Chapter Ten: The Blood-Stained Fan Entrusted to a Teacher Who Seeks the Suitor — Players Summoned to Pour Wine While a Villain Is Reviled

It is told that Xianggun, ever since she had dashed her face against the floor and her mother had gone to wed in her place, had cut herself off entirely from the world and refused to leave her upstairs room. Without her noticing, yet another month and more had passed. One day, sitting alone in her room, she fell to brooding over all that had happened, and a surge of bitterness brought tears coursing down both cheeks. She said: "Yesterday I used a desperate stratagem of suffering to preserve my integrity. Now I keep solitary vigil in this empty room — who is there to keep me company? I wonder where my Hou Lang has drifted to in his wanderings, seeking shelter from danger. And Mother — she went to take the blow meant for me; when will she be able to return? Day and night I cannot stop worrying. Today, sitting here alone with nothing to do, I may as well take out Hou Lang's poem-fan and look at it a while." Then she noticed the fan: "See — all those blood spots have spattered and stained it. Hou Lang, Hou Lang — do you know that I am keeping faith for you?" She wept over the fan for a time, and, gradually overcome with weariness, laid the fan on her dressing table and dozed off.

Now, Su Kunsheng and Yang Longyou had both been uneasy in their minds and came together to look in on her. Entering the house, they found the upper room utterly quiet and still. Longyou said: "Xianggun won't come downstairs — let us go up and have a talk with her." When they reached the top, they found Xianggun asleep at her dressing table. Longyou said: "Poor Xianggun — grief and illness have worn her down, and here she lies sleeping at her dressing table. We need not wake her." Kunsheng, noticing the fan spread open before her, picked it up and looked at it, then exclaimed in surprise: "How is it that there are so many red spots on this fan?" Longyou said: "I expect they are the blood from her injury the other day — she must have left it here to dry." He took the fan and looked more closely; the blood spots were a vivid, brilliant red. "Against the grain of these blood marks," he said, "it would be a fine thing to add a few branches and leaves and give it some embellishment. But we have no pigments — what are we to do?" Kunsheng said: "Let me pick some of those potted plants, wring out a little sap, and use it as color — what do you think?" Longyou said: "Excellent!" So one of them squeezed the plant-sap while the other painted the fan. Before long the painting was done, and they both laughed aloud: "It has turned out to be a spray of peach blossoms — one could truly call it a peach blossom fan!" Xianggun, just in the midst of her dream, was startled awake by the laughter. She sat up and looked about, saying: "Forgive me for being so inattentive!" She invited the two men to sit down.

Longyou said: "I have not come to see you for some days — the bruise is gradually healing." He smiled and handed the fan to Xianggun: "I have the honor of presenting this painted fan to your dressing table." Xianggun took the fan and looked at it: "This is my old fan — how has it come to have a few sprays of peach blossoms?" Kunsheng said: "Elder Yang took your blood marks and used them as the groundwork, adding his brushwork to give them form." Xianggun said: "These peach blossoms are of a fragile fate — blown and falling at the bottom of a fan. Many thanks to Elder Yang for painting my own likeness in their stead!" Longyou said: "Just now I made a rather imperfect job of it — forgive me. With this peach blossom fan of yours, you are sure to attract your own Zhou Yu who loves music. Surely you won't spend your youth like this forever — becoming a moon goddess locked inside the moon?" Xianggun replied: "What are you saying? Was not the Lady Guan Panpan also a woman of the pleasure world? Did she not shut herself in her Swallow Tower to the end of her days?"

Kunsheng said: "Seeing Xianggun in such suffering — there is nothing like it in this age. I have lately heard that Hou Lang, under Commander Shi's orders, went north with General Gao Jie to guard the river. Before long I will be returning home — let me seek him out and tell him to send someone to fetch you. I warrant you will be reunited, husband and wife. What do you say?" Xianggun, hearing this, knelt before him in gratitude: "A thousand thanks to my teacher! I only hope you will set out soon." Kunsheng said: "I will make up some travel funds tomorrow and prepare to leave — but I shall need a letter from you." Xianggun said: "My mind is in such turmoil right now that words refuse to form into writing — how could I manage a letter? Never mind — let it be. All my thousand griefs and ten thousand sorrows are in the heart of this fan. I will send the fan itself; let it serve as a letter in full." She then carefully wrapped and sealed the fan, handed it to Kunsheng, and with a thousand exhortations and ten thousand cautions, wept and could not stop.

Longyou then said to Kunsheng: "Set out one step ahead of me. When you find Hou Lang, tell him of the bitter faithfulness she has shown — he will come to fetch her of his own accord. Go back and make ready your luggage; I will send someone with travel money. The sooner the better!" Kunsheng said: "Many thanks — I will set out tomorrow then!" The two men bid farewell to Xianggun and went downstairs. Indeed:

A new letter sent far away — it is the peach blossom fan;

The old courtyard keeps its gate shut — the Swallow Tower remains.

Now, Xianggun had been keeping steadfast faith in the Meixiang Tower day after day, waiting for her teacher to find Hou Lang and bring him back to reunite with her. This had gone on for some time. But as it happened, the new sovereign Hongguang had a fondness for letters and a marked love of female entertainers. Wishing to set Ruan Dacheng's The Swallow Letter to music and song as the great entertainment of a new era of restoration, he appointed Wang Duo as a Hanlin Academician and Qian Qianyi as Minister of Rites, and gave Ruan Dacheng an extraordinary appointment to serve in the Inner Court. As he drew ever closer to the imperial presence, Ruan Dacheng's ingratiation became ever more practiced, and he submitted a memorial: "The Swallow Letter that Your servant offered has graciously been selected, and the palace ladies have been commanded to set it to music and song. Yet I fear that untrained voices cannot equal practiced ones, and that amateur teachers are weaker than professionals. Would it not be better to conduct a wide search of the old pleasure quarters and gather up the best entertainers and ladies of the Qinhuai riverside, selecting them to enter the palace and teach the performance? Would this not greatly simplify matters?" Hongguang was greatly pleased with this memorial. An imperial edict was immediately issued to search and conscript by name all the entertainers and women of pleasure from the old Qinhuai quarter, without a single omission. As a result, Ding Jizhi and his circle of musical companions, and Bian Yujing and her circle of courtesans, all went to Yang Longyou to plead for his influence so they might have their names struck from the conscription list. Ruan Dacheng informed Grand Secretary Guiyang, who passed the word to Longyou, and they were called one by one to go and teach the performances. Xianggun's name was among those selected.

The day in question was New Year's Day of the year Yiyou, and a heavy snow had fallen from the sky. Ruan Dacheng and Yang Longyou were at the Shangxin Pavilion, where they had invited Ma Shiying to drink and admire the snow, and they planned to bring the selected entertainers and women before the gathering for inspection. Of the entire company, only Ding Jizhi and Bian Yujing had changed their dress and taken religious vows and gone away. The rest — Zhang Yanzu and his companions, Zheng Tuoniang and her companions, and Xianggun among them — were all escorted under guard to the Shangxin Pavilion for inspection. Xianggun arrived with a heart full of resentment, swallowing her fury and coming along with the others. Hearing that the three inspecting officials were Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng, and Yang Longyou, she thought to herself: "What a fortunate chance that they are all gathered in one place — this is just the moment to give voice to what is in my chest!"

Before long there came the sound of the official's procession being cleared, and she knew the treacherous minister Ma Shiying had arrived. All the courtesans and Xianggun stepped aside to make way. Then Ma Shiying descended from his palanquin; Ruan and Yang went forward to receive him with every manner of odious fawning — almost too ugly to watch. Then Ma Shiying was heard to say: "What a fine sweep of snow scenery! The Shangxin Pavilion is truly the perfect place to view the snow. Look — snow weighing down Zhong Shan, round pearls and square jades. For a scene to gladden the heart, nothing surpasses this pavilion!" The three men chatted and laughed for a while, then ordered the braziers and wine vessels and furnishings to be set out, and settled in to drink and admire the snow. After several rounds of wine, Ruan Dacheng turned to the long-attendant and asked: "Have the selected women been summoned?" The outer attendant knelt and replied: "All are present." "Call them up — let them be inspected before the feast!"

And so Kou Baimen, Zheng Tuoniang, Xianggun, and the whole company of courtesans came forward one by one to kowtow. Ma Shiying proceeded to inspect each in turn, then announced: "Let them go to the Ministry of Rites to be formally registered." Ruan Dacheng rose and explained: "They were specially brought here today to attend upon the wine at the feast." Shiying said: "Since that is the kind thought of you two, let the youngest one stay to serve the wine and sing. What is her name?" The outer attendant knelt and replied: "She is called Li Zhenli." Shiying laughed: "A girl named 'Zhenli' — beautiful, perhaps, but beautiful and pure together may be too much to hope for! Come forward and pour wine and sing a song!" Xianggun shook her head and said: "I do not know how." Shiying said: "If you do not know how to sing, how can you call yourself a celebrated beauty?" Xianggun's eyes filled with tears, and she said: "I was never a celebrated beauty." Seeing the state she was in, Shiying asked: "What is in your heart? I give you leave to speak."

Xianggun then raised her voice and said: "What is in my heart? When I think back on it, it swarms around like seeds scattered in the wind. Consider: two years ago my husband and I were torn apart; today my mother and I are separated — all at the hands of treacherous villains settling personal grudges and making the people suffer. Truly they are worse than the roving bandits!" Shiying said: "Is there so much on your mind." Ruan Dacheng said: "This girl has indeed suffered." Longyou said: "Your Excellency is here to enjoy himself — there is no need to go on complaining." Xianggun said: "Elder Yang, you know my wrongs and sufferings well — they are worth at least this single telling. Sirs, hear me out: half the southern realm still stands, relying entirely on your efforts to sustain it. The proper course is to marshal armies and select commanders, to seek redress for the wrong and restore what has been lost, to recover Peking — only then would you be worthy of the name of loyal ministers! Yet instead, all you think of is seeking favor and currying honor, conscripting the women of Qinhuai and summoning the entertainers of the pleasure quarters, to delight and flatter the court. Today, amid this sea of snow and mountain of ice, you still make us accompany your cups and perform your songs, forgetting the shame of the Chongzhen Emperor who hanged himself, and seeking only the pleasure of this single moment. Is it not a cause for shame? Is it not a cause for fury?" Shiying heard this and flew into a rage: "This wretched girl — talking such wild nonsense! Someone should slap her mouth!" Ruan Dacheng and Longyou both said: "The present cabinet ministers are seated before you — do not be insolent!"

Xianggun then burst into open denunciation: "You pack of eunuch-lackeys — you sit there before people without a shred of shame! Calling him adoptive father, calling that one adopted son — degrading your bodies and debasing your conduct, truly shaming the company you keep. Today you rely on the power of others to abuse and torment people — I only regret that the new Emperor's punishments are too lenient, and cannot reach your treacherous hides!" Ruan Dacheng, hearing this, flew into a fury: "What impudence! Who does she think she is railing at? Drag her out at once and throw her in the snow! For a slave-girl to show such insolence before a cabinet minister — we are all implicated!" He left his seat and kicked Xianggun repeatedly with his foot. Longyou stepped in to restrain Ruan Dacheng on one side, while pulling Xianggun to her feet on the other. Shiying said: "It would be no great matter to put such a creature to death, but I am afraid it would ill become the magnanimity of a prime minister. Have her sent to the Inner Court — assign her the most miserable role and make her learn it. Take her away. A fine, elegant gathering has been spoiled and ruined by this creature — laughable, truly laughable!" Ruan and Yang hastened to bow their apologies: "We offer our regrets! We hope Your Excellency will forgive us — we shall make full amends another day!" Indeed:

When the pleasure is spent, one ought to leave the banquet in the spring snow;

But the guests' own shame should warrant the beauty's head be struck.

What happened next — listen to the following chapter for the telling.