CHAPTER L. Page 1 _The Dream of the Red Chamber
In the Lu Hsueeh pavilion, they vie with each other in pairing verses on the scenery. In the Nuan Hsiang village, they compose, in beautiful style, riddles for the spring lanterns.
But to continue. "We should, after all," Pao-ch'ai suggested, "make some distinction as to order. Let me write out what's needful."
After uttering this proposal, she urged every one to draw lots and determine the precedence. The first one to draw was Li Wan. After her, a list of the respective names was made in the order in which they came out.
"Well, in that case," lady Feng rejoined, "I'll also give a top line."
The whole party laughed in chorus. "It will be ever so much better like this," they said.
Pao-ch'ai supplied above 'the old labourer of Tao Hsiang' the word 'Feng,' whereupon Li Wan went on to explain the theme to her.
"You musn't poke fun at me!" lady Feng smiled, after considerable reflection. "I've only managed to get a coarse line. It consists of five words. As for the rest, I have no idea how to manage them."
"The coarser the language, the better it is," one and all laughed. "Out with it! You can then go and attend to your legitimate business!"
"I fancy," lady Feng observed, "that when it snows there's bound to be northerly wind, for last night I heard the wind blow from the north the whole night long. I've got a line, it's:
"'The whole night long the northern wind was high;'
"but whether it will do or not, I am not going to worry my mind about it."
One and all, upon hearing this, exchanged looks. "This line is, it's true, coarse," they smiled, "and gives no insight into what comes below, but it's just the kind of opening that would be used by such as understand versification. It's not only good, but it will afford to those, who come after you, inexhaustible scope for writing. In fact, this line will take the lead, so 'old labourer of Tao Hsiang' be quick and indite some more to tag on below."
Lady Feng, 'sister-in-law' Li, and P'ing Erh had then another couple of glasses, after which each went her own way. During this while Li Wan wrote down:
The whole night long the northern wind was high;
and then she herself subjoined the antithetical couplet:
The door I ope, and lo the flakes of snow are still toss'd by the wind, And drop into the slush. Oh, what a pity they're so purely white!
Hsiang Ling recited:
All o'er the ground is spread, alas, this bright, refulgent gem; But with an aim; for it is meant dry herbage to revive.
T'an Ch'un said:
Without design the dying sprouts of grain it nutrifies. But in the villages the price of mellow wine doth rise.
Li Ch'i added:
In a good year, grain in the house is plentiful. The bulrush moves and the ash issues from the tube.
Li Wen continued:
What time spring comes the handle of the Dipper turns. The bleaky hills have long ago their verdure lost.
Chou-yen proceeded:
On a frost-covered stream, no tide can ever rise. Easy the snow hangs on the sparse-leaved willow twigs.
Hsiang-yuen pursued:
Hard 'tis for snow to pile on broken plantain leaves. The coal, musk-scented, burns in the precious tripod.
Pao-ch'in recited:
Th' embroidered sleeve enwraps the golden sable in its folds. The snow transcends the mirror by the window in lustre.
Pao-yue suggested:
The fragrant pepper clings unto the wall. The side wind still in whistling gusts doth blow.
Tai-yue added:
A quiet dream becomes a cheerless thing. Where is the fife with plum bloom painted on?
Pao-ch'ai continued:
In whose household is there a flute made of green jade? The fish fears lest the earth from its axis might drop.
"I'll go and see that the wine is warm for you people," Li Wan smiled.
But when Pao-ch'ai told Pao-ch'in to connect some lines, she caught sight of Hsiang-yuen rise to her feet and put in:
What time the dragon wages war, the clouds dispel. Back to the wild shore turns the man with single scull.
Pao-ch'in thereupon again appended the couplet:
The old man hums his lines, and with his whip he points at the 'Pa' bridge. Fur coats are, out of pity, on the troops at the frontiers bestowed.
But would Hsiang-yuen allow any one to have a say? The others could not besides come up to her in quickness of wits so that, while their eyes were fixed on her, she with eyebrows uplifted and figure outstretched proceeded to say:
More cotton coats confer, for bear in memory th' imperial serfs! The rugged barbarous lands are (on account of snow) with dangers fraught.
Pao-ch'ai praised the verses again and again, and next contributed the distich:
The twigs and branches live in fear of being tossed about. With what whiteness and feath'ry step the flakes of snow descend!
Tai-yue eagerly subjoined the lines:
The snow as nimbly falls as moves the waist of the 'Sui' man when brandishing the sword. The tender leaves of tea, so acrid to the taste, have just been newly brewed and tried.
As she recited this couplet, she gave Pao-yue a shove and urged him to go on. Pao-yue was, at the moment, enjoying the intense pleasure of watching the three girls Pao-ch'ai, Pao-ch'in and Tai-yue make a joint onslaught on Hsiang-yuen, so that he had of course not given his mind to tagging any antithetical verses. But when he now felt Tai-yue push him he at length chimed in with:
The fir is the sole tree which is decreed for ever to subsist. The wild goose follows in the mud the prints and traces of its steps.
Pao-ch'in took up the clue, adding:
In the forest, the axe of the woodcutter may betimes be heard. With (snow) covered contours, a thousand peaks their heads jut in the air.
Hsiang-yuen with alacrity annexed the verses:
The whole way tortuous winds like a coiled snake. The flowers have felt the cold and ceased to bud.
Pao-ch'ai and her companions again with one voice eulogised their fine diction.
T'an Ch'un then continued:
Could e'er the beauteous snow dread the nipping of frost? In the deep court the shivering birds are startled by its fall.
Hsiang-yuen happened to be feeling thirsty and was hurriedly swallowing a cup of tea, when her turn was at once snatched by Chou-yen, who gave out the lines,
On the bare mountain wails the old man Hsiao. The snow covers the steps, both high and low.
Hsiang-yuen immediately put away the tea-cup and added:
On the pond's surface, it allows itself to float. At the first blush of dawn with effulgence it shines.
Tai-yue recited with alacrity the couplet:
In confused flakes, it ceaseless falls the whole night long. Troth one forgets that it implies three feet of cold.
Hsiang-yuen hastened to smilingly interpose with the distich:
Its auspicious descent dispels the Emperor's grief. There lies one frozen-stiff, but who asks him a word?
Pao-ch'in too speedily put on a smile and added: Glad is the proud wayfarer when he's pressed to drink. Snapped is the weaving belt in the heavenly machine.
Hsiang-yuen once again eagerly quoted the line:
In the seaside market is lost a silk kerchief.
But Lin Tai-yue would not let her continue, and taking up the thread, she forthwith said:
With quiet silence, it enshrouds the raised kiosque.
Hsiang-yuen vehemently gave the antithetical verse:
The utter poor clings to his pannier and his bowl.
Pao-ch'in too would not give in as a favour to any one, so hastily she exclaimed:
The water meant to brew the tea with gently bubbles up.
Hsiang-yuen saw how excited they were getting and she thought it naturally great fun. Laughing, she eagerly gave out:
When wine is boiled with leaves 'tis not easy to burn.
Tai-yue also smiled while suggesting:
The broom, with which the bonze sweepeth the hill, is sunk in snow.
Pao-ch'in too smilingly cried:
The young lad takes away the lute interred in snow.
Hsiang-yuen laughed to such a degree that she was bent in two; and she muttered a line with such rapidity that one and all inquired of her: "What are you, after all, saying?"
In the stone tower leisurely sleeps the stork.
Hsiang-yuen repeated.
Tai-yue clasped her breast so convulsed was she with laughter. With loud voice she bawled out:
Th' embroidered carpet warms the affectionate cat.
Pao-ch'in quickly, again laughingly, exclaimed:
Inside Selene's cave lo, roll the silvery waves.
Hsiang-yuen added, with eager haste:
Within the city walls at eve was hid a purple flag.
Tai-yue with alacrity continued with a smile:
The fragrance sweet, which penetrates into the plums, is good to eat.
Pao-ch'ai smiled. "What a fine line!" she ejaculated; after which, she hastened to complete the couplet by saying:
The drops from the bamboo are meet, when one is drunk, to mix with wine.
Pao-ch'in likewise made haste to add:
Betimes, the hymeneal girdle it moistens.
Hsiang-yuen eagerly paired it with:
Oft, it freezeth on the kingfisher shoes.
Tai-yue once more exclaimed with vehemence:
No wind doth blow, but yet there is a rush.
Pao-ch'in promptly also smiled, and strung on:
No rain lo falls, but still a patter's heard.
Hsiang-yuen was leaning over, indulging in such merriment that she was quite doubled up in two. But everybody else had realised that the trio was struggling for mastery, so without attempting to versify they kept their gaze fixed on them and gave way to laughter.
Tai-yue gave her another push to try and induce her to go on. "Do you also sometimes come to your wits' ends; and run to the end of your tether?" she went on to say. "I'd like to see what other stuff and nonsense you can come out with!"
Hsiang-yuen however simply fell forward on Pao-ch'ai's lap and laughed incessantly.
"If you've got any gumption about you," Pao-ch'ai exclaimed, shoving her up, "take the second rhymes under 'Hsiao' and exhaust them all, and I'll then bend the knee to you."
"It isn't as if I were writing verses," Hsiang-yuen laughed rising to her feet; "it's really as if I were fighting for very life."
"It's for you to come out with something," they all cried with a laugh.
T'an Ch'un had long ago determined in her mind that there could be no other antithetical sentences that she herself could possibly propose, and she forthwith set to work to copy out the verses. But as she passed the remark: "They haven't as yet been brought to a proper close," Li Wen took up the clue, as soon as she caught her words, and added the sentiment:
My wish is to record this morning's fun.
Li Ch'i then suggested as a finale the line:
By these verses, I'd fain sing th' Emperor's praise.
"That's enough, that will do!" Li Wan cried. "The rhymes haven't, I admit, been exhausted, but any outside words you might introduce, will, if used in a forced sense, be worth nothing at all."
While continuing their arguments, the various inmates drew near and kept up a searching criticism for a time.
Hsiang-yuen was found to be the one among them, who had devised the largest number of lines.
"This is mainly due," they unanimously laughed, "to the virtue of that piece of venison!"
"Let's review them line by line as they come," Li Wan smilingly proposed, "but yet as if they formed one continuous poem. Here's Pao-yue last again!"
"I haven't, the fact is, the knack of pairing sentences," Pao-yue rejoined with a smile. "You'd better therefore make some allowance for me!"
"There's no such thing as making allowances for you in meeting after meeting," Li Wan demurred laughing, "that you should again after that give out the rhymes in a reckless manner, waste your time and not show yourself able to put two lines together. You must absolutely bear a penalty today. I just caught a glimpse of the red plum in the Lung Ts'ui monastery; and how charming it is! I meant to have plucked a twig to put in a vase, but so loathsome is the way in which Miao Yue goes on, that I won't have anything to do with her! But we'll punish him by making him, for the sake of fun, fetch a twig for us to put in water."
"This penalty," they shouted with one accord, "is both excellent as well as pleasant."
Pao-yue himself was no less delighted to carry it into execution, so signifying his readiness to comply with their wishes, he felt desirous to be off at once.
"It's exceedingly cold outside," Hsiang-yuen and Tai-yue simultaneously remarked, "so have a glass of warm wine before you go."
Hsiang-yuen speedily took up the kettle, and Tai-yue handed him a large cup, filled to the very brim.
"Now swallow the wine we give you," Hsiang-yuen smiled. "And if you don't bring any plum blossom, we'll inflict a double penalty."
Pao-yue gulped down hurry-scurry the whole contents of the cup and started on his errand in the face of the snow.
"Follow him carefully." Li Wan enjoined the servants.
Tai-yue, however, hastened to interfere and make her desist. "There's no such need," she cried. "Were any one to go with him, he'll contrariwise not get the flowers."
Li Wan nodded her head. "Yes!" she assented, and then went on to direct a waiting-maid to bring a vase, in the shape of a beautiful girl with high shoulders, to fill it with water, and get it ready to put the plum blossom in. "And when he comes back," she felt induced to add, "we must recite verses on the red plum."
"I'll indite a stanza in advance," eagerly exclaimed Hsiang-yuen.
"We'll on no account let you indite any more to-day," Pao-ch'ai laughed. "You beat every one of us hollow; so if we sit with idle hands, there won't be any fun. But by and bye we'll fine Pao-yue; and, as he says that he can't pair antithetical lines, we'll now make him compose a stanza himself."
"This is a capital idea!" Tai-yue smiled. "But I've got another proposal. As the lines just paired are not sufficient, won't it be well to pick out those who've put together the fewest distiches, and make them versify on the red plum blossom?"
"An excellent proposal!" Pao-ch'ai ventured laughing. "The three girls Hsing Chou-yen, Li Wen and Li Ch'i, failed just now to do justice to their talents; besides they are visitors; and as Ch'in Erh, P'in Erh and Yuen Erh got the best of us by a good deal, it's only right that none of us should compose any more, and that that trio should only do so."
"Ch'i Erh," Li Wan thereupon retorted, "is also not a very good hand at verses, let therefore cousin Ch'in have a try!"
Pao-ch'ai had no alternative but to express her acquiescence.
"Let the three words 'red plum blossom,'" she then suggested, "be used for rhymes; and let each person compose an heptameter stanza. Cousin Hsing to indite on the word 'red;' your elder cousin Li on 'plum;' and Ch'in Erh on 'blossom.'"