”

  “The chairs have come for the other girls,” Jingji said, “but yours and Wu Yin’er’s are not here. I don’t know, but it is possible they may have been sent away again.”

  “Uncle,” Guijie said, “either you have sent them away yourself, or you are deceiving us.”

  “If you don’t believe me,” Chen Jingji said, “go and see for yourself.”

  Then Qintong came with the wrapper and told them that Ximen Qing had returned. “It is a good thing you didn’t go,” Yueniang said. “There is your father.”

  Ximen Qing came in. He had drunk a great deal of wine. He sat on the upper side, and Han Yuchuan and Dong Jiao’er kowtowed to him.

  “Have our guests gone?” Ximen asked his wife. “Why don’t you make the girls sing?”

  “They were just thinking of going home,” Yueniang said.

  “You and Wu Yin’er must not go away until the festival is over. The other two girls can go.”

  “There!” Yueniang said. “You wouldn’t believe me. I might be always telling stories. You hear what he says.” Guijie bent her head and said nothing.

  Ximen Qing asked Daian if the sedan chairs had come for the girls. The boy told him that those for Dong Jiao’er and Yuchuan were waiting.

  “I will not have any more wine,” Ximen said, “but take your instruments and sing for me. Then two of you may go.”

  The four singers took their instruments and sang the twenty-eight verses from Ten Bolts of Brocade. The ladies sat and listened. Afterwards, Ximen Qing gave some silver to Yuchuan and Dong Jiao’er and let them go. The two other girls stayed.

  Suddenly there was a great to-do in the outer court. Daian and Qintong, shouting, dragged in Xiahua, Li Jiao’er’s maid.

  “We had taken the two singing girls to the gate,” they said, “and had our lanterns with us. When we passed the stable to give some hay to the horses, we found Xiahua there, hiding under the manger. We had no idea what she was doing there, and we were startled. We spoke to her, but she made no answer.”

  Ximen Qing went outside and sat down on a chair underneath the eaves. He summoned Qintong, and the boy brought out the girl. She knelt down.

  “What were you doing in the outer court?” Ximen asked her. The maid was silent.

  “I didn’t send you to the stable,” Li Jiao’er said. “Why did you go there?” The maid was frightened. Ximen Qing was determined to know what it was all about and told the boy to search her. Qintong pulled the girl down; there was a tinkle, and something fell to the ground. Daian picked it up. It was the gold bracelet. Ximen Qing looked at it in the light of the lantern and recognized it as the missing piece of gold.

  “You slave!” he cried. “You stole it!”

  “I picked it up,” said the girl.
<
br />   “Where did you pick it up?”

  The girl made no reply. Ximen Qing was very angry. He sent Qintong for the thumbscrews. They were put on the girl’s hands and turned till she screamed like a pig being killed. Again the screws were turned, and twenty times they ground her fingers. Yueniang did not dare to try to stop her husband, for she knew that he was drunk. When the girl could bear no more, she cried. “I picked it up in the Sixth Lady’s room.”

  Ximen Qing had the thumbscrews removed, and told Li Jiao’er to take the girl away. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I will send for the go-between and sell the slave. I won’t have her here any more.”

  Li Jiao’er dared raise no objection. She said to the girl: “You thief! Who told you to go to the outer court? I know nothing of this. If you picked up the gold, why didn’t you tell me at once?” Xiahua sobbed. “You may well cry,” Li Jiao’er said. “You ought to be beaten to death.”

  “Stop!” Ximen Qing said. He gave the piece of gold to Yueniang and went to the apartments of Li Ping’er.

  Yueniang told Xiaoyu to fasten the second door. “When did that maid go to the outer court?” she asked Yuxiao.

  “When the Second Lady and the Third Lady went to the Sixth Lady’s room,” the maid answered, “Aunt Wu and our young lady went with them. That is when she went. Who would have dreamed of her stealing that piece of gold? She heard you say that Father had sent a boy to buy a piece of wolf sinew and she was frightened. In the kitchen she asked me what wolf sinew was. Everybody laughed, and we told her that wolf sinew was a part of the wolf’s body. We said that when a person steals anything and won’t give it up, a piece of wolf sinew is used to bind the thief’s hands and feet. When she heard this, she must have become alarmed. So, when the two singers went away, she went out too. Seeing people at the gate, she must have hidden herself in the stable where the boys found her.”