he sharpened the blade on a whetstone and strode into the library.
Who could have known that:
As providence would have it,
Ch’un-mei was not fated to die at his hands.
Lan-hua, her junior maidservant, had suddenly come out in a state of consternation and interrupted them, saying to Ch’un-mei, “Your son, the young squire Chin-ko, has come down with a fit of convulsions, and you had better go back to see how he is.”
This alarmed Ch’un-mei so much that:
Covering two steps with every one,
she had rushed back to the rear compound to look after her child.
No sooner had she left than Chang Sheng burst into the library with dagger in hand, where he failed to see Ch’un-mei but found Ch’en Ching-chi lying under the bedcovers.
Upon seeing him come in, Ch’en Ching-chi cried out, “Ai-ya! What are you coming in here for?”
“I’ve come to kill you,” Chang Sheng announced angrily. “How could you bring yourself to tell that whore that you intended to do me in? Was it not I who was responsible for rescuing you from your earlier predicament? And now you are:
Requiting kindness with enmity.
As the saying goes:
A black-headed beetle is not safe to rescue;36
If rescued it will end up eating your flesh.
Don’t try to escape, but have a taste of my dagger.
This day a year from now will mark the
anniversary of your death.”37
Ch’en Ching-chi, whose body was stark naked, had no place to hide, and tried to wrap himself in the quilt; but Chang Sheng tore it aside and jabbed him with the dagger, which penetrated between his ribs, causing his fresh blood to spurt out. When Chang Sheng saw that he was still struggling, he jabbed him in the chest once again, which left him:
No longer able to make a move;38
at which point, he grabbed him by the hair and cut off his head. Truly:
So long as one has three inches of breath,
one uses it a thousand ways;
But when the messenger of death shows up,
everything comes to an end.
It is pitiable, but Ch’en Ching-chi was no more than twenty-seven years old when he was made to:
Die an untimely death.
Chang Sheng, with his dagger in hand, proceeded to circle the room and look behind the bed for Ch’un-mei but could not find her, whereupon, he headed out toward the rear reception hall in large strides. When he reached the ceremonial gate between the front and rear compounds, he ran into Li An, who was carrying his watchman’s bell and patrolling the premises.
No sooner did Li An see Chang Sheng come charging in like an avenging spirit, with dagger in hand, than he asked him, “Where are you headed?”
When Chang Sheng refused to respond and continued to charge ahead, Li An blocked his way, and Chang Sheng attempted to stab at him with his dagger.
Li An laughed sardonically at this and said, “My uncle is the famous military instructor known as the Shantung Yaksha Li Kuei, but there is no need for me to avail myself of the skills I have acquired from him.”
As he spoke, his right foot shot up and kicked the dagger in his antagonist’s hand to one side with a clattering sound. Chang Sheng was thrown into a panic by this, and the two of them fell to grappling with each other. But Li An tripped him up with his foot, so that he fell facedown to the ground, and then took off the belt around his waist and tied him up with it in no time at all.
The noise created by their struggle was overheard by Ch’un-mei in the rear compound, and Li An explained it to her, saying, “Chang Sheng came inside with a dagger in hand, but I have succeeded in subduing him.”
Ch’un-mei had only just succeeded in coaxing Chin-ko back to consciousness, and when she heard these words she:
Turned pale with consternation,
and rushed out to the library, only to find the dead body of Ch’en Ching-chi lying there, with his:
Fresh blood flowing everywhere,39
at which she couldn’t help starting to weep out loud.
She then sent someone to report the situation to his wife Ko Ts’ui-p’ing, who hurried home as quickly as possible. When she saw the slain corpse of Ch’en Ching-chi, she:
Fell to the floor in tears,
Oblivious to human affairs.
Ch’un-mei helped her up until she regained consciousness; after which, she had the corpse removed, purchased a coffin in which it could be prepared for burial, and had Chang Sheng incarcerated in the lockup, while she waited for the commander-general to come home and deal with the affair.
In no more than a few days, since the military situation was urgent, and he had received orders to make haste, Commander-general Chou Hsiu managed to finish rounding up the infantry and cavalry from the various circuits and heard that the grand coordinator Chang Shu-yeh had already arrived in Tung-ch’ang prefecture and was waiting for him to join him there.
When he arrived home, Ch’un-mei told him how Ch’en Ching-chi had been killed by Chang Sheng, and Li An laid the murder weapon before him and knelt down to tell him what had happened. The commander-general was enraged by this and, taking his seat on the bench, had Chang Sheng brought before him, and:
Without discussing the pros and cons of the matter,
ordered his soldiers to give him a hundred strokes with the bamboo, taking turns as they beat him five strokes at a time. In no time at all he was beaten to death. He then lost no time in dispatching flag-bearing couriers to proceed to the Lin-ch’ing dock, take the Turf-protecting Tiger Liu the Second into custody, and bring him back in fetters.
Sun Hsüeh-o, on seeing that Liu the Second had been arrested, feared that she might be taken also, and going into her room:
Hanged herself until dead.
When the flag-bearing couriers brought Liu the Second back to the yamen, Commander-general Chou Hsiu ordered that he also should be given a hundred strokes with the bamboo, and he was beaten to death that very day. As a result:
The district of Ch’ing-ho
was dumbfounded;
The prefecture of Lin-ch’ing
was much disturbed.
Truly:
One who spends his life doing evil
and defying Heaven;
Will, one day, suffer retribution
from Heaven itself.40
There is a poem that testifies to this:
In being a person one should never
engage in deceit;41
Hovering three feet over one’s head
there are the gods.42
If the doing of evil deeds received
no retribution;
The cruel people of this world would
devour each other.43
At the time, the commander-general, by ordering these two men to be beaten to death, succeeded in ridding the neighborhood of their harmful influence. He then ordered Li An to take care of returning the Hsieh Family Tavern on the dock at Lin-ch’ing to its original owner, and recovering the capital that had been invested in it. He also instructed Ch’un-mei to hold funeral services for Ch’en Ching-chi on the seven weekly commemorations of his death, and then to select an auspicious day on which to bury him on the grounds of the Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the city. He decided to leave Li An and Chou I to look after the household during his absence, and to take Chou Chung and Chou Jen to serve him at his military headquarters.
That evening, Ch’un-mei, along with Sun Erh-niang, hosted a farewell feast to see him off, at which, before she knew it, all of a sudden, she began to:
Shed two streams of tears,
and said, “Once you have set out, sir, there is no knowing when you will return. You must be careful when going into battle.
The barbarian troops are ruthless, and
They cannot be lightly confronted.”44
“The two of you,” responded the commander-general, “while you remain at home, must:
Cleanse
your hearts and reduce your desires,45
while devoting yourselves to caring for my son. There is no need for you to worry about me. Since I have been the recipient of the Emperor’s rank and emolument, I must:
Expend my loyalty to requite my country.46
As for:
Fortune or mischance, survival or death,
I can only leave them to Heaven.”
When he had finished admonishing them, he went to bed for the night.
The next day, the infantry and cavalry under his command were all assembled outside the city wall waiting for him; and when the commander-general set out at their head, the men and horses were all in excellent order. Behold:
Signal flags flutter amid embroidered banners;
Painted drums resound along with bronze gongs.
Three-pronged pitchforks,
And five-pronged pitchforks,
Glitter like autumn frosts.
Spears as sharp as reeds,
And spears of tempered steel,
Proliferate like snowflakes.47
Buckler-bearing troops lead the way;
Strong bows and sturdy crossbows48 come next.
Cannons are drawn behind their carts;
Battle-axes and lances follow in their wake.
The generals in their saddles,
Like the fierce tigers of the Southern Hills,49
Are ready for battle and given to combat.50
The horses they sit astride,
Like the coiled dragons of the Northern Seas,
Are adept at struggle and prone to fight.51
Truly, their blades and spears are as turbulent
as tumbling waters;
In fact, the men and horses sweep forward like
tempestuous winds.52
Of the events of their journey there is nothing to tell.
One day, they were met by a mounted scout who told them not to proceed any further and then led them up to the outskirts of Tung-ch’ang prefecture, at which point the commander-general dispatched a courier, bearing his blue commander’s standard, to report their arrival and stationed his infantry and cavalry outside the city wall. When Grand Coordinator Chang Shu-yeh learned that Commander-general Chou Hsiu, and the infantry and cavalry under his command, had arrived, he went out to meet him, together with the prefect of Tung-ch’ang, Ta T’ien-tao. Upon arriving back in the courtroom of the prefectural yamen, and exchanging the conventional greetings, they sat down together to discuss the military situation, and the relative urgency of the information available to them.
After bivouacking overnight, the infantry and cavalry set out early the next morning in order to assume their duties in defending the front against the enemy. But no more of this.
To resume our story, when Han Ai-chieh and her mother, in the Hsieh Family Tavern on the Lin-ch’ing dock, learned of Ch’en Ching-chi’s death, Han Ai-chieh gave herself over to weeping, by day and by night, and refused to consume either tea or food. She indicated that if she could only go to the commandant’s yamen inside the city and be able to see Ch’en Ching-chi’s corpse:
She’d be prepared to die if she must.
Her father and mother, along with others, did everything they could to talk her out of it, but she refused to be dissuaded. Han Tao-kuo, finding himself:
At a loss for what to do next,
sent their servant to the commandant’s yamen, where he learned that Ch’en Ching-chi’s corpse had already been encoffined and buried on the grounds of the Temple of Eternal Felicity outside the city.
When the servant returned and reported this news, Han Ai-chieh expressed the desire to go burn paper money at his tomb, and weep over his grave, as an expression of her grief over the demise of their relationship. Her parents felt compelled to go along with this and proceeded to hire a sedan chair for her, and pay a visit to the Temple of Eternal Felicity. When they asked Abbot Tao-chien where the tomb was located, he ordered a novice to take them behind the temple and point out the location of the tomb.
Han Ai-chieh got out of the sedan chair, went in front of the tomb, lit the paper money, and bowed before it, calling out as she did so, “My darling brother:
I really looked forward to living in harmony
with you until our old age.
How could I have anticipated that this day you would be dead?”
So saying, she commenced to weep out loud and then fell down in a faint, knocking her head on the ground so hard that she lost consciousness. This threw Han Tao-kuo and Wang Liu-erh into a panic, and they rushed over to help her up, calling out to her as they did so, but she did not respond, which panicked them even further.
Who should appear at this juncture but Ch’un-mei and Ch’en Ching-chi’s wife Ko Ts’ui-p’ing, who arrived in two sedan chairs to conduct the ceremony of revisiting the grave on the third day after the burial, accompanied by their attendants, carrying the three sacrificial animals and other ritual offerings, in order to burn paper money on behalf of the deceased. On their arrival, they saw a young woman, wearing plain white mourning garments and a mourning cap on her head, who had:
Fallen to the floor in tears,
while a man and a middle-aged woman were attempting to help her up, though she fell down again:
Oblivious to human affairs.
They were startled by this and asked where the man was from.
Han Tao-kuo and his wife came forward to greet them with a bow and told them what had happened up until that point, saying, “This is our daughter Han Ai-chieh.”
When Ch’un-mei heard the name Han Ai-chieh she remembered that she had met her in Hsi-men Ch’ing’s household in the past and also recognized Wang Liu-erh. Han Tao-kuo then went on to tell her all about how they had been forced to leave Ts’ai Ching’s household in the Eastern Capital.
He then went on to explain, “Our daughter was acquainted with Master Ch’en Ching-chi but did not realize that he had died, and on finding out, wanted to come see his grave and burn paper money on his behalf. We did not anticipate that on arriving here she should collapse in tears this way.”
The two of them then continued trying to resuscitate Han Ai-chieh for what seemed like half a day before she finally spit up a mouthful of sticky sputum and regained consciousness. She choked inarticulately for a while, before giving way to a fit of weeping.
She then got up and proceeded to kowtow to Ch’un-mei and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing four times:
Just as though inserting a taper in its holder;
while saying, “Although he and I were guilty of:
Cohabitation amid the dewdrops,
the two of us:
Swore to be as faithful as the hills,
And vowed to be as loyal as the seas.53
We looked forward to living in harmony
together until our old age.
Who could have known that:
Heaven should fail to comply with our wishes,54
and he should predecease me one day, leaving me:
On the ground on all fours?
While he was still alive, he gave me a handkerchief of Wu silk with a love poem in the form of a quatrain inscribed on it. I knew that he had a wife at home, but I was willing to subordinate myself to you as his concubine. In case you don’t believe me, I’ll show it to you.”
So saying, she pulled the handkerchief of Wu silk with the quatrain inscribed on it out of her sleeve so Ch’un-mei and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing could read it. The poem read as follows:
The handkerchief of Wu silk is inscribed
with a palindrome;
From a flourish of my writing brush the
ink is still fresh.
I have dedicated it to my affectionate
love Han Ai-chieh;
That we may enjoy the century-long love
of mating phoenixes.
Han Ai-chieh went on to say, “I also gave him a little perfume sachet embroidered with two mandarin ducks, for him to suspend from his belt. It had double-headed lotus blossoms d
epicted on either side, on each petal of which I had stitched a character, so that they read:
Admiringly tendered to my lover,
I’ll follow you wherever you go.”
Ch’un-mei then asked Ko Ts’ui-p’ing, “Why did we not find this perfume sachet?”
“It was suspended inside his tunic,” responded Ko Ts’ui-p’ing, “and I put it inside the casket when he was encoffined.”
When they had finished offering their sacrifices before Ch’en Ching-chi’s tomb, Ch’un-mei and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing invited the mother and daughter into the temple where a repast was prepared for them to eat. When Han Ai-chieh’s parents saw that:
The light was beginning to wane,
they urged her to get ready to go, but she did not want to leave.
Kneeling down in front of Ch’un-mei and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing, she wept, saying, “I do not want to return with my mother and father. I would rather join you in wearing mourning and living as a widow, in order to honor our relationship, and show that:
While living I served as his concubine;
When dead I remain close to his spirit.”
Ko Ts’ui-p’ing did not choose to say anything in response to this, but Ch’un-mei said, “My sister, I fear that someone still in the springtime of her youth as you are will find it difficult to remain chaste. The best years of your life will be wasted.”
“Mistress,” responded Han Ai-chieh, “how can you say such a thing? Having committed myself to him, even if:
My eyes were gouged out or my nose broken,
I would feel obliged to maintain my fidelity and swear never to marry anyone else.”
She then turned to her parents and enjoined them, saying, “The two of you elders should return by yourselves. I wish to join my mistress and my sister as residents of their household.”
Wang Liu-erh:
Shed tears from her eyes,
and wept, saying, “We had hoped that you would support the two of us in our old age. We have only just rescued you from:
A tiger’s lair and a dragon’s pond,55
and today you propose to abandon us.”
All Han Ai-chieh said in response was, “I will not go back with you. Even if you managed to take me with you, I would only commit suicide.”
When Han Tao-kuo saw that his daughter was adamant about not returning with them, he and Wang Liu-erh cried together over her decision and shed tears as they set out for the tavern on the dock at Lin-ch’ing; while Han Ai-chieh joined Ch’un-mei and Ko Ts’ui-p’ing as they rode back to the commandant’s yamen in their sedan chairs. On the way back, Wang Liu-erh could not bear the thought of relinquishing her daughter and wept over it again and again:
The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei Page 57
