Chapter 53
Ancestral Sacrifice Is Carried Out
on New Year’ s Eve in the Ning Mansion
An Evening Banquet Is Held on the Feast
of Lanterns in the Rong Mansion
Seeing that mending his peacock-feather cape had left Qingwen exhausted, Baoyu called a young maid to massage her; and barely had they rested for the time it takes for one meal before the day was light. Then Baoyu, instead of going out, ordered the doctor to be sent for at once.
Presently Doctor Wang arrived and felt his patient’s pulse.
‘She was on the mend yesterday ‘ what has caused this relapse today?’ he asked in surprise. ‘Has she been over-eating or tiring herself? Her influenza is better; but after sweating she hasn’t had a proper rest. The consequences may be serious.’
He withdrew to make out a prescription, then brought it in, and Baoyu saw that it called for fewer drugs to counteract noxious eontagions but more tonics such as pachyma cocos, rebmannia and angelica.
Baoyu ordered this medicine to be prepared at once.
‘What’s to be done?’ he sighed. ‘If anything happens to her, it will all be my fault.’
‘Run along and mind your own business, young master,’ scoffed Qingwen from her pillow. ‘Is it so easy to fall into a decline?’
Baoyu had to leave her then. But he returned during the afternoon on the pretext of not feeling well. Although Qingwen’s illness was by no means light, luckily, though hard-working she was not the worrying type, and instead of over-eating she normally kept to a simple diet. The Jia family’s cure for a cold or cough, among masters and servants alike, consisted mainly of fasting supplemented by medication. Thus as soon as Qingwen fell ill she had fasted for a couple of days and been careful to take her medicine, with the result that in spite of her exertions a few days of extra treatment set her right. And because all the girls in the Garden were eating at home now, catering for a patient was simple as Baoyu could easily ask for soup and gruel. But enough of this.
Upon Xiren’s return after her mother’s funeral, Sheyue told her in detail of Pinger’s visit, the part played by Nanny Song, the reason for Zhuier’s dismissal by Qingwen and the fact that this had been reported to Baoyu.
Xiren’s only comment was, ‘You were rather too hasty.’
These days Li Wan also had a cold on account of the bad weather; Yingchun and Xiuyan were fully occupied attending to Lady Xing, who was suffering from an inflammation of the eyes; Aunt Li and her two daughters had been invited by her younger brother to his home for a few days; and Baoyu was worried by Xiren’s depression after her mother’s death, as well as by Qingwen’s delayed recovery. So no one was in the mood for poetry gatherings, and several of the appointed dates passed unobserved.
It was now the twelfth month. As New Year was fast approaching, Lady Wang and Xifeng had their hands full with preparations. Wang Ziteng was promoted at this time to be Chief Inspector of Nine Provinces, and ha Yucun to the post of Minister of War, to assist with military strategy and advise on state policy. But no more of this.
Over in the Ning Mansion ha Zhen had the Ancestral Temple opened and swept, the sacrificial vessels prepared, the ancestral tablets put in place, and the north hall cleaned in readiness for displaying the ancestral portraits. High and low alike in both mansions were kept hard at work.
One morning in the Ning Mansion, Madam You and her daughter-in-law were preparing embroidery and other gifts for those in the other mansion when a maid came in with a trayful of gold New-Year ingots.
‘Xinger reports that that packet of loose gold of a mixed quality the other day amounted to a hundred and fifty-three taels and sixty-seven cents, madam,’ she announced. ‘It’s made two hundred and twenty ingots in all.’
She presented them for inspection and her mistress saw that they were of different shapes: plum-blossom, crab-apple-blossom, a writing-brush and an ellipsoid signifying ‘All Wishes Granted,’ and ‘The Eight Treasures of Spring.’
Having ordered these to be put away, Madam You sent to tell Xinger to hand in the silver ingots without delay. The maid had not been gone long on this errand when Jia Zhen came in for his meal, and his daughter-in-law slipped away.
Jia Zhen asked his wife, ‘Have we fetched the Imperial Bounty yet for the spring sacrifice?’
‘I sent Rong for it today,’ was her reply.
‘Of course, our family doesn’t depend on these few taels,’ observed her husband. ‘Still they are a mark of the Imperial favour. We should collect this silver early to show the old lady in the other mansion before using it to prepare the ancestral sacrifice; for this is evidence that we are honoured by the Emperor’s favour and benefit from the good fortune of our forbears. Even if we spent ten thousand taels on this sacrifice, it would convey less distinction than the use of this bounty so graciously conferred. Indeed, apart from one or two houses like ours, most poor families of hereditary officials have to rely on this silver for their New-Year sacrifice. Such consideration is truly a sign of the infinite graciousness of the Emperor.’
‘Exactly what I feel,’ agreed his wife.
Just then a servant announced their son’s return, and Jia Zhen ordered him to be admitted. Jia Rong came in, carrying in both hands a small yellow bag.
‘Why have you been so long?’ demanded his father.
Jia Rong answered with a smile, ‘I had to go to the Office of Imperial Banquets for the bounty, as it isn’t issued by the Ministry of Rites nowadays. All in that office asked after you, sir, and said they hadn’t seen you for a long time but were constantly thinking of you.’
‘It’s not me they’re thinking of,’ laughed his father. ‘Now that New Year’s coming, it’s presents they want from me or an invitation to a banquet and opera.’
While speaking he examined the yellow bag, which was stamped with the four-word inscription: ‘Eternal Imperial Favour Granted’ and the seal of the Sacrificial Department of the Ministry of Rites. In smaller characters was written: ‘Two gratuities for the Spring Sacrifice are conferred by the Emperor in perpetuity upon Jia Yan, Duke of Ningguo, and Jia Yuan, Duke of Rongguo.’ The amount and date were specified, together with the name of the recipient Jia Rong, Captain of the Imperial Guard Reserve, while the officer in charge had signed his name in vermilion.
After his meal, ha Zhen washed and rinsed his mouth, then put on his boots and hat to go, accompanied by his son with the silver, to inform the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang and after them Jia She and Lady Xing that the bounty had been collected. This done, he returned home and took out the silver, ordering the bag to be burned in the large incense-burner in the Ancestral Temple.
After this he told his son, ‘Go and ask your Second Aunt whether they’ve fixed on dates or not for their New-Year feasts in the first month. If they have, get the secretaries to write out a detailed list so that our invitations don’t clash. Last year we were careless enough to invite several families on the same day, and instead of attributing it to negligence they imagined we’d done it deliberately ‘ to make an empty gesture at no trouble to ourselves.’
Jia Rong went off to do as he was told, returning some time later with the list of dates for the feasts and the names of those invited. After running his eye over it Jia Zhen said:
‘Give it to Lai Sheng. Tell them to avoid asking the same people on those days.’
He proceeded then to the hall and was watching the pages shift screens, clean tables and polish the gold and silver sacrificial vessels, when a boy brought him a card and list.
‘Bailiff Wu of the manor in Black Mountain Village has arrived, sir,’ he reported.
‘The old scoundrel, coming so late!’ swore Jia Zhen.
Jia Rong took the card and list and held them out while Jia Zhen, his hands behind his back, read them. On the red card was written:
‘Your servant, Bailiff Wu Jinxiao, kowtows to wish the master and mistress boundless happiness and good health, and good health to the young master and young mistress too. May the New Year bring you great happiness and good fortune, wealth, nobility and peace. May you be promoted with increased emoluments and have all your wishes come true.’
Jia Zhen chuckled. ‘They have some sense, these country folk, eh?’
‘Yes, it’s not the style,’ said his son, ‘but the good wishes that count.’
Next they read the list, which was as follows:
thirty stags fifty deer fifty roebuck
twenty each of three breeds of hogs and pigs twenty boars
twenty wild goats
twenty each of three breeds of goats and sheep two sturgeon
two hundred catties of other fish
two hundred each of live chicken, ducks and geese two hundred each of salted chicken, ducks and geese two hundred brace of pheasants
two hundred brace of rabbits twenty pairs of bear’s-paws twenty catties of deer-sinews fifty catties of sea-slugs fifty deer-tongues fifty ox-tongues twenty catties of dried oysters
two bags each of hazel-nuts, pine-kernels, peach and apricot-kernels fifty pairs of giant lobsters
two hundred catties of dried prawns
one thousand catties of first-grade silver-frost charcoal two thousand catties of second-grade silver-frost charcoal thirty thousand catties of ordinary charcoal
two piculs of rose-rice from the Imperial Farm five hundred pecks each of three varieties of fine rice five hundred pecks each of other kinds of grain one thousand piculs of ordinary rice
one cartload of sun-dried vegetables
two thousand five hundred taels raised by the sale of grain and cattle. In addition, some trifles to amuse the young gentlemen and young ladies:
two brace of live deer
four brace of white rabbits four brace of black rabbits two brace of live pheasants two brace of foreign ducks.
Having read this list Jia Zhen ordered, ‘Bring him in.’
Soon Wu Jinxiao entered the courtyard, kowtowed and offered greetings.
Jia Zhen told the servants to help him up.
‘So you’re still hale and hearty,’ he remarked.
‘Thanks to Your Lordship’s good fortune, I can still get about,’ was the reply.
‘Your sons have grown up. You should have sent them instead.’
‘I’m used to the trip, Your Lordship, and that’s a fact. Besides, I was sick and tired of staying at home. Of course they all wanted to come, to see what it’s like living at the feet of the Son of Heaven; but they’re still young and I was afraid they might get into trouble on the way. A few years from now I shan’t worry.
‘How long did you spend on the road?’
‘There’s been heavy snow this year, Your Lordship. The snow’s lying four or five feet deep in the country; and a sudden thaw recently made the going so difficult that I was held up for several days. The whole journey took me one month and two days, not that I didn’t make the best speed I could, knowing time was running short and Your Lordship might be worried.’
‘I was wondering why you were so late,’ replied Jia Zhen. ‘I’ve just looked at your list, you old scoundrel. So this year you’re trying to defraud us again.’
Wu hastily took two steps forward.
‘May it please Your Lordship, we had a wretched harvest this year,’ he declared. ‘It rained steadily from the third month to the eighth without letting up for five days at a stretch. In the ninth month, hailstones as large as bowls fell for one thousand three hundred ii around, injuring thousands of men and countless houses, to say nothing of cattle and grain. That’s why this is all there is. I wouldn’t dare lie to Your Lordship.’
Frowning, bia Zhen answered, ‘I counted on your bringing at least five thousand taels. What use is this paltry sum? In all, we’ve only eight or nine manors left now, already two of them claim to have suffered from flood or drought. How are we to get through this New Year I’d like to know? And now you default like this.’
‘Your Lordship’s farms haven’t done so badly,’ said Wu. ‘My brother just a hundred ii away is much worse off. Those eight farms which he manages for the other mansion are several times bigger than yours, sir; yet he’s produced no more than I have this year, apart from just two or three thousand taels extra. They’re hard hit too.’
‘No doubt,’ replied Jia Zhen. ‘We can just about manage here, with no extra large outlay beyond the normal annual expenditure. If I want to enjoy myself, I spend more; but I can economize if necessary. As for New-Year gifts and entertaining, by not caring about appearances and cutting down I shall get by. It’s different for the other house. In recent years they’ve had so many unavoidable extra expenses, without acquiring any additional income or property, that in the last year or two they’ve made great inroads into their capital. And whom can they ask for money if not you?’
Wu Jinxiao smiled.
‘Their expenditure may have increased, but surely it works both ways. Don’t they get presents from Her Imperial Highness and His Majesty?’
Jia Zhen turned to his son and the rest.
‘Did you hear that?’ he asked laughingly. ‘What a joke!’
Jia Rong made haste to explain to Wu, ‘You people from the back of beyond don’t understand. Can Her Highness make over the Imperial Treasury to us? Even if she wanted to, it’s not in her power. Of course she sends gifts at the different festivals, but they’re simply brocade, curios and other trifles. As for money gifts, those only amount to a hundred or so gold taels a year-worth little more than a thousand taels of silver. What use is that? The last couple of years, they’ve had to spend several thousand taels extra each year. Just reckon for yourself how much it cost to build the Garden the first year for the Imperial Visit. A second visit in another couple of years would bankrupt them!’
‘These simple country folk don’t realize that not all is gold that glitters,’ chuckled Jia Zhen. ‘Wormwood carved into a drumstick may look imposing, but it’s bitter inside!’
‘The other house does seem to be in difficulties, sir,’ remarked his son. ‘The other day I heard Second Aunt asking Yuanyang in confidence to smuggle out some of the old lady’s things to pawn.’
‘That’s just your Aunt Xifeng’s trick.’ Jia Zhen laughed. ‘They’re not as poor as all that. You may be sure she does it to make a show of poverty, because she knows they’re spending too much and making inroads into their capital, and she wants to cut down on expenditure. I’ve my own means of reckoning, though. They’re not as badly off as they make out.’
With that he told the servants to take Wu Jinxiao away and entertain him well.
Jia Zhen now disposed of this rent in kind as follows: part was kept for the ancestral sacrifice; part delivered by Jia Rong to the other mansion; part kept for family use; and the rest divided into different shares and placed on the terrace of the main hail, where the younger men of the clan were summoned to collect them.
At this juncture the Rong Mansion sent over a variety of sacrificial offerings and gifts for Jia Zhen. When he had inspected these and supervised the arrangement of the sacrificial vessels, he changed into his slippers, draped a big raccoon cloak over his shoulders, and made the servants spread a large wolfskin rug at the top of the steps by the pillars so that he could sit in the sun watching his junior clansmen collect their gifts. When he saw Jia Qin come to take a portion too, he called him over.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked. ‘Who told you to come?’
Standing at attention Jia Qin replied, ‘I heard you had sent for us to take things, sir. So I came without waiting to be called.’
‘These things are for your uncles and cousins who have no jobs and no income,’ Jia Zhen told him. ‘Those two years when you had no job, I gave you a share. But now you’re in charge of the monks and Taoist priests in the family temple. Apart from the stipend you receive each month, the allowance for all the monks and priests passes through your hands as well ‘ yet you still show up to take this. You’re too miserly. Just look at yourself. Are you dressed like a gentleman of means with a responsible post? You used to complain because you had no income; but now that you have one, you look even shabbier than before.’
‘I have such a large household, my expenses are heavy.’
‘Don’t hand me that line!’ Jia Zhen laughed scornfully. ‘Do you think I don’t know what goes on in the family temple? Out there, of course, you’re the master and no one dares disobey you. With money in your hands and us at a safe distance you lord it over everyone, night after night assembling a pack of scoundrels-gamblers, debauchees or queers. And now that your money’s squandered you have the effrontery to come here for things. Well, you won’t get anything except a good beating. After New Year I shall tell your Second Uncle Lian to dismiss you.’
Jia Qin flushed scarlet and dared not reply.
Just then a servant announced that the Prince of Beijing had sent a gift of scrolls and pouches. Jia Zhen ordered his son to entertain the messenger and explain that he was out, and Jia Rong, assenting, went off. Jia Zhen watched till the distribution of goods was finished, then returned to his rooms to dine with his wife, and the night passed without further incident. The next day there was even more to do, but we need not go into the details.
By the twenty-ninth of the twelfth month all was ready. Both mansions were resplendent with new door-gods, couplets, tablets and New-Year charms. The Ning Mansion’s main gate was thrown open, as were the ceremonial gate, the doors of the great hall, the lobby and the inner hall, the three inner gates, the inner central gate and the inner secondary gate-all the gates leading to the main hall. And on both sides below the steps, tall vermilion candles blazed like golden dragons.
The next day all the titled members of the family from the Lady Dowager downwards put on the court costume appropriate to their rank and, led by the old lady in a large sedan-chair carried by eight bearers, went to the Imperial Palace to pay homage and attend a banquet. On their return, they alighted from their chairs by the lobby of the Ning Mansion. All their younger kinsmen who had not gone to court had lined up to wait in front of the main gate, and now ushered them into the Ancestral Temple.
Now as this was Xue Baoqin’s first visit here, she took pains to observe the whole place carefully. The temple, a five-frame structure enclosed by a black palisade, stood in a separate courtyard to the west of the Ning Mansion. In large characters on the placard over the gate was the imposing four-characters inscription ‘Jia Family Ancestral Temple.’ In small characters beside this she read ‘Written by Kong Jizong, Hereditary Duke Descended from Confucius.’ The couplet flanking this read:
The grateful recipients of Imperial Favour will gladly
dash their brains out on the ground;
Generations to come will make solemn sacrifice for deeds whose fame resounds to Heaven.
This too had been written by the duke descended from Confucius.
Entering this courtyard, the party proceeded along a way paved with white marble and bordered by green pines and cypresses to a terrace on which were displayed ancient bronze tripods and libation cups green with patina. Before the porch hung a placard gilded with the nine-dragon design, and the inscription ‘Stars Shine on the Assistant,’ which had been written by the late Emperor himself. The couplet on either side, also in the Imperial calligraphy, read:
Their achievements outshine the sun and moon,
Their fame will extend to all their posterity.
The tablet over the entrance to the main hail was engraved with frolicking dragons, and bore the intagliated motto in blue: ‘Venerate the Departed, Continue Their Sacrifices.’ The couplet flanking this, also written by the Emperor, read:
Their descendants succeed to their good fortune and virtue; Ning and Rong live in the memory of the black-haired people.
The hall itself, ablaze with candles and lamps, was so brilliant with silk hangings and embroidered curtains that the ancestral tablets, ranged in their places, were hard to make out distinctly.
The members of the Jia family disposed themselves now according to the generations to which they belonged, on the left and right-hand sides. Jia Qing the Master of Sacrifice was assisted by Jia She, with Jia Zhen as libationer, Jia Lian and Jia Cong to present silk, Baoyu to offer incense, and Jia Chang and Jia Ling to spread a rug for kneeling and tend the incinerator. Black-robed musicians played music while the libation-cup was presented three times and obeisance made. Then the silk was burnt and wine poured.
At the end of this ceremony the music stopped and all withdrew, following the Lady Dowager to the main hall, in front of the portraits. In the middle of the shrine hung with long silk curtains, surrounded by brilliant screens and blazing censers, were portraits of the Duke of Rongguo and the Duke of Ningguo in dragon robes with jade belts. On both sides were portraits of other ancestors.
Jia Xing, Jia Zhi and some others had ranged themselves in due order all the way from the inner ceremonial gate to the terrace by the verandah of the main hall, where stood Jia Jing and Jia She outside the palisade, while the ladies stood inside. The family servants and pages remained outside the ceremonial gate. Each time they brought a plate of offerings to this gate, it was taken by Jia Xing or bia Zhi and passed from hand to hand until it reached Jia Jing on the terrace. Jia Rong, as the eldest grandson of the senior branch, was the only one to accompany the ladies inside. When Jia bing passed him an offering he handed it to his wife, who passed it on to Xifeng and Madam You until it reached Lady Wang in front of the altar. She in turn passed it to the Lady Dowager, who set it on the altar. Lady Xing, posted west of the altar facing east, helped the Lady Dowager.
When all the dishes, rice, soup, cakes, wine and tea had been presented, Jia Rong withdrew to join Jia Jing’s group below the steps. Places were assigned according to generations, Jia Jing heading the senior group, Jia Zhen the second, and Jia Rong the third; and now they ranged themselves on the two sides, the men on the east and the women on the west. When the Lady Dowager offered incense and bowed, the whole clan knelt down together. Every square foot of the five sections of the hall, the three annexes, the inner and outer corridors, terrace and courtyard, was a mass of rich silks and brocades. And the only sounds to break the solemn silence were the tinkling of gold bells and jade pendants, the rustling of silks and the shuffling of boots and slippers as the worshippers rose or knelt down.
After this ceremony, ha Jing, bia She and the other men hurried to the Rong Mansion, where they waited to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager. She, however, now went to Madam You’s sitting-room, the floor of which was covered with a red carpet where stood a large gilded cloisonne brazier, its three legs in the form of elephant trunks. On the kang by the north wall were a new crimson rug and red silk back-rests and bolsters embroidered with ‘Dragons in the Clouds’ designs and the character ‘Longevity.’ On it, too, were spread a black fox-skin and a big white fox-skin mattress. When the Lady Dowager had been ensconced here, more furs were spread on both sides and the few other ladies of her generation were invited to sit down.
Then fur rugs were spread on the smaller kang behind the partition for Lady Xing’s generation, and twelve carved lacquer chairs covered with grey squirrel-skins and with a large bronze foot-warmer under each were placed in a row on either side for Baoqin and the other girls.
Madam You ceremoniously presented tea to the Lady Dowager while Jia Rong’s wife served the other elderly ladies, after which Madam You served Lady Xing’s group and Jia Rong’s wife the girls. Xifeng and Li Wan stood by all this time in attendance.
After sipping some tea, Lady Xing and the rest rose to wait upon the Lady Dowager, and after a few words to the other old ladies she asked for her sedan-chair. At once Xifeng stepped up to her and took her arm.
‘We’ve prepared dinner for you, madam,’ demurred Madam You with a smile. ‘Why will you never honour us with your company at dinner on this day of the year before you leave? Aren’t we as good as Xifeng?’
Xifeng, supporting the old lady, urged her, ‘Come on, Old Ancestress. Pay no attention to her. Let’s go home to eat.’
‘You have your hands full here with the ancestral sacrifice,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘How could you put up with more trouble from me? Besides, even though I don’t dine here, you send dishes over every year. It’s better that way. If there’s more than I can eat today, I can save it for tomorrow. That way, don’t I get more of your food than by eating here?’ Everyone laughed.
Then the old lady reminded Madam You, ‘Make sure to post reliable people tonight, to see that no fires break out owing to carelessness.’
As soon as Madam You had promised to see to this, they all went out to the lobby to mount their sedan-chairs. The ladies slipped behind a screen while page boys brought in sedan-bearers to carry them out, Madam You and Lady Xing accompanying the others to the Rong Mansion. As their chairs were borne out of the main gate, they saw the insignia, equipage and musical instruments of the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo displayed on the east and west sides of the street, which was closed today to passers-by.
Presently they reached the Rong Mansion and found all its gates, too, open right up to the main hall. But instead of stopping at the lobby this time, they turned west after the main hall and alighted outside the Lady Dowager’s reception room. All trooping in after her, they discovered that the place was freshly furnished with embroidered screens and brocade cushions. Fragrant herbs and aromatic pine and cedar-wood were burning in the brazier.
As soon as the Lady Dowager had taken her seat, some old serving-women reported that two or three ladies of her generation had come to offer their congratulations. She rose to welcome them, for they had already entered, and after clasping hands and greeting her they were ushered to their seats and sipped some tea. Then the Lady Dowager saw them out no farther than the inner ceremonial gate. When she had returned and seated herself again, Jia Jing and Jia She led in the younger men of the family.
‘I put you to so much trouble the whole year round, don’t stand on ceremony now,’ urged the old lady.
But the men in one group and the women in another paid their respects together, after which they took seats on both sides in order of seniority to receive the salutations of their juniors. When all the men and maid-servants of both mansions had paid their respects according to their degree, there was a distribution of New-Year money, as well as pouches and gold and silver ingots. Then they took their seats for the family-reunion feast, the men on the east side, the women on the west, and New-Year wine, ‘happy-reunion soup,’ ‘lucky fruit’ and ‘wish-fulfilment cakes’ were served, until the Lady Dowager rose and went into the inner room to change her clothes, whereupon the party broke up.
That evening, incense and sacrifices were offered at the various Buddhist shrines and to the kitchen god; and incense-sticks and paper effigies were burnt to Heaven and Earth in the main court of Lady Wang’s compound. Huge horn lanterns high on both sides of the main gate of Grand View Garden cast a brilliant light, while all the paths were lit with lanterns too. High and low alike were splendidly dressed. And the babel of talk and laughter, punctuated by the explosion of fire-crackers, went on without intermission the whole night long.
The next morning the Lady Dowager and others, rising at dawn, put on their robes of state and went with full pageantry to pay homage at the Imperial Palace as well as to offer the Imperial Concubine birthday congratulations. Upon her return from the Imperial banquet, the old lady went to the Ning Mansion to sacrifice to the ancestors. Then, going back to her own apartments she received the younger generations’ New-Year salutations. After these ceremonies she changed her clothes and rested, not receiving any of the kinsmen and friends who came to offer their congratulations but simply chatting with Aunt Xue and Aunt Li or playing draughts and card-games with Baoyu, Baoqin, Baoehai, Daiyu and the other girls.
Lady Wang and Xifeng were busy entertaining guests, for an unending stream of friends and relatives attended the New-Year feasts and operas held daily for about a week in their hall and courtyard. And as soon as this was over, both mansions were decked out and hung with lanterns for the approaching Lantern Festival. The Lady Dowager was feasted by hia She on the eleventh, by Jia Zhen on the twelfth, staying with them on each occasion for half a day, while time forbids us to enumerate all the feasts to which Lady Wang and Xifeng were invited.
On the evening of the fifteenth, the Lady Dowager had tables spread in the big hall in the small garden, an opera company hired, and gay lanterns of every description displayed at a family feast for her kinsmen in both mansions.
The only one not invited was Jia Jing, who abstained from both wine and meat. After the ancestral sacrifice on the seventeenth he moved back outside the city to live in seclusion; but even during his stay at home he remained quietly in his room, ignoring all the festivities around him.
As for Jia She, after sitting a while at his mother’s feast he also asked her permission to withdraw; and this the old lady readily granted knowing that his presence would cause a general constraint. Having his own different pleasures, he went home to enjoy the festival by drinking with his proteges amid a bevy of gaily-dressed girls, to the sound of music and singing.
In the old lady’s hail about ten tables were set for the feast. Beside each, on a teapoy, stood an incense-burner burning Palace incense conferred by the Emperor; an incense box and a vase; a miniature garden about eight inches long, four inches wide and two or three inches high, with fresh flowers among small mossy rocks; teacups made in a previous reign; and gay little teapots filled with the finest tea on a small tray of Western lacquerware.
Set out too was a crimson gauze screen in a carved purple-sandalwood frame embroidered with flowers and calligraphy. The embroiderer, a Suzhou girl called Huiniang, had come from a family of officials and literati and been a skilled calligrapher and painter; but occasionally she did some embroidery too purely for her own amusement, not to sell. All the flowers she embroidered were copied from paintings by famous artists of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties; thus the compositions and colours were based on excellent models, unlike the stereotyped compositions and garish colours produced by artisans. Beside each spray of flowers there were lines of verse about these flowers from short poems or songs by poets of old, all embroidered in cursive script with black silk thread. And the strokes of these characters, whether light or heavy, continuous or broken, were exactly the same as if written with a brush ‘ a far cry from the grotesquely distorted scripts in the embroidery sold in the market-place.
As Huiniang was not out to make money from this skill of hers, although her embroidery was widely known few could procure a specimen of it. Many rich and noble official families were unable to acquire one. It was known as ‘Hui’ embroidery, and some vulgar hucksters had recently started imitating it to fool people and make a profit.
Huiniang had been fated to die at the early age of eighteen, so that no more of her work could be obtained. Any family which possessed one or two samples only kept them as rare treasures. And then certain admirers of ‘Hui’ embroidery among the literati declared that to call such superb work ‘embroidery’ showed a lack of respect and failed to do justice to its beauty. After discussion they agreed not to call it ‘embroidery’ but ‘art.’ Hence it had now come to be known as the ‘Hui art’ and a genuine piece was priceless. Even a wealthy family like the bias had only acquired three pieces, two of which had been presented to the Emperor the previous year. All they had left now was this screen with sixteen panels. The Lady Dowager prized it so much that she would not display it to guests with her other ornaments. Instead, she kept it in her own apartments to enjoy when in a good mood or entertaining.
There was also a variety of porcelain vases from old kilns filled with flowers symbolizing ‘The Three Companions of Winter’ and ‘Wealth and Splendour in a Marble Hall.’
Aunt Li and Aunt Xue took the seats of honour. To their east stood a carved openwork dragon-screen with below it a low couch spread with cushions, pillows and furs. Beside the pillows, an elegant low table of foreign lacquer with gilt designs was set out with a teapot, cups, rinse-bowls and towels as well as a spectacle-case. Here the Lady Dowager reclined to chat with the others, putting on her spectacles whenever she wanted to watch the performance.
‘My old bones are aching,’ she told Aunt Xue and Aunt Li. ‘Excuse me if I just keep you company lying here.’ She made Hupo sit beside her to massage her legs with a small pestle.
In place of a banquet table before the couch, there stood only one tall teapoy on which were a screen, flower-vase and incense-burner, and a small, elegant long-legged table laid with winecups, spoons and chopsticks. Baoqin, Xiangyun, Daiyu and Baoyu were told to sit at this table to share her feast; for before each dish was served to them it was shown to the old lady and, if she fancied it, left on her small table first for her to taste, then removed to the four young people’s table. So they could be regarded as sitting with the Lady Dowager. Lower down sat Lady Xing and Lady Wang; then Madam You, Li Wan, Xifeng and Jia Rong’s wife; while Baochai, Li Wen, Li Qi, Xiuyan, Yingchun and the other girls had tables on the west side.
From the great beams on either side hung crystal, hibiscus-shaped chandeliers with coloured tassels. In front of each table was a candelabrum of Western enamel with a lacquer shade in the shape of an inverted lotus leaf; and this could be turned outwards to shade the coloured candles’ light from the feasters and illumine the stage more brightly. The lattices of the windows and doors had been removed and in their place hung gaily-tasselled Palace lanterns. From the eaves of the house, as well as the covered walks on either side, hung lanterns made of horn, glass, gauze, cut-glass or silk and paper with embroidered or painted, raised or incised designs. Jia Zhen, bia Lian, Jia Huan, Jia Cong, Jia Rong, Jia Qin, Jia Yun, Jia Ling and Jia Chang were seated at tables in the corridors.
The Lady Dowager had sent to invite all the members of the elan. But some were too old to enjoy lively celebrations; some had no one to mind the house for them; some were bed-ridden; some envied the rich and were ashamed of their own poverty; some disliked or feared Xifeng; some were timid and unused to company ‘ for one reason or another they would not or could not come. Thus, large as the clan was, the only female relative to appear was Jia Cun’s mother, nee Lou, who brought her son; and the only men were Jia Qin, Jia Yun, Jia Chang and Jia Ling, all of whom worked under Xifeng. In spite of their depleted numbers, however, it was quite a merry family feast.
And now Lin Zhixiao’s wife led in six serving-women carrying three low tables, each covered with red felt and piles of bright copper coins, fresh from the mint, strung together with red cord. Mrs. Lin had two of these tables set before Aunt Xue and Aunt Li and the other in front of the Lady Dowager, who told her where to put it. Knowing the family custom, serving-women then untied the coins and stacked them up.
This was towards the end of the scene ‘Encounter in the Tower’ from The West Tower, when Yu Shuye flings off in a rage. The girl playing Wenbao ad-libbed:
‘So you’re leaving in a huff. Luckily this is the fifteenth of the first
month, and the Old Ancestress of the Rong Mansion is holding a family feast. I’m going to ride there as fast as I can on this horse to ask for some goodies now. That’s the thing to do.’
This set the old lady and the whole party laughing. Aunt Xue exclaimed, ‘Clever little imp!’ ‘She’s only nine,’ remarked Xifeng.
‘That was smart of her,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Reward the child.’
Three serving-women, who had small baskets ready, stepped forward at this command to fill their baskets with coins from the three tables. Then going to the stage they announced:
‘Our Old Ancestress, Madam Xue and Madam Li are giving this to Wenbao to buy goodies.’
With that they emptied their baskets and the coins scattered, clinking, all over the stage.
Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, too, had ordered their pages in secret to bring in several crates of coins.
To know how these were distributed, read the next chapter.
