A Dream of Red Mansion

by Cao Xueqin

  Who sowed the seeds of love?

  From the strong passion of breeze and moonlight they came.

  So in this world of sweet longing

  On a day of distress, in an hour of loneliness,

  Fain would I impart my senseless grief

  By singing this Dream of Red Mansions

  To mourn the Gold and the Jade.

  SECOND SONG:

  A LIFE MISSPENT

  Well-matched, all say, the gold and the jade;

  I alone recall the pledge between plant and stone.

  Vainly facing the hermit in sparkling snow-clad hills

  I forget not the fairy in lone woods beyond the world.

  I sigh, learning that no man’s happiness is complete:

  Even a pair thought well-matched

  May find disappointment.

  THIRD SONG:

  VAIN LONGING

  One is an immortal flower of fairyland,

  The other fair flawless jade,

  And were it not predestined

  Why should they meet again in this existence?

  Yet, if predestined,

  Why does their love come to nothing?

  One sighs to no purpose,

  The other yearns in vain;

  One is the moon reflected in the water,

  The other but a flower in the minor.

  How many tears can well from her eyes? Can they flow on from autumn till winter,

  From spring till summer?

  Baoyu could see no merit in these disjointed and cryptic songs, but the plaintive music intoxicated his senses. So without probing into the meaning or asking where the songs came from, he listened for a while to pass the time. The singers went on:

  FOURTH SONG:

  THE TRANSIENCE OF LIFE

  At the height of honour and splendour

  Death comes for her;

  Open-eyed, she has to leave everything behind

  As her gentle soul passes away.

  So far her home beyond the distant mountains

  That in a dream she finds and tells her parents:

  “Your child has gone now to the Yellow Spring;

  You must find a retreat before it is too late.”

  FIFTH SONG:

  SEPARATION FROM DEAR ONES

  Three thousand li she must sail through wind and rain,

  Giving up her home and her own flesh and blood;

  But afraid to distress their declining years with tears

  She tells her parents: “Don’t grieve for your child.

  From of old good luck and bad have been predestined,

  Partings and reunions are decreed by fate;

  Although from now on we shall dwell far apart,

  Let us still live at peace;

  Don’t worry over your unworthy daughter.”

  SIXTH SONG:

  SORROW AMIDST JOY

  She is still in her cradle when her parents die,

  Although living in luxury who will dote on her?

  Happily she is born too courageous and open-hearted

  Ever to take a love affair to heart.

  Like bright moon and fresh breeze in a hall of jade

  She is matched with a talented and handsome husband;

  May she live with him for long years

  To make up for her wretched childhood!

  But over the Gaotang Tower the clouds disperse,

  The river Xiang runs dry.

  This is the common fate of mortal men,

  Useless it is to repine.

  SEVENTH SONG:

  SPURNED BY THE WORLD

  By nature fair as an orchid,

  With talents to match an immortal,

  Yet so eccentric that all marvel at her.

  To her, rich food stinks,

  Silken raiment is vulgar and loathsome;

  She knows not that superiority fosters hatred,

  For the world despises too much purity.

  By the dim light of an old shrine she will fade away,

  Her powder and red chamber, her youth and beauty wasted,

  To end, despite herself, defiled on the dusty road—

  Even as flawless white jade dropped in the mud.

  In vain young scions of noble houses will sigh for her.

  EIGHTH SONG:

  UNION OF ENEMIES

  A mountain wolf, a savage ruthless beast,

  Mindless of past obligations

  Gives himself up to pride, luxury and license,

  Holding cheap the charms of a noble family’s daughter,

  Trampling on the precious child of a ducal mansion.

  Alas, in less than a year her sweet soul fades away.

  NINTH SONG:

  PERCEPTION OF THE TRANSIENCE OF FLOWERS

  She will see through the three Springs

  And set no store

  By the red of peach-blossom, the green of willows,

  Stamping out the fire of youthful splendour

  To savour the limpid peace of a clear sky.

  Though the peach runs riot against the sky,

  Though the clouds teem with apricot blossom,

  Who has seen any flower that can win safely through autumn?

  Even now mourners are lamenting by groves of poplars,

  Ghosts are wailing below green maples,

  And the weeds above their graves stretch to the skyline.

  Truly, changes in fortune are the cause of men’s toil,

  Spring blooming and autumn withering the fate of flowers.

  Who can escape the gate of birth, the fate of death?

  Yet in the west, they say, grows the sal tree

  Which bears the fruit of immortality.

  TENTH SONG:

  RUINED BY CUNNING

  Too much cunning in plotting and scheming

  Is the cause of her own undoing;

  While yet living her heart is broken

  And after death all her subtlety comes to nothing.

  A rich house, all its members at peace,

  Is ruined at last and scattered;

  In vain her anxious thought for half a lifetime,

  For like a disturbing dream at dead of night,

  Like the thunderous collapse of a great mansion,

  Or the flickering of a lamp that gutters out,

  Mirth is suddenly changed to sorrow.

  Ah, nothing is certain in the world of men.

  ELEVENTH SONG:

  A LITTLE ACT OF KINDNESS

  Thanks to one small act of kindness

  She meets by chance a grateful friend;

  Fortunate that her mother

  Has done some unnoticed good.

  Men should rescue the distressed and aid the poor,

  Be not like her heartless uncle or treacherous cousin

  Who for love of money forget their own flesh and blood.

  Truly, rewards and punishments

  Are meted out by Heaven.

  TWELFTH SONG:

  SPLENDOUR COMES TOO LATE

  Love is only a reflection in a mirror,

  Worse still, rank and fame are nothing but a dream,

  So quickly youth and beauty fade away.

  Say no more of embroidered curtains and love-bird quilts,

  Nor can a pearl tiara and phoenix jacket

  Stave off for long Death’s summons.

  Though it is said that old age should be free from want,

  This depends on the unknown merits laid by for one’s children.

  Jubilant in official headdress

  And glittering with a gold seal of high office,

  A man may be awe-inspiring and exalted,

  But the gloomy way to the Yellow Spring is near.

  What remains of the generals and statesmen of old?

  Nothing but an empty name admired by posterity.

  THIRTEENTH SONG:

  GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

  Fragrant dust falls from painted beams at the close of spring;

  By nature passionate and
fair as the moon,

  The true root is she of the family’s destruction.

  The decline of the old tradition starts with Jing,

  The chief blame for the House’s ruin rests with Ning.

  All their sins come about through Love.

  EPILOGUE:

  THE BIRDS SCATTER TO THE WOOD

  An official household declines,

  Rich nobles’ wealth is spent.

  She who did god escapes the jaws of death,

  The heartless meet with certain retribution.

  Those who took a life have paid with their lives,

  The tears one owed have all been requited in kind.

  Not light the retribution for sins against others;

  All are predestined, partings and reunions.

  Seek the cause of untimely death in a part existence,

  Lucky she who enjoys rank and riches in old age;

  Those who see through the world escape from the world,

  While foolish lovers forfeit their lives for nothing.

  When the food is gone the birds return to the wood;

  All that’s left is emptiness and a great void.

  After this they would have gone on to sing the second series, but the Goddess of Disenchantment saw that Baoyu was utterly bored.

  “Silly boy!” she sighed. “You still don’t understand.”

  Baoyu asked the fairies then not to sing any more, explaining that he was drunk and would like to sleep off the effects of the wine.

  Disenchantment ordered the feast to be cleared away and escorted him into a scented chamber hung with silk, more luxuriously furnished than any he had seen in his life. More amazing still, he saw there a girl whose charm reminded him of Baochai, her grace of Daiyu. He was puzzling over this when Disenchantment said:

  “In your dusty world, countless green-windowed chambers and embroidered boudoirs of rich and noble families are desecrated by amorous men and loose women. Worse still, all dissolute wretches since ancient times have drawn a distinction between love of beauty and carnal desire, between love and lust, so as to gloss over their immorality. Love of beauty leads to lust, and desire even more so. Thus every sexual transport of cloud and rain is the inevitable climax of love of beauty and desire.

  “And what I like about you is that you are the most lustful man ever to have lived in this world since time immemorial.”

  “You must be mistaken, goddess,” protested the frightened Baoyu. “My parents are always scolding me because I’m too lazy to study. How dare I risk being called ‘lustful’ as well? Besides, I’m still young and hardly know what that word means.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Disenchantment. “In principle all lust is the same, but it has different connotations. For instance, there are profligates in the world who delight only in physical beauty, singing, dancing, endless merriment and constant rain-and-cloud games. They would like to possess all the beauties in the world to gratify their momentary desires. These are coarse creatures steeped in fleshly lust.

  “In your case, you were born with a passionate nature which we call just of the mind.’ This can be grasped by the mind but not expressed, apprehended intuitively but not described in words. Whereas this makes you a welcome companion to women, in the eyes of the world it is bound to make you appear strange and unnatural, an object of mockery and scorn.

  “After meeting your worthy ancestors the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo today and hearing their heartfelt request, I could not bear to let you be condemned by the world for the greater glory of women. So I brought you here to entertain you with divine wine and fairy tea, then tried to awaken you with subtle songs. And now I am going to match you with my younger sister Jianmei, whose childhood name is Keqing, and this very night at the auspicious hour you must consummate your union. This is simply to let you know that after you have proved for yourself the illusory nature of pleasures in fairyland you should realize the vanity of love in your dusty world. From this day on you must understand this and mend your ways, giving your minds to the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and devoting yourself to the betterment of society.”

  With that she initiated him into the secrets of sex. Then, pushing him forward, she closed the door and left.

  Baoyu in a daze did all the goddess had told him. We can draw a veil over his first act of love.

  The next day, he and Keqing had become so attached and exchanged so many endearments that they could not bear to part. Hand in hand they walked out for a stroll.

  Suddenly they found themselves in a thorny thicker infested with wolves and tigers. In front a black torrent barred their way and there was no bridge across. They were in a quandary when Disenchantment overtook them.

  “Stop! Stop!” she cried. “Turn back before it’s too late.

  Standing petrified Baoyu asked, “What is this place?”

  “The Ford of Infatuation,” Disenchantment told him. “It’s a hundred thousand feet deep and a thousand li wide, and there is no boat to ferry you across. Nothing but a wooden raft steered by Master Wood and punted by Acolyte Ashes, who accept no payment in silver or gold but ferry over those who are fated to cross. You strolled here by accident. If you had fallen in, then all my well-meant advice to you would have been wasted.”

  Even as she spoke there came a crash like thunder from the Ford of Infatuation as hordes of monsters and river devils rushed towards Baoyu to drag him in. Cold sweat poured off him like rain. And in his terror he shouted:

  “Keqing! Save me!”

  Xichun hurried in with the other maids in dismay to take him in her arms.

  “Don’t be afraid, Baoyu,” cried the girls. “We’re here.”

  Qin Keqing was on the verandah telling the maids to watch the kittens and puppies at their play, when she heard Baoyu call her childhood name in his dream.

  “No one here knows my childhood name,” she thought in surprise. “How is it that he called it out in his dream?” Truly:

  Strange encounters take place in a secret dream,

  For he is the most passionate lover of all time.

  Chapter 6

  Baoyu Has His First Taste of Love

  Granny Liu Pays Her First Visit to the Rong Mansion

  The theme:

  She knocks one day at the gate of the rich,

  And the rich themselves talk of want;

  Their gift is not a thousand pieces of gold

  But more than her own flesh and blood could give.

  Qin Keqing was amazed to hear Baoyu call her childhood name in his dream, but she could hardly question him. As for Baoyu, he felt as bemused as if he had lost his wits. Attendants promptly brought him a longan decoction and after sipping a couple of mouthfuls he got up to adjust his clothes.

  As Xichun reached out to fasten his trousers for him, she touched his thigh and found it cold and sticky. She drew back in alarm and asked what was the matter. Flushing crimson, Baoyu simply squeezed her hand.

  Now Xichun was an intelligent girl, and being a couple of years older than Baoyu she already knew the facts of life. She guessed from the state he was in what must have happened and blushing herself helped him to tidy his clothes without any further questions.

  They went then to where the Lady Dowager was and after a hasty meal returned to his room, where in the absence of the other maids and nurses Xiren fetched him a change of clothes.

  “Don’t tell anyone, please, dear sister,” begged Baoyu sheepishly.

  With an embarrassed smile she asked, “What did you dream about to dirty yourself like that?”

  “It’s a long story,” answered Baoyu, then told her his dream in full, concluding with his initiation by Disenchantment into the “sport of cloud and rain.” Xiren, hearing this, covered her face and doubled up in a fit of giggles.

  Since Baoyu had long been attracted by Xichun’s gentle, coquettish ways, he urged her to carry out the instructions with him; and as she knew that the Lady Dowager had given her to Baoyu she felt this would not
be an undue liberty. So they tried it out secretly together, and luckily they were not discovered. From that hour Baoyu treated Xiren with special consideration and she served him even more faithfully than before.

  Now although the Rong Mansion was not unduly large, masters and servants together numbered three or four hundred. And although it had not too much business, a score of things had to be seen to every day— easier to unravel a skein of tangled hemp than to recount them! Just as I was wondering with which event or person to begin, suddenly from a thousand li away came a humble individual as insignificant as a mustardseed, who being remotely connected with the Rong House was that day paying them a visit. Let me take her family, then, as a starting point.

  Do you know the name of this family and its remote connection with the Rong Mansion? If you think this too trivial or vulgar, Gentle Readers, you had better put this book down and choose one more to your liking. If you fancy this senseless story will serve to while away the time, then let me, the stupid Stone, tell you it in detail.

  The surname of these humble folk I have just mentioned was Wang. They were local people whose grandfather while a petty official in the capital had come to know Xifeng’s grandfather, Lady Wang’s father. Eager to attach himself to the powerful Wangs, he “joined family” with them, calling himself Wang’s nephew. At that time only Lady Wang and her elder brother, Xifeng’s father, both of whom had accompanied their father to the capital, were aware of this remote “clansman.” The rest of the Wangs knew nothing about these connections.

  The grandfather had died leaving a son Wang Cheng who, since the family was then in a poor way, moved back to their native village outside the capital. Recently Wang Cheng too had fallen ill and died, leaving a son Gouer, who had married a girl from a family called Lin by whom he had a son called Baner and a daughter called Qinger. Their family of four lived on the land.

  As Gouer was busy during the day and his wife had the housework to see to, there was nobody to mind the children until he fetched his mother-in-law Granny Liu to live with them. An old widow who had been through much and was supporting herself as best she could on two mu of poor land because she had no son, she was only too glad to be taken in and cared for by her son-in-law. She did her best to make herself useful to him and her daughter.