The Golden Lotus, Volume 1

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Oho!” Daian said, “so you, Fifth Mother, are beginning to take her part now. That is indeed like the sun rising in the west. If Father hadn’t called her a whore I wouldn’t have, either.”

  “Just because your master says things like that, you need not think you can do so,” Jinlian said.

  “If I had known you would take it this way, Lady, I would never have said a word.”

  “Be quiet, you young scamp,” Yulou said. “Here are three taels and a qian. You and Laixing must go and make some purchases for us. We are giving a snow feast to your master and mistress. If you can keep your hands off the things you buy for us, I’ll ask the Fifth Lady not to say anything to your master.”

  Daian swore that he would never dream of stealing anything, and, calling Laixing, went off with him to do the shopping.

  As Ximen Qing was dressing in Yueniang’s room, he saw Laixing going to the kitchen with chickens and ducks and Daian carrying a jar of Jinhua wine.

  “What are those boys doing?” he asked the maid.

  Yuxiao told him that the ladies were going to give a party to Yueniang and himself. Then he asked Daian where he had got the wine, and the boy told him that Yulou had given him money to buy it. “Dear, dear,” Ximen said, “why go out to buy wine when there is so much in the house already? Take a key and go and get some jasmine wine from the front court. We will mix it with this.”

  Curtains and screens had been set out in the hall; the winter season awning, with its design of Chunmei, had been put in position, and the stove well supplied with charcoal. Food and wine were daintily arranged. The ladies came and invited Ximen Qing and Yueniang to join them. Li Jiao’er poured wine into the cups while Yulou held the wine jar. Jinlian served the dishes. Li Ping’er knelt down and offered a cup of wine to Ximen Qing. He took it and said, laughingly, “This is very kind of you, my child. You are indeed a dutiful daughter. But an ordinary reverence is enough.”

  “Who do you think is paying reverence to you, you overgrown boy?” Jinlian said. “Like the onion that grows by the south wall, the older you grow, the hotter you get. Why, if it were not for the Great Lady, we shouldn’t be paying any reverence to you today.” They offered Yueniang a cup of wine. She thanked them pleasantly and said she had never expected such kindness.

  “It is nothing at all,” Yulou said, smiling. “We thought we should like to offer this poor repast to your honorable selves this wintry weather. Please sit down, Sister, and accept our reverences.” Yueniang did not wish to do this without making equal reverence in return. But Yulou said they would remain on their knees forever unless Yueniang sat down. At last, after much friendly argument, they were content with half the prescribed salutation.

  “Sister,” Jinlian said, “we ask you to forgive him for our sakes this once. If he is ever rude to you again we shall not bother about him any more.” Then she turned to Ximen Qing. “Why do you sit there like a fool? Come down at once from that place of honor, offer a cup of wine to the Great Lady, and make your apologies.”

  Ximen Qing laughed. The wine was passed around and afterwards Yueniang, bidding Yuxiao take the jar, herself poured out the wine and offered it to the ladies in return. Xue’e knelt down to receive her cup, but the others took theirs without doing so. Then Ximen Qing and Yueniang sat down in the place of honor, and all the other ladies, with Ximen’s daughter Ximen Dajie, sat on either side.

  “Sixth Sister,” Jinlian said to Li Ping’er, “you ought to offer a special cup of wine to the Great Lady.”

  Li Ping’e rose and was about to do as she was told, but Ximen Qing stopped her. “Don’t pay any attention to that little strumpet. She is teasing you. You have already offered us wine once and there is no need to do so again.” Li Ping’er sat down.

  Chunmei, Yingchun, Yuxiao and Lanxiang then brought their instruments and sang the song of the Thousand Blossoms of the Pomegranate, which is all about a second honeymoon. Ximen Qing asked them who had suggested that song, and Yuxiao told him that Jinlian had done so. Ximen looked at Jinlian and told her he did not know what she was thinking about. Yueniang suddenly thought of Chen Jingji and sent a boy to fetch him. When he came, he made reverence to them all and sat beside his wife. Yueniang had wine and food set before him and soon the whole family was enjoying a very merry time. Through the window Ximen Qing looked out upon the snow. It was as white as cotton wool and the falling flakes seemed like the whirling petals of the pear blossom. It was a very beautiful sight.

  Snow like tender willow seeds

  Snow like down from a goose’s back

  Falling softly with no more sound

  Than a crab that creeps over the sand.

  Piling up mountains of powdered jade

  And dressing wayfarers with glittering spangles

  Till they look like bees covered with pollen

  And the palaces are covered deep.

  The snowflakes whirl like a dragon of jade

  Tossing his scales high in the air

  The white powder scatters like the feathers

  That fall from a stork

  The lofty mansions are a mass of ice.

  So cold is it that the body tingles

  The earth shines like a silver ocean

  And the flame of the candle seems like a flower upon it.

  Yueniang noticed that the snow lay deep upon the mound in the garden. She sent a maid for a teapot and herself put snow in it, and, from the snow, made boiling water with which she made most fragrant tea for all of them.

  They were drinking this tea when Daian came and said that Li Ming had come and was awaiting instructions. Ximen gave orders that he should be brought in. He came, made reverence, and stood before them. “You have come at a good time,” Ximen said. “Where have you been?”

  “I have been at Master Liu’s by the Wine and Vinegar Gate. I give lessons to his children and today I have been to see how they are getting on. I heard that your maids know several tunes but that their time is perhaps not quite perfect, so I thought I would come and see if I could help them at all.”

  Ximen Qing poured out for him a cup of tea, telling him to drink it and then come and sing a song. Li Ming took his cup of tea and retired to drink it. Then he came back, tuned his zither, cleared his throat, and stood before them, his feet close together. He sang to them of winter in the capital. When he had done, Ximen Qing made Xiaoyu pour wine into a silver peach-shaped cup, and Li Ming, upon his knees, drank it. Then Ximen took four dishes from the table, set them on a tray and gave them to Li Ming, who went outside to eat. A little later, having wiped his mouth on a napkin, he returned and stood by the screen. Ximen Qing told him of the trouble there had been with Li Guijie.

  “Of that I know nothing,” Li Ming said. “It is some time since I was at my sister’s house. But I cannot believe it was Guijie’s fault. It must have been the old woman. Please do not be angry with her. I will go and see her.”

  All day until the first night watch, they drank wine together and the ladies enjoyed themselves immensely. Then Chen Jingji and his wife went to the front court, and they drank no more. Ximen Qing gave Li Ming a final cup of wine and told him that, if he should go to Guijie’s house, he must on no account say that Ximen Qing was at home. Li Ming promised, and Ximen sent a servant to take him to the gate. The ladies went to their apartments and Ximen Qing again went to Yueniang’s room.

  The next day it had ceased to snow. Guijie and her mother were still afraid that Ximen Qing would seek vengeance, so they sent a roast goose and a jar of wine to Ying Bojue and Xie Xida, begging them to go and see Ximen and ask him to pay them a visit that they might express their sorrow for what had happened. Yueniang had just finished dressing and was eating cake with her husband when Daian told them that the two friends had come. Ximen Qing put down his cake and was about to go to them, but Yueniang said: “I can’t think what has brought those two villains here today. Finish your cake and let them wait. Why should you hurry? I can’t imagine where they think they are goin
g to take you on a snowy day like this.” But Ximen told a boy to take food to the front court and said he would eat it there with Ying Bojue and Xie Xida. Then he got up to go. “Don’t go out with them when you have finished your cake,” Yueniang said. “Remember we are going to celebrate Yulou’s birthday this evening.” Ximen promised and went to greet his two friends.

  “Brother,” Ying Bojue said, “you were very angry yesterday. So were we, and we told them what we thought about them. We said you had spent a great deal of money in that house in times past and that, just because they had not seen you lately, there was no reason why they should start to sing another tune. Yet they took that Southerner in. Unfortunately for them, you caught them. We asked how they could expect that you would not be annoyed. And not only you, we said, but we were angry too. We gave them a good talking to, until they felt very much ashamed of themselves. This morning they sent for us, and both mother and daughter knelt before us and sobbed bitterly. They are very much afraid of what you will do, so they have prepared a simple little feast and have asked us to persuade you to go to see them. They are anxious to apologize.”

  “I have no intention of doing them any harm,” Ximen Qing said, “but I shall never go to that house again.”

  “Brother,” Ying Bojue said, “it is natural that you should be angry, but, as a matter of fact, it really was not Guijie’s fault. That young man Ding had no intentions upon her. He is one of her sister’s old lovers. But there was another young man on his father’s boat, a young fellow called Chen, a son of Privy Counselor Chen, and Ding thought he would like to spend ten taels and give him a party at Guijie’s. The very moment he came to give them the money you suddenly arrived. They lost their heads and hid the Southerner in the back room where you discovered him, but he never so much as laid a finger on Guijie. This morning both mother and daughter swore this to us. They prostrated themselves before us and begged us to persuade you to go and see them so that the whole unpleasant business may be cleared up and you will not be angry any more.”

  “I have taken an oath,” Ximen Qing said. “I have promised my wife that I will not go there again. I am no longer angry. Please tell them so, and that they need not trouble themselves on my account. I am very busy and cannot go to see them.”

  Ying Bojue and Xie Xida became excited. They knelt down. “Brother,” they said, “if you refuse to go just for a few moments it will look as if you pay no attention to us. Do please go.” They worried him so much that he finally gave way and, when they had eaten their cakes, told Daian to bring his clothes.

  Yueniang was sitting talking to Yulou. “Where is your master going?” she asked the boy. But he said he did not know and that he had only been told to bring the clothes.

  “You are lying, you young rascal,” Yueniang cried. “It is the Third Lady’s birthday today, and, if your master comes home late, you shall be whipped.”

  “Why should I be whipped?” the boy said, “I can do nothing.”

  “When he heard his friends had come,” Yueniang said, “he dashed out as though his life depended on it. He was just having lunch, but he left everything. Where they’ll take him, I can’t imagine, or when he’ll come back.” She went on with her preparations for the evening.

  Ximen Qing and his two friends went to Guijie’s house. A table with refreshments had already been set out in the hall and two other singing girls had been brought in. Guijie and her sister Guiqing, dressed in their best clothes, went out to welcome the visitors, and the old procuress knelt on the floor to show how sorry she was for what had happened.

  “You owe me a good deal,” Ying Bojue said to Guijie. ‘I have hardly any mouth left, I have had to do so much talking to persuade your young man to come. Now you give him wine and leave me without. If I hadn’t dug him out you would have cried yourself blind and had to go singing in the street. You’d better talk nicely to me.”

  “Oh, Ying, you beggar,” Guijie said, “you’re such a loathsome creature, I can’t find words bad enough for you. Why should I go singing in the street, begging?”

  “You little strumpet,” Bojue said, “you’d say your prayers, then beat the priest, would you? There was nothing you wouldn’t do for me until he came, but now your wings are dry, I don’t count any more. Come here and give me a kiss to warm me a little.” He caught her by the neck and kissed her. Guijie laughed. “Look what you’re doing, you’ve spilt the wine all over his Lordship.”

  “Oh, you little wretch! You love him so much you’re afraid a drop of wine might fall on him. All your nice words are for him—there are none for me. I might be the son of a concubine.”

  “Well, you may be my son,” Guijie said.

  “Come here and I’ll tell you a story,” Bojue said. “Once upon a time a crab and a frog swore they would be brothers. They decided that the one who could jump over a certain brook should be the elder brother. The frog tried several times and at last succeeded. Just as the crab was about to see what he could do, two girls came up to draw some water from the brook. They tied a string to the crab, but, when they had got the water they had come for, they forgot to take the crab with them. The frog came back to the water’s edge. ‘Why don’t you jump?’ he said. ‘Of course I can jump it,’ said the crab, ‘but just for the moment, I can’t. Those two little whores have tied me up.’ “

  Guijie and her sister went and slapped Ying Bojue. Ximen Qing laughed heartily.

  In Ximen’s house, Wu Yueniang prepared a feast in celebration of Meng Yulou’s birthday. Aunt Wu and Aunt Yang were there, and two nuns, and they all sat together in the upper room. They waited for Ximen Qing until sunset, but he did not come. Yueniang was much annoyed. Then Pan Jinlian took the hand of Li Ping’er and suggested that they should go to the gate and look out for him. Yueniang told them she wondered they had the patience to do so. Then Jinlian asked Yulou whether she would not go with them, but Yulou said she would wait until she had heard the nuns tell some stories. So Jinlian ceased to trouble them, though when they gathered around to hear the story, she asked the nuns not to waste any time. Nun Wang, who was sitting on the bed, told them one story, but when she had finished it, Jinlian said: “That’s not much of a story, tell us another.”

  The nun told them another story. Then Jinlian, with Yulou and Li Ping’er, went to the gate to look for Ximen Qing.

  “Where do you think he’s gone today?” Yulou asked the others.

  “I expect he’s gone to that strumpet Guijie’s house,” Jinlian said.

  “But he has sworn never to go there again,” Yulou said. “I’m sure he hasn’t gone there. What will you bet me?”

  “Anything you like,” Jinlian said. “Clasp hands on it. The Sixth Lady is the witness. I’m sure he has gone there today. The other day there was a row and that little scoundrel Li Ming came to see how the land lay. Those murderous ghosts Ying and Xie came here this morning and went off with him. They and that young strumpet have schemed to get him there so that they can apologize. Then he’ll set the fire going in his old stove again. In my opinion, he’ll stay there ever so long. Probably he won’t come back at all today. It is silly of the Great Sister to wait for him.”

  “But if he doesn’t come back,” Yulou said, “he’ll surely send a boy to tell us so.”

  While they were talking a seller of melon seeds came along, and they were buying some seeds from him when they suddenly caught sight of Ximen Qing, and all ran indoors. Ximen Qing was on horseback. He said to Daian: “Run and see who they are.” Daian ran a little way, then came back and told Ximen that the three ladies were buying melon seeds. He got off his horse and went in by the second door. Yulou and Li Ping’er went to Yueniang’s room and told her of Ximen’s return, but Jinlian hid behind a screen, and, when Ximen Qing came up to it, jumped out and startled him.

  “You frightened me, you little villain,” Ximen cried. “What were you doing outside the gate?”

  “Is that a question for you to ask?” Jinlian said. “You were late and we went to
look for you.”

  Ximen went to join the ladies. Yueniang had everything ready and told Yuxiao to take the wine jar while she poured out wine for all of them. Ximen Qing was the first and then the others in their due order. They took their places and Chunmei and Yingchun played and sang for them. After a little while the things were cleared away and the birthday wine for Yulou was brought in, with forty different dishes. It was excellent wine, and of a color as exquisite as that of the clouds at sunset. Aunt Wu sat in the place of honor and they drank until the first night watch. By this time Aunt Wu could drink no more and went to her own room, but the others stayed, dicing with Ximen Qing, guessing fingers, and making up charades.

  Yueniang suggested that they should take the title of a song and the name of a domino and make them fit with a line of the “Story of the Western Pavilion.” Whoever happened to hold the domino that was named must drink a cup of wine as a forfeit. She herself began. “The Sixth Lady is drunk. Yang Fei dropped her eight jewels, and her hair is caught by the roses.”

  No one held the “eight jewels,” and Ximen Qing began: “The lovely maiden Yu watched the battle between Chu and Han. The chief marshal was wounded and the noise of gongs and drums seemed like the heavens quaking.” The lady who held the “chief marshal” had to drink a cup of wine. They continued till the turn came around to Yulou.

  “A beautiful woman leans upon the scarlet rail, holding her silken skirt. She prays that the winds of spring may bring the moon within her net of gauze.” She herself had the “scarlet rail,” and Yueniang told Xiaoyu to pour a cup of wine for her.

  “Drink three great cups,” she said. “Tonight your bridegroom will spend the night with you.” She turned to Li Jiao’er and Jinlian, “When we have finished our wine, we will all escort them to their room.”