A Dream of Red Mansion

by Cao Xueqin

  Last of all, borne slowly forward by eight eunuchs, came a gold-topped palanquin embroidered with phoenixes.

  All present, including the Lady Dowager, hastily fell to their knees by the side of the road. Eunuchs rushed over to help up the old lady as well as Lady Xing and Lady Wang.

  The palanquin was carried through the main gate to the entrance of the courtyard on the east, where a eunuch holding a whisk knelt down and invited the Imperial Consort to dismount and change her clothes. Then the palanquin was borne inside and the eunuchs withdrew, leaving Yuanchun’s ladies-in-waiting to help her alight.

  She observed that the courtyard was brightly lit with ornamental lanterns of every kind, all exquisitely made of finest gauze. The highest, a rectangular lantern, bore the inscription: Fraught with Favour, Basking in Kindness.

  Yuanchun entered the robing room and changed, then remounted her palanquin which was carried into the Garden. She found it wreathed with the perfumed smoke of incense, splendid with flowers, brilliant with countless lanterns, melodious with strains of soft music. Words fail to describe that scene of peaceful magnificence and noble refinement.

  Here, Readers, recalling the scene of desolation at the foot of Blue Ridge Peak in the Great Waste Mountain, I cannot but thank the scabby Buddhist and lame Taoist for bringing me to this place. For how otherwise could I have seen such a sight? I was tempted to write a lantern-poem or a eulogy on family reunion to pay tribute to it, but feared slipping into the vulgar vein of other books. Besides, even writing an ode or eulogy could not do justice to the scene’s enchantment. If, on the other hand, I omit to write one my worthy readers can imagine its magnificence for themselves. So I had better save both time and paper and return from this digression to our story.

  Now, as she gazed from her palanquin at the dazzling display both within and without the Garden, the Imperial Consort sighed softly:

  “This is too extravagant!”

  Then a eunuch with a whisk knelt down by the palanquin and invited her to proceed by boat. As she alighted she saw before her a clear waterway winding like a dragon. From the marble balustrades on either bank lanterns of crystal and glass of every description shed a silvery light, clear as snow. The wintry boughs of the willows and apricot trees above them were festooned with artificial flowers and leaves made of rice-paper and silk, and from every tree hung lanterns. Lovely too on the water were the lotus flowers, duckweed and water-fowl made out of shells and feathers. Lanterns high and low seemed trying to outshine each other. It was truly a world of crystal and precious stones! The boats were magnificent too, with lanterns, rare miniature gardens, pearl portieres, embroidered curtains, rudders of cassia and oars of aromatic wood, which we need not describe in detail.

  By now they had reached a marble landing-stage. The lantern-sign above it bore the words, “Smartweed Bank and Flowery Harbour.”

  Regarding this name, Reader, and others such as “Where the Phoenix Alights” from the last chapter in which Jia Zheng tested Baoyu’s literary talent, you may wonder to find them actually used as inscriptions. For the Jias, after all, were a scholarly family all of whose friends and proteges were men of parts. Moreover they could easily find well-known writers to compose inscriptions. Why then make shift with phrases tossed off by a boy? Were they like newly rich upstarts who throw money about like dirt and, having painted their mansion crimson, put up huge inscriptions such as “Green willows with golden locks before the gate, Blue hills like embroidered screens behind the house,” fancying these the height of elegance? Could that be the way of the Jia family described in this Tale of the Stone? This is surely a contradiction? Let me, stupid as I am, explain this to you.

  The Imperial Consort, before she entered the Palace, had been brought up from childhood by the Lady Dowager. And after Baoyu was born, as Yuanchun was his elder sister and Baoyu her younger brother, bearing in mind that their mother had given birth to him late in life, she loved him more than her other brothers and lavished all her care on him. They both stayed with their grandmother and were inseparable. Even before Baoyu started school, when he was hardly four years old, she taught him to recite several texts and to recognize several thousand characters, she was more like a mother to him than an elder sister. After she entered the Palace she often wrote letters home reminding her parents to educate him well, for unless strictly disciplined he would not amount to much, but if treated too sternly he might also give them cause for anxiety. Her loving concern for him had never ceased.

  Jia Zheng, earlier on, had scarcely believed the tutor’s report that Baoyu had a flair for literary composition. As the Garden happened then to be ready for inspection, he had called on his son for inscriptions in order to test him. And although Baoyu’s childish efforts were far from inspired, at least they were passable. The family could easily enough have enlisted the help of famous scholars; but it seemed to them that a special interest attached to names chosen by a member of the house. Besides, When the Imperial Consort learned that these were the work of her beloved younger brother, she would feel that he had not fallen short of her hopes. For these reasons Baoyu’s inscriptions were adopted. Not all had been chosen that day; some he supplied later. But enough of this.

  When the Imperial Consort saw this name, she commented with a smile: “Just ‘Flowery Harbour’ would do. Why ‘Smart-weed Bank’ too?”

  As soon as the eunuch in attendance heard this, he hastily disembarked and went ashore to report to Jia Zheng, who immediately had the alteration made.

  Meanwhile the boat had reached the further shore and again Yuanchun mounted her palanquin. Before her now there towered the beautiful hall of an imposing palace. The marble archway in front of it bore the inscription: “Precious Realm for the Immortal. “At once she ordered this to be changed to “House of Reunion.”

  As she entered this temporary palace, she saw torches in the courtyard flaring to the sky, powdered incense strewing the ground, flaming trees, jasper flowers, gilded windows and jade balustrades, to say nothing of screens as fine as the shrimp’s antennae, carpets of otter-skin, muck burning in tripods, and fans made from pheasant plumage. Truly this was:

  An abode with golden gates and jade doors fit for immortals,

  Its cassia and orchid chambers a worthy setting for the Imperial Consort.

  After glancing around she asked, “Why has this place no name?”

  The eunuch attendant fell on his knees. “Because this is the main palace,” he replied, “no subject outside the Court dared suggest a name.”

  The Imperial Consort nodded and said nothing.

  Another eunuch, the Master of Ceremonies, knelt and begged her to sit in a chair of state to receive the obeisances of her family. On both sides of the steps music was played as two eunuchs ushered in Jia She and the men of the family to range themselves below the dais; but when a lady-in-waiting relayed the Imperial Consort’s command to dispense with this ceremony they withdrew. Then the Lady Dowager of the Rong Mansion and the female relatives were led up the east flight of steps to the dais, but they too were exempted from the ceremony and shown out.

  After tea had been served three times, Yuanchun descended from the throne and the music ceased while she went into a side chamber to change her clothes. Meanwhile a carriage had been prepared to drive her out of the Garden to visit her parents.

  First she went to the Lady Dowager’s reception room to pay her respects as a grand-daughter of the house; but before she could do so her grandmother and the others knelt to prevent her. The Imperial Consort’s eyes were full of tears as her family drew near to greet her. As she clasped the hands of her grandmother and mother, the hearts of all three were too full to speak—they could do nothing but sob. Lady Xing, Li Wan, Xifeng, Yuanchun’s half sister Tanchun and her cousins Yingchun and Xichun also stood beside them weeping silently. But at last the Imperial Consort mastered her grief and forced a smile as she tried to comfort them.

  “Since you sent me away to that forbidden place, it hasn’t
been easy getting this chance today to come home and see you all again,” she said. “But instead of chatting and laughing, here we are crying! Soon I shall have to leave you, and there is no knowing when I can come back again.” At this she broke down afresh.

  Lady Xing and the others did their best to console her and the Lady Dowager asked her to take a seat, after which she exchanged courtesies with each in turn and more tears were shed. Next the stewards and attendants of both mansions paid their respects outside the door, and so did their wives and the maids.

  This ceremony at an end, Yuanchun asked why Aunt Xue, Baochai and Daiyu were missing.

  Lady Wang explained that they were afraid to presume, not being members of the Jia family and having no official status.

  The Imperial Consort asked them to be invited in at once, and they were about to pay homage according to Palace etiquette when she exempted them too and chatted with them.

  Next Baoqin and the other maids whom Yuanchun had taken with her to the Palace kowtowed to the Lady Dowager, who hastily stopped them and sent them off to have some refreshments in another room. The senior eunuchs and ladies-in-waiting were also entertained by members of the staff of both mansions, leaving only three or four young eunuchs in attendance.

  When the ladies of the family had spoken with feeling about their separation and all that had happened since, Jia Zheng from outside the door-curtain asked after the health of his daughter, and she in turn paid her respects.

  With tears she told him, “Simple farmers who live on pickles and dress in homespun at least know the joys of family life together. What pleasure can I take in high rank and luxury when we are separated like this?”

  With tears too he replied, “Your subject, poor and obscure, little dreamed that our flock of common pigeons and crows would ever be blessed with a phoenix. Thanks to the Imperial favour and the virtue of our ancestors, your Noble Highness embodies the finest essences of nature and the accumulated merit of our forbears—such fortune has attended my wife and myself.

  “His Majesty, who manifests the great virtue of all creation, has shown us such extraordinary and hitherto unknown favour that even if we dashed out our brains we could not repay one-thousandth part of our debt of gratitude. All I can do is to exert myself day and night, loyally carry out my official duties, and pray that our sovereign may live ten thousand years as desired by all under heaven.

  “Your Noble Highness must not grieve your precious heart in concern for your aging parents. We beg you to take better care of your own health. Be cautious, circumspect, diligent and respectful. Honour the Emperor and serve him well, so as to prove yourself not ungrateful for His Majesty’s bountiful goodness and great kindness.”

  Then it was Yuanchun’s turn to urge her father to devote himself to affairs of state, look after his health and dismiss all anxiety regarding her.

  After this Jia Zheng informed her, “All the inscriptions on the pavilions and lodges in the Garden were composed by Baoyu. If you find one or two of the buildings not too tame, please condescend to re-name them yourself, that would make us extremely happy.”

  The news that Baoyu was already able to compose inscriptions made her exclaim with delight, “So he’s making progress!”

  When Jia Zheng had withdrawn, the Imperial Consort observed that Baochai and Daiyu stood out from their girl cousins, being truly fairer than flowers or finest jade. Then she inquired why Baoyu had not come to greet her. The Lady Dowager explained that, unless specially summoned, as a young man without official rank he dared not presume.

  At once the Imperial Consort sent for him and a young eunuch ushered him in to pay homage according to Palace etiquette. His sister called him to her and took his hand. Drawing him close to her bosom, she stroked his neck and commented with a smile, “How you have grown!”

  But even as she spoke her tears fell like rain.

  Madam You and Xifeng stepped forward then to announce, “The banquet is ready. We beg Your Highness to favour us with your presence.” Then she rose and told Baoyu to lead the way.

  Accompanied by all the rest she walked into the Garden, Where the magnificent sights were lit up by lanterns. Past “where the Phoenix Alights,” “Crimson Fragrance and Green Jade,” “Approach to Apricot Tavern” and “Pure Scent of Alpinia and Iris” they strolled, mounting pavilions, crossing streams, climbing miniature hills and enjoying the view from various different points. All the buildings were distinctively furnished, and each corner had such fresh, unusual features that Yuanchun was lavish with her praise and approval. But she cautioned them:

  “You mustn’t be so extravagant in future. This is far too much!”

  When they reached the main reception palace she desired them to dispense with ceremony and take their seats. It was a sumptuous banquet. The Lady Dowager and the rest sat at tables on either side, while Madam You, Li Wan and Xifeng passed round dishes and poured the wine. Meanwhile Yuanchun asked for writing-brush and inkstone and with her own hand wrote names for the spots she liked best. For the main reception palace she wrote the inscription: Recalling Imperial Favour; Mindful of Duty. And the couplet:

  Compassion vast as the universe extends to old and young.

  Grace unknown before honours every state and land.

  The pleasure grounds were named the Grand View Garden.

  “Where the Phoenix Alights” was renamed “Bamboo Lodge,” “Crimson Fragrance and Green Jade” was changed to “Happy Red and Delightful Green” and also called Happy Red Court. The name “Pure Scent of Alpinia and Iris” was altered to “Alpinia Park,” the “Approach to Apricot Tavern” became “Hemp-Washing Cottage.” The main pavilion became “Grand View Pavilion,” its eastern wing “Variegated Splendour Tower,” that on the west “Fragrant Tower.” Other names given were “Smartweed Breeze Cot,” “Lotus Fragrance Anchorage,” “Purple Caltrop Isle” and “Watercress Isle.” She composed a dozen or so other inscriptions too such as “Pear Blossom in Spring Rain,” “Plane Trees in Autumn Wind” and “Artemisia in Evening Snow.” The rest of the inscriptions cannot all be recorded here. The other former inscriptions at her order remained unaltered.

  Then the Imperial Consort wrote this verse:

  Enfolding hills and streams laid out with skill—

  What labour went to build this pleasure ground!

  For these, the finest sights of earth and heaven,

  Not fitter name than “Grand View” can be found.

  With a simile she showed this to the girls and said, “I have never had a ready wit or any skill in versifying, as all of you know, but tonight I had to try my hand at a verse in honour of these pleasure grounds. Some day when I have more time, I promise to write a Description of Grand View Garden and a panegyric called The Family Reunion to commemorate this occasion.

  “Now I want each of you to write an inscription and a poem to go with it. Do your best, and don’t feel restricted by my lame attempt. It was such a delightful surprise to me to find that Baoyu can compose inscriptions and poems. The Bamboo Lodge and Alpinia Park are the places I like best, and after them Happy Red Court and Hemp Washing Cottage. We must have four poems specially written for these. Although Baoyu’s couplets composed earlier are charming, I want him now in my presence to write four lu-shi in five-character lines on each of these places. That will repay the efforts I made to teach him when he was a little boy.”

  Baoyu had to agree and went off to rack his brains.

  Of Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun, Tanchun was the cleverest, but she realized that she was no match for Baochai and Daiyu. Still she had to write something, as the others were doing. Li Wan, too, contrived to compose a verse of sorts.

  The Imperial Consort looked first at the girls’ attempts. Here is what they had written:

  REFRESHING THE HEART

  Landscapes strange and rare here we find:

  Bashfully, at the word of command,

  I take up my pen;

  Who dreamed of such loveliness in the world of m
en?

  A stroll through these grounds refreshes heart and mind.

  Yingchun

  ALL THINGS VIE IN SPLENDOUR

  This garden laid out with consummate art—

  I blush, with my poor skill, its fame to render.

  Past telling are the marvels in this place

  For here, indeed, all things compete in splendour.

  Tanchun

  REFINEMENT IN CREATION

  This landscape stretches to infinity.

  Its high pavilions soaring to the sky;

  Laid out in radiance of the moon and sun,

  Nature itself is by these scenes outdone.

  Xichun

  FAIR AND FINE

  Bright hills and crystal water intertwine,

  No fairy isle is half as fair or fine.

  Green fans of singers mid sweet herbs are lost,

  Plum-petals by red skirts of dancers tossed.

  Rare verses should record this golden hour—

  Our joy at the nymph’s descent from jasper tower.

  Once she has visited these lovely grounds

  No mortal foot may overstep their bounds.

  Li Wan

  CONCENTRATED SPLENDOUR,

  BESTOWED FELICITY

  West of the Palace in this pleasure ground

  Sunlight, auspicious clouds, rare sights abound;

  High willows orioles from the vale invite,

  Tall bamboos tempt the phoenix to alight.

  This night’s royal tour gives rise to poetry,

  Her visit fosters filial piety.

  Such wisdom flows from her immortal brush,