A Dream of Red Mansion

by Cao Xueqin

  “We made that,” cut in Yinger. “Don’t ‘scold the locust while pointing at the mulberry.’“

  Mother He was eaten up with jealousy of senior maids such as Xiren and Qingwen, who had more prestige and authority in the different compounds than she. Fearing them and forced to defer to them, she could only work off her rage and resentment on others. Now the sight of Ouguan, to whom her sister had such an aversion, added fuel to the fire of the anger.

  Chunyan set off in tears to Happy Red Court. Afraid that if questioned she would explain why she was crying and make Qingwen angry again, her mother shouted frantically:

  “Come back! I’ve something to tell you.”

  But Chunyan kept right on. Her mother in desperation chased after her. When the girl turned and saw her, she broke into a run; then Mother He, in hot pursuit, slipped on the moss and fell—at which the other three girls burst out laughing.

  In disgust, Yinger tossed all her flowers and twigs into the stream and went back to her room, while Chunyan’s aunt crossly invoked the aid of Buddha.

  “May a thunderbolt strike the wicked little bitch, spoiling all those flowers!” she swore. She then picked more flowers to take to the various apartments.

  Meanwhile Chunyan, running into Happy Red Court, bumped into Xiren setting off to call on Daiyu. She caught hold of her, begging:

  “Save me, miss! My mother’s beating me again.”

  Annoyed to see Mother He close behind, Xiren said, “You beat your foster-daughter one day, your own daughter the next. Are you showing off how many daughters you have? Or do you really not know the rules here?”

  The woman, although only recently come to the Garden, had sized up Xiren as quiet and good-tempered.

  “You don’t understand, miss, so don’t meddle in our affairs,” she retorted. “You’re the ones who spoil them. Just mind your own business.”

  She chased after Chunyan then to beat her again. While Xiren indignantly turned back into the courtyard. Sheyue, hanging up handkerchiefs under the crab-apple tree, had overheard the commotion.

  “Never mind her, sister,” she said. “What can she do?”

  She signed to Chunyan, who took the hint and ran straight to Baoyu.

  “Well, wonders will never cease!” declared the maids.

  Sheyue urged the woman, “Steady on. Do us a favour, won’t you, and calm down.”

  Mother He saw that her daughter had darted up to Baoyu, who had taken her hand.

  “Don’t be afraid; I’ll protect you,” he promised her.

  Chunyan told him tearfully all that had just happened to her and Yinger. This only made Baoyu more exasperated.

  “Why not simply fool about here?” he asked. “Why must you even annoy our relative?”

  Sheyue observed to the company at large, “We can’t blame her for telling us not to meddle in their business. Not knowing the facts, we’ve no right to interfere. We’d better ask someone who can cope to come and deal with this. That’s the only way to convince her and teach her manners.” She turned and ordered a young maid, “Go and fetch Pinger here. If she’s busy, ask Mrs. Lin to come.”

  As the little girl left on this errand, the older servant-maids gathered round Mother He.

  “Quick, sister!” they urged. “Ask the young ladies to call that child back. If Miss Pinger comes, you’re in for trouble.”

  “Whichever Miss Pinger comes I must have justice,” blustered the woman. “No one has any right to stop a mother teaching her own daughter a lesson.”

  “Don’t you know who this Miss Pinger is?” the others retorted. “She’s the one in Madam Lian’s household. If she’s in a good mood she may let you off with a short scolding. If she’s in a bad mood, sister, you’re in for it!”

  The little maid came back at this point to report, “Miss Pinger’s busy just now. When she asked what had happened and I told her, she said: ‘In that case drive her out, and tell Mrs. Lin to give her forty strokes with a cane at the side gate.’“

  Dismissal was the last thing Mother He wanted. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she pleaded with Xiren and the rest:

  “It wasn’t easy for me to get this job. I’m a lone widow doing my very best to serve you all faithfully here and save my family a little expense. If I leave, I shall have to fend for myself and won’t be able to manage.”

  Seeing the state she was in, Xiren relented.

  “You want to stay yet won’t keep the rules or do as you’re told, beating people right and left,” she said. “How did we come to take on someone so stupid? These endless rows make people laugh at us.”

  “Don’t listen to her, “put in Qingwen. “Send her packing, that’s the only thing to do. Who has the time to argue with her?”

  “Be kind!” the woman pleaded. “Lay up virtue in heaven! I was wrong, but in future I’ll do whatever you young ladies tell me.” She prompted Chunyan, “This comes of my beating you. Not really beating you either, yet now I’m the one smarting for it. Put in a good word for me too.”

  Baoyu took pity on her then and agreed to let her stay on. “But no more of these scenes!” he warned her. After thanking them each in turn, Mother He left. And then Pinger arrived on the scene to ask what had happened.

  “It’s all over now,” Xiren told her. “We can forget it.” Pinger smiled.

  “It’s best to be easy on people—saves trouble,” she approved. “The mistresses have been away for a few days only, yet we’ve heard of nothing but squabbles of all sorts in every household—before one’s over the next one crops up. I just don’t know how I’m to cope.”

  “I thought we were the only ones,” remarked Xiren. “I didn’t know there’d been other rows too.”

  “This business of yours is nothing,” rejoined Pinger. “I was just listing to Madam You all the troubles there’ve been in the last three or four days—eight or nine of them big and small. This little tiff of yours is nothing—it doesn’t count. There’ve been far more serious or ridiculous rows.”

  Xiren asked what she was referring to. To know Pinger’s answer you must read the next chapter.

  Chapter 60

  Jasmine Powder Is Substituted for Rose-Nitric Powder

  Rose Flavoured Juice Is Repaid with Pachyma Cocos

  Xiren asked Pinger what trouble there had been.

  “Oh, a lot of nonsense that no one could conceive of!” was the reply. “I’ll tell you some other day. Right now I’m too busy, and things aren’t straightened out either.”

  As she was speaking, in came a maid sent by Li Wan.

  “Is Sister Pinger here?” she asked. “My mistress is waiting for you. “What’s keeping you?”

  “Coming, coming!” responded Pinger, hurrying out.

  Xiren and the others commented jokingly, “With her mistress ill she’s in such great demand, everyone’s trying to grab her.”

  Once Pinger had gone, Baoyu suggested to Chunyan, “Why not take your mother over to Miss Baochai’s place to say a few kind words to Yinger, so that she doesn’t feel too wronged.”

  Chunyan agreed to this, going out with her mother, and Baoyu called again to her through the window, “Mind you don’t mention it in front of Miss Baochai, or Yinger may get scolded instead!”

  Mother He and her daughter assented and left, chatting as they walked along.

  “I kept telling you, ma, but you never believed me,” said Chunyan. “Why land yourself in trouble like this?”

  “Go on, you little bitch,” chuckled her mother. “As the proverb says: ‘We learn from experience.’ I understand now, so don’t keep on at me.”

  “If you’d just know your place and mind your own business here, ma, in the long run you’d gain a whole lot by it,” went on Chunyan. “Let me tell you something: Baoyu often says that he’s going to ask the mistress to send all of us working here—whether inside or outside back to our own parents. Isn’t that fine?”

  “Did he really say that?” her mother asked eagerly.

  “Why sho
uld anyone tell such a lie?” Chunyan retorted.

  “Buddha be praised! Buddha be praised!” cried her mother.

  When they reached Alpinia Park, Baochai, Daiyu and Aunt Xue were having a meal. As Yinger had gone to make tea, the two of them went straight to find her.

  “I was talking too wildly just now,” said Mother He ingratiatingly. “Please don’t hold it against me, miss. I’ve come now specially to apologize.”

  Yinger, smiling, offered them seats and poured them some tea. But saying that they had business they took their leave and were starting back when Ruiguan hurried out after them.

  “Auntie! Sister!” she called. “Wait a minute.”

  Coming up to them she gave them a packet, explaining that this was some rose-nitric powder for Fangguan.

  “How small-minded of you, really!” chuckled Chunyan.

  “Do you imagine she can’t get this in our place that you have to send her a packet?”

  “What she gets there is one thing,” retorted Ruiguan, “but this is a present from me. Do take it back for her.”

  Chunyan had to accept it then. When she and her mother got back, Jia Huan and Jia Cong had just called to see Baoyu.

  “I’ll go in by myself, ma,” said Chunyan. “You’d better keep out.”

  Her mother, now completely under her thumb, did not venture to oppose her.

  When Baoyu saw that Chunyan was back he nodded to her and she took the hint, holding her tongue. After standing there for a few minutes she turned and went out, signalling to Fangguan to join her, then quietly told her what Ruiguan had said and handed over the powder.

  Baoyu, having nothing to say to Cong and Huan, asked Fangguan presently what she had in her hand; and readily showing it to him she explained that it was rose-nitric powder for a spring rash.

  “It was kind of her to think of it,” he remarked.

  Jia Huan hearing this craned his neck to have a look, and when he smelt how fragrant the powder was he stooped to pull a sheet of paper out of his boot.

  “Give me half of it, won’t you, good brother?” he wheedled.

  Baoyu felt obliged to comply, but Fangguan was unwilling to part with a gift from Ruiguan.

  “Don’t you touch this!” she cried. “I’ll fetch you some from elsewhere.”

  Baoyu smiled understandingly as he wrapped the powder up again. “Bring it quickly then,” he said.

  Fangguan took the packet and put it away, then went to her dressing-case to look for her own powder. When she opened the case, however, she found the box empty. “There was still some this morning. Where has it all gone?” she wondered. The other maids when questioned did not know.

  “Why try to track it down just now?” asked Sheyue. “Someone in this place must have run out of hers and taken it. Just give them something else, it doesn’t matter what—they won’t know the difference. Hurry up and get rid of those boys so that we can have our meal.”

  So Fangguan wrapped up a packet of jasmine powder and took it to Jia Huan; but when he eagerly held out his hand for it she tossed it on to the kang, forcing him to pick it up himself. Having put it in his pocket he took his leave.

  In the absence of Jia Zheng, Lady Wang and the rest, Jia Huan had been playing truant from school for several days on the pretext of illness. Now that he had this powder he went off in high spirits to find Caiyun, who happened just then to be chatting with Concubine Zhao. Beaming, he told the girl:

  “I’ve got something good here for you to powder your face with. You’ve often said that rose-nitric powder is better for skin trouble than that nitric concoction bought outside. Have a look and see if this is the right stuff.”

  Caiyun opened the packet and promptly burst out laughing.

  “Who gave you this?” she asked.

  Jia Huan explained how he had acquired it.

  “They were fooling you because you’re such a bumpkin,” she chuckled. “This isn’t rose-nitric powder, it’s jasmine powder.”

  Jia Huan examined it, and saw that it was pinker than the powder he had been shown, but equally fragrant.

  “Well, it’s good stuff just the same,” he retorted. “Keep it to powder your face. It’s better than anything you can get outside.”

  So Caiyun accepted it.

  “How could she give you anything good?” sneered Concubine Zhao at this point. “Who told you to go there begging? No wonder they made a fool of you. If I were you, I’d take it back and throw it in her face. Now’s the time, while some have gone to the funeral and others are ill in bed, to raise a rumpus and let no one have any peace. This way we can get our own back. Two months from now they won’t rake it up again. Even if they do, you can have an answer ready. Baoyu is your elder brother, so if you don’t dare tackle him, never mind; but are you afraid of those cats and dogs in his place too?”

  Jia Huan hung his head.

  “Why stir up more trouble?” put in Caiyun quickly. “Whatever happens, we’d better put up with it.”

  “Don’t you barge in,” retorted Concubine Zhao. “This has nothing to do with you. Better seize this chance, while we’ve got a good excuse, to bawl out those dirty bitches.” Pointing at Jia Huan she spat out, “You spineless wretch, you deserve to be bullied by that scum! If I say a word against you or give you the wrong thing by mistake, you toss your head in a rage and throw a tantrum, your eyes popping out of your head; but now that these sluts make fun of you, you take it lying down. Do you expect anyone in this family to have any respect for you in future? You’re so useless, I blush for you.”

  Jia Huan, though ashamed and annoyed, was afraid to do as she said. He brushed it aside.

  “You can talk, but you don’t dare go either,” he muttered. “You just want me to go and have a row with them. If they report me to our school and I get a beating, of course you won’t feel the pain. Each time you’ve egged me on and trouble came of it so that I got beaten or cursed, you’ve always kept quiet. Now you’re egging me on again to quarrel with those servant-girls. Aren’t you afraid of Third Sister? If you have the guts to go, I’ll have more respect for you.”

  This touched his mother on the raw.

  “Why should I be afraid of a creature I spawned myself?” she snapped. “If I were there’d be even more rows here.”

  She grabbed the packet and dashed off towards the Garden. Caiyun, unable to stop her no matter how hard she tried, made herself scarce while Jia Huan slipped out of the ceremonial gate and went off to amuse himself elsewhere.

  Concubine Zhao stormed straight into the Garden where she ran into Mother Xia, Ouguan’s foster-mother, who seeing the rage she was in asked where she was going.

  “Just look at this household!” fumed the concubine. “Even those little singsong girls brought in to put on shows every other day treat some people better than others, taking advantage of those who have less weight. If it had been anyone else I wouldn’t have minded, but how can I let that little whore get the upper hand of us?

  This struck a chord in Mother Xia’s heart. She hastily asked what had happened, and was told how Fangguan had made a fool of Jia Huan by giving him jasmine powder instead of rose-nitric powder.

  “Is that all, madam?” exclaimed Mother Xia. “Have you only just woken up to them? Why, that’s nothing! Yesterday they were even burning paper money here on the sly, and Baoyu stood up for them. But if other people bring something in they say it’s forbidden, unclean or taboo. So isn’t burning paper money taboo here? Just think, apart from the mistress, there’s nobody higher than you in this house; only you won’t use your authority, so nobody’s afraid of you.

  “Now what I suggest is this. As those young whores are low-class girls it won’t matter offending them. So seize hold of these two things they’ve done to teach them a lesson, and I’ll back you up as a witness. This way you can assert your authority, and other issues will be easier to handle. The mistresses and the young ladies can hardly side with those singsong girls against you.”

  This made Con
cubine Zhao feel in a stronger position. “I didn’t know about that business of burning paper. Tell me the details,” she said.

  Mother Xia accordingly told her all that had happened. “Just go ahead and trounce them,” she concluded. “If there’s a row, we’ll back you up.”

  Emboldened by this, Concubine Zhao made her way confidently to Happy Red Court. It so happened that Baoyu had gone to call on Daiyu, having heard that she was in, and Fangguan was having a meal with Xiren and the others. When the concubine came in they all stood up to greet her and offer her a seat, after which they asked her her business. Instead of answering, she stepped forward and threw the powder in Fangguan’s face.

  “You trollop!” she swore, pointing a finger at her. “We bought you with our money to train as an actress. You’re nothing but a painted whore. Even the lowest slave in our house ranks higher than you, yet you make up to some people and look down on others. When Baoyu wants to give someone a present you stop him, as if it were your property. And you fob this stuff off on my son, imagining he doesn’t know the difference. They’re both sons of the house, young masters. Who are you to treat him like dirt?”

  This was more than Fangguan could take.

  “There was no rose powder left,” she sobbed. “That’s why I gave him this. If I’d told him there wasn’t any more, he most likely wouldn’t have believed me. Isn’t this good powder too?

  “Even if I did train as an actress, I never performed outside. I’m only a girl; what do I know about painted whores? You’ve no call to swear at me, madam. You didn’t buy me. We’re all birds of a feather—all slaves here. Why go for me?”

  Xiren pulled her away, remonstrating, “Don’t talk such nonsense!”

  The concubine was so angry that she darted forward and slapped Fangguan OU both cheeks. Xiren hastily intervened.

  “She’s just a child with no sense, madam. Let her be! We’ll give her a good talking to presently.”