The Golden Lotus, Volume 1

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Master is not at home,” the maid said, “but my mistress would like to have a chat with you.”

  Ximen Qing did not wait for more, but set out at once. He went into the hall and sat down. After some time Li Ping’er came to him, made a reverence, and said: “I am extremely grateful for your kindness the other day. Indeed I have engraved it on my heart, for my gratitude is beyond expression. My husband has now been away two days. Perhaps you have seen him?”

  “He was at the Zhengs’ house yesterday, drinking with a few friends,” said Ximen, “but I had some business to attend to and came away. Today I haven’t been there, so I don’t know whether he is still there or not. If I had been there, I should have considered myself in honor bound to persuade him to come home and not to make you so unhappy.”

  “He will not do a single thing I ask, and it is almost more than I can bear,” Li Ping’er said. “He spends all his time playing with women of that sort and cares nothing at all about his home.”

  “If it were not for that one failing,” Ximen said, “my brother’s character would be beyond reproach.”

  The maid brought tea, but Ximen was afraid that Hua Zixu might return, and did not venture to stay very long. Li Ping’er said to him, “Whenever you do see my husband, please beg him to come home, and I shall be eternally grateful to you.”

  “We are such good friends,” Ximen said, “that I should do so without your asking.” He went home.

  Next day Hua Zixu came back from the bawdy house. “All you care about,” his wife said, “is strong wine and strange women. It is a good thing our neighbor, Master Ximen, has more than once taken some interest in our establishment. If you wish to keep his friendship, I should advise you to buy him a present to show your gratitude.”

  Hua wasted no time, but bought four boxes of presents and a jar of wine, and sent a servant with them to Ximen Qing. When he had accepted them and given the boy a present, Yueniang asked: “Why has Hua sent you these things?”

  “Some time ago,” Ximen said, “Brother Hua asked me to go with him to celebrate the Wu Yin’er’s birthday. He got drunk, and I brought him home. Indeed, more than once I have urged him not to stay so late at the bawdy house, but to go home early. His lady seemed very grateful, and I imagine she must have told him to send me this present.”

  Yueniang folded her hands in an attitude of devotion. “I think you might begin by practicing a little self-control yourself. To me this seems a, case of a Buddha made of clay preaching to a Buddha made of mud. Why, there isn’t a day when you don’t go off to play with some woman or other, and here you are giving pious exhortations to other people’s husbands. We can’t accept this present without making some return. Whose name is written on the card? If it is Mistress Hua’s, I must write and ask her to call. I’m sure she would like to come. If it is his name, you can invite him or not as you please. It is no concern of mine.”

  “It is Brother Hua’s name,” Ximen said; “I will ask him to come tomorrow.” He sent an invitation to Hua Zixu to come and take wine with him.

  “We must not be lacking in politeness,” Mistress Hua said, when her husband returned. “We sent him a few small presents and in return he has asked you to take wine with him. Next time, you must get some wine and ask him.”

  The days passed quickly. It was the Feast of the Ancestral Tombs. Hua Zixu engaged two singing girls and sent to ask Ximen Qing to come and admire the chrysanthemums. He also sent invitations to Ying Bojue, Xie Xida, Zhu Shinian, and Sun Tianhua to come and play at passing the flower while the drums beat. So, in the best of good spirits, they drank their wine.

  They drank till the lamps were brought. Then Ximen Qing left the table and went out to wash his hands. Li Ping’er was standing behind a screen peeping in at them. Ximen did not see her until he had almost run into her. She went to a door in the corner and told her maid Xiuchun to go over in the shadow to Ximen Qing and whisper, “My mistress asks you not to drink much wine, but to go home early. She has something to tell you tonight.”

  No message could have been more welcome to Ximen Qing, and though, after washing his hands, he went back to the table, he would not drink. The singing girls pressed wine upon him, but he pretended to be drunk and would have no more. It was about the first night watch. Li Ping’er paced up and down on the other side of the screen. She could see Ximen Qing lolling in his chair pretending to be half asleep. Ying Bojue and Xie Xida showed not the slightest intention of leaving, and sat there as if they were nailed to their chairs. Even when Zhu Shinian and Sun Guazui took their leave, the others still did not move, much to Mistress Hua’s annoyance. Once Ximen Qing started to leave, but Hua Zixu stopped him. “It must be that I have not yet offered you becoming entertainment,” he said.

  “Really, I’m quite drunk already,” Ximen said, “I can’t possibly drink any more. He rolled about till Hua sent him home with two boys to assist him.

  “I can’t think what’s wrong with him today,” Ying Bojue said. “He won’t drink. He has taken very little, yet he’s drunk. You have been very kind, and so have these two good little sisters. May I have a large cup? We must drink ever so much more before we think of parting.”

  At this Li Ping’er, who was on the other side of the screen, secretly cursed them as a set of unprincipled ruffians, and told Tian Xi, one of the boys, to ask her husband to come out and speak to her.

  “If you must drink with rascals like these,” she said, “get off to the bawdy house at once. Don’t stay here making yourselves a nuisance. It is midnight, and you have wasted fire and oil enough. This sort of behavior I will not have.”

  “You encourage me to go to the bawdy house as late as this?” said Hua Zixu. “Very well. If I can’t get back, you mustn’t blame me afterwards.”

  “Run along. I won’t blame you.”

  Hua Zixu was only too pleased to receive such instructions. He went back to the others and said, “Now we will go to the bawdy house.”

  “Really?” cried Ying Bojue. “Don’t try to be funny. You must see what your lady has to say about it first.”

  “I have spoken to her,” Hua said, “and she says I may stay until tomorrow.”

  “Of course,” put in Xie Xida, “Beggar Ying is too clever. Master Hua knows what he is about. Let us go without more ado.” With the two singing girls they set off to the bawdy house. The two boys Tian Fu and Tian Xi went with them. It was about the second night watch.

  Ximen Qing had gone home, pretending to be drunk. He went to Jinlian’s room, but, as soon as he had changed his clothes, he went and sat down in the garden. There he waited for a summons from Li Ping’er. Some time passed; he heard the dog being driven out and the gate fastened next door. Then the maid Yingchun climbed up on the wall in a dark place, pretending to call the cat. Seeing Ximen Qing sitting in the arbor, she made a sign to him. He took a bench, mounted it, and got down a ladder that had been placed for him on the other side of the wall.

  When Li Ping’er had made sure that her husband had gone, she took off her headdress and allowed the clouds of black hair to fall about her. Dressed simply, but still charming, she stood in an arbor. When Ximen came, she was delighted and quickly took him indoors. She had already prepared a table with wine, refreshments of various sorts, and fruit. The lamp was burning brightly. The wine jar was filled with a most fragrant wine, and, taking a jade cup in her hands, she offered it to Ximen Qing and made a most profound reverence.

  “I have been anxious to show my gratitude to you for a long time,” she said, “but you have given us present after present and put yourself out so much that I feel unbearably embarrassed. Today I have made ready this poor cup of wine and asked you to come so that I may at least give some expression to my feelings. Unfortunately those two shameless rogues stayed on and on, till I grew angry and packed them out of the house.”

  “I suppose Brother Hua will be coming back,” Ximen said.

  “He will not come back,” the woman replied. “I told him to spe
nd the night somewhere else. Both the boys have gone with him. There are only my two maids here, and old woman Feng who acts as doorkeeper. She is my old nurse and absolutely devoted to me. All the doors have been bolted.”

  This was all very pleasing to Ximen Qing. They sat as closely together as they could and drank each from the other’s cup. Yingchun served the wine, and Xiuchun came in and out to take away the dishes. Under the silken net incense perfumed a coral bridal bed. When they had drunk together long enough, the two maids took away the jar and the dessert, and shut the door. The lovers went to bed to enjoy what pleasure they might.

  The houses of wealthy families usually have double windows, the outer of which is called the window proper and the inner the casement. When Li Ping’er sent the maids away, she shut the casement so that, though there were lights in the room, they could not be overlooked from outside. But Yingchun was seventeen years old and not without experience. Realizing that her mistress and Ximen Qing were enjoying their unlawful loves, she quietly went between the windows and made a hole in the paper with a pin, so that she could see all that happened. The lovers accomplished their destiny, and all they did was seen by Yingchun as she stood outside the window.

  “May I ask your age?” Ximen said.

  “I am twenty-three,” Li Ping’er said. “What is your lady’s honorable age?”

  “She is twenty-six.”

  “Three years older than I am. I should like to buy a present and call upon her, but perhaps she does not care to make friends.”

  “She is extremely good-natured.”

  “Does she know you come here?” Li Ping’er said. “What will you say if she asks you questions?”

  “She lives well within the house,” Ximen said. “My fifth wife, Jinlian, lives in the garden where she has a little house all to herself. But she dare not interfere.”

  “What is the honorable age of your Fifth Lady?” Li Ping’er said.

  “She is the same age as my first wife.”

  “Good! Unless she considers my poor self too unworthy, I shall be happy to call her Sister. Tomorrow I will ask the size in shoes of your two ladies and make two pairs as a sign of affection.” Then she took two golden pins and put them on Ximen’s head. “Don’t let Hua Zixu see them, if you go to the bawdy house.”

  Ximen Qing promised. Then they renewed their pleasures together as though they would never part. It was the fifth night watch. Outside the window a cock crew, and the light flooded the eastern sky. Ximen Qing was afraid lest Hua Zixu should take it into his head to come back, so he dressed and climbed back over the wall. Before he went they agreed upon a secret signal. When Hua Zixu was not at home, one of the maids should come to the wall and cough, or throw over a piece of brick, and, if there were nobody about on Ximen’s side of the wall, she should climb up and he should get a ladder and come over. So this naughty couple made love over the wall, stealing hours of happiness together. Since they never went around by the gate, the neighbors could not possibly know what was going on.

  The moonbeams shine upon the flowers

  The water clock seems very slow.

  They meet. It seems like Gao Tang’s dream.

  She takes the silver lamp to light them

  In the deep night.

  Fearful lest, through the crevices, the light should pass.

  When Ximen Qing had climbed over the wall, he went to Jinlian’s room. She was in bed.

  “Where have you been?” she asked. “You have been away all night and you never told me where you were going.”

  “Brother Hua sent a boy,” Ximen said, “and asked me to go with him to the bawdy house. We drank till the small hours of the morning, and then I was able to get away.”

  Jinlian suspected him, but she pretended to be satisfied. One day, however, when she and Yulou were sewing in the arbor after dinner, a piece of brick suddenly seemed to drop from the skies quite close to them. Yulou was bending down to fasten her shoe and did not see it, but Jinlian looked everywhere till at last she saw a pale face at the wall. She could not be certain whose it was. The face appeared once and vanished. Jinlian pulled Yulou by the sleeve.

  “Look there! There’s the elder of Hua’s two maids. She must have been admiring our flowers, and jumped down as soon as she saw that we were here.” They thought no more about it.

  That evening when Ximen Qing came home from a party, he went to Jinlian’s room. She took his clothes and asked if he would like anything to eat, but he said no. She offered him tea, but he would not drink it. He paced to and fro in the garden, and Jinlian watched him quietly. Soon the maid’s face appeared again over the top of the wall. Ximen Qing took a ladder and climbed over to join Li Ping’er, who was waiting for him on the other side. Jinlian went to her room and tossed about on her bed. She did not sleep the whole night through. At daybreak Ximen Qing came back. He opened the door, but Jinlian pretended to be asleep and did not speak. Ximen, somewhat embarrassed, went and sat on her bed. Jinlian jumped up and caught him by the ear.

  “You fickle scamp!” she cried. “Where have you been? All night long I have been worried about you, but now things are so clear that I don’t need to ask you for an explanation. The best thing you can do is to tell me the truth at once. What have you been doing with that strumpet who lives next door, and how many times did you do it? Tell me every little thing and I’ll forgive you, but miss out a single word and tomorrow you shall march in front, and I’ll march behind and I’ll tell the whole world what you’ve been up to. You disgraceful rogue, I’ll make you so dead you won’t need to be buried. You have got a lot of fellows to keep her husband in the bawdy house, while you go and visit her. Very well, but I’ll show you what’s what. No wonder yesterday when Yulou and I were sewing, we saw that maid bobbing up and down over the wall, and in full daylight too. She is playing the part of the devil who runs after lost souls, and enticing you away to that whore. You don’t think you can deceive me any longer. Only the day before yesterday that turtle of a fellow fetched you away in the middle of the night to go to the bawdy house. Why! his own house would have done as well.”

  This was extremely disturbing to Ximen Qing. He knelt down as though to make himself small.

  “You funny little oily mouth,” he said, smiling. “Don’t speak so loud. I won’t tell you any lies. She asked me how old you are, and one of these days she is going to find out your size in shoes and make you a pair. She would love to consider you her elder sister.”

  “I don’t want a strumpet like her to consider me a sister, or a brother either for that matter. First she seduces another woman’s husband, and then tries to offer some insignificant courtesy in return. I will not have dust thrown in my eyes. Why should I let people play such tricks on me?”

  She pulled down Ximen’s trousers and perceived that the warrior seemed anything but ready for the strife, though he still wore his silver armor.

  “Tell me the truth,” she cried, “how many times has this fellow returned to the attack?”

  “That is an easy question to answer,” Ximen said. “Once was enough for him.”

  “Will you swear that it was only once?” Jinlian said. “Why should he be so dejected, then? He seems half paralyzed. If he showed the slightest sign of courage, I might credit his master with some manly qualities at least.” She stripped the warrior of his armor, and cursed him.

  “You abandoned scoundrel. There cannot be another like you in all the world. You take this thing with you on the sly when you go to play with that wicked creature.”

  “You funny little strumpet,” Ximen cried, “you are enough to drive a man crazy. She asked me several times to tell you that she is coming to kowtow to you, and she is going to make you a pair of shoes. Yesterday she sent a maid to find out what size Yueniang takes, and today she has given me this pair of pins, with the character Shou engraved upon them, for you.” He removed his hat, took the pins from his hair, and gave them to Jinlian. She examined them. The lucky character was designed in gold
upon an emerald ground. They were of very fine workmanship, for they had been made in a royal palace. She was delighted with them.

  “Ah well,” she said, “if that is how the land lies, I’ll say no more about it. Indeed, when you go to call on her, I’ll keep a lookout for you on this side, and the pair of you can enjoy yourselves in peace. Now what do you say?”

  Ximen Qing was delighted. He took Jinlian in his arms. “You are a darling,” he said. “The sort of baby I like is one who knows how to deal with a situation when it arises, as you do, not a miraculous creature who brings forth gold and silver when he performs his natural functions in the privy. Tomorrow I will show what I think about you by buying you a suit of fine embroidered clothes.”

  “I don’t believe that honeyed tongue and that sugary mouth of yours,” Jinlian said; “if you want me to help the pair of you, you must promise three things.”

  “I promise,” said Ximen; “ask what you will.”

  “To begin with, I forbid you the bawdy house. Secondly, when I ask you to do anything, you must do it. And thirdly, every time you go to visit your sweetheart, I must know all that happens; you must not keep a single thing back.”

  “That will be easy,” Ximen said. “I agree to all your conditions.”

  The next time Ximen Qing went to spend the night with Li Ping’er, he told Jinlian how white and flawless was the body of his lady love, as yielding as the softest down; how amorous her temperament; and how she loved wine. “We took a basket of fruits into the net with us,” he said, “and played dominoes and drank wine, before we went to sleep.” He took something from his sleeve and handed it to Jinlian.

  “Her father-in-law brought this from the palace and, when we had lighted the lamp, we used it as a model of deportment.”

  Jinlian unfastened the roll of pictures and looked at it from end to end. Twenty-four subjects were painted upon it, and it was most exciting. She decided to keep it. She handed it to Chunmei and said, “Put this away in my chest. No doubt I shall find much to learn from it.”