Jia Rui’s Second Punishment
Today Jia Qiang learns yet another lesson. This story is a lot of fun.
My Translation
Jia Qiang left briefly and came back with paper and a writing brush. He handed them to Jia Rui and told him to write. After Jia Qiang prodded him on a bit, Jia Rui finally wrote a promissory note for 50 taels of silver and signed it.
Jia Qiang took the paper and put it away, and then he tried to get Jia Rong to agree with the plan. Jia Rong bit down his lip stubbornly, though, saying “I’ll go to the family elders to ask them to settle this!”
Jia Rui frantically stated to kowtow. Jia Qiang then prodded him on a bit more, and Jia Rui wrote another promissory note for 50 more taels of silver.
“Now, if I let you walk out the front door, I’d get in trouble,” Jia Qiang cautioned Jia Rui. “The gate by Grandmother Jia’s compound has been locked for a while now, and the Master is in the main hall reading reports from Nanjing. There’s no way for you to get out that way. Your only option is the back gate.
“But if you take that back gate and run into somebody, I’ll get in trouble as well. Let me go take a look at how things are. I’ll come back later and will take you out.
“You can’t hide in this room, either. They’re going to bring things to put in this room before too long. Let me find a better place for you to hide.”
After saying this, he grabbed Jia Rui, put out the lamp, and led him out to the courtyard. He felt around a bit at the base of the main stairway. “There’s a cubbyhole here that is perfect for you,” said Jia Qiang. “Just crouch down here and don’t make a sound. Wait until I come back before you move.”
And with that, Jia Qiang and Jia Rong left.
Jia Rui was scared to death and didn’t move a muscle. He could only crouch there beneath the staircase. Just as he was starting to collect his thoughts, he heard a loud crash right above him, and a whole bucket of feces and urine came pouring straight down from above him, drenching him completely from head to toe.
Jia Rui couldn’t stop himself from crying out “oh no,” but quickly clamped his mouth shut after that, not daring to make another sound. His head and face were covered in excrement, and his whole body was icy cold and trembling.
Then Jia Qiang came running up. “Quick, let’s go!” he said.
Jia Rui hurried out the back gate quickly and rushed home, as if he were given a new life. By the time he arrived it was already late into the night. He had to pound on the gate to be let in.
“What in the world happened to you?” asked the servants when they saw the state he was in.
Jia Rui had no choice but to lie: “It was dark. I lost my balance and fell into a cesspool.” Once he got into his house, he went to his room to wash and change his clothes.
It was only then that he realized that Wang Xifeng had been playing pranks on him. He gnashed his teeth in rage for a while. But then he thought about Wang Xifeng’s exquisite beauty, and wished that he could hold her in his arms at that very moment. Tormented by those wild thoughts, he didn’t close his eyes all night.
From then on, though he still longed for Wang Xifeng, he didn’t dare set foot in the Rongguo Mansion.
Translation Critique
Hawkes
There are a few difficult sections in David Hawkes’ translation of this segment in The Story of the Stone.
For example, Jia Qiang “pretended to seek the connivance of Jia Rong.” Connivance is actually a legal term that refers to the process of conniving or conspiring. I’m not certain that this is the right translation here.
Jia Rong then “feigned the most obdurate incorruptibility.” Obdurate means to be stubbornly persistent, though it usually refers to doing something wrong; it’s kind of odd to be obdurately incorruptible.
Yang
The Yangs use much more simple phrasing in their translation. In their version, Jia Rong is “urged to leave,” at which point he refuses. That makes a bit more sense to me than having Jia Qiang trying to seek his “connivance.”
Chinese Text
賈薔翻身出來，紙筆現成，拿來叫賈瑞寫。他兩個做好做歹，只寫了五十兩銀子，然後畫了押。賈薔收起來，然後撕擄賈蓉。賈蓉先咬定牙不依，只說：「明日告訴族中的人評評理！」賈瑞急的至於磕頭。賈薔做好做歹的，也寫了一張五十兩欠契才罷。
賈薔又道：「如今要放你，我就擔著不是。老太太那邊的門早已關了，老爺正在廳上看南京來的東西，那一條路定難過去。如今只好走後門。要這一走，倘或遇見了人，連我也不好。等我先去探探，再來領你。這屋裡你還藏不住，少時就來堆東西。等我尋個地方。」說畢，拉著賈瑞，仍息了燈，出至院外，摸著大臺階底下，說道：「這窩兒裡好。只蹲著，別哼一聲，等我來再走。」說畢，二人去了。
賈瑞此時身不由己，只得蹲在那臺階下。正要盤算，只聽頭頂上一聲響，譁喇喇，一淨桶尿糞從上面直潑下來，可巧澆了他一身一頭。賈瑞掌不住「噯喲」一聲，忙又掩住口，不敢聲張，滿頭滿臉皆是尿屎，渾身冰冷打戰。只見賈薔跑來叫：「快走，快走！」賈瑞方得了命，三步兩步從後門跑到家中，天已三更，只得叫開了門。家人見他這般光景，問：「是怎麼了？」少不得撒謊，說：「天黑了，失腳掉在茅廁裡了。」一面即到自己房中更衣洗濯。心下方想到鳳姐玩他，因此，發一回狠；再想想鳳姐的模樣兒標緻，又恨不得一時摟在懷裡。胡思亂想，一夜也不曾閤眼。自此雖想鳳姐，只不敢往榮府去了。
Translation Notes
做好做歹 means to use every way imaginable to convince someone to do something.
畫押 means to make one’s mark on a note, or to sign it. This likely went through a mark or a fingerprint. These days it’s more common to use an 印章, or an official name stamp. Those were also in common use in the 18th century, but it’s likely that Jia Rui doesn’t use his stamp here because he was caught off guard.
撕擄 normally means to provoke or tease. However, it’s pretty clear from the context that Jia Qiang is trying to convince Jia Rong to go along with the plan. It’s almost certainly true that Jia Rong is deliberately acting stubborn to extort more money from Jia Rui.
身不由己 means to be unable to determine for oneself. In other words, there was nothing Jia Rui could do.
譁喇喇 (huālālā) is the sound of something crashing or falling.
茅廁 is a regional term for toilet. In this context, it’s got to refer to some sort of outdoor cesspool or outhouse.