The Dream of the Red Chamber (Selection)

by Cao Xueqin

  The two matrons, deputed on the present errand, completely lacked, as it happened, all knowledge of the world, and the moment they heard that Pao-yü wished to see them, they wended their steps inside. But no sooner had they inquired how he was, and passed a few remarks than Yü Ch'uan-erh, becoming conscious of the arrival of strangers, did not bandy words with Pao-yü, but stood with the plate of soup in her hands, engrossed in listening to the conversation. Pao-yü, again, was absorbed in speaking to the matrons; and, while eating some rice, he stretched out his arm to get at the soup; but both his and her (Yü Ch'uan-erh's) eyes were rivetted on the women, and as he thoughtlessly jerked out his hand with some violence, he struck the bowl and turned it clean over. The soup fell over Pao-yü's hand. But it did not hurt Yü Ch'uan-erh. She sustained, however, such a fright that she gave a start.

  "How did this happen!" she smilingly shouted with vehemence to the intense consternation of the waiting-maids, who rushed up and clasped the bowl. But notwithstanding that Pao-yü had scalded his own hand, he was quite unconscious of the accident; so much so, that he assailed Yü Ch'uan-erh with a heap of questions, as to where she had been burnt, and whether it was sore or not.

  Yü Ch'uan-erh and every one present were highly amused.

  "You yourself," observed Yü Ch'uan-erh, "have been scalded, and do you keep on asking about myself?"

  At these words, Pao-yü became at last aware of the injury he had received. The servants rushed with all promptitude and cleared the mess. But Pao-yü was not inclined to touch any more food. He washed his hands, drank a cup of tea, and then exchanged a few further sentences with the two matrons. But subsequently, the two women said good-bye and quitted the room. Ch'ing Wen and some other girls saw them as far as the bridge, after which, they retraced their steps.

  The two matrons perceived, that there was no one about, and while proceeding on their way, they started a conversation.

  "It isn't strange," smiled the one, "if people say that this Pao-yü of theirs is handsome in appearance, but stupid as far as brains go. Nice enough a thing to look at but not to put to one's lips; rather idiotic in fact; for he burns his own hand, and then he asks some one else whether she's sore or not. Now, isn't this being a regular fool?"

  "The last time I came," the other remarked, also smiling, "I heard that many inmates of his family feel ill-will against him. In real truth he is a fool! For there he drips in the heavy downpour like a water fowl, and instead of running to shelter himself, he reminds other people of the rain, and urges them to get quick out of the wet. Now, tell me, isn't this ridiculous, eh? Time and again, when no one is present, he cries to himself, then laughs to himself. When he sees a swallow, he instantly talks to it; when he espies a fish, in the river, he forthwith speaks to it. At the sight of stars or the moon, if he doesn't groan and sigh, he mutters and mutters. Indeed, he hasn't the least bit of character; so much so, that he even puts up with the temper shown by those low-bred maids. If he takes a fancy to a thing, it's nice enough even though it be a bit of thread. But as for waste, what does he mind? A thing may be worth a thousand or ten thousand pieces of money, he doesn't worry his mind in the least about it."

  While they talked, they reached the exterior of the garden, and they betook themselves back to their home; where we will leave them.

  As soon as Hsi Jen, for we will return to her, saw the women leave the room, she took Ying Erh by the hand and led her in, and they asked Pao-yü what kind of girdle he wanted made.

  "I was just now so bent upon talking," Pao-yü smiled to Ying Erh, "that I forgot all about you. I put you to the trouble of coming, not for anything else, but that you should also make me a few nets."

  "Nets! To put what in?" Ying Erh inquired.

  Pao-yü, at this question, put on a smile. "Don't concern yourself about what they are for!" he replied. "Just make me a few of each kind!"

  Ying Erh clapped her hand and laughed. "Could this ever be done!" she cried, "If you want all that lot, why, they couldn't be finished in ten years time."

  "My dear girl," smiled Pao-yü, "work at them for me then whenever you are at leisure, and have nothing better to do."

  "How could you get through them all in a little time?" Hsi Jen interposed smilingly. "First choose now therefore such as are most urgently needed and make a couple of them."

  "What about urgently needed?" Ying-Erh exclaimed, "They are merely used for fans, scented pendants and handkerchiefs."

  "Nets for handkerchiefs will do all right." Pao-yü answered.

  "What's the colour of your handkerchief?" inquired Ying Erh.

  "It's a deep red one." Pao-yü rejoined.

  "For a deep red one," continued Ying Erh, "a black net will do very nicely, or one of dark green. Both these agree with the colour."

  "What goes well with brown?" Pao-yü asked.

  "Peach-red goes well with brown." Ying Erh added.

  "That will make them look gaudy!" Pao-yü observed. "Yet with all their plainness, they should be somewhat gaudy."

  "Leek-green and willow-yellow are what are most to my taste," Ying Erh pursued.

  "Yes, they'll also do!" Pao-yü retorted. "But make one of peach-red too and then one of leek-green."

  "Of what design?" Ying Erh remarked.

  "How many kinds of designs are there?" Pao-yü said.

  "There are 'the stick of incense,' 'stools upset towards heaven,' 'part of elephant's eyes,' 'squares,' 'chains,' 'plum blossom,' and 'willow leaves." Ying Erh answered.

  "What was the kind of design you made for Miss Tertia the other day?" Pao-yü inquired.

  "It was the 'plum blossom with piled cores,'" Ying Erh explained in reply.

  "Yes, that's nice." Pao-yü rejoined.

  As he uttered this remark, Hsi Jen arrived with the cords. But no sooner were they brought than a matron cried, from outside the window: "Girls, your viands are ready!"

  "Go and have your meal," urged Pao-yü, "and come back quick after you've had it."

  "There are visitors here," Hsi Jen smiled, "and how can I very well go?"

  "What makes you say so?" Ying Erh laughed, while adjusting the cords. "It's only right and proper that you should go and have your food at once and then return."

  Hearing this, Hsi Jen and her companions went off, leaving behind only two youthful servant-girls to answer the calls.

  Pao-yü watched Ying Erh make the nets. But, while keeping his eyes intent on her, he talked at the same time of one thing and then another, and next went on to ask her how far she was in her teens.

  Ying Erh continued plaiting. "I'm sixteen," she simultaneously rejoined.

  "What was your original surname?" Pao-yü added.

  "It was Huang;" answered Ying Erh.

  "That's just the thing," Pao-yü smiled; "for in real truth there's the 'Huang Ying-erh;' (oriole)."

  "My name, at one time, consisted of two characters," continued Ying Erh. "I was called Chin Ying; but Miss Pao-ch'ai didn't like it, as it was difficult to pronounce, and only called me Ying Erh; so now I've come to be known under that name."

  "One can very well say that cousin Pao-ch'ai is fond of you!" Pao-yü pursued. "By and bye, when she gets married, she's sure to take you along with her."

  Ying Erh puckered up her lips, and gave a significant smile.

  "I've often told Hsi Jen," Pao-yü smiled, "that I can't help wondering who'll shortly be the lucky ones to win your mistress and yourself."

  "You aren't aware," laughed Ying Erh, "that our young mistress possesses several qualities not to be found in a single person in this world; her face is a second consideration."

  Pao-yü noticed how captivating Ying Erh's tone of voice was, how complaisant she was, and how simpleton-like unaffected in her language and smiles, and he soon felt the warmest affection for her; and particularly so, when she started the conversation about Pao-ch'ai. "Where do her qualities lie?" he readily inquired. "My dear girl, please tell me!"

  "If I tell you," said Ying Erh, "you must,
on no account, let her know anything about it again."

  "This goes without saying," smiled Pao-yü.

  But this answer was still on his lips, when they overheard some one outside remark: "How is it that everything is so quiet?"

  Both gazed round to see who possibly it could be. They discovered, strange enough, no one else than Pao-ch'ai herself.

  Pao-yü hastily offered her a seat. Pao-ch'ai seated herself, and then wanted to know what Ying Erh was busy plaiting. Inquiring the while, she approached her and scrutinised what she held in her hands, half of which had by this time been done. "What's the fun of a thing like this?" she said. "Wouldn't it be preferable to plait a net, and put the jade in it?"

  This allusion suggested the idea to Pao-yü. Speedily clapping his hands, he smiled and exclaimed: "Your idea is splendid, cousin. I'd forgotten all about it! The only thing is what colour will suit it best?"

  "It will never do to use mixed colours," Pao-ch'ai rejoined. "Deep red will, on one hand, clash with the colour; while yellow is not pleasing to the eye; and black, on the other hand, is too sombre. But wait, I'll try and devise something. Bring that gold cord and use it with the black beaded cord; and if you twist one of each together, and make a net with them, it will look very pretty!"

  Upon hearing this, Pao-yü was immeasurably delighted, and time after time he shouted to the servants to fetch the gold cord. But just at that moment Hsi Jen stepped in, with two bowls of eatables. "How very strange this is to-day!" she said to Pao-yü. "Why, a few minutes back, my mistress, your mother, sent some one to bring me two bowls of viands."

  "The supply," replied Pao-yü smiling, "must have been so plentiful to-day, that they've sent some to every one of you."

  "It isn't that," continued Hsi Jen, "for they were distinctly given to me by name. What's more, I wasn't bidden go and knock my head; so this is indeed remarkable!"

  "If they're given to you," Pao-yü smiled, "why, you had better go and eat them. What's there in this to fill you with conjectures?"

  "There's never been anything like this before," Hsi Jen added, "so, it makes me feel uneasy."

  Pao-ch'ai compressed her lips. "If this," she laughed; "makes you fell uneasy, there will be by and bye other things to make you far more uneasy."

  Hsi Jen realised that she implied something by her insinuations, as she knew from past experience that Pao-ch'ai was not one given to lightly and contemptuously poking fun at people; and, remembering the notions entertained by Madame Wang on the last occasion she had seen her, she dropped at once any further allusions to the subject and brought the eatables up to Pao-yü for his inspection. "I shall come and hold the cords," she observed, "as soon as I've rinsed my hands."

  This said, she immediately quitted the apartment. After her meal, she washed her hands and came inside to hold the gold cords for Ying Erh to plait the net with.

  By this time, Pao-ch'ai had been called away by a servant, despatched by Hsüeh P'an. But while Pao-yü was watching the net that was being made he caught sight, at a moment least expected, of two servant-girls, who came from the part of Madame Hsing of the other mansion, to bring him a few kinds of fruits, and to inquire whether he was able to walk. "If you can go about," they told him, "(our mistress) desires you, Mr. Pao-yü, to cross over to-morrow and have a little distraction. Her ladyship really longs to see you."

  "Were I able to walk," Pao-yü answered with alacrity, "I would feel it my duty to go and pay my respects to your mistress! Anyhow, the pain is better than before, so request your lady to allay her solicitude."

  As he bade them both sit down, he, at the same time, called Ch'iu Wen. "Take," he said to her, "half of the fruits, just received, to Miss Lin as a present."

  Ch'iu Wen signified her obedience, and was about to start on her errand, when she heard Tai-yü talking in the court, and Pao-yü eagerly shout out: "Request her to walk in at once!"

  But should there be any further particulars, which you, reader, might feel disposed to know, peruse the details given in the following chapter.

  Chapter XXXVI

  *

  While Hsi Jen is busy embroidering mandarin ducks, Pao-yü receives, in the Chiang Yün Pavilion, an omen from a dream. Pao-yü apprehends that there is a destiny in affections, when his feelings are aroused to a sense of the situation in the Pear Fragrance court.

  Ever since dowager lady Chia's return from Madame Wang's quarters, for we will now take up the string of our narrative, she naturally felt happier in her mind as she saw that Pao-yü improved from day to day; but nervous lest Chia Cheng should again in the future send for him, she lost no time in bidding a servant summon a head-page, a constant attendant upon Chia Cheng, to come to her, and in impressing upon him various orders. "Should," she enjoined him, "anything turn up henceforward connected with meeting guests, entertaining visitors and other such matters, and your master mean to send for Pao-yü, you can dispense with going to deliver the message. Just you tell him that I say that after the severe thrashing he has had, great care must be first taken of him during several months before he can be allowed to walk; and that, secondly, his constellation is unpropitious and that he could not see any outsider, while sacrifices are being offered to the stars; that I won't have him therefore put his foot beyond the second gate before the expiry of the eighth moon."

  The head-page listened patiently to her instructions, and, assenting to all she had to say, he took his leave.

  Old lady Chia thereupon also sent for nurse Li, Hsi Jen and the other waiting-maids and recommended them to tell Pao-yü about her injunctions so that he might be able to quiet his mind.

  Pao-yü had always had a repugnance for entertaining high officials and men in general, and the greatest horror of going in official hat and ceremonial dress, to offer congratulations, or express condolences, to pay calls, return visits, or perform other similar conventionalities, but upon receipt on the present occasion of this message, he became so much the more confirmed in his dislikes that not only did he suspend all intercourse with every single relative and friend, but even went so far as to study more than he had ever done before, his own caprices in the fulfilment of those morning and evening salutations due to the senior members of his family. Day after day he spent in the garden, doing nothing else than loafing about, sitting down here, or reclining there. Of a morning, he would, as soon as it was day, stroll as far as the quarters of dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang, to repair back, however, in no time. Yet ever ready was he every day that went by to perform menial services for any of the waiting-maids. He, in fact, wasted away in the most complete dolce far niente days as well as months. If perchance Pao-ch'ai or any other girl of the same age as herself found at any time an opportunity to give him advice, he would, instead of taking it in good part, fly into a huff. "A pure and spotless maiden," he would say, "has likewise gone and deliberately imitated those persons, whose aim is to fish for reputation and to seek praise; that set of government thieves and salaried devils. This result entirely arises from the fact that there have been people in former times, who have uselessly stirred up trouble and purposely fabricated stories with the primary object of enticing the filthy male creatures, who would spring up in future ages, to follow in their steps! And who would have thought it, I have had the misfortune of being born a masculine being! But, even those beautiful girls, in the female apartments, have been so contaminated by this practice that verily they show themselves ungrateful for the virtue of Heaven and Earth, in endowing them with perception, and in rearing them with so much comeliness."

  Seeing therefore what an insane mania possessed him, not one of his cousins came forward to tender him one proper word of counsel. Lin Tai-yü was the only one of them, who, from his very infancy, had never once admonished him to strive and make a position and attain fame, so thus it was that he entertained for Tai-yü profound consideration. But enough of minor details.

  We will now turn our attention to lady Feng. Soon after the news of Chin Ch'uan-erh's death reached her,
she saw that domestics from various branches of the family paid her frequent visits at most unexpected hours, and presented her a lot of things, and that they courted her presence at most unseasonable moments, to pay their compliments and adulate her, and she begun to harbour suspicions, in her own mind, as she little knew what their object could possibly be. On this date, she again noticed that some of them had brought their gifts, so, when evening arrived, and no one was present, she felt compelled to inquire jocosely of P'ing Erh what their aim could be.

  "Can't your ladyship fathom even this?" P'ing Erh answered with a sardonic smile. "Why, their daughters must, I fancy, be servant-girls in Madame Wang's apartments! For her ladyship's rooms four elderly girls are at present allotted with a monthly allowance of one tael; the rest simply receiving several hundreds of cash each month; so now that Chin Ch'uan-erh is dead and gone, these people must, of course, be anxious to try their tricks and get this one-tael job!"

  Hearing this, lady Feng smiled a significant smile. "That's it. Yes, that's it!" she exclaimed. "You've really suggested the idea to my mind! From all appearances, these people are a most insatiable lot; for they make quite enough in the way of money! And as for any business that requires a little exertion, why they are never ready to bear a share of it! They make use of their girls as so many tools to shove their own duties upon. Yet one overlooks that. But must they too have designs upon this job? Never mind! These people cannot easily afford to spend upon me the money they do. But they bring this upon their own selves, so I'll keep every bit of thing they send. I've, after all, resolved how to act in the matter!"

  Having arrived at this decision, lady Feng purely and simply protracted the delay until all the women had sent her enough to satisfy her, when she at last suited her own convenience and spoke to Madame Wang (on the subject of the vacant post).