The Golden Lotus, Volume 1

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “If you wish it so much, I will allow her to stay,” Ximen Qing said. He bade Daian tell Yueniang not to send for the go-between. Daian saw Huatong carrying Guijie’s things.

  “Give them to me,” he said to the boy, “and you go to the inner court with the message.” Huatong did as he was told. When Guijie had finished speaking to Ximen Qing, she went to the window.

  “Beggar Ying,” she called, “I have made no reverence to you, and now I, your mother, am going home.”

  “Drag the little creature back,” cried Bojue. “Don’t let her go until she has sung a song for me.”

  “You must wait,” Guijie said. “When your mother has nothing to do, she will sing a song for you.”

  “What do you mean by going home in the middle of the day?” Ying Bojue said. “You must be expecting good fortune in the shape of a lover or two this evening.”

  “You dirty beggar,” Guijie cried. She laughed and went away.

  Daian went out with her and helped her into her sedan chair.

  After Ximen Qing had spoken to Guijie, he went to the inner court to change his clothes. “That little whore Guijie is just like a thief who has escaped from jail,” Ying Bojue said to Xie Xida. “She is more cunning than ever. On an occasion like this, you would expect her to stay, instead of which off she goes. I wonder who is waiting for her.”

  “I will tell you,” Xie Xida said. He whispered something to Bojue.

  “Don’t speak too loud,” said Bojue when he had heard a sentence or two. “Our brother knows nothing of this.” They heard Ximen’s footsteps and the conversation ended.

  Ying Bojue embraced Wu Yin’er and drank wine with her mouth to mouth. “This is the daughter for me,” he said. “Soft and gentle, a hundred times nicer than that little strumpet Guijie, whom even a dog will have nothing to do with.”

  Wu Yin’er laughed. “When it comes to bad language, Uncle,” she said, “you are a master. When you say one you mean one, and when you say a hundred you mean a hundred. There are wise and foolish people everywhere, and we do well not to make comparisons. My sister Guijie has annoyed you.”

  “Don’t talk to him, the dog,” Ximen Qing said. “He is always grumbling about something.”

  “Don’t pay any attention to him,” Bojue said. “Don’t you interfere with her. She is my little daughter. Come here, daughter, take your lute and sing me a song.”

  Wu Yin’er slowly stretched her jade fingers, gently touched the strings, and softly sang the song “The Willows Are Like Golden Tassels.” She served wine to Ying Bojue, then to Xie Xida, and sang another song.

  Meanwhile Huatong had gone to the inner court. All the ladies and the nuns were there, except Pan Jinlian. When the boy came, Yueniang was just about to tell old woman Feng to sell Xiahua. “Father bade me tell you not to send the girl away,” Huatong said.

  “But he told me to sell her,” Yueniang said. “What has made him change his mind? Tell me. Who has been talking to him to make him change his mind like that?”

  “I was helping Guijie to carry her things,” the boy said. “It was she who told my father to keep the maid. Father told Daian to come and tell you, but instead of coming himself he made me come, and he went to the gate with her.”

  Yueniang was annoyed. “Daian is one of those slaves who try to be in with both sides,” she said. “When I was angry and wouldn’t send for the go-between, he told me his father insisted upon it. Now he is up to some trick or other. He has gone off with the girl. When he comes back, I will have a reckoning with him.”

  As she spoke, Wu Yin’er, who had finished singing, came in. “Your maid has come for you,” Yueniang said to her. “Guijie has gone. Are you going too?”

  “Mother,” Wu Yin’er said, “I will stay if you like. Otherwise, you might think I did not appreciate the claims of courtesy.” She asked her maid who had sent for her.

  “Your mother sent me,” the maid told her.

  “Is there anything at home that calls for my presence?” said Wu Yin’er.

  “No,” replied the girl.

  “Then, if not, why did you come for me? Go back. The lady here wishes me to stay. I am going to take the walk of the hundred illnesses with her and I will come home after that.”

  The maid was going away when Yueniang asked Wu Yin’er to call her back, that she might have something to eat. “The Great Lady is going to give you some food,” Wu Yin’er said, “so wait. I want you to take my clothes with you. When you get home, tell my mother not to send a sedan chair for me. I shall come back on foot. Where is Wu Hui?”

  “He has had some trouble with his eyes,” the girl told her.

  Yueniang told Yuxiao to take the girl to the back court. There they gave her two bowls of meat, a plate of bread and a jar of wine. Then they filled her boxes with pasties and tea cakes.

  Wu Yin’er’s clothes were in the rooms of Li Ping’er. Li Ping’er had taken a dress of fine silk woven with gold, two gold-fringed kerchiefs and a tael of silver, and these were all wrapped up together and given to Wu Yin’er. She was delighted. “Mother,” she said, “don’t give me these clothes.” She smiled. “Really, I only want a white gown, so keep these silken dresses and give me an old white gown. I don’t mind how old it is.”

  “My white gown is very big. It won’t fit you,” said Li Ping’er. She said to Yingchun: “Take the key, go to my large chest, and take from it a roll of white silk for your sister Wu Yin’er.” To Wu Yin’er she said: “You must ask your mother to get the tailors to make two good gowns for you. Would you rather have figured or plain silk?”

  “I should prefer plain, Mother,” said Wu Yin’er. “Then it will match my wrapper.” She smiled and said to Yingchun: “Sister, I have troubled you to go upstairs again for me. I have nothing with which to reward you, but I will sing you a song.”

  After a while Yingchun came down with a roll of plain white silk made on the broad looms of Songjiang. There was a label upon it that said: “Thirty-eight taels’ weight.” She gave it to Wu Yin’er, who kowtowed four times to Li Ping’er. Then she stood up again and made reverence several times to Yingchun.

  “Wu Yin’er,” said Li Ping’er, “take the other silken clothes too. Sooner or later you will need them when you are serving wine.”

  “You have already given me the white silk to make a dress. How can I accept these?” She again kowtowed to Li Ping’er.

  After a while her servant had finished her meal, and Wu Yin’er gave her the clothes to carry home. “Why are you so pleased?” Yueniang asked her. “Don’t imitate Guijie, who is full of self-conceit. Both yesterday and this morning, that girl has been like a raging tiger. She insisted on going home, and nothing we could do would stop her. She was so anxious to get away she didn’t even sing properly, and, when her people came for her, she wouldn’t wait to eat anything. Sister Wu Yin’er, you must not follow her example.”

  “Good Lady,” Wu Yin’er said, “your palace is no ordinary house. We must remember the difference and, though we may give ourselves airs elsewhere, we should not do so here. Guijie is very young. She doesn’t understand the ways of the world. Please, Lady, do not be angry with her.”

  While they were talking, a boy came with a message from Aunt Wu. “My mother hopes,” he said, “that all you ladies, and Guijie and Wu Yin’er, will come early. She would like Lady Sun Xue’e to come too.”

  “Go home and tell your mistress,” Yueniang said, “that we are now dressing. The Second Lady has a painful leg and she will not be able to come. My husband is entertaining some friends in the outer court today, so the Lady in charge of the kitchen will not be able to come either. Guijie has gone away, so, with my stepdaughter and Wu Yin’er, there will be six of us. Tell your mother she must not make any special preparations: we shall be quite content just to spend the evening with her.” She asked the boy who was going to sing for them. The boy, Laiding, told them that it was Miss Yu. Then he went away.

  Wu Yueniang, Meng Yulou, Pan Jinlian, Li Pin
g’er, her stepdaughter, and Wu Yin’er then set off. Before she went, she said to Ximen Qing: “I have told the nurse to look after the baby.” They went to their sedan chairs, with the three boys, Daian, Qitong and Laian, and four soldiers. So they came to Aunt Wu’s house.

  CHAPTER 46

  Daian in Trouble

  Gongs and drums beat everywhere

  In every house there is the sound of pipes and strings.

  People go singing through the streets in bands

  Young men and women play sweet melodies of the dance.

  A mount of paper with gay colored streamers

  Towers into the blue sky.

  Incense from the royal palace rings its way heavenward over the assembled people

  The precious moon sheds its soft brilliance within the courtyard and without.

  Everywhere the scene is lovely.

  This is the most glorious festival of the year

  When we celebrate the first full moon.

  Ximen Qing sent off Wu Yueniang and the others to the party at Aunt Wu’s house. About sunset, Li Zhi and Huang the Fourth stood up to take their leave. Ying Bojue went out with them. “I have managed that business for you,” he said, “and tomorrow you will get your five hundred taels.” Li Zhi and Huang the Fourth bowed to him repeatedly and went away. Ying Bojue went back and drank wine with Xie Xida and Ximen Qing. Then Li Ming came in. “Here is young Li,” Bojue said. Li Ming knelt down and kowtowed to them.

  “Why has Wu Hui not come?” Ximen Qing asked him.

  “He has not been able to go even to Dongpingfu,” Li Ming said. “There is something wrong with his eyes. But I have brought Wang Zhu.”

  Wang Zhu was called in and, after he had kowtowed to Ximen and the others, he and Li Ming stood beside them.

  “Your sister Li Guijie has just gone home,” Ximen said to the boy. “Did you know?”

  “I have only just returned from Dongpingfu,” Li Ming said. “I came here as soon as I had washed my face, so I have heard nothing about her.”

  “I fear that these two boys have had nothing to eat,” said Bojue. “Will you give orders for them to have some food?”

  “Uncle,” Shutong said, “a meal is being made ready for the musicians, and if these two wait a while they can eat with them.”

  Bojue told Shutong to bring a tray. He picked out some of the dishes and handed the food to Li Ming, telling him to take it away and eat it with his companion. Then he said to Shutong: “You foolish boy. People, like things, all belong to some definite class or other. You do not understand that, though they may come from the bawdy house, they are not on the same footing as the musicians. We cannot treat them in the same way, or it would look as though we were lacking in a sense of the fitness of things.”

  Ximen Qing tapped Bojue on the head. “You dog,” he said, “you always look after actors because they belong to the same class as yourself and you know what they have to put up with.”

  “Stupid dog yourself!” Bojue said. “What do you know about it? Have you lived so long as a gay young man and still don’t know the jingle: ‘Be tender with the jade and loving to the flowers’? The more you love them, the more you get out of them, but treat them harshly and they wither away and die.”

  “Oh yes, my son,” Ximen said, laughing, “no doubt you know all about that.”

  When Li Ming and Wang Zhu had finished their meal, Ying Bojue called them and asked them to sing a song he named to them. Wang Zhu took his lute and Li Ming his zither: they cleared their throats and sang. When they had finished, it was nearly evening.

  Ximen Qing ordered the things to be cleared away and sent for Clerk Fu, Han Daoguo, Ben the Fourth and Chen Jingji. A great screen was set at the gate; two tables were placed there, and two sheep’s horn lanterns hung. Food was piled abundantly upon the tables. Ximen Qing and Ying Bojue sat in the place of honor, and the clerks and managers on either side. On each side of the door hung twelve golden lotus lanterns. There was a small set piece of firework. This, Ximen said, was to be lighted when the ladies returned. The six musicians carried the bronze gongs and drums to the great gate. There they beat them for a short time, and then played their instruments. Delicate sweet strains came from them. Li Ming and Wang Zhu, the two young actors, played and sang the songs of the lanterns. And, of the people who passed along the street, none dared to raise his head to look. Ximen Qing was wearing a zhongjing hat, a velvet cloak and a white silk gown.

  Daian and Ping’an set off the fireworks in turn, while two soldiers with rods kept back the crowd and would not allow them to push forward. In the cloudless sky the full moon appeared. There was great excitement in the street.

  * * *

  The four maids, Chunmei, Yingchun, Yuxiao and Lanxiang, knowing that Yueniang was not at home and hearing the drums and music at the gate, and the fireworks, dressed themselves and looked out from behind the screen. Shutong and Huatong were heating wine at a brazier on the other side. Yuxiao and Shutong were old friends, and were always playing together. Now they had a struggle to see who could steal the other’s melon seeds. Without caring what they were doing, they upset the wine jar on the fire. The fire sent forth a great flame, filling the whole place with smoke. Yuxiao laughed and Ximen Qing heard her. He told Daian to go and see who was laughing and what had caused the smoke.

  Chunmei was wearing a new white cloak with a scarlet wrapper. When the wine jar was upset, she was sitting in a chair watching Yuxiao and Shutong playing together. Now she cursed her fellow maid. “Whenever you set eyes on a man, you lose your senses,” she cried. “It was bad enough for you to upset the wine, without laughing. I don’t know what there is to laugh about. You’ve put the fire out, and the ashes are coming down all over my head.”

  Yuxiao said nothing. She went to the back court. Shutong was rather anxious. He went to Ximen Qing and said: “I was warming the wine over the fire and the jar fell in.” Ximen Qing asked no more questions, and that was the end of the matter.

  Before the festival, Ben the Fourth’s wife had learned that Yueniang would be away. She knew that the four maids, Chunmei, Yuxiao, Yingchun and Lanxiang, were all favorites of Ximen Qing, so she prepared some dainty dishes and told her daughter to go and ask the four maids to come and see her. The little girl was taken to Li Jiao’er. “I have no say in the matter,” Li Jiao’er said. “I can do nothing; you must go and see what your master thinks about it.” Then they went to Sun Xue’e, but she did not dare to take the responsibility. When the lanterns had been shown, Ben the Fourth’s wife sent again to invite the four maids. Then Lanxiang urged Yuxiao, and Yuxiao urged Yingchun, and Yingchun urged Chunmei to go and plead with Li Jiao’er to ask Ximen Qing’s permission. Chunmei refused to move. She was still angry with Yuxiao.

  “You are like some poor beast who has never seen any food. You have never been to a feast and now you are anxious to have a sniff at one. It doesn’t matter to me whether we go or not. I’m not going to ask anybody to help us. You are all fussing about like a lot of ghosts, and I’m sure I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I have nothing but contempt for the lot of you.”

  Yingchun, Yuxiao and Lanxiang had all dressed in their best clothes, but they dared make no move. Chunmei sat still. Then Shutong came and said: “Ben the Fourth’s wife has sent her little girl for you again. I don’t mind if Father scolds me: I’ll go and speak to him.” He went to Ximen Qing and whispered, “Ben the Fourth’s wife has sent an invitation to my four sisters, and they have sent me to ask if they may go.”

  “Tell them they may go,” Ximen said. “But they must come back in good time, for there are not enough people to attend to the household.”

  Shutong hurried back. “I have managed that little business very well,” he said. “One word from me, and you get permission. Father says you may dress up and go. But you must come back early.”

  Chunmei, at this, went slowly to her room to dress. Then, all together, the four girls came out. Shutong pulled the screen partly back for th
em so that they could pass. They came to Ben the Fourth’s house and, to Mistress Ben, they might have been angels from Heaven. She took them to her room. Several snowball lanterns had been hung there and a table was spread with excellent food. Mistress Ben, when she spoke to them, addressed them as First Aunt, Second Aunt, and so on. They made reverences to one another. Han Huizi’s wife had also been invited.

  Chunmei and Yuxiao sat in the places of honor; Yingchun and Lanxiang sat opposite them. Mistress Ben and Mistress Han sat on either side. The little girl, Changjie, went backwards and forwards to heat the wine and serve the dishes.

  Ximen Qing told the musicians to play the tune “The East Wind Is So Gentle That We Know Fair Weather Is Here.”

  Little cakes, made with roses, were brought and everybody ate some. They were sweet, fragrant and delicious, and melted as soon as they were put into the mouth.

  Li Ming and Wu Hui took their instruments and sang the song. Their voices were melodious and their rhythm excellent.

  Daian and Chen Jingji put some fireworks in their sleeves and called for two soldiers with lanterns to go with them to Aunt Wu’s house. They were to escort Yueniang and the others on their way home. The ladies were drinking wine in the hall when Jingji arrived and, as the elder Wu was not at home, Jingji was invited to take wine with the younger brother. A table was set and the two men took cakes and wine together.

  Daian went forward and said to Yueniang: “Father has sent me to escort you home. He wishes you to go home early. He thinks the streets will be crowded tonight.”

  Yueniang was still displeased with Daian, and would not speak to him. Aunt Wu told her servant Laiding to give the boy some food. “Wine, meat, soup and rice are all ready in the front court,” Laiding said.

  “Don’t hurry,” said Yueniang. “Why should you give him food as soon as he arrives? Let him wait in the front court until we are ready to go.”

  “Are you really so busy these days?” Aunt Wu said to Yueniang. “This is a great festival and it is well that we should sit together and enjoy ourselves. The Second Lady and the other lady are at home and there is nothing for you to be anxious about. Why should you think of going away so early? If we did not belong to the family, it would be another matter.” Then she said to Miss Yu: “Sing a good song for the ladies.” Yulou spoke. “The Sixth Lady is not at all pleased with her: she did not come to the birthday party.” Miss Yu stood up and kowtowed four times to Li Ping’er.