not?'
Before these words were brought to a close, the various inmates were so convulsed with hearty laughter that they reeled over on the stove-couch.
Dowager lady Chia then went on to explain how much nicer Pao-ch'in was, plucking plum blossom in the snow, than the very picture itself; and she next minutely inquired what the year, moon, day and hour of her birth were, and how things were getting on in her home.
Mrs. Hsueeh conjectured that the object she had in mind was, in all probability, to seek a partner for her. In the secret recesses of her heart, Mrs. Hsueeh on this account fell in also with her views. (Pao-ch'in) had, however, already been promised in marriage to the Mei family. But as dowager lady Chia had made, as yet, no open allusion to her intentions, (Mrs. Hsueeh) did not think it nice on her part to come out with any definite statement, and she accordingly observed to old lady Chia in a vague sort of way: 'What a pity it is that this girl should have had so little good fortune as to lose her father the year before last. But ever since her youth up, she has seen much of the world, for she has been with her parent to every place of note. Her father was a man fond of pleasure; and as he had business in every direction, he took his family along with him. After tarrying in this province for a whole year, he would next year again go to that province, and spend half a year roaming about it everywhere. Hence it is that he had visited five or six tenths of the whole empire. The other year, when they were here, he engaged her to the son of the Hanlin Mei. But, as it happened, her father died the year after, and here is her mother too now ailing from a superfluity of phlegm.'
Lady Feng gave her no time to complete what she meant to say. 'Hai!' she exclaimed, stamping her foot. 'What you say isn't opportune! I was about to act as a go-between. But is she too already engaged?'
'For whom did you mean to act as go-between?' old lady Chia smiled.
'My dear ancestor,' lady Feng remarked, 'don't concern yourself about it! I had determined in my mind that those two would make a suitable match. But as she has now long ago been promised to some one, it would be of no use, were I even to speak out. Isn't it better that I should hold my peace, and drop the whole thing?'
Dowager lady Chia herself was cognizant of lady Feng's purpose, so upon hearing that she already had a suitor, she at once desisted from making any further reference to the subject. The whole company then continued another chat on irrelevant matters for a time, after which, they broke up.
Nothing of any interest transpired the whole night. The next day, the snowy weather had cleared up. After breakfast, her grandmother Chia again pressed Hsi Ch'un. 'You should go on,' she said, 'with your painting, irrespective of cold or heat. If you can't absolutely finish it by the end of the year, it won't much matter! The main thing is that you must at once introduce in it Ch'in Erh and the maid with the plum blossom, as we saw them yesterday, in strict accordance with the original and without the least discrepancy of so much as a stroke.'
Hsi Ch'un listened to her and felt it her duty to signify her assent, in spite of the task being no easy one for her to execute.
After a time, a number of her relatives came, in a body, to watch the progress of the painting. But they discovered Hsi Ch'un plunged in a reverie. 'Let's leave her alone,' Li Wan smilingly observed to them all, 'to proceed with her meditations; we can meanwhile have a chat among ourselves. Yesterday our worthy senior bade us devise a few lantern-conundrums, so when we got home, I and Ch'i Erh and Wen Erh did not turn in (but set to work). I composed a couple on the Four Books; but those two girls also managed to put together another pair of them.'
'We should hear what they're like,' they laughingly exclaimed in chorus, when they heard what they had done. 'Tell them to us first, and let's have a guess!'
'The goddess of mercy has not been handed down by any ancestors.'
Li Ch'i smiled. 'This refers to a passage in the Four Books.'
'In one's conduct, one must press towards the highest benevolence.'
Hsiang-yuen quickly interposed; taking up the thread of the conversation.
'You should ponder over the meaning of the three words implying: 'handed down by ancestors',' Pao-ch'ai smiled, 'before you venture a guess.'
'Think again!' Li Wan urged with a smile.
'I've guessed it!' Tai-yue smiled. 'It's:
''If, notwithstanding all that benevolence, there be no outward visible
sign...''
'That's the line,' one and all unanimously exclaimed with a laugh.
''The whole pond is covered with rush.''
'Now find the name of the rush?' Li Wan proceeded.
'This must certainly be the cat-tail rush!' hastily again replied Hsiang-yuen. 'Can this not be right?'
'You've succeeded in guessing it,' Li Wan smiled. 'Li Wen's is:
''Cold runs the stream along the stones;'
'bearing on the name of a man of old.'
'Can it be Shan T'ao?' T'an Ch'un smilingly asked.
'It is!' answered Li Wan.
'Ch'i Erh's is the character 'Yung' (glow-worm). It refers to a single word,' Li Wan resumed.
The party endeavoured for a long time to hit upon the solution.
'The meaning of this is certainly deep,' Pao-ch'in put in. 'I wonder whether it's the character, 'hua,' (flower) in the combination, 'hua ts'ao, (vegetation).'
'That's just it!' Li Ch'i smiled.
'What has a glow-worm to do with flowers?' one and all observed.
'It's capital!' Tai-yue ventured with a smile. 'Isn't a glow-worm transformed from plants?'
The company grasped the sense; and, laughing the while, they, with one consent, shouted out, 'splendid!'
'All these are, I admit, good,' Pao-ch'ai remarked, 'but they won't suit our venerable senior's taste. Won't it be better therefore to compose a few on some simple objects; some which all of us, whether polished or unpolished, may be able to enjoy?'
'Yes,' they all replied, 'we should also think of some simple ones on ordinary objects.'
'I've devised one on the 'Tien Chiang Ch'un' metre,' Hsiang-yuen pursued, after some reflection. 'But it's really on an ordinary object. So try and guess it.'
Saying this, she forthwith went on to recite:
The creeks and valleys it leaves;
Travelling the world, it performs.
In truth how funny it is!
But renown and gain are still vain;
Ever hard behind it is its fate.
A conundrum.
None of those present could fathom what it could be. After protracted thought, some made a guess, by saying it was a bonze. Others maintained that it was a Taoist priest. Others again divined that it was a marionette.
'All your guesses are wrong,' Pao-yue chimed in, after considerable reflection. 'I've got it! It must for a certainty be a performing monkey.'
'That's really it!' Hsiang-yuen laughed.
'The first part is all right,' the party observed, 'but how do you explain the last line?'
'What performing monkey,' Hsiang-yuen asked, 'has not had its tail cut off?'
Hearing this, they exploded into a fit of merriment. 'Even,' they argued, 'the very riddles she improvises are perverse and strange!'
'Mrs. Hsueeh mentioned yesterday that you, cousin Ch'in, had seen much of the world,' Li Wan put in, 'and that you had also gone about a good deal. It's for you therefore to try your hand at a few conundrums. What's more your poetry too is good. So why shouldn't you indite a few for us to guess?'
Pao-ch'in, at this proposal, nodded her head, and while repressing a smile, she went off by herself to give way to thought.
Pao-ch'ai then also gave out this riddle:
