Courtesans and Opium Read online

  Next two prostitutes came in and greeted the guests with a cry of “Gentlemen!” before sitting down on chairs beside the veneered door and asking the men’s names and where they lived. The guests responded by asking them their names. One was Cloud, the other Lute, and both came from Yancheng and were twenty or twenty-one. Cloud was part of the management, Lute an employee.

  As they chatted, the woman with unbound feet returned carrying a white copper water pipe that she fitted up for Jia Ming, Wu Zhen, Yuan You, and Wei Bi before coming to Lu Shu. He held the mouthpiece in his right hand, but when he tilted his head to smoke, he took a sideways glance at her—and completely forgot to inhale. As she blew on the paper spill, then bent over and held it to the bowl of the pipe, she saw him gazing at her and noted his youth, his handsome looks, and his brilliant clothes. She gazed back at him as if in a trance, forgetting to light the tobacco and allowing the spill to burn down most of the way. Jia Ming, who saw what was happening, cried out: “Watch out! You’ll burn your hand!” Only then did the pair awaken to the danger and exchange a smile.

  “Brother Lu, how much garlic did you bring with you?” asked Wei Bi. Not understanding the question, Lu Shu gave him a puzzled look.

  “This is only your first visit here, gentlemen,” said the woman, “and already you’re making fun of us girls.”

  More puzzled than ever, Lu Shu pressed Wei Bi for an explanation. “What did you mean when you asked how much garlic I had brought with me?”

  By this time the woman had finished filling the pipes and left the room. “You’re not familiar with our Yangzhou idiom,” said Wei Bi. “Women with unbound feet are called sturgeons, and one who’s as pretty and charming as this girl is also known as a ‘fresh catch.’ When you started drooling at the sight of her, weren’t you bringing a lot of garlic here in hopes of eating sturgeon?”

  Yuan You broke in. “Brother Lu, there’s a fellow here in Yangzhou who’s written a book called Ninety-nine Bamboo Branch Songs of the Yangzhou Brothels. Let me recite one for you:

  I love her more than all the other girls;

  With dainty hands she fills the pipe for me.

  For a fine, rich sturgeon the price is high;

  I must leave the steward a double fee.

  “Oh, very good! Very good indeed!” chorused the other guests.

  “With a woman like that on your staff, you could do a lot more business,” Yuan You remarked to Cloud.

  “You gentlemen shouldn’t make fun of us country girls,” she replied, calling to a servant, who brought in a lute.2 As she adjusted the strings, she said, “I don’t have a good voice, so you’ll have to make allowances for me.”

  “Do give us a song,” they said. She struck up the melody and sang a “Full River Red” tune:

  Oh, my handsome love, ever since you left me,

  Half out of my mind,

  I’ve shed my tears in secret.

  When evening comes,

  I’m in despair, alone by the solitary lamp,

  Then listlessly to bed.

  But the bed is so huge

  With its red silk coverlet

  That I cannot sleep on my own.

  The more I think of you, the sadder I become.

  From afar I hear a wild goose cry,

  But it brings no message for me.

  In my chamber the water clock presses on,

  But I toss and turn and cannot sleep.

  Damn that stupid maid!

  She asks why I’m still awake;

  She doesn’t know what pangs of love I suffer.

  She asks why I’m still awake;

  She doesn’t know what pangs of love I suffer.

  She finished the song to general applause. One servant relieved her of the lute, while another offered the guests tea. “I’ve heard you have a Miss Fragrance here,” Yuan You said to Cloud. “Why don’t you ask her to come out and talk to us?”

  Cloud shouted to the woman with unbound feet: “Maid Zhang, call Miss Fragrance.”

  “Miss Fragrance! We have guests here. Come and join us,” the woman called. After a short delay, a girl dressed as a boy pulled aside the door curtain and came in. The men saw that her hair was coiled in a queue fastened by a two- or three-ounce braid of the finest quality, the tassels of which hung down beside her right temple. She had four sprigs of roses in her hair, some thirty blossoms in all. Four hairpins were inserted at various angles, one of fine silver, gilt, and kingfisher feather and three ear-pick hairpins with silken pads depicting the Eight Treasures.3 She had two fine silver, gilt, and kingfisher feather earrings in a bamboo leaf design, from each of which hung three flattened-circle pendants of milk white polished jade. She wore a long, unlined gown with cassia-bud buttons and scalloped edges that had a round collar piece of imported crepe silk with numerous images of flowing clouds and flowers. It had a black satin border with gold couching depicting flowers of all seasons in dark blue as well as a yellow, green, and pale pink trim. Over it she wore a green wool sleeveless jacket with cassia-bud buttons that was lined with pink silk. Its round collar piece had a border of black satin depicting flowers of the four seasons embroidered in dark blue with gold couching and also a scalloped White Flag trim. She wore trousers of blue nankeen double stitched with jade green silk thread and a belt of pea green imported crepe edged with hibiscus-style trim in three colors; crimson imported crepe-silk over trousers lined with green nankeen and embroidered at the edges with dark blue lotus-picking images in gold couching and decorated with yellow, green, and White Flag and scalloped lute trim; white water-crepe stocking wrappers; a pair of Falling on Cutoff Bridge–style tinkling wooden-soled shoes with soles in four sections, uppers of Beautiful Lady tribute satin depicting hibiscus and cassia in dark blue with gold couching, sides of white damask embroidered in the Gu style with multicolored West Lake scenes, and heel straps of apricot yellow imported crepe with embroidered satin. The openings of the shoes were in a Heavenly Twins design and had four fine silver foreign-engraved buttons attached to them and pale green imported crepe laces. The shoes were less than four inches long with straight soles and round heels. She had an oval face, gracefully arched eyebrows, and large eyes. She was romance personified, with a slender, willowy figure—so lovely and bewitching that no one could help falling under her spell.

  With a radiant smile she greeted the guests and then, after taking a seat beside Lu Shu, began asking each of them his name and where he was from, after which they asked her the same questions. “My name is Fragrance,” she said. “I’m fifteen and I come from Yancheng.”

  “Are you engaged?” asked Lu Shu.

  She blushed. “No, not yet.”

  “You are well known for your beauty and talent,” said Wei Bi, “and now that we’ve met, I can see why. I should like to ask you to sing for us. Would you be willing to?”

  Before she could reply, Cloud had called for a lute. “She’s still a child, and her singing talents are quite undeveloped,” she said. “I hope you gentlemen won’t laugh at her.”

  A servant came in with the lute and handed it to Fragrance. Adjusting the strings, she sang another “Full River Red” in a sweet, melodious voice:

  Everyone loves you, my handsome lover,

  They love your dashing looks,

  Your graceful figure.

  Gazing at me, you start to smile,

  But your lips stay closed—

  You’re not madly in love at all!

  Then out you come with a pair of jasmine flowers,

  Work them into a crablike shape,

  And place them on my head.

  That idiot father of mine

  Takes me to task.

  The flowers are thrown in the dirt,

  And I’m not allowed to look at you.

  For you I’m sick with love.

  When can we two be together

  To settle our lovers’ debts?

  When can we two be together

  To settle our lovers’ debts?

  As
she finished, a servant relieved her of the lute. Impressed by her clear phrasing and winning ways, the guests broke into spontaneous applause.

  “Our object in coming today was to invite Miss Fragrance to join us on a cruise. Would that be possible, do you suppose?”

  “It’s most generous of you,” said Cloud. “Of course, she’ll be only too happy to attend on you. Where are you moored?”

  “At the dock here,” said Wu Zhen. “We can walk down there together.”

  “Hurry up and get yourself ready,” said Cloud to Fragrance. “You’re going on a cruise with these gentlemen. See you attend on them nicely.” She also asked: “Are both musicians in the house?”

  “They’re both here, ready and waiting,” came a voice from downstairs.

  Fragrance stood up. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…”

  “By all means,” they said. “But be as quick as you can. We’ll be waiting for you.”

  As she went out, Fragrance peeped at Lu Shu out of the corner of her eye and gave him a slight smile. Back in her room she touched up her makeup with a powder puff and dabbed a little rouge on her lips. Then she changed into a new gown triple stitched with gilt cassia-bud buttons. It had a round collar piece of greenish blue imported crepe in an Eight Treasures design and black satin borders embroidered all around in a variety of colors, with gold couching of figures and scenes from The Story of the Stone and yellow, green, and pale pink trim. Over it she wore a formal jacket of deep blue, shiny imported camlet with gold-plated cassia-bud buttons and a lining of scalloped pale pink damask panels. It had a round collar piece and a border of white satin embroidered with dark blue as well as gold couching of the squirrel stealing the grapes and cut-in free-form cloud shapes, and a silver and gold trim. From the top button of the jacket hung a green eel-skeleton pendant, an emerald ring, an antique gold coin, two jade green swallows made of eel skeleton, in whose tails were cherry-apple designs of gold and kingfisher feather inset with crimson gems. From the tails hung tassels on which were depicted five-petal magnolia flowers in gold plate and layered green. They supported two eggplant-shaped bluegreen ivory seal pendants with two threads holding one hundred and eight balsam beads from the Genuine Daichunlin shop, each with finely carved spherical shou characters. Also hanging from the button was an emerald dragon flattened-circle pendant fastened to a small fine-silver pendant from which dangled a silver filigree good luck medallion. From it hung twelve short silver threads holding a full set of twelve fine-silver foreign-engraved imperial toothpicks.

  On her wrists she wore gilt filigree tortoiseshell bracelets engraved with the Eight Treasures. Her right thumb was fitted with a false nail made of tortoiseshell. On her middle finger she wore a silver and gilt foreign-engraved linked ring from which dangled three little bells in the shape of fish attached by short gilt and silver threads; they shook with her every movement. The middle and little fingers of her left hand were fitted with nail guards about two inches long made of foreign-engraved silver. Her middle finger also bore a saddle-shaped crimson carnelian ring and two silver and gilt interlocking rings.

  After she had finished dressing, she used the commode, then washed her hands and with her right hand picked up a genuine ebony fan with a hundred shou characters inlaid in silver on its frame. On one side of the sheer white covering was the Huizhenji4 story in microscopic characters as written by a famous contemporary, and on the other side the scene of the drunken Shi Xiangyun sleeping in a bed of peonies.5 On the handle were silver dragons rampant in the form of the shou character, and at the end a small silver knob with a green silk cord attached to it and two gold and crimson tassels holding a pure white finely polished jade pendant depicting mandarin ducks playing among lotus flowers. In her left hand she carried a crimson imported crepe handkerchief depicting in dark blue with gold couching a scene of phoenixes flying through peonies. Returning to Cloud’s room, which was opposite hers, she said to the guests, “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. Shall we go?” They rose to their feet and went out.

  “We hope you won’t ignore our humble establishment after your cruise is over,” said Cloud and Lute. “Do come back and enjoy yourselves with us.”

  “We’ll bring Miss Fragrance back here before very long,” they said. “We’ll come and impose on you some other day.”

  As they were going downstairs, Cloud and Lute leaned over the banisters and urged them to come back soon. They promised to do so and, with their pages in attendance, left by the main entrance of the Jinyulou.

  Lu Shu took Fragrance’s hand and walked beside her. At the dock he helped her down the stone ramp and along the gangway onto the boat, while the others boarded with their pages. The servant who had accompanied Fragrance and the two musicians (one for operatic arias, the other for popular songs) also boarded. They placed a multicolored genuine imported cloth lute bag lined with pale rose nankeen on the table in the cabin. The servant and the musicians went up to the bow to sit while Jia Ming and the others took seats in the cabin and gave the order to cast off. Fragrance’s servant came back to the cabin and offered everyone tea, then opened the bag, took out the lute, and placed it on the table. Its highly polished black front bore the words “Peace, Prosperity, High Honors” inlaid in mother-of-pearl, and the back had four haimei elbow joints in the shape of tuberoses. The servant then took the bag back to the bow with him. The boatman promptly cast off and used his pole to get the boat under way.

  Fragrance picked up the lute, adjusted the strings, and said, “I don’t have a good voice. Please don’t be too critical.”

  “We look forward to hearing you,” they replied.

  She sang a “Played and Lost”:

  The Naiad’s House with its red silk windowpanes.6

  The Naiad’s House with its red silk windowpanes.

  Oh, dear!

  The parrot before the curtain calls on her to rise.

  Sad at heart!

  A despondent Lin Daiyu

  Leans upon the rail,

  Upon the rail.

  Little Aroma, with something in her hand;

  Little Aroma, with something in her hand.

  Oh, joy!

  A note with a few brief lines.

  “Miss! Oh, Miss!

  On Baoyu’s orders

  I’ve come up here especially

  To call on you.”

  While she was singing, the boat had progressed as far as Lower Commerce Street. The numerous teahouses along the street were full of customers who, on hearing the sound of music and song, turned their heads toward the river and tried to make out who was in the cabin. The passengers, however, because they were in the company of a prostitute, feared that the people in the teahouses might recognize them and call out, so they turned their heads in the opposite direction and stared at the city wall. The boat passed under the drawbridge at North Gate, where the tolling of the bells from the towers of the Buddhist temples was clearly audible. As they passed the Prajna Temple, Fragrance’s song came to an end, and she laid the lute down to a round of applause. “That truly was a ‘song that sprang from Beauty’s lips!’”7 exclaimed Lu Shu. “Oh, Miss Fragrance, not only was your voice soft and gentle and every word as clear as a bell, the song itself was fresh and lively. What a thrill it was to hear you!” The others looked at Lu Shu and Fragrance and smiled to themselves.

  In the face of a headwind, the boat made slow progress. The passengers’ eyes turned to the barren hills on the north side, which presented a bleak and desolate sight. “I can remember when the Dou Lao Palace, the Wang Garden, the Little Rainbow Garden, the Sunset Glow Demitower, the Rolling Rocks Pleasance, the West Garden with Winding Stream, and the Rainbow Bridge Lustration Site were still in existence,” said Jia Ming. “Now their pavilions and terraces have all been torn down and the whole place turned into an abandoned graveyard. There’s a poem in Bamboo Branch Songs on the Lake at Yangzhou that makes you think back and heave a sigh:

  I recall as a child how we hired a boa
t

  And saw miles of gardens fine and tranquil.

  Ruined graveyards are all you see now;

  By grasses forlorn the river runs still.”

  “When I read The Pleasure Boats of Yangzhou,” said Lu Shu, “I had the constant impression your city was full of beautiful scenery. I certainly never expected to find devastation of this sort. It just goes to show that it’s better to see something with your own eyes than to read about it.”

  “Even a dozen years ago many of the gardens and pavilions were still in existence,” said Jia Ming. “There was nothing like the devastation you see now.”

  As they were talking, the boat cleared Rainbow Bridge. Wei Bi told the boatman to head first for Little Gold Hill, which he did, poling vigorously ahead. Arriving at the dock, he drew alongside, tied up, and let down the gangway to allow his passengers to disembark. Wei Bi’s page brought the incense and candles, the fireworks and the brotherhood register, and followed his master into the main gate of the Emperor Guan Temple and as far as the Great Hall. An acolyte was waiting there to insert the incense and light the candles. Wei Bi placed the register on the altar next to the censer and invited Jia Ming to kowtow before it, while bells and drums sounded on each side. After he had taken his oath, each of the others followed in turn. Wei Bi then picked up the register and handed it around among his companions. Lu Shu also invited Fragrance to come up and do reverence before the god’s image.