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Baoyu has gone to the main house to pay his respects. His room is empty, and his desk is covered with books.

Lin Daiyu walks in, finds nobody there, and starts flipping through them. She isn’t looking for anything in particular. Whatever she finds, she’s going to have an opinion about it.

Previously: Baoyu woke up with the whole quarrel forgotten, Xiren hadn’t slept at all, and a jade hairpin broke in two. (See The Morning After.)

Who’s here: Lin Daiyu · Jia Baoyu · and, in name only, Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang

The Note. In the last Zhuangzi post, the novel said Baoyu “continued” the old philosopher. Daiyu has a different word for what he did, and it’s in the second line of her poem. The word is read differently from how it looks. See below.

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Last night Jia Baoyu went to bed after writing a few lines about how much better life would be without the girls who keep lecturing him. He slept like a baby.

Hua Xiren didn’t sleep at all. She had a plan to bring him around, and it didn’t work, and now it’s morning. Baoyu wakes up cheerful. Xiren has had all night to think about what she’s going to say.

Previously: Alone and a little drunk, Baoyu read Zhuangzi and wrote his own continuation, with two of his maids hidden inside the words “flower” and “musk.” (See Two Cups of Wine and Zhuangzi, and the explainer, Did Baoyu Mean It?)

Who’s here: Jia Baoyu · Hua Xiren · and, in name only, Si’er

Two Translators Disagree. The novel explains Xiren’s sleepless night in a couple of short sentences. David Hawkes needs one sentence of about seventy words for the hardest part. The Yangs get through it in two short ones. You’ll see both below.

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He slept like a baby and she didn't sleep at all. Who's being more unreasonable? Tell me in the comments.

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The Translation

The moment his head touched the pillow, Jia Baoyu was asleep. He slept the whole night through, dead to the world, and didn’t wake up until it was light. When he rolled over, he saw Xiren asleep on top of the covers with her clothes still on.

Baoyu had already put yesterday’s business out of his mind. He gave her a little push. “Get up and go to bed properly. You’ll catch cold.”

Hua Xiren had been watching him fooling around with the girls day and night, and she knew that if she really lectured him, he wouldn’t change. She tried to reach him through his feelings for her instead, figuring that in half a day, or less, he’d be back to his old self. She never expected that Baoyu wouldn’t come around at all. Now she was the one who didn’t know what to do, and she hadn’t slept properly all night. When she saw him acting like this all of a sudden, she guessed he’d had a change of heart, so she decided to ignore him completely.

When she didn’t answer, Baoyu reached over to undo her clothes for her. He had only just unfastened a button when Xiren pushed his hand away and buttoned it back up herself.

Baoyu didn’t know what else to do. He took her hand and smiled. “What’s the matter with you?” He asked her several times.

Xiren opened her eyes. “Nothing’s the matter with me. You’re awake, so hurry over there and wash up. Any later and you won’t make it in time.”

“Over where?” said Baoyu.

Xiren gave a cold little laugh. “You’re asking me? How should I know? Go wherever you like. From now on, the two of us are done with each other. That way we won’t be squabbling like chickens and geese and giving everybody something to laugh at. Anyway, when you get tired of it over there, you can come back here, and you’ve got your Number Four and your Number Five to wait on you. Useless maids like the rest of us only drag our good names through the mud, according to you!”

Baoyu laughed. “You still remember that today?”

“I’ll still remember it a hundred years from now!” said Xiren. “I’m not like you. Everything I say goes in one ear and out the other. I tell you something at night, and by morning you’ve forgotten it.”

Baoyu looked at her pretty, angry face and couldn’t help himself. He picked up a jade hairpin from beside the pillow and dashed it down, and it broke in two. “If I ever don’t listen to you again, let me end up like this hairpin!”

Xiren hurried to pick up the pieces. “First thing in the morning, and you do this? What for? Whether you listen to me or not is up to you. It isn’t worth all this.”

“How could you know how upset I’ve been?” said Baoyu.

Xiren laughed. “So you know what it’s like to be upset? Then do you know how I’ve been feeling? Go wash your face.”

And with that, the two of them finally got up to wash and do their hair.

The Chinese Text

頭剛著枕便忽然睡去，一夜竟不知所之，直至天明方醒。翻身看時，只見襲人和衣睡在衾上。寶玉將昨日的事已付之度外，便推他說道：「起來好生睡，看凍著。」

原來襲人見他無明無夜和姐妹們鬼混，若真勸他，料不能改，故用柔情以警之，料他不過半日片刻，仍舊好了；不想寶玉竟不迴轉，自己反不得主意，直一夜沒好生睡。今忽見寶玉如此，料是他心意回轉，便索性不理他。寶玉見他不應，便伸手替他解衣，剛解開了鈕子，被襲人將手推開，又自扣了。寶玉無法，只得拉他的手，笑道：「你到底怎麼了？」連問幾聲。襲人睜眼說道：「我也不怎麼著。你睡醒了，快過那邊梳洗去。再遲了，就趕不上了。」寶玉道：「我過那裡去？」襲人冷笑道：「你問我，我知道嗎？你愛過那裡去，就過那裡去。從今咱們兩個人撂開手，省的雞爭鵝鬥，叫別人笑話。橫豎那邊膩了過來，這邊又有什麼四兒、五兒伏侍你。我們這起東西，可是『白玷辱了好名好姓的』！」寶玉笑道：「你今兒還記著呢？」襲人道：「一百年還記著呢！比不得你，拿著我的話當耳旁風，夜裡說了，早起就忘了。」

寶玉見他嬌嗔滿面，情不可禁，便向枕邊拿起一根玉簪來，一跌兩段，說道：「我再不聽你說，就和這簪子一樣！」襲人忙的拾了簪子，說道：「大早起，這是何苦來？聽不聽在你，也不值的這麼著呀。」寶玉道：「你那裡知道我心裡的急呢？」襲人笑道：「你也知道著急麼？你可知道我心裡是怎麼著？快洗臉去罷。」說著，二人方起來梳洗。

Reading Notes

一夜竟不知所之 (yí yè jìng bù zhī suǒ zhī). Literally, “all night he didn’t know where he had gone.” We’d say he was dead to the world. 竟 is “of all things,” and it’s there for a reason. Last night Baoyu sat up writing about how to stop caring about every girl in his life. Then he went to bed and slept like a baby. (See Two Cups of Wine and Zhuangzi.)

和衣 (héyī), “with her clothes on.” 和 here means “together with,” so she slept together with her clothes. She lay on top of the quilt (衾, qīn) and never got under it. In other words, she never really went to bed. That’s why Baoyu tells her she’ll catch cold.

付之度外 (fù zhī dù wài). “To put something outside your reckoning,” which is to say, to stop thinking about it. Baoyu has forgotten all about yesterday. Xiren hasn’t. Keep that in mind for the rest of the scene.

原來 (yuánlái). Literally “originally,” but in a story it means “here’s what had been going on.” The narrator stops and backs up to tell us what Xiren was thinking all night. English doesn’t need a word for that, so I just started the paragraph with her.

無明無夜 (wú míng wú yè), “day and night.” Literally “no light, no night.” 明 here is daylight, the opposite of 夜. The everyday ways to say this are 沒日沒夜 and 不分晝夜. If you know some Buddhist vocabulary, 無明 might jump out at you as “ignorance.” It’s a coincidence. Here it’s just half of “no day, no night.”

鬼混 (guǐhùn), “to fool around.” 鬼 is a ghost, and 混 is to mix or muddle along. It means hanging around with someone and doing nothing useful. This is how Xiren sees Baoyu’s days with the girls. He’d describe them very differently.

柔情以警之 (róuqíng yǐ jǐng zhī). This is the hardest phrase in the passage. 柔情 is tender feeling, and 警之 is “to warn him.” So literally, she “used tender feelings to warn him.” But think back to the last two posts. She wasn’t tender at all. She sulked, went to bed angry, and gave him the silent treatment. I think the idea is that she used his feelings for her as the lever. She was counting on him caring enough to come back. That’s why I translated it as “she tried to reach him through his feelings for her.”

迴轉 / 回轉 (huízhuǎn), “to turn back,” “to come around.” The same word shows up twice, a few lines apart. First Baoyu doesn’t come around (不迴轉), and Xiren doesn’t know what to do. Then he wakes her up, and she decides he has (心意回轉). She spends this whole scene trying to read him, and she keeps guessing.

索性 (suǒxìng), “might as well go all the way.” This is her next move. Now that she thinks he’s softening, she ignores him completely. She has the upper hand, and she’s going to use it.

我也不怎麼著 (wǒ yě bù zěnme zhe), “Nothing’s the matter with me.” Every language has this line. When someone says “Nothing’s wrong” in that tone of voice, something is very wrong.

那邊 (nàbiān), “over there.” Xiren never says where, and she doesn’t have to. Baoyu has been spending his days with the girls, and “over there” is wherever they are. He knows exactly what she means. When he asks 我過那裡去, “Over where?”, he’s playing dumb.

撂開手 (liào kāi shǒu), “to let go.” Literally, to drop your hands, the way you’d let go of someone’s hand. And look at what Baoyu is doing at that moment. He’s holding her hand. “From now on, the two of us are done with each other” is a breakup line, and she wants it to sound like one.

雞爭鵝鬥 (jī zhēng é dòu), literally “chickens squabble and geese fight.” Picture a noisy barnyard. It means petty, noisy bickering. 雞 matches 鵝 and 爭 matches 鬥, which is how a lot of four-character idioms are built. But listen to what Xiren is really worried about. It’s not the fighting. It’s 叫別人笑話, “giving everybody something to laugh at.” In a house full of servants, everybody knows everybody’s business. (See Who Really Runs The House?.)

四兒、五兒 (Sì’ér, Wǔ’ér), “Number Four, Number Five.” Number Four is Si’er, the little maid Baoyu renamed two posts ago. We haven’t met a Number Five. The 什麼 in front makes it dismissive, something like “your Number Four or Number Five or whoever.” Xiren’s point is that there will always be another girl to wait on him.

我們這起東西 (wǒmen zhè qǐ dōngxi). 這起 means “this bunch,” and 東西 means “things.” So she’s calling herself and the other maids “things.” Then she throws Baoyu’s own words back at him: 白玷辱了好名好姓的. When he renamed Si’er, he said none of the maids was good enough for a flower’s name, and they’d only drag good names through the mud. 白 adds “for nothing.” He said it about one little maid. Xiren was in the next room, smiled, and remembered every word. (See The Silent Treatment.)

耳旁風 (ěrpángfēng), “wind past the ear.” It’s something you hear and then ignore. English says “in one ear and out the other.” Today you’ll more often hear 耳邊風, which means the same thing.

嬌嗔 (jiāochēn). 嗔 is anger, and 嬌 is pretty, delicate, a little spoiled. Put them together and you get the kind of pouting anger that makes someone more attractive, not less. That’s what Baoyu sees in her face, and it’s why 情不可禁, he “couldn’t help himself.”

玉簪 / 一跌兩段 (yùzān / yì diē liǎng duàn). A 簪 is a long pin that holds the hair in place, and this one is jade. 跌 is to drop or throw down, and 兩段 is “two pieces.” He doesn’t snap it in his fingers. He throws it down hard enough to break it. Then comes the oath: if he ever doesn’t listen to her again, let him end up like that hairpin.

何苦來 (hékǔ lái), “What for?” Literally, “why bring this bitterness on yourself?” And the first thing Xiren does is pick up the pieces. She’s the practical one, even in the middle of a fight.

急 / 著急 (jí / zháojí), “upset.” 急 is anxious, even frantic. Baoyu says she can’t know how upset he’s been. She turns the word right back on him: 你也知道著急麼, “So you know what it’s like to be upset?”

If you read romance novels, you’ve seen this scene before. There’s the cold shoulder, the grand gesture, and the “You think you were upset?” Then they get out of bed and wash their faces like nothing happened.

梳洗 (shūxǐ). 梳 is to comb, and 洗 is to wash. It’s the morning routine: wash your face, do your hair.

他 (tā) for Xiren. If you’re learning Chinese, you’ve probably noticed 他 all through this passage, even when it means Xiren. In the 1700s, 他 could mean “he” or “she.” The 她 you learned in school didn’t come into use until the late 1910s.

The Other Translations

Hawkes

David Hawkes really goes nuts with the British phrasing in this one. For example:

To alert him to the error of his ways she had instead adopted a more passive approach. She had confidently expected this new method to produce a speedy repentance, followed by a swift return to normal relations; so that when, contrary to her expectation, a whole day went by without his having manifested the looked-for change of heart, she was left with no further resources, and as a consequence had been too worried to sleep properly for the greater part of the night.

Even though the Chinese original has no punctuation, the sentences are still clearly sentences. None of them has a run-on sentence even close to the second sentence I quoted above.

Yang

It’s amazing to see just how different the Yang translation is of that passage I quoted above:

...she had decided to teach him a lesson by disclosing her own feelings, expecting that he would soon get over it. When he sulked for a whole day it was her turn to be at a loss, and she passed a sleepless night.

Hawkes is almost certainly guilty of being too loquacious. The Yangs, meanwhile, are certainly guilty of being too eager to summarize and skip over certain details. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

Next in the story: On Monday, Chapter 21 gets a poem.

Go deeper: Tomorrow's podcast is about what Hawkes and the Yangs each chose to do with this novel, and why no translation is neutral.

Meet them: Hua Xiren / Jia Baoyu / All the characters

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Now that Jia Baoyu has managed to make his maids mad at him, everything is silent. But Baoyu decides that he doesn’t care.

He’s had two cups of wine, he’s got a candle and a pot of tea, and he’s reading one of the strangest books in Chinese philosophy, the one that says the world would be better off if we smashed every ruler, scale and musical instrument in it. Then he picks up his brush and writes a continuation. Watch who ends up in it.

Previously: Xiren gave Baoyu the silent treatment, and he took it out on a new little maid by renaming her “Number Four.” (See The Silent Treatment.)

Who’s here: Jia Baoyu · Si’er (All the characters) · and, in a way, Hua Xiren, Sheyue, Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu

The Note. Baoyu skillfully alludes to the girls who frustrated him so much in his writing. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to adequately reflect this in an English translation. See more below.

The Translation

Baoyu had had two cups of wine after dinner. That made him feel tipsy, with warm ears and eyes that felt heavy. Normally Xiren and the others would have been there with him, and everybody would have been laughing and having a great time. Tonight it was cold and quiet. He sat alone facing the lamp, and felt despondent.

He felt like sending them all away, but he was afraid they would think they had won if he dismissed them, and then they would come back to lecture him even more. On the other hand, it felt too heartless for him to act like a harsh master to scare them into line. It seemed pointless.

Baoyu hardened his heart and decided to act as if they were dead. He had to go on living his own life anyway. Once he had thought it through like this, he didn’t have a care in the world, and he actually began to feel quite content.

So he told Si’er to trim the candle wick and make some tea. He sat down and read the Classic of Nanhua for a while. When he came to the passage called “Prying Open Trunks,” in the Outer Chapters, it read:

Therefore cut off the sages and throw away wisdom, and the great robbers will stop. Fling away the jade and smash the pearls, and the petty thieves will not rise up. Burn the tallies and break the seals, and the people will be simple and plain. Split the measures and snap the scales, and the people will not quarrel. Tear down every last one of the sages’ laws under heaven, and only then can the people be reasoned with. Scramble the six pitch-pipes, melt down the reed organs and zithers, stop up the ears of Music Master Kuang, and only then will everyone in the world keep their hearing to themselves. Wipe out the patterns, scatter the five colors, glue shut the eyes of Li Zhu, and only then will everyone in the world keep their sight to themselves. Destroy the hook and the ink-line, throw away the compass and the square, break the fingers of Chui the Craftsman, and only then will everyone in the world keep their skill to themselves.

When he had read this far, he was delighted with it. Riding the mood the wine had put him in, he couldn’t help picking up his brush and continuing it:

Burn the flower and scatter the musk, and only then will everyone in the women’s quarters keep their lecturing to themselves. Destroy the fairy-like beauty of Baochai, burn the quick mind of Daiyu to ash, wipe out all tender feeling, and only then will beauty and ugliness in the women’s quarters be alike. If they keep their lecturing to themselves, there will be no fear of drifting apart like two stars that never meet. Destroy that fairy-like beauty, and there will be no more longing hearts. Burn that quick mind to ash, and there will be no more passion for talent and wit. The hairpin, the jade, the flower and the musk: every one of them spreads a net and digs a deep pit, and that is how they bewilder, entangle and trap everyone in the world.

When he had finished, he tossed the brush aside and went to bed.

He says he doesn’t care, but the night is long, and morning is coming. How long can Baoyu keep pretending the girls don’t exist? Members read every passage, plus the weekly podcast, for $5 a month.

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The Chinese Text

至晚飯後，寶玉因吃了兩杯酒，眼餳耳熱之餘，若往日則有襲人等大家嘻笑有興；今日卻冷清清的，一人對燈，好沒興趣。待要趕了他們去，又怕他們得了意，已後越來勸了；若拿出作上人的光景鎮唬他們，似乎又太無情了。說不得橫著心，只當他們死了，橫豎自家也要過的。如此一想，卻倒毫無牽掛，反能怡然自悅。因命四兒剪燭烹茶，自己看了一回《南華經》。至外篇《胠篋》一則，其文曰：

故絕聖棄智，大盜乃止；擿玉毀珠，小盜不起。焚符破璽，而民朴鄙；剖斗折衡，而民不爭；殫殘天下之聖法，而民始可與論議。擢亂六律，鑠絕竽瑟，塞瞽曠之耳，而天下始人含其聰矣；滅文章，散五彩，膠離朱之目，而天下始人含其明矣；毀絕鉤繩，而棄規矩，儷工垂之指，而天下始人含其巧矣。

看至此，意趣洋洋，趁著酒興，不禁提筆續曰：

焚花散麝，而閨閣始人含其勸矣；戕寶釵之仙姿，灰黛玉之靈竅，喪滅情意，而閨閣之美惡始相類矣。彼含其勸，則無參商之虞矣；戕其仙姿，無戀愛之心矣；灰其靈竅，無才思之情矣。彼釵、玉、花、麝者，皆張其羅而邃其穴，所以迷惑纏陷天下者也。

續畢，擲筆就寢。

Reading Notes

眼餳耳熱 (yǎn xíng ěr rè) means “eyes heavy, ears warm.” 餳 is malt sugar, and here it’s used as a verb. His eyes have gone soft and sticky, the way they do after a drink or two. This isn’t falling-down drunk. It’s that warm, slightly dazed stage where everything seems like a good idea. Keep that in mind for the rest of the passage.

得了意 / 越來勸了 (dé le yì / yuè lái quàn le). 得意 is to feel like you’ve won, to be smug about it. Baoyu’s worry is that if he sends the girls away, they’ll think they’ve beaten him, and then they’ll lecture him even more. 勸 (quàn) is the same word Baoyu used when he complained that Xiren didn’t even lecture him, 你勸也罷了, in the last post. (See The Silent Treatment.) I’ve translated it as “lecture” both times, and you’ll see it again in a minute.

作上人的光景 / 鎮唬 (zuò shàngrén de guāngjǐng / zhènhu). 上人 is “the person above,” the master. 光景 here is an air or a manner. 鎮唬 is to scare someone into line: 鎮 is to press down, and 唬 is to frighten. So his second option is to play the stern master and frighten them. He rejects that too. It would be 太無情, “too heartless.” Whatever else you say about Baoyu, he can’t bring himself to bully the maids.

Of course, you’ll notice that our famous word 情 has turned up here yet again. Baoyu simply cannot act in a way that does not encompass 情, and so he decides not to vent his anger on the girls.

說不得橫著心，只當他們死了 (shuōbude héngzhe xīn, zhǐ dàng tāmen sǐ le). 說不得 is “there’s nothing more to say,” or “it can’t be helped.” 橫著心 is to harden your heart. 只當他們死了 is “just act as if they were dead.” Don’t take that one too literally. It’s the kind of thing a sulking teenager says. He doesn’t wish them dead. He’s decided to pretend they don’t exist.

毫無牽掛 / 怡然自悅 (háo wú qiānguà / yírán zì yuè). 牽掛 is literally “being tugged at” or “hung up on” someone, worrying about them. 毫無 is “not the slightest.” 怡然自悅 is to be content and pleased with yourself. And notice the little word 反 (fǎn), “on the contrary.” The moment he decides not to care, he feels great. Or at least he tells himself he does.

四兒 / 剪燭烹茶 (Sì’ér / jiǎn zhú pēng chá). This is Si’er, “Number Four,” the little maid Baoyu renamed in the last post. She’s the only one waiting on him tonight. 剪燭 is to trim the candle’s wick, and 烹茶 is to brew tea. A trimmed candle, a pot of tea and a book make for a cozy scholar’s evening. He’s setting the scene for himself.

《南華經》 (Nánhuá jīng), the Classic of Nanhua. This is the book we usually call the Zhuangzi, after the philosopher Zhuang Zhou. In the Tang dynasty, the emperor gave Zhuangzi the honorary title “the True Man of Nanhua,” and the book became the True Classic of Nanhua. The novel uses the fancy title. It’s a little like calling the Bible “the Holy Scriptures.” Same book, higher register.

外篇 / 胠篋 (wàipiān / qūqiè). The Zhuangzi is divided into the Inner Chapters, the Outer Chapters and the Miscellaneous Chapters. Most scholars think the Inner Chapters are the oldest and the closest to Zhuangzi himself. This passage is from the Outer Chapters. 胠 is to open something from the side, and 篋 is a trunk or chest, so the chapter title is “Prying Open Trunks.” The chapter starts with a simple picture. People tie up their trunks and lock them to keep petty thieves out. Then a big thief comes along, picks up the whole trunk and carries it off, and he’s only worried that the ropes and locks aren’t strong enough. In other words, the things we invent to protect ourselves end up helping the biggest thieves.

絕聖棄智，大盜乃止 (jué shèng qì zhì, dàdào nǎi zhǐ), “cut off the sages and throw away wisdom, and the great robbers will stop.” This is where Baoyu starts reading. It sounds crazy, but it follows from the trunk. If the sages’ laws and clever inventions are the ropes and locks, then the great robbers can steal those too, and use them to run a whole country. Get rid of them, and there’s nothing left to steal.

擿玉毀珠 (zhì yù huǐ zhū), “fling away the jade and smash the pearls.” 擿 here is read zhì, and it means to throw away. Jade is 玉 (yù), the same 玉 as in Baoyu’s own name, 寶玉, “precious jade.” This is also the same character that we see in Lin Daiyu’s name (林黛玉). Perhaps Zhuangzi served as an inspiration for what Baoyu winds up writing next?

符 / 璽 / 斗 / 衡 (fú / xǐ / dǒu / héng). These are the tools of trust and fair dealing. A 符 is a tally, a token split in two so that the two halves can be matched to prove who you are. A 璽 is a seal. A 斗 is a measure for grain, and a 衡 is a scale, the kind with a weight that slides along a beam. Zhuangzi’s point is that you only need these things because people cheat. Break them, and people will stop fighting over them.

朴 (pǔ). 朴 (also written 樸) is uncarved wood, the raw block before anybody has shaped it. It’s one of the big images of Daoism, a picture of people before civilization got to them. I translated 朴鄙 as “simple and plain.” 鄙 usually means “vulgar” or “crude,” but here it isn’t an insult.

六律 / 竽瑟 / 瞽曠 (liù lǜ / yú sè / Gǔ Kuàng). Now Zhuangzi goes after the senses. The 六律 are six pitch-pipes that set the notes of ancient Chinese music. The 竽 is a reed mouth organ, and the 瑟 is a large zither. 瞽曠 is Music Master Kuang (師曠), a famous court musician of the state of Jin who was said to have the best ear in history. 瞽 means blind. Court musicians in ancient China were traditionally blind, and Kuang was too.

文章 / 五彩 / 離朱 (wénzhāng / wǔcǎi / Lí Zhū). Today 文章 means an essay or an article, but here it has its old meaning, colored patterns, like the designs on embroidered silk. That’s why I translated it as “patterns.” 五彩 is the five colors. Li Zhu (also called Li Lou) was a legendary man with perfect eyesight. Mencius mentions him too.

鉤繩 / 規矩 / 工倕 (gōushéng / guījǔ / Gōng Chuí). A carpenter’s tools: the hook for drawing curves, the ink-line for snapping straight lines, the compass for circles and the square for right angles. Chui was a legendary master craftsman. Here’s a fun one for Chinese learners. 規矩 still means “rules” or “good manners” in modern Chinese. If someone says you have no 規矩, they mean you don’t know how to behave. It comes straight from the compass and the square.

始人含其聰 / 明 / 巧 (shǐ rén hán qí cōng / míng / qiǎo). This is the frame that Baoyu is about to borrow. 含 is literally to hold something in your mouth, and here it means to keep something inside yourself. 聰 is sharpness of hearing, 明 is sharpness of sight, and 巧 is skill. Zhuangzi’s idea is that once the great musician, the great seer and the great craftsman are gone, everybody gets to keep their own hearing, sight and skill, instead of measuring themselves against the expert. 始 is “only then.” I translated all of these as “keep their hearing to themselves,” and so on. That bends Zhuangzi’s meaning a little toward “keep it private,” but it lets you see the joke Baoyu makes out of it.

續 (xù), “to continue.” The novel says Baoyu 續, “continued,” the passage. It doesn’t call it a parody or a joke. But Jia Baoyu keeps Zhuangzi’s grammar, his rhythm and his favorite verbs, and he swaps in the names of the girls that are frustrating him so much. This is actually one of those things that is hard to see in an English translation, though David Hawkes certainly made a valiant effort to connect the two passages. Anyway, to me this reads like a parody. Whether he means any of it is another question, and I’ll have a few things to say about that tomorrow.

焚花散麝 (fén huā sàn shè), “burn the flower and scatter the musk.” Here’s the one to remember from this passage. 花 (huā) is a flower. It’s also Xiren’s surname, Hua. 麝 (shè) is musk. It’s also the first character of Sheyue’s name, 麝月, “Musk Moon.” So “burn the flower and scatter the musk” sounds like getting rid of the perfume in the women’s quarters, but it’s really Xiren and Sheyue, the two maids who wouldn’t speak to him. And notice the verb. 焚 (fén), “burn,” comes straight from Zhuangzi’s 焚符破璽, “burn the tallies and break the seals.” English can’t hide two names inside two ordinary words, so I kept the flower and the musk in the translation and I’m explaining the names here.

閨閣 (guīgé), “the women’s quarters.” The inner rooms where the women and girls of the household live. Where Zhuangzi says “everyone in the world,” Baoyu says “everyone in the women’s quarters.” His whole world has shrunk to a few rooms full of girls, which, for Baoyu, is about right.

含其勸 (hán qí quàn), “keep their lecturing to themselves.” And here’s the punch line. Zhuangzi says that only then will everyone keep their hearing, their sight and their skill. Baoyu says that only then will everyone keep their 勸, their lecturing. It’s the same word from the last post. After a day of being lectured and then ignored, this is the line he’s been waiting to write.

戕寶釵之仙姿，灰黛玉之靈竅 (qiāng Bǎochāi zhī xiānzī, huī Dàiyù zhī língqiào). Now he names names. 戕 is to destroy or injure. 仙姿 is a fairy-like, almost otherworldly beauty, and that’s Baochai. 灰 is ash, used here as a verb, “burn to ash.” 靈竅 is the quick, sharp mind, literally the “spiritual openings” of the heart. Do you remember how Daiyu was introduced in Chapter 3? Her heart had “one more opening than Bi Gan’s,” Bi Gan being the ancient minister famous for his wisdom. This is the same idea. So Baoyu matches each girl with what makes her dangerous to him: Baochai’s beauty and Daiyu’s brilliance. They’re his Music Master Kuang and his Li Zhu.

美惡始相類 (měi è shǐ xiāng lèi), “only then will beauty and ugliness be alike.” In Zhuangzi, break the scales and the people stop quarreling. In Baoyu’s version, destroy the most beautiful and the cleverest girls, and nobody will stand out anymore.

參商 (Shēn Shāng), “two stars that never meet.” 參 is a constellation that we know as part of Orion, and 商 is Antares, in Scorpius. They sit on opposite sides of the sky, so one sets as the other rises, and you never see them together. An old legend says they were two brothers who fought so much that they were put at opposite ends of the sky. The poet Du Fu used them for friends who can never meet: 人生不相見，動如參與商. Baoyu’s point is that if the girls stopped lecturing, there’d be no more fights, and no more danger of being driven apart.

戀愛之心 / 才思之情 (liàn’ài zhī xīn / cáisī zhī qíng). Careful with 戀愛. Today it means romantic love, dating, being in a relationship. Here it’s older and broader, referring simply to longing or attachment. So “no more longing hearts.” 才思 is literary talent and quickness of mind. 才思之情 is the feeling that talent stirs up, the attraction to someone who’s brilliant. Think about who’s brilliant in this house.

釵、玉、花、麝 (chāi, yù, huā, shè), “the hairpin, the jade, the flower and the musk.” Four ordinary things you’d find in a girl’s room. And four girls. 釵 is the hairpin in Baochai’s name, 玉 is the jade in Daiyu’s name, 花 is Xiren and 麝 is Sheyue. Hawkes and the Yangs both handle this line differently, which you’ll see below.

張其羅而邃其穴 (zhāng qí luó ér suì qí xué), “spreads a net and digs a deep pit.” 羅 is a bird net, and 穴 is a pit or a hole. 邃 normally means “deep,” and here it’s a verb, to make deep. These are a hunter’s traps. Zhuangzi’s thieves have turned into girls, and the girls have turned into hunters. And who’s the prey? Everyone in the world, which means Baoyu.

擲筆就寢 (zhì bǐ jiù qǐn), “tossed the brush aside and went to bed.” 擲 is to throw, the same as the 擿 in “fling away the jade.” He’s just written a manifesto about destroying the four girls he cares about most, and then he throws down his brush and goes to sleep. So much for the revolution.

The Other Translations

Hawkes

The biggest question in these other major English translations has to do with how the translators handle the references to the various girls. David Hawkes simply translates the various nouns as the names of characters:

These Bao-chais, Dai-yus, Aromas and Musks spread their nets and dig their pits, and all the world are bewitched and ensnared by them.

Hawkes mentions that Jia Baoyu is reading Zhuangzi, but doesn’t offer any additional commentary on the passage.

Yang

Oddly, the Yangs take away the references to ancient sages (Music Master Kuang, Li Zhu, and Chui the Craftsman) in their translation of the Zhuangzi passage.

The Yangs note within their translation of Baoyu’s text who he is referring to:

Burn the flower (Hsi-jen), get rid of the musk (Sheh-yueh), and those in the inner apartments will keep their advice to themselves.

However, there are no footnotes that explain why this passage of Zhuangzi is important for this part of the story, nor is there any attempt to discern whether this is a funny moment or something that reveals Jia Baoyu’s actual feelings.

Is Baoyu joking, or does part of him mean it? Tell me in the comments.

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Next in the story: We’ll see what happens to Baoyu when he wakes up in the next post.

Go deeper: Tomorrow I take a closer look at what Baoyu did to Zhuangzi, line by line.

Meet them: Jia Baoyu / Lin Daiyu / Xue Baochai / Hua Xiren / All the characters

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Jia Baoyu walks back into his room expecting a warm welcome. Instead, his maid Hua Xiren lies down on the couch, shuts her eyes and won’t say a word to him. He has no idea what he did.

Let’s figure out what happened, and why she’s acting this way.

Previously: Baoyu was hanging out in the girls’ bedroom before the crack of dawn. He washed himself in Xiangyun’s leftover water and begged her to braid his hair. Xiren walked in to find someone else had already taken care of him. (See The Missing Pearl.)

Who’s here: Jia Baoyu · Xue Baochai · Hua Xiren · Sheyue and Si’er (All the characters)

The Note. When Baochai sits down for a chat at the start of the scene, the novel uses one word for what she's doing, and it isn't "chatting." More below.

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Xue Baochai spends her whole visit quietly interviewing Xiren. Is that clever, or a little nosy? Tell me in the comments.

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The Translation

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The morning after a sleepover, who’s the first person through the bedroom door? In this house, it’s the boy.

Previously: Shi Xiangyun called Baoyu “Love Brother” right in front of Lin Daiyu, roasted her right back, and ran for it. (See Love Brother, free.)

Today Daiyu chases her, Baoyu blocks the door, and by dawn he’s back in the girls’ room, washing his face in their leftover water and begging for a braid. Watch the pearls in his hair, because somebody is counting them. And watch who walks in last.

Who’s here

Jia Baoyu · Lin Daiyu · Shi Xiangyun · Xue Baochai · Hua Xiren · and two maids, Zijuan and Cuilü (All the characters)

Two Translators Disagree. When Baoyu finds Xiangyun asleep with one arm out of the covers, Hawkes has him call her "a tomboy, even in her sleep." The Yangs have him say she "fidgets even in her sleep." Mine, and why, is below.

Hawkes says Xiangyun is “a tomboy, even in her sleep.” The Yangs say she “fidgets even in her sleep.” Which one would you pick? Tell me in the comments.

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The Translation

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Previously: Baoyu and Daiyu had their first real fight, which ended with both of them saying the same thing: “It’s my own heart I care about.” (See The Big Fight.)

Then a third girl walks in, calls Baoyu by the wrong name, and turns the scene completely around. In about five lines the lovers’ quarrel turns into a three-way roast. Watch who gets burned worst, and notice who isn’t even in the room.

Who’s here

Lin Daiyu · Jia Baoyu · Shi Xiangyun · and, without setting foot in the room, Xue Baochai

Two Translators Disagree

Hawkes has Xiangyun say “Couthin,” and the Yangs have her say “Ai brother,” with a footnote. Neither one lets an English reader hear the joke. Mine, and why, is below.

The Translation

When she heard Jia Baoyu’s expression of love, Lin Daiyu lowered her head silently. After a long while, she finally spoke.

“All you ever do is complain that people are always getting angry at you,” she said. “You have no idea how miserable you make people! Just look at the weather today. It’s obviously colder. So why on earth did you take off your fur cape?”

“Who says I wasn’t wearing it?” laughed Baoyu. “When I saw you get upset, I was so frustrated that I became hot, and so I took it off.”

Daiyu sighed. “And then you’ll catch a cold. They’ll make you go without food, and you’ll be whining for something to eat again.”

The two of them were still talking when Xiangyun came in laughing. “Love Brother! Sister Lin!” she said. “You two get to play together every single day. I finally manage to come over, and you won’t pay any attention to me at all!”

“Of all people, it’s the one with the lisp who loves to talk the most,” laughed Daiyu. “She can’t even say ‘Second Brother.’ It’s just ‘Love Brother’ this and ‘Love Brother’ that. When we play our dice game later on, you’ll be yelling ‘One, love, three’ when you roll the dice!”

“You know, if you keep imitating her lisp,” laughed Baoyu, “you’ll be speaking with a lisp, too.”

“She never gives anybody an inch,” complained Xiangyun. “All she knows how to do is pick on people.” She turned to Daiyu. “Even if you really are better than everybody else in the world, there’s no reason to make fun of every single person you meet. I’ll name one person. If you dare to pick on her, I’ll give you credit.”

Daiyu asked who it was.

“If you dare to find fault with Sister Bao,” said Xiangyun, “then I’ll admit you’re really something.”

Daiyu gave a cold laugh when she heard this. “I wondered who you meant. So it’s her! And how could I ever dare to find fault with her?”

Baoyu jumped in before she could finish and quickly changed the subject.

“Of course I’ll never be your match as long as I live,” laughed Xiangyun. “All I can do is pray that someday you marry a man with a lisp, Sister Lin. Then you’ll get to listen to him go ‘love-ah-eh’ every minute of every day! Dear Buddha! I hope I live to see it!”

This made Baoyu laugh, and Xiangyun quickly turned around and ran off.

If you want to know the whole story, read the next chapter.

We offer two free passages every two weeks. This was one of them. In the next one, Daiyu runs after Shi Xiangyun, but Baoyu plants himself right in the doorway. The next thing you know, he’s back in the girls’ room even before they’re out of bed. The best way to enjoy this blog is to become a paying subscriber. That gets you every single passage, as well as the weekly podcast, and all of this for only $5 a month!

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The Chinese Text

黛玉聽了，低頭不語，半日，說道：「你只怨人行動嗔怪你，你再不知道你嘔的人難受！就拿了今日天氣比，分明冷些，怎麼你倒脫了青肷披風呢？」寶玉笑道：「何嘗沒穿？見你一惱，我一暴躁，就脫了。」黛玉嘆道：「回來傷了風，又該餓著吵吃的了。」

二人正說著，只見湘雲走來笑道：「愛哥哥，林姐姐，你們天天一處頑，我好容易來了也不理我一理兒！」黛玉笑道：「偏是咬舌子愛說話，連個『二哥哥』也叫不上來，只是『愛哥哥』『愛哥哥』的。回來趕圍棋兒，又該你鬧『幺愛三』了。」寶玉笑道：「你學慣了，明兒連你還咬起來呢。」湘雲道：「他再不放人一點兒，專會挑人。就算你比世人好，也不犯見一個打趣一個。我指出個人來，你敢挑他，我就服你。」黛玉便問是誰。湘雲道：「你敢挑寶姐姐的短處，就算你是個好的。」黛玉聽了，冷笑道：「我當是誰，原來是他！我可那裡敢挑他呢？」

寶玉不等說完，忙用話分開。湘雲笑道：「這一輩子，我自然比不上你。我只保佑著明兒得一個咬舌兒林姐夫，時時刻刻，你可聽『愛呀厄』的去！阿彌陀佛！那時才現在我眼裡呢。」說的寶玉一笑，湘雲忙回身跑了。

要知端詳，且聽下回分解。

Reading Notes

Get ready, guys, because we’ve got a lot to go through today.

行動 (xíngdòng). Normally this means “action.” However, here it has its older meaning of “often” or “frequently.” It’s similar to the modern Chinese word 動不動, which means “often” or “frequently.”

嗔怪 (chēnguài) means to blame or rebuke. In other words, when Lin Daiyu says 你只怨人行動嗔怪你, she means “All you do is complain that people are always getting angry at you.” Daiyu is throwing Baoyu’s own complaint from the quarrel back at him.

嘔 (ǒu) means “to vomit” in modern Chinese. However, it means something different here. It means “to provoke” or “to make someone furious,” and exists in modern Chinese as the verb 嘔氣. And so 你嘔的人難受 is “you make people so upset they can’t stand it.”

青肷披風 is a cape (披風) lined with 青肷 (qīngqiǎn). 肷 is the soft fur you find on the belly of an animal, and 青 means a dark, blue-black or gray color. Chinese dictionaries disagree about which animal: some say the fur came from a fox, others say it was from a gray squirrel. That doesn’t really matter; all we care about is that it was a warm and expensive lining made of some kind of fur. By the way, this is another of the novel’s clothing details. Remember that Xiren noticed Baoyu’s new clothes when he showed up at her house in Chapter 19. (See Xiren’s House.)

Don’t be surprised if you notice that the way the characters talk to each other seems a lot different from the narration of the book itself. Cao Xueqin was an expert at writing authentic dialogue. If you’re familiar with colloquial Chinese, you’ll feel like you can hear the words of these two being spoken right from the page.

暴躁 (bàozào) usually means irritable or worked up, but Baoyu is playing a rhetorical game here. He’s saying that he got so heated over Daiyu’s mood that he just had to take his cape off. It’s half an excuse and half a confession. Notice that Daiyu doesn’t argue about this point. All she does is worry about him.

回來 (huílai) here is actually from the Beijing dialect. It doesn’t mean “come back;” rather, it means “in a little while” or “later on.” Like I said, the colloquial nature of the spoken Chinese here is quite remarkable.

餓著吵吃的 is a pretty difficult phrase to understand. It literally means “go hungry, and then complain that you want to eat.” Back in those days it was common for people to recommend curing a cold by starving until it went away. We have the reverse traditional concept in English: think of the old phrase “feed a cold, starve a fever.” As she teases Baoyu, Daiyu is predicting exactly what will happen: he’ll catch cold, they’ll stop feeding him, and then he’ll make a fuss for something to eat.

When Shi Xiangyun enters, things get hard to translate. Buckle your seat belt, because this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Shi Xiangyun refers to Jia Baoyu as 愛哥哥, not 二哥哥. This joke is basically the point of this entire scene. As you recall, Baoyu is the second son of Jia Zheng and Lady Wang (his older brother, Jia Zhu, died young; we read about this way back in Chapter 2, so it’s okay if you’ve forgotten). The girls call him 二哥哥 (èr gēge), or “Second Older Brother,” because he is the second son in the family. Now, Shi Xiangyun has a lisp. When she speaks, 二 (èr) sounds like 愛 (ài), which means “love.” So Baoyu becomes 愛哥哥, “Love Brother.”

But why would 二 turn into 愛? In the Beijing dialect, 二 is said with the tongue curled back, something closer to “arrr.” If you’ve ever been to northern China, you know that Chinese people there sound kind of like pirates to the untrained ear. Now, if you take away that curled tongue, you’re left with something very close to ài. (In Bopomofo, ㄦˋ becomes ㄞˋ; we’ll learn more about this in Monday’s video.)

Of course, the word that comes out is the worst one possible, especially given the scene. Xiangyun walks into the room right after Baoyu and Daiyu’s fight, the one where they’re talking about what they really feel in their hearts. And the first thing that Xiangyun does is call Jia Baoyu “Love Brother!”

I’ve translated 愛哥哥 as “Love Brother,” which keeps the meaning but loses the sound. There’s no English mispronunciation of “Second” that turns into “Love.” We’ll talk more about this choice, as well as how other translators have tried to save this joke, in our podcast tomorrow.

林姐姐, “Sister Lin.” Xiangyun calls Daiyu 姐姐, “older sister,” which indicates that she is younger than Daiyu. They’re cousins, not sisters; see the note on 姐姐 and 妹妹 in Chapter 18. (See Green Jade and Green Wax.)

偏是咬舌子愛說話. 咬舌子 (yǎoshézi), literally “tongue-biter,” is the everyday word for someone with a lisp. Notice that Daiyu’s insult has its own 愛 in it: the lisper “loves” (愛) to talk. Knowing Daiyu, she probably chose that word on purpose as a joke.

By the way, this also explains the second half of the chapter title, 林黛玉俏語謔嬌音, which means “Lin Daiyu Speaks with Wit and Teases a Feminine Voice.” The “feminine voice” refers to Xiangyun’s lisp, and this scene is that title.

趕圍棋兒 is the dice-and-Go-pieces board game the maids were playing back in Chapter 19. (See The Loud Plays.)

幺愛三. We just saw 幺 (yāo) a few posts ago, when Ying’er clapped her hands and cried “One! One!” at Jia Huan’s roll. (See Jia Huan Cheats at Dice.) In dice and card games, 幺 means “one,” or the part of the die with only a single dot. Actually, this number is still used today. When Chinese speakers read out a phone number or a room number, they usually say yāo instead of yī for “1.” Players call out their numbers as the dice land, so Xiangyun’s “one, two, three” (幺二三) would come out “one, love, three” (幺愛三). 鬧 means to make a racket, so Daiyu is picturing her shouting it across the table.

Baoyu then starts teasing Lin Daiyu. 你學慣了 means “once you’ve gotten used to imitating her,” and 咬起來 means “to start speaking with a lisp.” Baoyu tells Daiyu that she’ll find herself speaking with the same lisp if she keeps it up, and, of course, Baoyu is saying this in part to protect Xiangyun.

Xiangyun then turns to Baoyu to complain about Daiyu. 他再不放人一點兒，專會挑人 is Xiangyun’s complaint about Daiyu, said right in front of Daiyu. Remember that 他 meant either “he” or “she;” the 她 you’re familiar with didn’t come around until the early 20th century. Since this is really hard to follow, I added “She turned to Daiyu” to make the switch clear in English. The Chinese original is an excellent example of how Chinese really is a contextual language. Anyway, 挑 (tiāo) is to pick at someone’s faults, and 不犯 means “there’s no need to” or “it isn’t worth it.” 打趣 is to make fun of or tease.

我就服你: “then I’ll give in to you” or “then I’ll admit you’re the best.”

In 寶姐姐的短處, 寶姐姐 is “Sister Bao.” This refers to Xue Baochai, who is older than Xiangyun. 短處 is a shortcoming. Xiangyun talks about the one person Daiyu can’t attack without looking jealous. That’s exactly what the big fight was about, and exactly what Daiyu’s “cold fragrance” jab in Chapter 19 was about too. (See Jia Baoyu Visits Lin Daiyu.)

When Daiyu says 我當是誰，原來是他 (”I wondered who you meant, so it’s her“), she’s being purely sarcastic. Daiyu doesn’t actually say anything bad about Baochai. She just makes it obvious that she’d love to.

寶玉不等說完，忙用話分開: Baoyu doesn’t let her finish, and quickly “uses words to separate them,” that is, changes the subject before it turns into a real fight. Getting stuck between two girls who are both his cousins is a role he’ll find himself in again and again.

保佑 (bǎoyòu) is to bless or protect, and usually refers to the blessings or protection of a deity. 我只保佑著 is “all I can do is pray that…”

林姐夫. 姐夫 (jiěfu) is an older sister’s husband, a brother-in-law. Since Xiangyun calls Daiyu “older sister,” Daiyu’s future husband would be her 姐夫, so 林姐夫 is “Brother-in-law Lin,” that is, the man Sister Lin marries. A 咬舌兒林姐夫 is a brother-in-law who speaks with a lisp. Again, the thing that matters the most here is context. English isn’t quite as contextually heavy as Chinese, which is why I’ve translated this as “marry a man with a lisp, Sister Lin.”

Have you noticed how the teenage girls in this household tease each other about marriage all the time? Remember, though, that Baoyu and Daiyu just had a deep fight about Baoyu spending time with other women. Remember, too, that Baoyu is still standing there listening to all of this. His laughter might not be because he finds it funny, but because he’s trying to defuse a situation that is awkward and uncomfortable for him.

愛呀厄 (ài ya è) is the sound Daiyu would hear all day from her lisping husband. We learned about 愛 above. 厄 (è) seems to be the other way a lisper’s 二 comes out: drop the curled tongue from “er” and you get è. (In Bopomofo, ㄦˋ loses its curl and becomes ㄜˋ.) So “love-ah-eh” is Xiangyun doing an impression of a person speaking with a lisp; at least that’s my opinion. The text doesn’t make it clear what this future husband would be saying, and there really isn’t much need to speculate.

那時才現在我眼裡呢. 現 means 顯現, “to appear” or “to show.” Literally, “only then will it appear before my eyes,” that is, “then I’ll finally see you get what’s coming to you.”

The Other Translations

Hawkes

Poor David Hawkes.

He tries in this section, but he can’t really get it to work. He has Xiangyun say “Couthin Bao, Couthin Lin,” and then has Lin Daiyu make fun of that lisp.

The problem is that the “love” connection is gone. It completely defeats the purpose of the original joke. He tries to make up for it by saying that she’ll be cheering for “thicktheth” and “theventh” when they play their dice game. He also has Xiangyun say things like “yourthelf” and “elthe” (instead of “yourself” and “else”). But, again, none of this has anything to do with the actual meaning of the passage.

Hawkes translates the nonsensical 愛呀厄 as “ithee-withee, ithee-withee.”

Yang

The Yangs try to explain the joke. They have Xiangyun say “Why, Ai brother and Sister Lin!” and offer a footnote:

Erh means “two” or “second” and ai “love.”

It’s okay, but it still means nothing if you don’t already speak Chinese. What’s going on here is an interesting linguistic comment. They really should have made a longer footnote with more explanation.

They translate 愛呀厄 as “love”: “I just pray that you’ll marry a husband who talks like me, so that you hear nothing but ‘love’ the whole day long.”

End screen

We’ll explain how 二 turns into 愛 on Monday, and we’re going to use Bopomofo to do it.

Next in the story: Daiyu chases Xiangyun to the door, and Baoyu gets in the way (Sunday)

Go deeper: Why Every Great Love Story Needs A Good Fight

Meet them: Shi Xiangyun / All the characters

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Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Today Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu have a massive fight. And it’s only going to get more interesting from here.

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New here? I’m translating all 120 chapters of 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber) into modern American English, one passage at a time. Each passage comes with the Chinese text, a comparison with Hawkes and the Yangs, and notes on the hard words. We’re now in Chapter 19.

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Today’s post pushes us up to the New Year in the Jia household. That means that school is out. Nobody is allowed to sew, which means that everybody is bored. Jia Huan, Baoyu’s half-brother by Concubine Zhao, joins a dice game with Baochai and her maid Ying’er, and when the dice go against him, he cheats.

Even though this is a small scene, it gives us our first look at Jia Huan and his mother. It also gives us some ideas of what it means to be the son of a concubine in a house where Baoyu is everyone’s favorite. Baoyu shrugs it off, Concubine Zhao turns her anger onto her own son, and Wang Xifeng steps in with a “defense” of the boy that is really a public humiliation of his mother.

As usual, paid subscribers get the full translation, the Chinese text, and notes on the names, idioms, and the dice game itself, including how Concubine Zhao scolds her son.

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What does Jia Baoyu do when his closest maid is sick? Simple: he finds another maid to flirt with. I’m not kidding.

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Chapter 20 starts off with a bang, as Nanny Li and Hua Xiren go after each other.

My Translation

Chapter 20

Wang Xifeng Uses Proper Speech to Suppress Jealousy;

Lin Daiyu Uses Clever Words to Tease a Sweet Voice

When Jia Baoyu was explaining the story of the mice in Lin Daiyu’s room, Xue Baochai came in suddenly. She teased him for not remembering the “green wax” poetic allusion during the Lantern Festival.

The three of them stayed in the room, joking with one another. Baoyu was afraid that Lin Daiyu might get indigestion if she took a nap right after eating, or that she might lie awake at night. Neither would be good for her health. Fortunately, Baochai had come, and Daiyu didn’t want to sleep while everybody was there, so Baoyu could relax.

They suddenly heard a loud noise from Baoyu’s room. Everybody listened. Then Lin Daiyu laughed. “That’s your nanny and Hua Xiren fighting,” she told Baoyu. “Xiren is actually really good to her. If your nanny still insists on scolding her like this, she must be old and muddled.”

Baoyu hurried up to go over, but Baochai caught him first. “Don’t fight with your nanny,” she warned. “She’s old and confused. You should just let her win.”

“I know,” said Baoyu. He then departed.

He found Nanny Li leaning on her cane in the middle of the courtyard, scolding Hua Xiren. “Ungrateful whore!” she said. “I was the one who raised you. Now that I’ve come, you lie down on the kang like there’s nothing to it and don’t even look at me. All you care about is seducing Baoyu until he ignores me and only listens to you. You’re nothing but a little maid bought for a few taels of silver, and yet you’ve started stirring up trouble in this room! One of these days, whether you like it or not, you’ll be dragged out and married off to some servant boy. Then we’ll see if you can still bewitch people!”

Xiren thought at first that Nanny Li was angry because she was lying down. “I’m sick,” she explained. “I was sweating, and my head was covered. I didn’t see you, madam.” But when she heard Nanny Li say that she had bewitched Baoyu and would be married off to a servant, she couldn’t help feeling ashamed and wrong, and so she burst into tears.

Baoyu heard all of this, but there was little he could do. He had to defend Xiren, and said that she was ill and was taking medicine. “If you don’t believe me,” he added, “ask the other maids.”

Nanny Li was even angrier when she heard this. “You just protect those foxes!” she scolded. “How could you still recognize me? Who am I supposed to ask? Who wouldn’t take your side? Who hasn’t been tamed by Xiren? I know about all these things! I’ll go with you and speak with Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang about this. I nursed you until you were this big, and now that you don’t need my milk you toss me aside and let the maids defy me!” She wept as she scolded.

At this point Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and the others came over. “Nanny, please be more forgiving,” they urged her, “and just let it go.”

When Nanny Li saw the two of them arrive she started to pour out her grievances. She went on and on complaining about the tea incident, Qianxue’s dismissal, yesterday’s cream business, and so on.

Coincidentally, Wang Xifeng was in the main room at this time finishing up the day’s accounting when she heard the noise from the back. She knew right away that Nanny Li’s old sickness had flared up again. And, since Nanny Li had lost money that day, she was taking it out on Baoyu’s maids.

Wang Xifeng hurried over, grabbed Nanny Li by the arm, and, with a smile, said “Nanny, don’t get upset. We’re in the middle of the holidays, and Grandmother Jia has only just had one day of fun. You’re an elder, after all, and you should be the one keeping other people in line when they raise a fuss. You can’t tell me that you don’t know the rules, and that you’re the one here making a scene and getting Grandmother Jia upset, are you? Just tell me who has been bad and I’ll beat them for you. Now, I’ve got a chicken heating up over in my rooms. Come on over and eat with me and have a drink.” Wang Xifeng pulled Nanny Li along as she spoke. “Feng’er,” she continued, “carry Nanny Li’s cane for her and her handkerchief for wiping her tears.”

Nanny Li went off with Wang Xifeng, her feet barely touching the ground. Even as she went, she kept her complaining. “I don’t care about my life anymore!” she lamented. “I might as well throw all the rules out today and make one big scene, even I lose face. It’s better than putting up with the insults from those whores.”

Baochai and Daiyu were both watching from behind. They clapped their hands as they saw how Xifeng was handling the problem. “Good thing she blew in like a gust of wind,” they laughed, “and scooped the old woman away!”

Baoyu nodded. “Who knows what score she’s settling now?” he said with a sigh. “She picks on the softer ones to bully around. And who knows which girl offended her and started this?”

Before Baoyu could finish, Qingwen interrupted him. “Who here is crazy enough to offend her?” she said. “And, if you did offender her, then have the guts to admit it. There’s no reason to drag other people into this.”

Xiren pulled at Baoyu. “Because of me you offended your old nanny,” she said through tears, “and now you’re offending these other people for me as well? Isn’t that already more than I can take? And yet you keep on dragging other people into it!”

Baoyu swallowed his anger and held his tongue as he saw how sick Xiren was, and as he thought about all the added trouble. He comforted her and got her to lie down again. When he saw how feverishly hot she was, he stayed by her side, leaned down beside her, and urged her on. “Just focus on getting better,” he said. “Don’t worry about these unimportant things.”

“If I got angry over things like this, I couldn’t stay in this room for even a minute,” said Xiren with a cold laugh. “But, if this keeps up day after day, how is anybody supposed to live? It only takes you a moment to offend others for my sake, but they remember it for a long time. When times are tough, regardless of whether they say nice things or mean things, what is everyone supposed to think?” She was on the verge of crying again as she spoke. But, since she was afraid of upsetting Baoyu, she forced herself to hold them back.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

There’s not much to say about the David Hawkes translation of this passage, which is all relatively straightforward.

Yang

The Yangs use a few unusual words.

For example, when referring to Hua Xiren, they describe how “the old woman accused her of vamping Pao-yu.” Vamping comes from the verb vamp, which means “to seduce or exploit someone.”

Later, when Nanny Li starts complaining excitedly, they note that “it was hard to make head or tail of her maundering.” Maundering means “a rambling or pointless discourse.”

I believe this is the first time we’ve seen the Yangs use unusual words in their translation. Usually it’s David Hawkes who is using these unusual words.

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Chinese Text

第二十回 王熙鳳正言彈妒意 林黛玉俏語謔嬌音

話說寶玉在黛玉房中說耗子精，寶釵撞來，諷刺寶玉元宵不知「綠蠟」之典，三人正在房中互相取笑。那寶玉恐黛玉飯後貪眠，一時存了食，或夜間走了困，皆非保養身體之法，幸而寶釵走來，大家談笑，那黛玉方不欲睡，自己才放了心。忽聽他房中嚷起來，大家側耳聽了一聽，黛玉先笑道：「這是你媽媽和襲人叫喚呢。那襲人待他也罷了，你媽媽再要認真排揎他，可見老背晦了。」

寶玉忙欲趕過去，寶釵一把拉住道：「你別和你媽媽吵才是呢。他是老糊塗了，倒要讓他一步兒的是。」寶玉道：「我知道了。」說畢，走來。只見李嬤嬤拄著柺杖，在當地罵襲人：「忘了本的小娼婦兒！我抬舉你起來，這會子我來了，你大模廝樣兒的躺在炕上，見了我也不理一理兒。一心只想裝狐媚子哄寶玉，哄的寶玉不理我，只聽你的話。你不過是幾兩銀子買了來的小丫頭子罷咧，這屋裡你就作起耗來了！好不好的，拉出去配一個小子，看你還妖精似的哄人不哄！」襲人先只道李嬤嬤不過因他躺著生氣，少不得分辯說：「病了，才出汗，蒙著頭，原沒看見你老人家。」後來聽見他說哄寶玉，又說配小子，由不得又羞又委屈，禁不住哭起來了。

寶玉雖聽了這些話，也不好怎樣，少不得替他分辯，說病了吃藥。又說：「你不信，只問別的丫頭。」李嬤嬤聽了這話，越發氣起來了，說道：「你只護著那起狐狸，那裡還認得我了呢？叫我問誰去？誰不幫著你呢？誰不是襲人拿下馬來的？我都知道。那些事！我只和你到老太太、太太跟前去講講。把你奶了這麼大，到如今，吃不著奶了，把我扔在一邊兒，逞著丫頭們要我的強！」一面說，一面哭。

彼時，黛玉寶釵等也過來勸道：「媽媽，你老人家擔待他們些就完了。」李嬤嬤見他二人來了，便訴委屈，將當日吃茶，茜雪出去，和昨日酥酪等事，嘮嘮叨叨，說個不了。

可巧鳳姐正在上房算了輸贏賬，聽見後面一片聲嚷，便知是李嬤嬤老病發了，又值他今兒輸了錢，遷怒於人，排揎寶玉的丫頭。便連忙趕過來，拉了李嬤嬤，笑道：「媽媽別生氣。大節下，老太太剛喜歡了一日，你是個老人家，別人吵，你還要管他們才是；難道你倒不知規矩，在這裡嚷起來，叫老太太生氣不成？你說誰不好，我替你打他。我屋裡燒的滾熱的野雞，快跟了我喝酒去罷。」一面說，一面拉著走，又叫：「豐兒，替你李奶奶拿著柺棍子，擦眼淚的絹子。」那李嬤嬤腳不沾地，跟了鳳姐兒走了。一面還說：「我也不要這老命了！索性今兒沒了規矩，鬧一場子，討個沒臉，強似受那些娼婦的氣。」

後面寶釵黛玉見鳳姐兒這般，都拍手笑道：「虧他這一陣風來，把個老婆子撮了去了！」寶玉點頭嘆道：「這又不知是那裡的賬，只揀軟的欺負！又不知是那個姑娘得罪了，上在他賬上了。」一句未完，晴雯在旁說道：「誰又沒瘋了，得罪他做什麼？既得罪了他，就有本事承任，犯不著帶累別人。」襲人一面哭，一面拉著寶玉道：「為我得罪了一個老奶奶，你這會子又為我得罪這些人，這還不夠我受的？還只是拉扯人！」寶玉見他這般病勢，又添了這些煩惱，連忙忍氣吞聲，安慰他仍舊睡下出汗。又見他湯燒火熱，自己守著他，歪在旁邊勸他：「只養病，別想那些沒要緊的事。」襲人冷笑道：「要為這些事生氣，這屋裡一刻還住得了？但只是天長日久，盡著這麼鬧，可叫人怎麼過呢？你只顧一時為我得罪了人，他們都記在心裡，遇著坎兒，說的好說不好聽的，大傢什麼意思呢？」一面說，一面禁不住流淚，又怕寶玉煩惱，只得勉強忍著。

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Translation Notes

正言 means “proper speech” or “righteous words.”

彈 means to suppress, rebuke, or shut down.

俏語 means clever banter or playful speech.

謔 means to tease,joke, or banter with

嬌音 means a sweet or delicate voice.

排揎 means to scold, reprimand, or blame

娼婦 is a derogatory word that means “prostitute” or “whore”

大模廝樣 means either “natural and unhurried” or “arrogant.” Here it almost certainly means “arrogant.”

狐媚 refers to women, and means to entice a man with one’s feminine charms

妖精 means a monster or demon; it can also mean enchantress or temptress

豐兒 (Feng’er) is one of Wang Xifeng’s maids:

撮 means to scoop up or carry off

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We’re finishing up chapter 19 today with this extremely unusual story that Jia Baoyu makes up on the spot. The shameless flirting continues.

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I was originally going to finish this chapter today, but the final scene is so long that I really need to divide it up into two pieces. This part is a lot of fun anyway, so enjoy!

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In contrast to the longer posts we’ve had over the past few days, this one is short. However, it’s quite significant. Enjoy it while it lasts, since Sunday’s post will be very long.

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We’ve got a long passage again today, though this one is pretty easy to go through. It’s also very important for truly understanding the characters.

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This is a fascinating section. Jia Baoyu is forced to come face to face with the true nature of the relationship between himself and Hua Xiren.

My Translation

A little while later, Baoyu returned and sent somebody to go get Hua Xiren. He found Qingwen lying on the bed, not moving.

“Are you sick?” he asked her. “Or did you lose at cards?”

“Actually, she won,” replied Qiuwen. “But then that old lady Li showed up and messed up the game, and so she lost everything. She got so mad that she just went to bed.”

“Don’t take things too seriously like she does,” laughed Baoyu. “Just let her be.”

Just then Xiren arrived. She and Baoyu greeted each other. Xiren asked Baoyu where he had eaten and when he had gotten back, and gave greetings to all the other maids from her mother and sister. Soon she changed out of her outdoor clothes and took off her makeup.

Baoyu ordered somebody to bring the cream dish he had set aside for Xiren.

“That old Nanny Li ate it,” replied the maids.

Baoyu was about to say something when Xiren quickly cut in with a smile. “Oh, so that’s what you saved for me! Thank you for going to all that trouble. The other day I ate too much of it because it was so good, and I got an awful stomachache. I threw up before I finally felt better. It’s just as well that she ate it. It would have gone to waste if it sat here anyway. You know, what I’d really like are some dried chestnuts. You go peel them for me, and I’ll go make the bed.”

Baoyu believed what she said and simply dropped the matter. He took the chestnuts and sat peeling them under the lamp. After a while he looked around the room. Noticing that nobody else was there, he turned to Xiren with a smile. “Who was that girl wearing red in your house today?” he asked.

“That’s my older cousin on my mother’s side,” replied Xiren.

Baoyu sighed in admiration.

“What are you sighing about?” asked Xiren. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking she’s not good enough to wear red.”

“No, no,” laughed Baoyu. “If someone like her isn’t good enough to wear red, who in the world would dare? It’s just that she seemed so lovely. I kept thinking how wonderful it would be if we could get her into our household.”

Xiren replied with a cold laugh. “I might be stuck with the fate of a slave,” she replied, “but does that mean all my relatives are destined to be slaves, too? Is there a reason you want to pick the best looking girls to bring to your family?”

“There you go again,” laughed Baoyu quickly, “reading too much into things. When I said ‘our household’ did I necessarily mean as a slave? Couldn’t she just marry into our family?”

“Our family isn’t at your family’s level,” replied Xiren.

Baoyu didn’t say anything more and sat there peeling chestnuts.

“Why are you so quiet?” laughed Xiren after a short while. “Did I offend you just now? If you’re still upset about it tomorrow, you can pay a few taels of silver and simply buy them into the family.”

“How is anybody supposed to answer what you just said?” laughed Baoyu. “I was only saying that she looked nice and that she would fit in well in a grand house like this. She’s so much different from the muddy creatures like me who were born here.”

“She might not have that kind of luck,” replied Xiren, “but she’s still been pampered and spoiled. She’s the apple of my aunt and uncle’s eye. She’s seventeen now, and they’ve got her dowry all ready. She’s getting married next year.”

When Baoyu heard the phrase “getting married,” he couldn’t help but let out a few audible sighs. He was still feeling uneasy when Xiren sighed and continued.

“These past few years I’ve hardly seen any of my sisters,” she said. “And now that I’m supposed to go back, they’re all leaving, too!”

Baoyu had a feeling that there was something deeper behind her words. He was startled. He quickly threw down the chestnuts. “What do you mean by ‘supposed to go back?’” he asked.

“Today I heard my mother and brother talking,” replied Xiren. “They want me to hang on here for another year, and then next year when they come up to the city they’ll redeem me and will take me home.”

Baoyu grew even more alarmed when he heard this. “Why would they redeem you?” he demanded.

“What a strange question,” replied Xiren. “I’m not like one of those slaves here who was born into servitude. My whole family is elsewhere, and I’m the only one here. How is this supposed to end?”

“But I don’t want you to leave,” said Baoyu. “What about that?”

“It doesn’t matter,” replied Xiren. “Even the imperial palace has fixed rules. Every few years they take in new people and release the old ones. And that’s the palace; why would your family be any different?”

Baoyu thought it over a bit and had to admit that she was right. And so he tried again. “What if Grandmother Jia doesn’t let you go?”

“Why wouldn’t she?” replied Xiren. “If I truly was indispensable, that is if I somehow convinced Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang to keep me, they could just pay extra silver to my family and keep me here. But, really, I’m just an ordinary girl. There are plenty of girls better than me.

“I’ve served Grandmother Jia since I was little, and then served Miss Shi for a couple of years, and now I’ve served you for a couple of years. If my family wants to redeem me, that’s only proper. In fact, Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang might not even ask for compensation; they might just graciously let me go.

“As far as keeping me because I’ve served you well, that simply isn’t going to happen. Serving you well is simply my duty. It’s nothing extraordinary. Once I’m gone, there will be others just as good. It’s not as if things can’t go on without me.”

Baoyu heard all of this, and could only see the logic of her leaving. There seemed to be no reason for her to stay. And so he became more and more frantic. He tried once more. “Even so, if I’m determined to keep you, I’m not afraid to talk with Grandmother Jia and your mother. I’ll give your mother plenty of silver. She won’t dare refuse then.”

“My mother wouldn’t dare force the issue,” said Xiren. “But regardless of whether you’d give silver and whether she’s agree, even if you didn’t talk to her nicely, even if you didn’t give a cent, even if you only stubbornly insisted on keeping me, my mother still wouldn’t disobey. But the thing is that our Jia family has never done things that way; you know, throwing its weight around and using its power to get its own way. This isn’t like buying some object that you really like, where you pay ten times its price to get it, and where it’s acceptable because the seller doesn’t lose out. But to keep me for no reason at all, well, it does you no good, and it tears our family apart. Would Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang ever agree to that?”

Baoyu listened to all of this and thought for a long time. Finally, he said, “It seems that you’ve already decided. You’re going, right?”

“It’s settled,” replied Xiren.

Who knew that a person like this could be so heartless? thought Baoyu to himself. He sighed and said, “If I had known everyone was going to leave in the end, I would never have gotten involved with any of you! I’ll be left here alone like a ghost!” With that, he angrily flung himself onto his bed and went to sleep.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes translates the name 秋紋 (Qiuwen) as “Ripple.” This comes directly from the meaning of the name. Once again, “Ripple” is a pretty odd name for a girl.

Hawkes has Xiren call her relative in the red dress “my mother’s sister’s child.” I’m not certain why he doesn’t use the more obvious term “cousin” here.

Hawkes inserts this small poem into Xiren’s explanation of how even the palace will let servants go after a while:

Even in palace hall

Law is the lord of all.

This isn’t part of the original Chinese text.

Yang

The Yang translation of this section is straightforward and accurate.

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Chinese Text

少時，寶玉回來，命人去接襲人，只見晴雯躺在床上不動。寶玉因問：「可是病了？還是輸了呢？」秋紋道：「他倒是贏的；誰知李老太太來了，混輸了，他氣的睡去了。」寶玉笑道：「你們別和他一般見識，由他去就是了。」

說著，襲人已來，彼此相見。襲人又問寶玉何處吃飯，多早晚回來，又代母妹問諸同伴姊妹好。一時換衣卸妝。寶玉命取酥酪來。丫鬟們回說：「李奶奶吃了。」寶玉才要說話，襲人便忙笑說道：「原來留的是這個，多謝費心。前兒我因為好吃，吃多了，好肚子疼，鬧的吐了才好了。他吃了倒好，擱在這裡白糟蹋了。我只想風乾栗子吃，你替我剝栗子，我去鋪炕。」

寶玉聽了，信以為真，方把酥酪丟開，取了栗子來，自向燈下檢剝。一面見眾人不在房中，乃笑問襲人道：「今兒那個穿紅的是你什麼人？」襲人道：「那是我兩姨姐姐。」寶玉聽了，讚歎了兩聲。襲人道：「嘆什麼？我知道你心裡的緣故，想是說他那裡配穿紅的。」寶玉笑道：「不是，不是。那樣的人，不配穿紅的，誰還敢穿？我因為見他實在好的很，怎麼也得他在咱們家就好了。」襲人冷笑道：「我一個人是奴才命罷了，難道連我的親戚都是奴才命不成？定還要揀實在好的丫頭才往你們家來？」寶玉聽了，忙笑道：「你又多心了。我說往咱們家來，必定是奴才不成？說親戚就使不得？」襲人道：「那也攀配不上。」

寶玉便不肯再說，只是剝栗子。襲人笑道：「怎麼不言語了？想是我才冒撞衝犯了你？明兒賭氣花幾兩銀子買進他們來就是了。」寶玉笑道：「你說的話，怎麼叫人答言呢？我不過是贊他好，正配生在這深宅大院裡，沒的我們這宗濁物倒生在這裡。」襲人道：「他雖沒這樣造化，倒也是嬌生慣養的，我姨父姨娘的寶貝兒是的。如今十七歲，各樣的嫁妝都齊備了，明年就出嫁。」

寶玉聽了「出嫁」二字，不禁又「嗐」了兩聲。正不自在，又聽襲人嘆道：「我這幾年，姊妹們都不大見；如今我要回去了，他們又都去了！」寶玉聽這話裡有文章，不覺吃了一驚，忙扔下栗子，問道：「怎麼著，你如今要回去？」襲人道：「我今兒聽見我媽和哥哥商量，叫我再耐一年，明年他們上來就贖出我去呢。」寶玉聽了這話，越發忙了，因問：「為什麼贖你呢？」襲人道：「這話奇了。我又比不得是這裡的家生子兒。我們一家子都在別處，獨我一個人在這裡，怎麼是個了手呢？」寶玉道：「我不叫你去，也難哪。」襲人道：「從來沒這個理。就是朝庭宮裡也有定例，幾年一挑，幾年一放，沒有長遠留下人的理，別說你們家。」

寶玉想一想，果然有理，又道：「老太太要不放你呢？」襲人道：「為什麼不放呢？我果然是個最難得的，或者感動了老太太、太太，不肯放我出去，再多給我們家幾兩銀子留下，也還有的；其實我又不過是個最平常的人，比我強的多而且多。我從小兒跟著老太太，先伏侍了史大姑娘幾年，這會子又伏侍了你幾年，我們家要來贖我，正是該叫去的，只怕連身價也不要，就開恩放我去呢。要說為伏侍的你好，不叫我去，斷然沒有的事。那伏侍的好，是分內應當的，不是什麼奇功。我去了，仍舊又有好的了，不是沒了我就使不得的。」

寶玉聽了這些話，竟是有去的理，無留的理，心裡越發急了。因又道：「雖然如此說，我的一心要留下你，不怕老太太不和你母親說。多多給你母親些銀子。他也不好意思接你了。」襲人道：「我媽自然不敢強。且慢說和他好說，又多給銀子。就便不好和他說，一個錢也不給，安心要強留下我，他也不敢不依。但只是咱們家從沒幹過這倚勢仗貴霸道的事。這比不得別的東西，因為喜歡，加十倍利弄了來給你，那賣的人不吃虧，就可以行得的；如今無故平空留下我，於你又無益，反教我們骨肉分離。這件事，老太太、太太肯行嗎？」

寶玉聽了，思忖半晌，乃說道：「依你說來說去，是去定了？」襲人道：「去定了。」寶玉聽了，自思道：「誰知這樣一個人，這樣薄情無義呢？」乃嘆道：「早知道都是要去的，我就不該弄了來！臨了剩我一個孤鬼兒！」說著，便賭氣上床睡了。

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Translation Notes

Once again, it’s been a little while since we last saw Jia Baoyu’s maid Qingwen (晴雯). I wrote a bit more about her in this post:

Qiuwen (秋紋) is a minor character we haven’t met yet. Her name means something like “autumn ripples.”

When Xiren replies 攀配不上 at the thought of her cousin being introduced as a family relative, she’s actually accenting the huge difference in social standing and prestige between the families. Baoyu tends to ignore this part of social norms and simply wants to surround himself with as many attractive people as possible.

Baoyu’s phrase about “muddy creatures like me who were born here” (這宗濁物倒生在這裡) is an allusion to his earlier comments about boys and girls:

女兒是水做的骨肉，男子是泥做的骨肉。我見了女兒便清爽，見了男子便覺濁臭逼人！

Girls are made of water, pure and clear. Boys are made of mud, foul and dull. My soul feels refreshed when I see a girl, but seeing a boy makes me feel absolutely filthy!

Xiren’s phrase about being “redeemed” by her mother and brother, or 贖出我, needs to be explained. Hua Xiren was sold into the Jia household as a girl. Because of this, it is possible for her family to redeem her if they have enough money and take her back home. She would likely then be married off. This, of course, would end her time as a maid, and would basically end her relationship with Jia Baoyu.

了手 is a somewhat old phrase that means “to end” or “to finish.”

Hua Xiren plays an interesting rhetorical trick. Jia Baoyu starts talking about 咱們家; 咱們 means “us” or “our” and includes both the speaker and the person who is being spoken to. Hua Xiren’s response to this language is to point out that she’s really a slave (奴才) to the Jia family. However, when Baoyu talks about being stubborn and simply not relenting she uses that same “our family” (咱們家) phrase to tell him that the Jia family has never simply stubbornly clung to something for no reason.

Hua Xiren then mentions that her staying with the Jia family would cause 骨肉分離, or blood relations to be torn apart. She’s referring to her own family in this case, and the injustice of forcing her to stay away from her own family merely to satisfy Jia Baoyu’s whims.

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Nanny Li Steals The Cream

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Nanny Li comes in suddenly to eat the cream that Baoyu had saved especially for Hua Xiren.

My Translation

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Today Jia Baoyu decides to visit Xiren’s house on the spur of the moment. The interaction between Hua Xiren and Jia Baoyu here is very interesting.

My Translation

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Today Jia Baoyu discovers his servant Mingyan in the middle of sexual activity with a girl we haven’t met yet.

My Translation

Baoyu looked around and realized that there was nobody else there. “I remember there being a small study here,” he thought to himself. “I’m pretty sure that there’s a scroll painting of a beautiful woman hanging in that room, one that looks absolutely lifelike. With all the commotion today, I’m sure that the room is empty. The beautiful woman in that painting must be feeling lonely. I ought to pay her a visit to cheer her up.” And so he went over to the room.

He had just reached the window when he heard heavy breathing coming from the room. “Has the beautiful woman truly come to life?” thought Baoyu in amazement. Baoyu eventually worked up his courage, licked a hole in the paper of the window, and peeked inside.

It turns out that the beauty in the scroll hadn’t come to life. Instead, Baoyu saw Mingyan on top of a girl, doing the thing that the Goddess had taught Baoyu earlier. The two of them were in a deep passionate moment, and they were moaning loudly.

Baoyu couldn’t stop himself from yelling. “My God!” he cried out. He kicked the door open, and the two were scared so badly that they were shaking.

When Mingyan saw Baoyu he quickly knelt down and started to beg for mercy.

“it’s the middle of the day!” exclaimed Baoyu. “What are you doing? If Jia Zhen finds out, you’re as good as dead!”

Meanwhile, Baoyu looked at the girl. She was fair and clean, and had something appealing about her. She stood there with her head down, blushing red to her ears, saying nothing.

“Get out of here!” shouted Baoyu, stamping his foot. That snapped her out of her trance, and she ran off as quickly as she could. Baoyu chased after her, calling out, “Don’t be scared! I won’t tell anyone!”

“Geez!” came Mingyan’s frantic voice from behind him. “Now you’ve basically told everybody!”

“How old is she?” asked Baoyu as he turned to Mingyan.

“She’s about sixteen or seventeen” came Mingyan’s reply.

“You didn’t even ask her age before doing this?” asked Baoyu incredulously. “You just went straight into the act! She sure wasted her time getting to know you! Poor thing, poor thing!” He turned and asked Mingyan another question. “What’s her name?”

“There’s a long story behind this,” said Mingyan with a grin, “and it’s a strange story at that. She said that when her mom was giving birth to her, she had a dream in which she received a bolt of brocade with a five-color endless ‘good fortune’ pattern. And so her name is ‘Wan’er.’”

“Well, she must have good fortune coming her way!” Baoyu replied with a laugh. “I’ll put in a good word for you tomorrow and will get her for you as a wife; how does that sound?”

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes has Mingyan state that the girl was “not more than fifteen or so.” The Chinese states 不過十六七了, which translates to 16 or 17.

Hawkes has Wan’er’s mother give her the name “Swastika” because of the pattern. “Swastika,” of course, is kind of a strange name to give a girl, whereas 萬兒 (Wan’er) is at least plausible.

Yang

The Yangs stick with “sixteen or seventeen” as stated in the Chinese original. However, they also give the poor girl the odd “Swastika” name.

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Chinese Text

寶玉見一個人沒有，因想：「素日這裡有個小書房，內曾掛著一軸美人，畫的很得神。今日這般熱鬧，想那裡自然無人，那美人也自然是寂寞的，須得我去望慰他一回。」想著，便往那裡來。剛到窗前，聽見屋裡一片喘息之聲。寶玉倒唬了一跳，心想：「美人活了不成？」乃大著膽子，舔破窗紙，向內一看。那軸美人卻不曾活，卻是茗煙按著個女孩子，也幹那警幻所訓之事，正在得趣，故此呻吟。寶玉禁不住大叫：「了不得！」一腳踹進門去，將那兩個唬的抖衣而顫。

茗煙見是寶玉，忙跪下哀求。寶玉道：「青天白日，這是怎麼說！珍大爺要知道了，你是死是活？」一面看那丫頭，倒也白白淨淨兒的，有些動人心處，在那裡羞的臉紅耳赤，低首無言。寶玉跺腳道：「還不快跑！」一語提醒那丫頭，飛跑去了。寶玉又趕出去，叫道：「你別怕，我不告訴人。」急的茗煙在後叫：「祖宗，這是分明告訴人了！」

寶玉因問：「那丫頭十幾歲了？」茗煙道：「不過十六七了。」寶玉道：「連他的歲數也不問問，就作這個事，可見他白認得你了！可憐，可憐！」又問：「名字叫什麼？」茗煙笑道：「若說出名字來，話長，真正新鮮奇文！他說，他母親養他的時節，做了一個夢，夢得了一疋錦，上面是五色富貴不斷頭的『卍』字花樣；所以他的名字就叫作萬兒。」寶玉聽了，笑道：「想必他將來有些造化。等我明兒說了給你作媳婦，好不好？」

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Translation Notes

畫的很得神 is a bit confusing. 得神 is an old term in Chinese art criticism that means something like “transmitting the spirit.”

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Mingyan (茗煙). We first encountered him near the end of chapter 9:

Mingyan is Jia Baoyu’s favorite young servant.

那警幻所訓之事 refers to the sexual instruction that the Goddess Who Unveils Illusion taught to Jia Baoyu back at the end of chapter 5:

As you might recall, Jia Baoyu then used these techniques in his first sexual encounter at the beginning of chapter 6. His target was his maid, Hua Xiren:

Jia Baoyu exclaims “了不得!” which probably translates best as something like “This is too much!” or “What a disaster!” It’s an exclamation filled with somewhat mild panic.

唬的抖衣而顫 literally means that the two were so scared that they shook all over, so much that even their clothes were trembling.

卍 (wàn) is a Buddhist symbol that was originally intended to convey good fortune or well-being. It was eventually taken over by the Nazi party in Germany.

The name 萬兒 (Wan’er) is a play on words. 萬 means ten thousand and conveys the idea of ten thousand blessings or endless wealth or something like that. Plus, it is pronounced the same as the character 卍.

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We’re back to more literary references. Fortunately, these are a little bit easier than the ones we previously saw.

My Translation

The visit had complete exhausted the staff of both the Ning and Rong mansions. Every single person was completely worn out, both physically and mentally. It then took another two or three days just to pack away all the display items and other things that they had set up in the garden.

Wang Xifeng was clearly the busiest out of all. She had many important duties that overwhelmed her. The others could slip away to someplace quiet for a moment or two, but Wang Xifeng simply could not get away. Besides, she was driven by her naturally competitive spirit. She couldn’t bear to give anybody a chance to criticize her, and so she forced herself to keep going, doing her best to look like nothing was wrong.

Jia Baoyu, on the other hand, was clearly the most idle and carefree out of everybody. And it just so happened that on this particular morning Hua Xiren’s mother came in person to see Grandmother Jia. Xiren’s mother told Grandmother Jia that she was taking her daughter home for New Year’s tea, and that she wouldn’t bring her back until that evening.

And so Baoyu was left to amuse himself with the maids by playing a board game. Just as he was starting to lose interest in this game, a maid came into his room to report: “Jia Zhen has sent somebody to invite you over to watch the opera and see the lanterns set out.”

Baoyu ordered the maids to help him change clothes. He was just about to leave when a gift suddenly arrived from Jia Yuanchun. This was sugar-steamed sweet milk curd. Baoyu remembered that Xiren had enjoyed this treat the last time they had it, so he ordered that it be set aside for her. Then he reported to Grandmother Jia and went to watch the opera.

Who would have thought that the plays Jia Zhen staged were Ding Lang Recognizes His Father and Huang Boyang Lays Out the Great Formation of Ghostly Souls? There was also Sun Wukong Wreaks Havoc in the Heavenly Palace and Jiang Taigong Slays the Generals and Invests the Gods. In an instant, gods and demons came swarming out; the next moment, every fiend and monster were fully revealed. And throughout all of this were processions bearing ceremonial banners and passing before the altars, as well as devotees chanting the Buddha’s name and carrying incense. The clash of gongs and drums and all the shouting was so loud that it could be heard across the lanes outside the complex. The men, all the cousins, nephews, and brothers, toasted and made pledges to each other. The women, including sisters, maids, and concubines, laughed and chatted together.

Baoyu, however, decided to wander off to amuse himself after seeing that the splendor and excitement had reached such an intolerable level. He first slipped inside to fool around for awhile with Lady You and her maids and concubines. He then exited through the inner gate.

Lady You and the others assumed that he had gone back to watch the opera, and so nobody paid much attention to him. Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Xue Pan, and the rest were entirely absorbed in guessing riddles and drinking games, and were enjoying themselves to the fullest. Even if they noticed Baoyu hadn’t been in his seat for a while, they assumed that he had gone off somewhere inside and thought nothing of it.

As far as Baoyu’s male attendants were concerned, the older ones knew that he wouldn’t leave this sort of affair until evening, and so they took the chance to slip away. Some went off to gamble, and others went to visit relatives or friends, drinking and betting, each drifting off on his own with plans to return that night. The younger ones, meanwhile, had all squeezed into the backstage area to watch all the excitement.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes makes a few small rhetorical changes to the beginning of this section. In Chinese it talks about how Wang Xifeng was the busiest of them all, calling her “第一個” (i.e. the busiest of all). Hawkes instead talks about how “Xi-Feng forced herself to supervise the taking down and storing away of all the decorations” and so forth, putting Wang Xifeng in as an integral part of everything happening. It’s not inaccurate, but it’s also not exactly the same as the original.

Hawkes calls the somewhat awkwardly explained board game (擲骰子趕圍棋, or “the throwing dice Go board game”) as “Racing Go,” explaining that “this was a game in which you moved your Go-piece across the board in accordance with the throw of dice, the object being to reach the opposite side before everyone else and pocket all the stakes.”

Hawkes translates the drink from Jia Yuanchun as “koumiss.” Koumiss is a kind of fermented drink made from the milk of a mare, and is common among people in the Centra Asian steppes. The name seems to come from the Russian word кумы́с, and probably originally was from an ancient Turkic language.

Yang

The Yangs translate the mysterious game as “dice or draughts.” Draughts is actually an alternative name for the game checkers, and seems to be common in the United Kingdom.

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Chinese Text

且說榮寧二府中連日用盡心力，真是人人力倦，各各神疲，又將園中一應陳設動用之物，收拾了兩三天方完。第一個鳳姐事多任重，別人或可偷閒躲靜，獨他是不能脫得的；二則本性要強，不肯落人褒貶，只扎掙著，與無事的人一樣。第一個寶玉是極無事最閒暇的。偏這一早，襲人的母親又親來回過賈母，接襲人家去吃年茶，晚上才得回來。因此，寶玉只和眾丫頭們擲骰子趕圍棋作戲。正在房內頑得沒興頭，忽見丫頭們來回說：「東府裡珍大爺來請過去看戲，放花燈。」寶玉聽了，便命換衣裳。才要去時，忽又有賈妃賜出糖蒸酥酪來。寶玉想上次襲人喜吃此物，便命人留與襲人了，自己回過賈母，過去看戲。

誰想賈珍這邊唱的是《丁郎認父》、《黃伯央大擺陰魂陣》，更有《孫行者大鬧天宮》、《姜太公斬將封神》等類的戲文，倏爾神鬼亂出，忽又妖魔畢露。內中揚旛過會、號佛行香，鑼鼓喊叫之聲，聞於巷外。弟兄子侄，互為獻酬；姊妹婢妾，共相笑語。獨有寶玉，見那繁華熱鬧到如此不堪的田地，只略坐了一坐，便走往各處閒耍。先是進內去和尤氏並丫頭姬妾鬼混了一回，便出二門來。尤氏等仍料他出來看戲，遂也不曾照管。賈珍、賈璉、薛蟠等只顧猜謎行令，百般作樂，縱一時不見他在座，只道在裡邊去了，也不理論。至於跟寶玉的小廝們：那年紀大些的，知寶玉這一來了必是晚上才散，因此偷空兒，也有會賭錢的，也有往親友家去的，或賭或飲，都私自散了，待晚上再來；那些小些的，都鑽進戲房裡瞧熱鬧兒去了。

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Translation Notes

Notice in Chinese that the phrase 第一個 (the first) is repeated twice. Basically, this means that nobody among those who were busy was as busy as Wang Xifeng. Similarly, nobody among those who were lazy was as lazy as Jia Baoyu.

扎掙 means to move on with difficulty or to barely be able to physically support oneself. Wang Xifeng is described as just barely being able to handle her many duties, as if the magnitude of her tasks were taking a very literal physical toll on her.

年茶, or the “New Year tea,” was a ritual that was part of the Lantern Festival observances.

擲骰子趕圍棋 is a description of a dice based board game using Weiqi (or “Go,” 圍棋) chess pieces.

The four operas were all loud and percussion driven plays, and served a big contrast to the more refined plays that the family had performed for Jia Yuanchun during her visit.

丁郎認父, or Ding Lang Recognizes His Father, was a melodrama set in the Ming dynasty. It features a young man whose family is destroyed by a corrupt politician. He grows up and identifies his father, who had long since been exiled, by means of a broken mirror token that his mother had given him when he was young. Actually, this play includes no gods or demons at all, and seems to be the odd one out in this list.

黃伯央大擺陰魂陣, or Huang Boyang Lays Out the Great Formation of Ghostly Souls, told the story of a military master who traps a rival in a soul-snatching illusion. Cao Xueqin’s naming here has a few problems; the actual play seems to have been called 迷魂陣, or The Bewildering Soul Formation.

孫行者大鬧天宮, or Sun Wukong Wreaks Havoc in the Heavenly Palace, comes straight from chapters 3 through 7 of Journey to the West (西遊記). Sun Wukong rebels, names himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and storms the celestial palace.

姜太公斬將封神, or Jiang Taigong Slays the Generals and Invests the Gods, tells the story of how the Grand Duke Jiang slayed his opposing generals in battle. Then he canonizes the dead, both allies and enemies, as Gods of the Chinese pantheon.

The point Cao Xueqin seems to be making here is that this sort of entertainment is a much better reflection of the actual interests of the Jia family. These are all loud and vulgar plays, sort of like the equivalent of watching action movies in the White House.

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You’ll probably wonder why today’s post is so short. There’s a reason why I wanted to keep this post short. While it seems like nothing is going on here, this is actually a very important passage for the overall story. More tomorrow.

My Translation

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