CHAPTER L. Page 2 _The Dream of the Red Chamber
"If you let Pao-yue off," Li Wan interposed, "I won't have it!"
"I've got a capital theme," Hsiung-yuen eagerly remarked, "so let's make him write some!"
"What theme is it?" one and all inquired.
"If we made him," Hsiang-yuen resumed, "versify on: 'In search of Miao Yue to beg for red plum blossom,' won't it be full of fun?"
"That will be full of zest," the party exclaimed, upon hearing the theme propounded by her. But hardly had they given expression to their approval than they perceived Pao-yue come in, beaming with smiles and glee, and holding with both hands a branch of red plum blossom. The maids hurriedly relieved him of his burden and put the branch in the vase, and the inmates present came over in a body to feast their eyes on it.
"Well, may you look at it now," Pao-yue smiled. "You've no idea what an amount of trouble it has cost me!"
As he uttered these words, T'an Ch'un handed him at once another cup of warm wine; and the maids approached, and took his wrapper and hat, and shook off the snow.
But the servant-girls attached to their respective quarters then brought them over extra articles of clothing. Hsi Jen, in like manner, despatched a domestic with a pelisse, the worse for wear, lined with fur from foxes' ribs, so Li Wan, having directed a servant to fill a plate with steamed large taros, and to make up two dishes with red-skinned oranges, yellow coolie oranges, olives and other like things, bade some one take them over to Hsi Jen.
Hsiang-yuen also communicated to Pao-yue the subject for verses they had decided upon a short while back. But she likewise urged Pao-yue to be quick and accomplish his task.
"Dear senior cousin, dear junior cousin," pleaded Pao-yue, "let me use my own rhymes. Don't bind me down to any."
"Go on as you like," they replied with one consent.
But conversing the while, they passed the plum blossom under inspection.
This bough of plum blossom was, in fact, only two feet in height; but from the side projected a branch, crosswise, about two or three feet in length the small twigs and stalks on which resembled coiled dragons, or crouching earthworms; and were either single and trimmed pencil-like, or thick and bushy grove-like. Indeed, their appearance was as if the blossom spurted cosmetic. This fragrance put orchids to the blush. So every one present contributed her quota of praise.
Chou-yen, Li Wen and Pao-ch'in had, little though it was expected, all three already finished their lines and each copied them out for herself, so the company began to peruse their compositions, subjoined below, in the order of the three words: 'red plum blossom.'
Verses to the red plum blossom by Hsing Chou-yen.
The peach tree has not donned its fragrance yet, the almond is not red. What time it strikes the cold, it's first joyful to smile at the east wind. When its spirit to the Yue Ling hath flown, 'tis hard to say 'tis spring. The russet clouds across the 'Lo Fu' lie, so e'en to dreams it's closed. The green petals add grace to a coiffure, when painted candles burn. The simple elf when primed with wine doth the waning rainbow bestride. Does its appearance speak of a colour of ordinary run? Both dark and light fall of their own free will into the ice and snow.
The next was the production of Li Wen, and its burden was:
To write on the white plum I'm not disposed, but I'll write on the red. Proud of its beauteous charms, 'tis first to meet the opening drunken eye. On its frost-nipped face are marks; and these consist wholly of blood. Its heart is sore, but no anger it knows; to ashes too it turns. By some mistake a pill (a fairy) takes and quits her real frame. From the fairyland pool she secret drops, and casts off her old form. In spring, both north and south of the river, with splendour it doth bloom. Send word to bees and butterflies that they need not give way to fears!
This stanza came next from the pen of Hsueeh Pao-ch'in,
Far distant do the branches grow; but how beauteous the blossom blooms! The maidens try with profuse show to compete in their spring head-dress. No snow remains on the vacant pavilion and the tortuous rails. Upon the running stream and desolate hills descend the russet clouds. When cold prevails one can in a still dream follow the lass-blown fife. The wandering elf roweth in fragrant spring, the boat in the red stream. In a previous existence, it must sure have been of fairy form. No doubt need 'gain arise as to its beauty differing from then.
The perusal over, they spent some time in heaping, smiling the while, eulogiums upon the compositions. And they pointed at the last stanza as the best of the lot; which made it evident to Pao-yue that Pao-ch'in, albeit the youngest in years, was, on the other hand, the quickest in wits.
Tai-yue and Hsiang-yuen then filled up a small cup with wine and simultaneously offered their congratulations to Pao-ch'in.
"Each of the three stanzas has its beauty," Pao-ch'ai remarked, a smile playing round her lips. "You two have daily made a fool of me, and are you now going to fool her also?"
"Have you got yours ready?" Li Wan went on to inquire of Pao-yue.
"I'd got them," Pao-yue promptly answered, "but the moment I read their three stanzas, I once more became so nervous that they quite slipped from my mind. But let me think again."
Hsiang-yuen, at this reply, fetched a copper poker, and, while beating on the hand-stove, she laughingly said: "I shall go on tattooing. Now mind if when the drumming ceases, you haven't accomplished your task, you'll have to bear another fine."
"I've already got them!" Pao-yue rejoined, smilingly.
Tai-yue then picked up a pencil. "Recite them," she smiled, "and I'll write them down."
Hsiang-yuen beat one stroke (on the stove). "The first tattoo is over," she laughed.
"I'm ready," Pao-yue smiled. "Go on writing."
At this, they heard him recite:
The wine bottle is not opened, the line is not put into shape.
Tai-yue noted it down, and shaking her head, "They begin very smoothly," she said, as she smiled.
"Be quick!" Hsiang-yuen again urged.
Pao-yue laughingly continued:
To fairyland I speed to seek for spring, and the twelfth moon to find.
Tai-yue and Hsiang-yuen both nodded. "It's rather good," they smiled.
Pao-yue resumed, saying:
I will not beg the high god for a bottle of the (healing) dew, But pray Shuang O to give me some plum bloom beyond the rails.
Tai-yue jotted the lines down and wagged her head to and fro. "They're ingenious, that's all," she observed.
Hsiang-yuen gave another rap with her hand.
Pao-yue thereupon smilingly added:
I come into the world and, in the cold, I pick out some red snow. I leave the dusty sphere and speed to pluck the fragrant purple clouds. I bring a jagged branch, but who in pity sings my shoulders thin? On my clothes still sticketh the moss from yon Buddhistic court.
As soon as Tai-yue had done writing, Hsiang-yuen and the rest of the company began to discuss the merits of the verses; but they then saw several servant-maids rush in, shouting: "Our venerable mistress has come."
One and all hurried out with all despatch to meet her. "How comes it that she is in such good cheer?" every one also laughed.
Speaking the while, they discerned, at a great distance, their grandmother Chia seated, enveloped in a capacious wrapper, and rolled up in a warm hood lined with squirrel fur, in a small bamboo sedan-chair with an open green silk glazed umbrella in her hand. Yuean Yang, Hu Po and some other girls, mustering in all five or six, held each an umbrella and pressed round the chair, as they advanced.
Li Wan and her companions went up to them with hasty step; but dowager lady Chia directed the servants to make them stop; explaining that it would be quite enough if they stood where they were.
On her approach, old lady Chia smiled. "I've given," she observed, "your Madame Wang and that girl Feng the slip and come. What deep snow covers the ground! For me, I'm seated in this, so it doesn't matter; but you mustn't let those ladies trudge in the snow."
The various followers rushed forward to take her wrapper and to support her, and as they did so, they expressed their acquiescence.
As soon as she got indoors old lady Chia was the first to exclaim with a beaming face: "What beautiful plum blossom! You well know how to make merry; but I too won't let you off!"
But in the course of her remarks, Li Wan quickly gave orders to a domestic to fetch a large wolf skin rug, and to spread it in the centre, so dowager lady Chia made herself comfortable on it. "Just go on as before with your romping and joking, drinking and eating," she then laughed. "As the days are so short, I did not venture to have a midday siesta. After therefore playing at dominoes for a time, I bethought myself of you people, and likewise came to join the fun."
Li Wan soon also presented her a hand-stove, while T'an Ch'un brought an extra set of cups and chopsticks, and filling with her own hands, a cup with warm wine, she handed it to her grandmother Chia. Old lady Chia swallowed a sip. "What's there in that dish?" she afterwards inquired.
The various inmates hurriedly carried it over to her, and explained that 'they were pickled quails.'
"These won't hurt me," dowager lady Chia said, "so cut off a piece of the leg and give it to me."
"Yes!" promptly acquiesced Li Wan, and asking for water, she washed her hands, and then came in person to carve the quail.
"Sit down again," dowager lady Chia said, pressing them, "and go on with your chatting and laughing. Let me hear you, and feel happy. Just you also seat yourself," continuing, she remarked to Li Wan, "and behave as if I were not here. If you do so, well and good. Otherwise, I shall take myself off at once."
But it was only when they heard how persistent she was in her solicitations that they all resumed the seats, which accorded with their age, with the exception of Li Wan, who moved to the furthest side.
"What were you playing at?" old lady Chia thereupon asked.
"We were writing verses," answered the whole party.
"Wouldn't it be well for those who are up to poetry," dowager lady Chia suggested; "to devise a few puns for lanterns so that the whole lot of us should be able to have some fun in the first moon?"
With one voice, they expressed their approval. But after they had jested for a little time; "It's damp in here;" old lady Chia said, "so don't you sit long, for mind you might be catching cold. Where it's nice and warm is in your cousin Quarta's over there, so let's all go and see how she is getting on with her painting, and whether it will be ready or not by the end of the year."
"How could it be completed by the close of the year?" they smiled. "She could only, we fancy, get it ready by the dragon boat festival next year."
"This is dreadful!" old lady Chia exclaimed. "Why, she has really wasted more labour on it than would have been actually required to lay out this garden!"
With these words still on her lips, she ensconced herself again in the bamboo sedan, and closed in or followed by the whole company, she repaired to the Lotus Fragrance Arbour, where they got into a narrow passage, flanked on the east as well as the west, with doors from which they could cross the street. Over these doorways on the inside as well as outside were inserted alike tablets made of stone. The door they went in by, on this occasion, lay on the west. On the tablet facing outwards, were cut out the two words representing: 'Penetrating into the clouds.' On that inside, were engraved the two characters meaning: 'crossing to the moon.' On their arrival at the hall, they walked in by the main entrance, which looked towards the south. Dowager lady Chia then alighted from her chair. Hsi Ch'un had already made her appearance out of doors to welcome her, so taking the inner covered passage, they passed over to the other side and reached Hsi Ch'un's bedroom; on the door posts of which figured the three words: 'Warm fragrance isle.' Several servants were at once at hand; and no sooner had they raised the red woollen portiere, than a soft fragrance wafted itself into their faces. The various inmates stepped into the room. Old lady Chia, however, did not take a seat, but simply inquired where the painting was.
"The weather is so bitterly cold," Hsi Ch'un consequently explained smiling, "that the glue, whose property is mainly to coagulate, cannot be moistened, so I feared that, were I to have gone on with the painting, it wouldn't be worth looking at; and I therefore put it away."
"I must have it by the close of the year," dowager lady Chia laughed, "so don't idle your time away. Produce it at once and go on painting for me, as quick as you can."
But scarcely had she concluded her remark, than she unexpectedly perceived lady Feng arrive, smirking and laughing, with a purple pelisse, lined with deer fur, thrown over her shoulders. "Venerable senior!" she shouted, "You don't even so much as let any one know to-day, but sneak over stealthily. I've had a good hunt for you!"
When old lady Chia saw her join them, she felt filled with delight. "I was afraid," she rejoined, "that you'd be feeling cold. That's why, I didn't allow any one to tell you. You're really as sharp as a spirit to have, at last, been able to trace my whereabouts! But according to strict etiquette, you shouldn't show filial piety to such a degree!"
"Is it out of any idea of filial piety that I came after you? Not at all!" lady Feng added with a laugh. "But when I got to your place, worthy senior, I found everything so quiet that not even the caw of a crow could be heard, and when I asked the young maids where you'd gone, they wouldn't let me come and search in the garden. So I began to give way to surmises. Suddenly also arrived two or three nuns; and then, at length, I jumped at the conclusion that these women must have come to bring their yearly prayers, or to ask for their annual or incense allowance, and that, with the amount of things you also, venerable ancestor, have to do for the end of the year, you had for certain got out of the way of your debts. Speedily therefore I inquired of the nuns what it was that brought them there, and, for a fact, there was no mistake in my surmises. So promptly issuing the annual allowances to them, I now come to report to you, worthy senior, that your creditors have gone, and that there's no need for you to skulk away. But I've had some tender pheasant prepared; so please come, and have your evening meal; for if you delay any longer, it will get quite stale."