The Dreamer Wakes

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘All we caught, ma’am,’ answered Tealeaf, ‘was something about a Great Fable Mountain and a Greensickness Peak. And then something about a Land of Illusion and “severing earthly ties”.’

  To Lady Wang this made as little sense as it had to the pages; but it seemed to have a startling effect on Bao-chai, who stared dumbfounded in front of her.

  They were about to send someone to bring Bao-yu back, when in he came himself, wreathed in smiles, announcing:

  ‘All is well! All is well!’

  Bao-chair stared at him in dismay, while Lady Wang asked:

  ‘What have you been raving to that monk about now?’

  ‘It was anything but raving. It was a very serious conversation. It turns out that he knows me, and that all he really wanted was to see me. He never wanted the money. At the most he was hoping for a friendly contribution, which would create good karma. As soon as we had reached an understanding, he got up and went. Just like that. So I think you’ll agree, all is well!’

  Lady Wang could not believe this, and asked Tealeaf, who was still standing on the other side of the window, to verify Bao-yu’s story. He hurried out to question the gateman, and returned presently to report:

  ‘It is true. The monk really has left. As he was going he said: “Their Ladyships are not to worry themselves. I never wanted the money.” He says he only wants Master Bao-yu to call on him whenever he can. “Let all be fulfilled in accordance with karma; a fixed purpose resides in all things.” Those were his parting words.’

  ‘So he was a holy man after all!’ exclaimed Lady Wang. ‘Did anyone ask him where he lived?’

  ‘According to the gateman, the monk said that Master Bao would know where to find him.’

  Lady Wang turned to Bao-yu:

  ‘Well – where does he live?’

  Bao-yu smiled enigmatically:

  ‘His abode is, well … far away and yet at the same time close at hand. It all depends how you look at it.’

  ‘For goodness’ sake!’ interrupted Bao-chai impatiently, before he had finished speaking. ‘Pull yourself together and stop all this nonsense! You know how Mother and Father love you! And Father has told you how important it is for you to succeed in life!’

  ‘Does what I am talking about not count as success?’ asked Bao-yu in a droll tone. ‘Haven’t you heard the saying: “When one son becomes a monk, the souls of seven generations of ancestors go to Heaven”?’

  When she heard this Lady Wang was more distressed than ever:

  ‘Our family is doomed! Xi-chun talks of nothing but her nunnery, and now here’s another! Why should I bother to drag my life out any longer!’

  She began sobbing hysterically. Bao-chai tried to comfort her, but Bao-yu only laughed and said:

  ‘I was joking! There was no need to take it so seriously, Mother.’

  Lady Wang ceased her tears:

  ‘How can you joke about such a thing?’

  At this juncture a maid came in to report the return of Jia Lian:

  ‘He looks very upset too, ma’am. He would like you to go over and have a word with him.’

  This was another shock for Lady Wang.

  ‘Ask him just this once if he can come here. Mrs Bao is his cousin, so he needn’t worry about her being here too.’

  Jia Lian duly came in and paid his respects to Lady Wang. Bao-chai also greeted him.

  ‘I have just received a letter from Father,’ said Jia Lian, ‘saying that he has fallen seriously ill. I must go to him at once, or it may be too late!’

  Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

  ‘Did the letter say what kind of illness?’ asked Lady Wang.

  ‘It began as a cold but has developed into pneumonia, which has now reached a critical stage. A special messenger travelled by day and night to bring us the news, and says that if I delay my departure for even a day or two it may be too late. I must leave as soon as possible. I am concerned that with Uncle away in the South there will be no one left to take charge of things here. You will have to make do with young Qiang and Yun; whatever their shortcomings, at least they are men and can communicate with you about anything that may crop up outside. There’s nothing much to worry about in my apartment. Autumn spends her time crying and complaining and says she wants to leave, so I have told her family to come and take her away. That will make life a little more bearable for Patience at any rate. There is no one to look after Qiao-jie, I know, but Patience is not too bad with her. Qiao-jie is quite a sensible girl, but has an even more difficult temperament than her mother, so I hope you will try to offer her guidance whenever you can, Aunt.’

  As he spoke, a telltale red came into his eyes and he extracted a little silk handkerchief from the betel-nut bag at his waist and dabbed them with it.

  ‘With her own grandmother so close at hand, what need is there for you to entrust her to me?’ asked Lady Wang.

  ‘If you adopt that attitude, I might as well beat myself to death!’ said Jia Lian to his aunt in a somewhat histrionic sotto voce. ‘I won’t say any more, just beg you to be kind to me and do what you can.’

  He knelt at her feet.

  ‘Get up at once!’ exclaimed Lady Wang. Her eyes too were moist with tears. ‘What way is this for aunt and nephew to talk to one another? There is one thing we should discuss. The child is of age now. If anything untoward should happen to your father and you should be delayed, and if in the meantime a suitable family should make a proposal of marriage, do you wish me to wait for your return, or shall I let her grandmother decide in your absence?’

  ‘Of course you need not wait for me. As you and Mother will be here, the two of you should do whatever you think best.’

  ‘You had better go now,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Write your Uncle Zheng a note. Tell him that your father is in a precarious state of health, and that there are no menfolk left at home. Ask him to complete your grandmother’s burial rites and come home as quickly as possible.’

  ‘Very well, Aunt.’

  As he was on the point of leaving, Jia Lian turned back once more and said:

  ‘There should be enough servants in the house. But there is no one in the Garden. The place is altogether too deserted, especially now that Bao Yong has gone back with the Zhens and Cousin Ke and Aunt Xue have moved out of their old compound next to the Garden to live in an apartment of their own. All the buildings in the Garden are empty and have been neglected. You should send someone round regularly to inspect the place. Green Bower Hermitage is a family foundation, and now that Adamantina has disappeared something must be done about her various attendants. The Sister Superior does not feel she can make the decision herself, and would like someone in the family to take charge.’

  ‘That will have to wait,’ replied Lady Wang. ‘With our own affairs in such disarray, we are in no position to start taking on extra responsibilities. You must on no account mention this to Xi-chun. It would only encourage her in her own ideas. Oh dear, what are we coming to? A nun in the family would be the last straw!’

  ‘That is something I would not have brought up myself,' said Jia Lian. ‘But since you have done so, I should perhaps offer my advice, for what it’s worth. Xi-chun belongs after all to the Ning-guo side of the family. Neither of her parents is alive, her elder brother has been sent into exile, and she and her sister-in-law are on bad terms with one another. I hear that she has threatened suicide quite a few times. If her heart is really set on being a nun and we continue to be so inflexible, she may really take her own life. And then we would lose her altogether!’

  Lady Wang nodded:

  ‘It is too heavy a burden to lay on my shoulders! This really isn’t my responsibility. I must leave it to her sister-in-law to decide.’

  Jia Lian said a few more words and took his leave. He summoned the servants and gave them their instructions. Then he wrote a letter to Jia Zheng, and packed his bags. Patience urged him at some length to take good care of himself, while Qiao-jie seemed exceedingly upset by her fa
ther’s departure. Jia Lian expressed his wish to entrust her to the care of her uncle Wang Ren, but she wouldn’t consider it; and when she learned that Jia Yun and Jia Qiang were to be on outside duty she also felt extremely uneasy, though she said nothing. She bade her father farewell, and resolved to lead a quiet life at home with Patience.

  Felicity and Crimson had been frequently absent since Xi-feng’s death, on some occasions asking for leave, on others pleading sickness. Patience had contemplated asking a young lady from some other branch of the Jia family to come and stay with them, partly to keep Qiao-jie company, partly to help educate her, but the only names that occurred to her were those of Xi-luan and Si-jie, Grandmother Jia’s favourites, and of these two Xi-luan had recently married while Si-jie was engaged and due to leave home any day.

  Jia Yun and Jia Qiang saw Jia Lian off and then went in to report to Ladies Xing and Wang. The two men took turns on night-duty in the outer study, and during the daytime enjoyed themselves with the servants, throwing parties and inviting a variety of friends, who took it in turns with them to act as host. There was even some serious gambling. The ladies of course had no inkling of this.

  One day Lady Xing’s brother Xing De-quan and Wang Ren dropped by. Learning that Yun and Qiang were now established at Rong-guo House, and observing the good times that were being had, they began to call quite frequently, to ‘see how things were getting on’, and had soon formed a regular drinking and gambling foursome in the outer study. All the decent servants had accompanied either Jia Zheng or Jia Lian, and the only menservants left behind were the various sons and nephews of stewards Lai and Lin, who were used to the easy life their parents’ good fortune had brought them, and were quite ignorant of the principles according to which a proper household should be run. With their parents away, they were like colts let loose in the meadow. And with the two degenerate young masters to spur them on, their pleasures knew no bounds. Under this new regime, the family motto might as well have been: Anything Goes.

  Jia Qiang thought of inviting Bao-yu to join them, but Jia Yun soon squashed that idea:

  ‘That fellow is an absolute killjoy. It would only be asking for trouble. A year or two ago I had a perfect marriage lined up for him. The girl’s father was a tax-collector in one of the provinces, the family owned several pawnshops, and the girl herself was an absolute peach. I went to a lot of trouble and wrote him a long letter about it, but I might as well have saved myself the bother. He’s an utter spoilsport.’

  Yun glanced round to make sure there was no one else listening and continued:

  ‘The truth was, he already fancied this new missis of his! And then there was Miss Lin, you must have heard about that. She died of a broken heart, it’s common knowledge. And it was all his fault. But that’s another story. To each his fate in love, I suppose. All the same, I don’t see why he had to get so angry with me, and start cutting me dead. Perhaps he thought I was trying to get into his good books or something.’

  Jia Qiang nodded and gave up the idea of inviting Bao-yu. What neither of them knew was that, ever since his meeting with the monk, Bao-yu was finally resolved to sever his ties with the world. In his mother’s presence he still tried to behave as normally as possible, but there was already a marked cooling-off in his relations with Bao-chai and Aroma. The maids were unaware of this change and continued to tease him as before, only to find themselves totally ignored. He was completely oblivious of practical household affairs; and as for his studies, whenever his mother and Bao-chai chivvied him on, he would feign diligence, but in reality his mind was filled with thoughts of the monk and his mysterious excursion to the fairy domain. Everyone around him now seemed unbearably mundane, and he began to find his own family environment less and less congenial. When he was free of other commitments, it was Xi-chun that he chose as a companion. The two of them found they had more and more in common, and their lively conversations further strengthened his own resolution. He had little time now for Jia Huan and Jia Lan.

  Jia Huan, now that his father was away from home and his mother Aunt Zhao dead, and since Lady Wang paid little attention to what he did, began to gravitate towards Jia Yun and his cronies. Suncloud, who constantly tried to dissuade him from this course, received nothing but abuse for her pains. Silver observed to herself that Bao-yu was becoming more deranged than ever, and asked her mother if she could be taken out of service. Bao-yu and Jia Huan in their different ways succeeded in alienating the people around them. Jia Lan, by contrast, sat by his mother’s side conscientiously studying, and when he had finished a composition would take it to the family school for the Preceptor’s comments. Recently the Preceptor had been bedridden a great deal of the time, and consequently Jia Lan had been obliged to work on his own. His mother had always been fond of peace and quiet, and apart from calling on Lady Wang and Bao-chai she did not get about much but sat at home and watched Jia Lan at his work. So although life continued in Rong-guo House, everyone was very much minding his own business, which left Jia Huan, Jia Qiang and company free to indulge themselves unmolested. They were soon pawning or selling all manner of family property in order to subsidize their disgraceful activities. Jia Huan was the worst. His whoring and gambling knew no bounds.

  One day Xing De-quan and Wang Ren had called and were in the outer study drinking. They were in high spirits and decided to send for some singsong girls to entertain them with a song or two and join in their carousing.

  ‘This is turning into a downright orgy!’ protested Jia Qiang playfully. ‘I suggest we have a drinking game to raise the tone a little.’

  Everyone agreed that this was a good idea.

  ‘Let’s play Pass the Goblet, on the word “moon”,’ proposed Jia Qiang. ‘I shall say a line and count it out, and whoever gets the word “moon” has to drink and then recite two lines – a Head and a Tail –according to my instructions. The forfeit is three big cups.’

  Everyone agreed to his rules. First Jia Qiang drank a cup as MC, and then he recited Li Bo’s line:

  ‘ “The Peacock Goblets fly, the drunken moon …” ’ The ‘moon’ fell on Jia Huan.

  ‘For the Head, give me a line with Cassia,’ said Jia Qiang.

  Jia Huan came up with a line by the Tang poet Wang Jian: ‘ “A cold dew silently soaks the Cassia flowers …” ’

  ‘And Fragrance for the Tail,’ concluded Jia Qiang.

  Jia Huan obliged with a line by another Tang poet, Song Zhi-wen:

  ‘ “Beyond the clouds there wafts a heavenly Fragrance …” ’

  ‘Boring! Boring!’ complained Xing De-quan. ‘Stop posing, Huan, me old fellow! Fat lot you know about poetry! This is no fun at all, it’s enough to make you sick! Let’s drop it and play Guess-fingers instead. Loser to drink and sing a song, a double sconce. Anyone who can’t sing can tell a joke instead. But it better be a good one.’

  They all agreed to this new proposal and there was a noisy scene as they began to throw out fingers and make their calls. Wang Ren was the first loser. He drank and sang a song.

  ‘Bravo!’ they cried and set to again. Next to lose was one of the girls. She sang a song called ‘Little Miss Glamorous’. Then it was Xing De-quan. Everyone wanted a song from him, but he protested that he was tone-deaf:

  ‘I’ll tell a joke instead.’

  ‘If nobody laughs,’ Jia Qiang warned him, ‘you’ll have to pay another forfeit.’

  Xing downed his cup and began his story:

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen: once upon a time, in a certain village, there were two temples – a big one, dedicated to the Great Lord of the North, and by its side a smaller one, dedicated to the Village God. The Great Lord was always inviting the Village God over for a chat. One day something was stolen from his temple, and he asked the Village God to look into the matter. “But there are no thieves in this district,” protested the lesser deity. “It must be carelessness on the part of one of your door-gods. Someone must have sneaked in past them and stolen these things.” “Nonsense
!” replied the Great Lord. “You’re in charge round these parts. If there’s been a theft, then you’re responsible. What’s the meaning of this? You should be trying to catch the thief, not accusing my door-gods of being careless!” “What I meant by careless,” prevaricated the Village God, “was that your temple must have been badly sited – you know, the Dragon Lines must be at fault …” “I had no idea you could read fengshui,” commented the Great Lord in a tone of disbelief. “Allow me to take a look for you,” offered the Village God, “and see what I can see.” He walked around the temple, peering into every nook and cranny, and after a while reported: “My Lord, behind your throne there is a double-leaved red door. An unfortunate oversight. Personally I have a good solid brick wall behind my throne, so naturally I never have things stolen. You can easily remedy the present situation by having a wall built in place of the door.” This seemed plausible to the Great Lord, and he instructed his door-gods to call in builders and put up a wall. “But we can’t even afford a single candle or stick of incense in this temple!” moaned the door-gods. “How can we possibly buy bricks and mortar and hire the labour to build a wall?” The Great Lord could think of no solution. He ordered them to find one, but they were stumped too. Just then the Tortoise General, whose recumbent stone form lay at the Great Lord’s feet, stood up and said: “You’re a useless lot! I’ve got an idea: pull down the red door, and use my belly to block up the doorway. I’m sure that will do the job perfectly well.” “An excellent plan!” cried the door-gods in chorus. “Convenient, dependable and free!” So the Tortoise General became Rear Wall, and peace prevailed – for a while. Then things began to disappear from the temple again. The door-gods summoned the Village God and complained: “You guaranteed our security if we built a wall, but look what’s happened! We’ve got a wall and still we’re losing things!” “Your wall can’t be solid enough.” “Have a look at it for yourself,” they insisted. The Village God went and did so. It certainly seemed a solid enough wall. All most puzzling. Then he felt it with his hand. “Aaah!” he exclaimed. “No wonder! I meant a properly built wall. Any old thief could push down this false wall (jia qiang).” ’