by Cao Xueqin
Next year, though once again you may peck the buds,
From the beam of an empty room your nest will fall.
Each year for three hundred and sixty days
The cutting wind and biting frost contend.
How long can beauty flower fresh and fair?
In a single day wind can whirl it to its end.
Fallen, the brightest blooms are hard to find;
With aching heart their grave-digger comes now
Alone, her hoe in hand, her secret tears
Falling like drops of blood on each bare bough.
Dusk falls and the cuckoo is silent;
Her hoe brought back, the lodge is locked and still;
A green lamp lights the wall as sleep enfolds her,
Cold rain pelts the casement and her quilt is chill.
What causes my two-fold anguish?
Love for spring and resentment of spring;
For suddenly it comes and suddenly goes,
Its arrival unheralded, noiseless its departing.
Last night from the courtyard floated a sad song—
Was it the soul of blossom, the soul of birds?
Hard to detain, the soul of blossom or birds,
For blossoms have no assurance, birds no words.
I long to take wing and fly
With the flowers to earth’s uttermost bound;
And yet at earth’s uttermost bound
Where can a fragrant burial mound be found?
Better shroud the fair petals in silk
With clean earth for their outer attire;
For pure you came and pure shall go,
Not sinking into some foul ditch or mire.
Now you are dead I come to bury you;
None has divined the day when I shall die;
Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?
See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,
This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?
Baoyu, listening, was overwhelmed with grief. To know more of this, read the next chapter.
Chapter 28
Jiang Yuhan Gives a New Friend a Scarlet Perfumed Sash
Baochai Bashfully Shows Her Red Bracelet Scented with Musk
As we saw, Daiyu held Baoyu to blame for her exclusion by Qingwen the previous night. As today happened to be the occasion for feasting the God of Flowers, her pent-up resentment merged with her grief at the transience of spring, and as she buried the fading petals she could not help weeping over her own fate and composing a lament.
Baoyu listened from the slope. At first he just nodded in sympathy, until she came, to the lines:
Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?....
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?
At this point he flung himself wretchedly down on the ground, scattering his load of fallen flowers, heart-broken to think that Daiyu’s loveliness and beauty must one day vanish away. And it followed that the same fate awaited Baochai, Xiangling, Xiren and all the rest. When at last they were all gone, what would become of him? And if he had no idea where he would be by then, what would become of this place and all the flowers and willows in the Garden and who would take them over? One reflection led to another until, after repeated ruminations, he wished he were some insensible, stupid object, able to escape all earthy entanglements and be free from such wretchedness despite the—
Shadows of blossom all around,
Birdsong on every side.
Daiyu, giving way to her own grief, heard weeping now on the slope. “Everyone laughs at me for being foolish. Is there someone else equally foolish?” she asked herself.
Then, looking up, she saw Baoyu.
“So that’s who it is.” She snorted. “That heartless, wretched....”
But the moment the words “wretched” escaped her she covered her mouth and moved quickly away with a long sigh.
When Baoyu recovered sufficiently to look up she had gone, obviously to avoid him. Getting up rather sheepishly, he dusted off his clothes and walked down the hill to make his way back again to Happy Red Court. Catching sight of Daiyu ahead, he overtook her.
“Do stop!” he begged. “I know you won’t look at me, but let me just say one word. After that we can part company for good.”
Daiyu glanced round and would have ignored him, but was curious to hear this “one word,” thinking there must be something in it. She came to a halt.
“Out with it.”
Baoyu smiled.
“Would you listen if I said two words?” he asked.
At once she walked away.
Baoyu, close behind her, sighed.
“Why are things so different now from in the past?”
Against her will she stopped once more and turned her head.
“What do you mean by ‘now’ and ‘the past’?”
Baoyu heaved another sigh.
“Wasn’t I your playmate when you first came?” he demanded. “Anything that pleased me was yours, cousin, for the asking. If I knew you fancied a favourite dish of mine, I put it away in a clean place till you came. We ate at the same table and slept on the same bed. I took care that the maids did nothing to upset you; for I thought cousins growing up together as such good friends should be kinder to each other than anyone else. I never expected you to grow so proud that now you have no use for me while you’re so fond of outsiders like Baochai and Xifeng. You ignore me or cut me for three of four days at a time. I’ve no brothers or sisters of my own—only two by a different mother, as well you know. So I’m an only child like you, and I thought that would make for an affinity between us. But apparently it was no use my hoping for that. There’s nobody I can tell how unhappy I am.” With that, he broke down again.
This appeal and his obvious wretchedness melted her heart. But though shedding tears of sympathy, she kept her head lowered and made no reply.
This encouraged Baoyu to go on.
“I know my own faults. But however bad I may be, I’d never dare do anything to hurt you. If I do something the least bit wrong, you can tick me off, warn me, scold me or even strike me, and I won’t mind. But when you just ignore me and I can’t tell why, I’m at my wits’ end and don’t know what to do. If I die now I can only become a ‘ghost hounded to death,’ and not even the masses of the best bonzes and Taoists will be able to save my soul. I can only be born again if you’ll tell me what’s wrong.”
By now Daiyu’s resentment over the previous evening was completely forgotten.
“Then why did you tell your maids not to open the gate when I called last night?” she asked.
“Whatever do you mean?” he cried in amazement. “If I did such a thing, may I die on the spot.”
“Hush! Don’t talk about dying so early in the morning. Did you or didn’t you? There’s no need to swear.”
“I honestly knew nothing about your coming. Baochai did drop in for a chat, but she didn’t stay long.”
Daiyu thought this over.
“Yes,” she said more cheerfully, “I suppose your maids felt too lazy to stir and that made them answer rudely.”
“That’s it, for sure. I shall find out who it was when I get back and give them a good scolding.”
“Those maids of yours deserve one, although of course that’s not for me to say. It doesn’t matter their offending me, but think what trouble there’ll be if next time they offend your precious Baochai!”
She compressed her lips to smile, and Baoyu did not know whether to grind his teeth or laugh.
They were summoned now to a meal and went over to his mother’s apartment where, on seeing Daiyu, Lady Wang asked:
“Has Doctor Bao’s medicine d
one you any good, child?”
“Not much,” the girl answered. “The old lady wants me to try Doctor Wang’s medicine.”
“You don’t know, madam,” said Baoyu, “Cousin Lin suffers from an inherited weakness and has such a delicate constitution that she can’t stand the least little chill. All she needs is a couple of doses to clear this up. Some pills would be best for her.”
“The other day the doctor recommended some pills,” said his mother. “I can’t quite recall the name.”
“I can guess,” said Baoyu. “Just ginseng tonic pills.”
“That wasn’t it.”
“Eight-treasure-leonurus pills then?” Left restorative? Right restorative? Or, failing that, six-flavour-digitalis pills?”
“No, it wasn’t any of those. All I can remember are the words ‘guardian angel.’“
Baoyu clapped his hands and laughed.
“I’ve never heard of guardian-angel pills. If there are guardian-angel pills there must be Bodhisattva powders too.” Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
Trying to repress a smile Baochai suggested: “Were they heavenly-king-fortifying-the-heart pills?”
“That’s it,” said Lady Wang. “How muddle-headed I’ve grown.”
“You’re not muddle-headed, madam,” her son assured her. “Those angels and Bodhisattvas have muddled you.”
“That’s enough from you,” she scolded. “It’s time your father gave you another beating.”
“My father wouldn’t beat me for that.”
“Since we know the name we’ll send out tomorrow to buy some.”
“Those remedies are useless,” protested Baoyu. “If you’ll give me three hundred and sixty taels of silver, I’ll make up some pills for my cousin and I guarantee she’ll be cured before they’re all taken.”
“Have some sense! What pills could be so expensive?”
Baoyu chuckled.
“It’s true. This is a unique prescription. I won’t go into all the strange ingredients now, but one’s the afterbirth of a firstborn child, another’s man-shaped ginseng roots with leaves on them—these alone would cost more than three hundred and sixty taels. Then there’s polygonum the size of a tortoise, pachyma from the root of a thousand-year-old pine, and other things of the same sort. These are nothing unusual, just ordinary herbs; but the chief ingredient would give you a shock. Cousin Xue Pan pestered me for more than a year to give him this prescription. Even then, it took him more than two years and about a thousand taels of silver to have it made up. If you don’t believe me, madam, ask Cousin Baochai.” Baochai raised a protesting hand, smiling.
T know nothing and never heard it word about it. So don’t refer auntie to me.”
“After all she’s good girl,” said Lady Wang. “Baochai wouldn’t tell a lie.”
Baoyu turned where he was standing and clapped his hands.
“What I said is in fact true. Yet you accuse me of lying.”
Whirling back he caught sight of Daiyu, who was seated behind Baochai, laughingly drawing one finger across her cheek to shame him.
Xifeng had been supervising the laying of the tables in the inner room but now she came out to join in the discussion.
“Baoyu isn’t fibbing,” she declared. “It’s true. The other day Xue Pan came to me for some pearls. ‘What for?’ I wanted to know.
“He said, ‘For a prescription.’ And he grumbled, ‘If I’d known all the trouble involved, I’d have left it alone.’
“I asked, ‘What prescription is it?’
“He said, ‘One of Baoyu’s.’
“I hadn’t time to listen to all the ingredients he listed. Then he said, “I could have bought some pearls, but pearls for this medicine must have been worn on the head. That’s why I’ve come to you. If you haven’t any loose ones, let me take the pearls from one of your trinkets and I’ll find you some good ones later to replace them.’
“So I had to give him a couple of my pearl trinkets. He wanted three feet of red gauze from the Palace too. Said he meant to grind the pearls into a fine powder to be mixed with other powdered ingredients.”
Baoyu had punctuated Xifeng’s speech with cries of “Buddha be praised! The sun shines at last in this room.” As soon as she had finished he put in:
“This is actually only a makeshift, madam. The real prescription calls for pearls and gems worn by wealthy ladies of old from ancient tombs. But we can hardly go and dig up graves, can we? So we have to make do with pearls worn by living people.”
“Amida Buddha!” cried Lady Wang. “The idea! Even if there are pearls in old tombs, how can you dig them up and disturb the bones of people dead for all those hundreds of years? No medicine made that way could be any good.”
Baoyu appealed to Daiyu.
“You heard what’s been said. Would my Cousin Xifeng back me up if I were lying?” Although facing Daiyu, he glanced at Baochai as he spoke. Daiyu caught Lady Wang’s arm.
“Just listen to him, auntie. When Baochai won’t back up his fib, he appeals to me.”
“Yes, Baoyu is good at bullying you,” said Lady Wang.
“You don’t know the reason, madam.” Baoyu grinned. “Even when Cousin Baochai lived with her family she didn’t know her brother’s doings; so she knows even less now that she’s in the Garden. But just now cousin Daiyu, sitting at the back, drew a finger across her cheek to shame me because she thought I was fibbing.”
A maid came in then to summon Baoyu and Daiyu to dinner with the Lady Dowager. Without a word to Baoyu, Daiyu rose and started leading the maid away.
“Won’t you wait for Master Bao?” asked the maid.
“He doesn’t want anything to eat,” replied Daiyu. “Come on, let’s go. I’m going.” She walked out.
“I’ll eat here with you, madam,” said Baoyu.
“No, no,” objected Lady Wang. “This is one of my meatless days, so run along and have a proper meal.”
“I’ll have vegetarian food with you.” He sent the maid away and took a seat at the table.
His mother told Baochai and the other girls to go ahead with their own meal and ignore him.
“You’d better go,” Baochai urged him. “Even if you don’t want anything to eat you should keep Daiyu company, she’s not feeling happy.”
“Never mind her,” he answered. “She’ll be all right presently.”
But as soon as the meal was over he called for tea to rinse his mouth, suspecting that his grandmother might be worried by his absence, and worried himself about Daiyu.
Tanchun and Xichun smiled.
“Why are you always in such a hurry, brother?” they teased. “Even rushing through your meals and tea.”
“Let him finish quickly and join Cousin Lin,” said Baochai. “Why should he fool around here?”
Baoyu gulped down his tea then and left, making straight for the west court. On the way he found Xifeng standing in the gateway of her compound and picking her teeth with an earpick as she watched a dozen pages move some flower-pots.
“You’ve turned up just at the right time,” she called to him with a smile. “Come on in. Come in and write a few words for me.”
Baoyu had no option but to follow her in.
Once inside Xifeng called for a brush, inkstone and paper and started dictating to him:
“Forty rolls of red flowered satin; forty rolls of satin with serpent designs; a hundred rolls of Imperial gauze of different colours; four gold necklaces.”
“What is all this?” asked Baoyu. “It sounds neither like an account nor a list of presents. How am I to write it?”
“Just put it down. So long as I know what it means that’ll do.”
Baoyu did as he was told. And when he had finished she put the list away.
“There’s something else I want, if you’re agreeable,” she then said with a smile. “I’d like that maid called Hongyu in your place to come and work for me. I’ll find you a few others instead later. All right?”
“My p
lace is swarming with people,” said Baoyu. “Take any of them you like. You don’t have to ask.”
“In that case, I’ll send someone to fetch her.”
“Do.”
He was starting to leave when Xifeng called him back, saying that she had something else to tell him.
“The old lady is waiting for me,” he demurred. “You can tell me when I come back.”
By the time he reached the Lady Dowager’s quarters they had finished their meal there.
“Well,” his grandmother asked, “what good things did your mother give you to eat?”
“Nothing special, but I had one bowl of rice more than usual. Where’s Cousin Lin?”
“In the inner room.”
Baoyu went in and saw a maid blowing at the charcoal in an iron. Two others were chalking patterns on the kang where Daiyu, bending over, was cutting out some material. He walked forward with a smile.
“Why, what are you doing?” he asked. “Stooping like that just after a meal will bring your headache back.”
Daiyu paid no attention but went on with her work.
“That corner of the silk is still rather crumpled,” one of the maids remarked. “Better iron it again.”
“Never mind it.” Daiyu put down her scissors. “It’ll be all right presently.”
Baoyu was digesting this snub when Baochai, Tanchun and the others arrived to chat with the old lady. Soon Baochai stepped into the inner room and asked Daiyu what she was doing, then watched her at work.
“How clever you’re getting,” she commented, “even able to cut out clothes.”
“This is just another specious way of fooling people,” retorted Daiyu. Baochai smiled.
“Let me tell you something funny,” she volunteered. “Cousin Bao’s annoyed with me because I denied knowing anything about that medicine.”
“Never mind him. He’ll be all right presently.” Baoyu told Baochai, “The old lady wants to play cards and there aren’t enough people. Won’t you take a hand?” Again Baochai smiled. “Of course, that’s what I came for.”