Xue Baochai’s Medicine
Today we dive right into chapter 7 of the novel. This chapter begins with Zhou Rui’s wife talking with Xue Baochai about Xue Baochai’s illness, as well as the unusual type of pill she takes to treat it. There’s a lot of interesting symbolism here; we’ll get to that tomorrow.
My Translation
Chapter 7: While Delivering Palace Flowers, Jia Lian Teases Xifeng; While Eating at the Ning Mansion, Baoyu Meets Qin Zhong.
After Zhou Rui’s wife saw Granny Liu off, she went to report to Lady Wang. However, she was surprised to find that Lady Wang was not in her room. She asked the maids, and learned that Lady Wang had gone to visit Aunt Xue for a chat. When she heard this, Zhou Rui’s wife exited through the gate on the eastern corner, went past the eastern compound, and made her way toward Pear Fragrance Court, where Aunt Xue was staying.
As she reached the courtyard gate, she saw Lady Wang’s maid Jinchuan, who was standing on the steps and playing with a little girl who had only recently begun to grow out her hair. Jinchuan knew that Zhou Rui’s wife must have come to deliver some kind of message, and so she puckered her lips toward the inner room to show her where Lady Wang could be found.
Zhou Rui’s wife softly lifted the curtain door and entered. She saw Lady Wang and Aunt Xue deeply engaged in a conversation about household affairs and other family matters.
Zhou Rui’s wife didn’t dare disturb them, and so she slipped into the inner room. There she saw Xue Baochai dressed in simple home attire, her hair casually gathered into a knot. She was sitting on the couch near the back, leaning over a small table where she and her maid, Ying’er, were tracing embroidery patterns.
When Xue Baochai saw her enter, she laid down her brush, turned around, and with a big smile invted her in. “Please sit down, Sister Zhou,” she said.
“Have you been well?” asked Zhou Rui’s wife right away with a smile. She sat on the edge of the couch as she spoke. “It’s been two or three days since you’ve come to our side for a visit. Perhaps Baoyu has done something to offend you?”
“Nonsense!” replied Baochai with a smile. “It’s just that my old sickness has flaired up again. I’ve been resting for a couple of days.”
“I see,” said Zhou Rui’s wife. “But what is the cause of your illness? You really ought to have a doctor examine you and treat it once and for all. Taking care of an illness at your tender age is no easy task.”
“Don’t even talk about it,” said Baochai when she heard this. “I can’t tell you how many doctor’s weve seen, how many medicines I’ve taken, or how much money we’ve spent on this illness – and yet I haven’t seen the slightest improvement.
“Later on we were fortunate enough to meet a monk who specialized in curing nameless sicknesses. We asked him to examine me. He said that this was a ‘heat toxin’ that I brought from the womb. Fortunately, my body is naturally strong, so it hasn’t been too dangerous. He told me that ordinary pills and medicines would be useless. He prescribed a ‘magical formula from over the sea,’ and also gave me a packet of medicine to use as a catalyst. That medicine had an unusual smell. He told me to take one pill whenever an attack came, and that I’ll feel better. And, strangely enough, his method has actually been somewhat helpful.”
“But what is this ‘magical formula from over the sea?’” asked Zhou Rui’s wife. “If you tell us, we can write it down and let others know. If somebody else had the same sickness, it would truly be a good deed.”
“Don’t ask about the formula,” said Baochai with a smile. “It’s so complicated that it would drive you mad.
“None of the ingredients are difficult to find. The problem, though, is that everything has to be done at the precise time.
“For example, you need twelve ounces of the stamens of white peony flowers that bloomed in the spring, twelve ounces of the stamens of white lotus flowers that bloomed in the summer, twelve ounces of the stamens of white hibiscus flowers that bloomed in the fall, and twelve ounces of the stamens of white plum flowers that bloomed in the winter.
“You then dry these four kinds of stamens in the sun on the day of the Spring Equinox of the following year. You then mix them together with the powdered catalyst and grind everything together. And then you need to get about 60 grams of rain water that falls on the day of Rain Water.”
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Zhou Rui’s wife. “It would take three full years to make, in that case! And what if it doesn’t rain on Rain Water? What do you do then?”
“Exactly,” said Baochai. “How could you be so lucky to have rain at just the right moment? You’d simply have to wait for it.
“In addition that, you’d need 60 grams of dew collected on the day of White Dew, 60 grams of frost on the day of Frost’s Descent, and sixty grams of snow from the day of Slight Snow.
“You blend those four waters together until they are even, and then you form them into pills the size of longan fruits. You then store them in an old porcelain jar which you bury beneath the roots of a flower.
“When an attack comes, I take out one pill and swallow it with a concoction made from about 10 grams of yellow cork tree bark.”
“Dear Buddha!” exclaimed Zhou Rui’s wife with a laugh. “That requires incredible luck! You could wait ten years and still not get everything!”
“Surprisingly, it worked out,” said Baochai. “We somehow managed to gather everything within a year or two. We were fortunately able to prepare one full batch! I brought it from home with me, and it’s now buried beneath the pear tree in the courtyard.”
“So what is the medicine called?” asked Zhou Rui’s wife.
“The monk gave it a name,” replied Baochai. “He called it ‘Cold Fragrance Pill.’”
Zhou Rui’s wife nodded. “So what’s it really like when that illness of yours flairs up?” she asked.
“It’s not too severe,” said Baochai. “I just feel a little breathless and cough. Taking one pill is enough to settle it down.”
Translation Critique
Hawkes
As usual, David Hawkes gives descriptive English names to the maids. Lady Wang’s maid 金釧兒 (Jinchuan) is named “Golden,” and Xue Baochai’s maid 鶯兒 (Ying’er) is named Oriole. The names Hawkes comes up with are generally good translations of the original names, and are done this way to help some of the poetic passages make sense. However, note that Hawkes does not follow this method for the principle characters of the book.
Personally, I prefer to use names that are reflections of the Chinese characters and use explanatory notes to tackle the poetry and other allusions.
When Zhou Rui’s wife enters the house, she sees Lady Wang and Aunt Xue talking about family matters (見王夫人正和薛姨媽長篇大套的說些家務人情話). For some odd reason, Hawkes translates this as “she found the two sisters in the midst of a seemingly interminable discussion of some domestic odyssey.” That feels like an unnecessarily dramatic interpretation of an otherwise meaningless passage.
Hawkes translates the “heat toxin” (熱毒) as “a congenital tendency to overheatedness.” This seems like an overtranslation, but I think there’s a reason why Hawkes chose that particular phrase. More on this tomorrow.
Hawkes translates 海上仙方兒 (“the magical formula from over the sea” in my translation) as “a prescription supposed to have been handed down from the Immortals of the Islands.” I’m not sure where he gets “islands” from. 方兒 clearly means “recipe” or “formula,” 仙 is an adjective meaning “immortal,” and 海上 means from the seas. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter: the important point is that this is a mystical prescription from Chinese alchemy.
Yang
The Yangs add in a poem at the start that I presume comes from one of the handwritten manuscripts:
Twelve maids pretty as flowers,
But who is it that loves them?
Do you ask the name of the one he meets?
It is Chin whose home is south of the Yangtze River.
I presume that “Chin” here is the character 金 (jīn, or gold), which would indicate Xue Baochai.
It’s now time for the Yangs to use some unusual English terms.
They describe the monk as a tonsured monk. Tonsured means that he had his head shaved.
They also describe the monk’s magical powder as an adjuvant. An adjuvant is something that helps or aids.
Fortunately, the Yangs are kind enough to give us approximate dates for the lunar periods:
“Rain Begins” = February 20
“White Dew” = September 8
“Frost Falls” = October 23
“Slight Snow” = November 22
The Yangs translate the 一錢二分 at the end of the formula as “twelve candareens.” A candareen is about 378 milligrams and is a traditional unit of weight in East Asia.
They translate the final concoction as phellodendron. Phellodendron refers to the cork tree.
Chinese Text
第七回 送宮花賈璉戲熙鳳 宴寧府寶玉會秦鍾
話說周瑞家的送了劉姥姥去後，便上來回王夫人話，誰知王夫人不在上房。問丫鬟們，方知往薛姨媽那邊說話兒去了。周瑞家的聽說，便出東角門，過東院，往梨香院來。剛至院門前，只見王夫人的丫鬟金釧兒和那一個才留頭的小女孩兒站在臺階兒上玩呢。看見周瑞家的進來，便知有話來回，因往裡努嘴兒。
周瑞家的輕輕掀簾進去，見王夫人正和薛姨媽長篇大套的說些家務人情話。周瑞家的不敢驚動，遂進裡間來。只見薛寶釵家常打扮，頭上只挽著䰖兒，坐在炕裡邊，伏在几上，和丫鬟鶯兒正在那裡描花樣子呢。見他進來，便放下筆，轉過身，滿面堆笑，讓：「周姐姐坐。」周瑞家的也忙陪笑問道：「姑娘好？」一面炕沿邊坐了，因說：「這有兩三天也沒見姑娘到那邊逛逛去，只怕是你寶兄弟衝撞了你不成？」寶釵笑道：「那裡的話？只因我那宗病又發了，所以且靜養兩天。」周瑞家的道：「正是呢，姑娘到底有什麼病根兒？也該趁早請個大夫認真醫治醫治。小小的年紀兒倒作下個病根兒，也不是玩的呢。」
寶釵聽說，笑道：「再別提起。這個病也不知請了多少大夫，吃了多少藥，花了多少錢，總不見一點效驗兒。後來還虧了一個和尚，專治無名的病症，因請他看了，他說我這是從胎裡帶來的一股熱毒，幸而我先天壯，還不相干。要是吃丸藥，是不中用的。他就說了個『海上仙方兒』，又給了一包末藥作引子，異香異氣的。他說犯了時吃一丸就好了。倒也奇怪，這倒效驗些。」
周瑞家的因問道：「不知是什麼海上方兒？姑娘說了，我們也好記著，說給人知道。要遇見這樣病，也是行好的事。」寶釵笑道：「不問這方兒還好，若問這方兒，真把人瑣碎死了。東西藥料一概卻都有限，最難得是『可巧』二字。要春天開的白牡丹花蕊十二兩，夏天開的白荷花蕊十二兩，秋天的白芙蓉花蕊十二兩，冬天的白梅花蕊十二兩。將這四樣花蕊於次年春分這一天晒乾，和在末藥一處，一齊研好。又要雨水這日的天落水十二錢。」周瑞家的笑道：「噯呀，這麼說就得三年的工夫呢！倘或雨水這日不下雨，可又怎麼著呢？」寶釵笑道：「所以了，那裡有這麼可巧的雨？也只好再等罷了。還要白露這日的露水十二錢，霜降這日的霜十二錢，小雪這日的雪十二錢。把這四樣水調勻了，丸了龍眼大的丸子，盛在舊磁壇裡，埋在花根底下。若發了病的時候兒，拿出來吃一丸，用一錢二分黃柏煎湯送下。」
周瑞家的聽了，笑道：「阿彌陀佛！真巧死人了，等十年還未必碰的全呢！」寶釵道：「竟好。自他去後，一二年間，可巧都得了，好容易配成一料！如今從家裡帶了來，現埋在梨花樹底下。」周瑞家的又道：「這藥有名字沒有呢？」寶釵道：「有。也是那和尚說的，叫作『冷香丸』。」周瑞家的聽了，點頭兒，因又說：「這病發了時，到底怎麼著？」寶釵道：「也不覺什麼，不過只喘嗽些，吃一丸也就罷了。」
Translation Notes
戲 means to play with, and refers here to flirtatious banter between Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng.
薛姨媽, or “Aunt Xue,” is the mother of Xue Baochai, and is Lady Wang’s sister.
金釧兒 (Jinchuan) is the name of Lady Wang’s maid. David Hawkes names her Golden in The Story of the Stone. 金 means gold; 釧 means a bracelet – and note that the character 釧 has 金 on the left hand side as a radical.
努嘴 means to curl one’s lips to signal something to somebody else
鶯兒 (Ying’er) is the name of Xue Baochai’s personal maid. 鶯 (yīng) means oriole, and the 兒 was usually added on to the names of girls to convey a sense of youth and delicacy. You can think of her name as meaning something like “little oriole.” David Hawkes names her Oriole in The Story of the Stone.
寶兄弟 literally means “brother Bao.” Bao, of course, refers to Jia Baoyu. They aren’t brother and sister, naturally. Intimate familial terms like “sister” and “brother” are used to this day in China among close relatives (i.e. cousins), friends, and romantic partners, and can be somewhat confusing.
宗病 seems to refer here to some sort of chronic health condition, though it’s not clear what that is.
虧 means luckily or fortunately
引子 literally means “a guide.” This was used in traditional Chinese medicine to direct the action of the main formula to the right part of the body.
瑣碎 means trivial or inconsequential; however, here it likely means entangled or complicated, an older meaning of the word.
牡丹 means a peony flower.
荷花 means a lotus flower.
芙蓉花 is a kind of hibiscus flower, apparently called a cotton rose.
梅花 is a plum blossom.
錢 here is a unit of measurement equal to about 5 grams.
春分 is the name of a specific solar term in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. This marks the midpoint of spring.
雨水 is the name of one of the solar terms in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. This refers to a period of time that usually begins around February 18th to the 20th.
白露 is another solar term; this one marks the point where dew begins to form, which signals that the weather is getting colder.
霜降 is a solar term for the time when frost first appears.
小雪 is a solar term for the time when snow beings to fall, but lightly. Note that all of these are specific dates in the Chinese lunar calendar, but that these events do not necessarily take place on these specific dates.
黃柏 means yellow cork tree bark, and is supposed to drain fire and clear heat in the alchemy of traditional Chinese medicine.
竟好 means “it actually worked out, to my surprise.” 竟 here is an adverb that means “surprisingly.”