Eastern Shame Girl Part 4

Then, turning toward Li Chia, she continued:

"During those many years when I lived in a disorder of the dust and breeze, I secretly ama.s.sed these treasures, that they might some day rescue my body. When I met my Lord, we vowed that our union should be higher than the mountain, deeper than the sea. We swore that, even when our hair was white, we should have our love. Before leaving the capital, I pretended to receive this casket as a gift from my friends.

It contained a treasure of more than a myriad ounces. I intended to deposit it in your treasury, when I had seen your father and mother.

Who would have thought your faith so shallow, that, on the strength of a chance conversation, you would consent to lose my loyal heart?

To-day, before the eyes of all these people, I have shown you that your thousand ounces were a very little sum of money. These persons are my witness that it is my Lord who rejects his wife, that it is not I who am wanting in my duty."

Hearing these sad words, those who were present wept, and called down curses upon Li, and reviled him as an ingrate. And he, being both ashamed and desolate, shed tears of bitter repentance. He knelt down to beg for her forgiveness. But s.h.i.+h-niang, holding the jewels in each hand, leaped into the yellow water of the river.

The onlookers uttered a cry and rushed to save her. But, under a sombre cloud, the waves in the heart of the river broke into boiling foam, and no further trace was seen of that desperate woman.

Alas! she was an ill.u.s.trious singing girl, as beautiful as flowers or jade. She had been swallowed in an instant by the water.

The people, grinding their teeth, would have beaten Li and Sun; but these, in terror and dismay, made haste to push their boats out from the bank, and then went each his own way.

Li Chia, seeing the thousand ounces of silver in his cabin, unceasingly wept for the death of s.h.i.+h-niang. His remorse gave birth to a kind of madness in him, of which he could never be healed.

Sun was so prostrated that he had to keep his bed. He thought he saw s.h.i.+h-niang standing in front of him all day and every day. It was not long before he expiated his crime in death.

We must now tell how Liu, having left the capital to return to his own village, also halted at Kua-chow. Leaning over the river to take up some water in a bronze basin, he let the thing slip, and therefore begged certain fishermen to drag their net for it.

When they drew up, there was a little box in the net. Liu opened it, and it was full of pearls and precious stones. He rewarded the fishermen generously, and placed the box near his pillow.

In the night he had a dream. A young woman rose from the troubled waters of the river, and he recognized s.h.i.+h-niang. She drew near, wis.h.i.+ng him ten thousand happinesses. Then she recounted the unworthy ingrat.i.tude of Li, and said:

"Of your bounty you gave me a hundred and fifty ounces. I have not forgotten your generosity, and I put this little box in the fishermen's net as an offering of recognition."

He awoke and, having learned thus of s.h.i.+h-niang's death, sighed for a long time.

Later, those who told me this story declared that Sun, since he thought he could acquire a beautiful woman for a thousand ounces, was evidently not a respectable man. Li Chia, they said, had not understood the sorrowful heart of s.h.i.+h-niang, and was consequently stupid, without refinement, and not worthy of mention. s.h.i.+h-niang alone was heroic. She was, in fact, unique since furtherest antiquity.

Why could she not meet some charming companion, some phoenix worthy of her? Why did she make the mistake of loving Li Chia? An admirable piece of jade was thrown to him who did not deserve it; so that love turned to hate, and a thousand pa.s.sionate impulses were drowned in the deep water. Alas!

_Tu s.h.i.+h-niang nu ch'en pai pao hsiang. (Tu s.h.i.+h-niang, being put to shame drowns herself with her casket of a hundred treasures.)_ _Chin ku chi'i kuan (17th Century.)_

THE WEDDING OF YA-NEI

In the reign of the emperor Shen Tsung there lived an official named Wu, who was at that time, Governor of Ch'ang-sha. His wife, Lin, had given him a son named Ya-nei, or "In-the-Palace," who had that year reached the age of sixteen. He was well endowed, although not without tendency to wantonness; yet he had from childhood diligently studied the cla.s.sics and poetry. He had only one really extravagant failing; to satisfy his appet.i.te he needed more than three bushels of rice every day, and over two pounds of meat. We will say nothing of his drinking. In spite of all this, he ever seemed half starved.

About the third Moon of that year, Wu was appointed Governor of Yang-chow, and the equipages and boats of his new post came up to meet him. He packed his belongings, said good-bye to his friends and went on board, following the course of the river. On the second day he had to stop, because of a storm of wind which raised up the waters of the river in great waves.

At the point on the river bank where the boat lay moored, there was already another official junk, before the cabin of which stood a middle-aged matron and a charming girl, surrounded by several women slaves. Ya-nei perceived the youthful beauty, and thought her so seductive that he immediately composed the following poem:

Her soul has the tenderness of Autumn rivers And her pure bones are made of jade.

The rose of the hibiscus lightens her, Her eyebrows have the curve of willow leaves.

Is she not an Immortal from the Jasper Lake Or from the Moon Palace?

He looked at her so ardently that his troubled soul took flight and alighted upon the maiden's breast. But his intelligence at once conceived a plan, and he said to his father:

"Tieh-tieh, why would you not tell the sailors to anchor our junk by the side of that one? Would it not be safer?"

Wu was also of this opinion and accordingly gave orders to his men.

When the vessel was alongside, he sent to inquire the name of the voyagers, and was informed that they were a certain Ho Chang, the new Governor of Kien-K'ang, going to his post with his wife Ho tsin, and his daughter Elegant, who was just fifteen.

Wu had known the excellent man formerly, so he had his name carried to him. Then, clothed in his official robes, he stepped from one s.h.i.+p to the other. His colleague was awaiting him before his cabin, and, having exchanged formal greetings, they sat and talked together, drinking a cup of tea. Wu returned to his boat where, after a few moments, Ho Chang returned his visit. And Ya-nei was present at the meeting. Ho Chang had no son, and took pleasure in seeing this beautiful young man. He questioned him upon certain ancient and modern books, and was satisfied with the ready answers which he obtained. He praised him unreservedly for them, thinking:

"This is just the son-in-law that I should like. He would make an unprecedented match with my daughter. But he is going to live at Pien-liang, and I will be at Kien-K'ang which is more than fifteen days' journey to the south of that place."

Wu asked him:

"How many sons have you, O Old-Man-Born-Before-Me?"

"I will not conceal from you the fact that I have only a daughter."

Wu considered:

"That charming child was his daughter then. She would be an unprecedented wife for my son. But she is his only child, and he certainly would not be willing to marry her at any great distance from himself."

He added aloud:

"But if you have no son, you have only to take concubines."

"I thank you for your suggestion. It had occurred to me."

After having talked for some time, Ho Chang withdrew to his cabin, where his wife and daughter were awaiting him. Being a little elated by his cups of wine, he kept speaking of Ya-nei's merit, and of his intention to invite the father and son for the next day. His words sank deeply into his daughter's mind.

On the following day the river was still churned by waves, and the storm sent up spray to a height of more than thirty feet. The crash of water was heard on all sides.

Early in the morning Ho Chang sent his invitation, and, when the two men arrived, the feast began. Elegant, in the next cabin, could see Ya-nei through the cracks in the bulkhead, and her heart was secretly moved.

"If I could have him for my husband, my desire would be satisfied. But I shall not persuade him into a proposal by merely looking at him. How shall I set about making known my thought to him?"

Ya-nei, for his part, looked in vain for some means of speaking to his neighbor. When the meal was finished, he returned to his s.h.i.+p and lay down on his bed.

But Elegant was so much occupied in thinking of the young man that she could not touch her dinner. Leaving her mother alone, she retired to rest and was on the point of going to sleep, when the sound of a song came to her. It was the voice of Ya-nei, singing:

A dream has come to me from the Blue Bowl, But I was not able to speak.

I could not tell her of my delight Or appoint an endless alliance.

She rose softly, opened her cabin door without sound and went up on to the bridge. Ya-nei was standing on the other s.h.i.+p, and immediately leaped to her side, and boldly took her in his arms. Between joy and alarm, she did not dare to resist. He drew her into her cabin and embraced her.

At that moment one of the slaves pa.s.sed before the cabin and, seeing the door open, cried out:

"The door is open! O thieves!"

Elegant at once covered her lover with the blanket, but one of the slaves saw the invader's feet. Ho Chang and his wife s.n.a.t.c.hed away the blanket.