Ko Ching dies and receives the posthumous title of wife of a mandarin of the fifth rank.

Ko Ching dies and receives the posthumous title of wife of a mandarin

of the fifth rank. Phoenix takes over the household management in the

Ningkuo palace.

TOWARDS THE END OF THE YEAR THE NEWS CAME FROM YANGCHOW

that Black Jade's father, Ling Ju Hai, was very ill and urgently desired

to see his daughter once more. The Princess Ancestress thought it right

that the father's wish should be granted, and so she sent her grand‐ 

daughter home under the escort of her cousin, Chia Lien. Pao Yu was

naturally very sad at being deprived of the company of his favorite

cousin for a considerable time. Phoenix, too, found it hard to bear the

long separation from her husband. Added to this was her anxiety for

the seriously sick friend in the eastern palace. She passed the lonely

evenings until bedtime as best she could chatting and gossiping mer‐ 

rily with the maid Little Ping.

One night, though tired from talking and working late, her restless

thoughts kept her lying awake long after her maid Ping was fast

asleep. By patiently counting on her fingers she had at last man‐ 

aged to lull herself into an uncertain doze. Outside, the third beat of

the drum had just announced midnight when it seemed to her that her

niece Ko Ching was standing beside her bed.

"Well may you sleep, dear," Ko Ching said to her, smiling, "but I,

of course, have to set out on the return journey today. Would you not

like to accompany me part of the way? We have always been so fond

of each other and understand each other so well that I did not wish

to go without saying good‐by to you. Besides, I have many things to

say to you which I would never confide to anyone else. For you are

not an average woman, and in the matter of intellect and energy you

are the equal of any man or any high official."

She now explained ih a long discourse that she was concerned for

the future of the house of Chia. True, the Chia clan had endured,

strong and powerful, for hundreds of years already, but blossoming is

likely to be followed by decay, and the day might come when the

mighty tree would fall, and the crowd of monkeys which it had sheltered

in its branches and crown up till now would be scattered in every direc‐ 

tion. This meant that in good times provision should be made for bad

times. Two things were on her mind: the consolidation of the family

school and insurance of the perpetuity of the quarterly sacrifices to the

ancestors. She entertained a fear lest lean times should come when there

would be no funds available for these two objects. She would there‐ 

fore like to recommend the Elders of the clan to take advantage of the

present favorable circumstances and buy up as much land and property

as possible in the neighborhood of the family vaults, thereby forming

a lasting and inalienable family foundation. The purpose of this foun‐ 

dation must be to maintain the family school and assure the perpetuity

of the ancestors' sacrifices from the proceeds of the communal lands.

A fortune dedicated to such cultural purposes would, even if the worst

came to Fne worst, be safe from seizures by the State in the event of

the offices and dignities of the heads of indjvidual families being for‐ 

feited and their private fortunes confiscated, in consequence of Im‐ 

perial disfavor or the like. In such an emergency the members of the

family concerned would, moreover, find a place of refuge in the lands

of the family foundation, where they could continue to support them‐ 

selves by farming. The family school would then give the sons and

grandsons the possibility of rising in the world once more. Farming

and education these were the two solid pillars upon which a great

aristocratic family like the Chia clan must rely if the inevitable vicis‐ 

situdes of fortune were to be outlived and if the clan was to be proof

against downfall. The speaker ended with the quotation:

Spring passes, fragrance fades,

Be watchful of the position acquired.

Phoenix had followed this intelligent discourse with profound atten‐ 

tion. She was just about to ask some questions when, through the still‐ 

ness of the night, she heard the Cloud Gong booming at the second

gateway. Its heavy thud resounded four times. That was the signal that

somebody in the house had died. Phoenix started up, alarmed, out of

her light sleep, and immediately a messenger appeared with the an‐ 

nouncement that Mistress Yung of the eastern palace had just passed

away. Phoenix dressed quickly and hurried over to her aunt, Madame

Cheng. Needless to say, the sad news of the early death of the young

and beautiful lady, who was so universally beloved, caused sobbing

and lamenting everywhere, in the eastern as well as in the western

palace.

Pao Yu also got news of the death during the night while he was in

bed. It made him start up violently and jump out of bed. As he did so

he felt a stab through his heart like the stab of a dagger and at the

same moment he spat up a mouthful of blood. The maids ran to him in

consternation and asked what was the matter with him and whether

they should send for a doctor, but he would not have it.

"It is of no importance," he said. "It is a little heart attack caused

by the sudden shock. Some blood has gone out of its course."

He dressed and went to the Princess Ancestress to ask permission

to go over while it was still night to visit the bier. The Princess An‐ 

cestress pointed out in vain that one should avoid the unclean proximity

of a fresh corpse, that his health might suffer if he were to go out in the

middle of a winter's night, and that it would be wiser to wait until the

morning. He would not be dissuaded. At last the anxious Ancestress

allowed him to go in a closed carriage and in the care of a numerous

retinue.

Despite the late hour, he found the entrance gateway to the Ningkuo

palace wide open and brightly lit up, and there was an excited coming

and going of people with torches and lanterns in their hands. From the

inner rooms he could hear loud cries of lamentation which made the

hills tremble and the mountains shake. Pao Yu also gave free vent

to his sorrow with many tears and loud laments by the side of the

bier. Then he. greeted the relatives, who had come in a dense crowd.

A time of strenuous commotion and excitement now followed in the

Ningkuo palace; for Prince Chen made it his business to carry out the

customary mourning ceremonies in honor of the beloved departed with

all possible pomp. No less a person than the Court Necromancer of the

Imperial Observatory was given the order to fix the days and times of

the various ceremonies. He directed that the burial should! take place

in seven weeks' time; that during those seven weeks the body was to

remain on a bier in the house of, mourning; that on the third day after

the death the seven weeks' mourning ceremonies were to be opened

by the issue of the death notices; that a hundred and eight bonzes were

to recite their Buddhist requiems in the great hall while ninety‐nine

Taoist priests were to offer sacrifice and pray according to the Taoist

rite for the salvation of the departed before an altar to be erected by

themselves in the Tower of Heavenly Balm. That, besides this, fifteen

bonzes and fifteen Taoist priests of high rank were to hold pious de‐ 

votions in front of the spirit tablet of the departed lady in the Hall of

Glorification in the Garden of Assembled Perfumes.

The only one of the whole clan whom the sad event left untouched

was the Elder of the house, the Prince Hermit Chia Ching. He himself

would ascend sooner or later into the heavenly spheres, so his message

ran. Why should he emerge now from his holy solitude and soil him‐

self again with the red dust of this world, after he had happily attained

to some degree of purification and perfection? Accordingly, he took

no further notice of the event, but remained in his hermitage, and left

the entire execution of the mourning program in the hands of his son,

Prince Chen.

Right at the beginning of the mourning period an episode occurred

which attracted much^notice and called forth great praise. A maid of

the deceased lady, one Jui Chu, in an effort to give visible expression

to her sincere sorrow at the death of her mistress, had hit her head so

hard against a wooden post that she had died of the effects. The whole

clan praised the behavior of this maid as an extraordinary and memo‐ 

rable example of self‐sacrificing fidelity and devotion, and Prince Chen

ordered that, as a reward, the brave girl should be buried with the

ceremony due to a granddaughter by blood and that her spirit tablet

also should be set up in the Hall of Glorification in the Garden of As‐ 

sembled Perfumes.

Yet another episode indicating praiseworthy piety and devotion was

announced. Another servant, one Pao Chu, nobly offered to allow

herself to be adopted posthumously as a daughter of the deceased

woman who was childless, in order that she might carry out during the

mourning period and at the funeral the difficult and onerous role in‐ 

cumbent on a surviving child, which demanded among other things

that she should walk by the coffin swaying from side to side during the

whole course of the funeral procession. Prince Chen accepted her offer

with grateful emotion and rewarded her by directing that henceforward

she should be called "Miss" and respected as a daughter of the house.

And Pao Chu undertook her duty as a daughter in such a conscientious

way and exaggerated to such an extent the prescribed lamenting and

wailing beside the coffin that she almost lost her life by it.

In his efforts to carry out the funeral with as much outward mag‐ 

nificence as possible, Prince Chen saw himself hindered, to his an‐ 

noyance, by one circumstance. "My son possesses neither rank nor

office," he reflected. "The only thing he has to be proud of is a title of

doctor of the first and lowest degree acquired by purchase. The in‐ 

scription on the banners of honor of his late wife will look paltry and

mean indeed. The deceased will, moreover, be deprived of any official

mourners. This is a painful deficiency."

Then it happened very appropriately that on the fourth day of the

firtt week of mourning, Tai Kuan, the influential chief Imperial eunuch

and superintendent of the Imperial Palace, came to pay a yisit. Mes‐ 

sengers went ahead bringing gifts for his sacrifice to the departed spirit.

Then he himself appeared in the big State sedan chair, his arrival

being ceremonially proclaimed by heralds and gong beaters. Prince

Chen invited him into the Pavilion of the Resting Bees, where they were

able to chat undisturbed, and in the course of the conversation he put

forward his request regarding promotion for his son. The* chief eunuch

understood at once what he was driving at with his guarded hints.

"If I understand you aright, you would like to give a greater air of

brilliance and importance to the funeral," he remarked, smiling.

"Your assumption is right, old Chancellor of the Interior," Prince

Chen hastened to confirm.

"Hm, your request comes just at the right time. I know by chance of

a nice, suitable vacancy for your son. Of the three hundred officers'

posts of command in the Imperial Palace Guard, there are two vacant

at the moment. True, one post I have already given away elsewhere

namely, to Count Hsiang Yang's son. Since the Count has requested

me repeatedly and urgently, and moreover had sent one thousand five

hundred silver taels to my house, I could not very well turn a deaf ear

to his request, especially as we are very old friends. Someone else has

applied for the remaining vacancy, it is true the fat Provincial Treas‐ 

urer Yung Hsing, who wants it for his son, but I have not answered his

request yet. You are therefore free to hand in a statement of your son's

curriculum."

The Prince did not have to be told twice; he ordered his secretaries

to write out the requested curriculum on nice red paper. The chief

eunuch read the paper on the spot, then he handed it to a young man of

his retinue with the words: "Take this paper to my old friend Chao,

the Minister of Finance. Give him my kind regards, and ask him to

prepare a document of investiture for an appointment of officer in the

palace guards with letters patent for a button of the fifth rank. Say that

I shall fetch the document myself tomorrow and bring with me the

appropriate amount of duly weighed sih ir."

The young attendant nodded and lef A little later the chief eunuch

himself stood up to go. Prince Chen p Jlitely accompanied him to the

outer gate.

"Shall I send the money to the Ministry or to your house?" he

asked, as his visitor got into the sedan chair.

"It might prejudice you with them if you sent it to the Ministry.

Better send me the round sum of a thousand taels to my house, then

you will have no further bother," was his answer. Prince Chen thanked

him exuberantly.

"When the mourning period is over I shall not fail to go personally

to your noble threshold and take my unworthy dog of a son with me,

so that he may dutifully make his kowtow of thanks to you," he assured

him.

As early as the following day Chia Yung received from the Ministry

his document of investiture and his letters patent of rank, and from

that day the spirit tablet of the deceased lady bore the inscription

"Spirit tablet of the Lady Ching, by marriage of the house of Chia, by

Imperial patent wife of a Mandarin of the fifth rank."

In front of the wide‐open outer gates of the Garden of Assembled

Perfumes there shone from high posts two bright red notices, visible

from a distance, which announced in large gold letters that the

obsequies of "Lady Ching, by letters patent wife of an officer of the

Imperial Palace Guard in the inner precincts of the Red Forbidden

City" were being held here.

Prince Chen was very happy and relieved that his request had been

granted so quickly. But there was still another dilemma which greatly

disquieted him.

His wife was ill and confined to bed, and just in these days when

there was ^a rush of visits and receptions, and there were so many

arrangements to be made, the mistress of the house, who could deputize

for him with dignity and keep the servants in control, was sadly missed.

Her absence was a calamity. How easily could transgressions against

custom occur, which would leave him open to the mockery of his noble

and illustrious guests. As it was, the servants were used to easy disci‐ 

pline and now, without direction and supervision, they would if possible

be even more careless. The Prince was in a sweat of anxiety, and con‐ 

fided the matter to his cousin Pao Yu. The advice which Pao Yu

whispered in his ear made his troubled face brighten up, and he re‐ 

solved to follow it at once.

He left his male guests alone and appeared shortly afterwards ac‐ 

companied by Pao Yu in the ladies' sitting room. As luck had it, there

were present only Princess Shieh, Madame Cheng, Madame Phoenix,

and a few other ladies, all close relations. Prince Chen himself did not

feel very well today and was exhausted from the rushing around and

night watching of the last few days. He had twinges of pain in his limbs,

and limped into the room, supported on a stick, groaning and with

difficulty. The ladies rose from their seats when he appeared, and

Princess Shieh asked anxiously: "Do you not feel well? You look ex‐ 

hausted, you should rest and take care of yourself."

The Prince, clutching his stick, got down on his knees with difficulty

to salute the ladies with his tsing an. The ladies signed to Pao Yu to

help him up, and asked him to take a seat. But the Prince modestly

insisted on making his request standing.

"The unworthy nephew has come here to ask a favor of the two

worthy aunts and the esteemed cousin," he began, forcing himself to

smile. And then he told of the embarrassment he was in owing to the

lady of the house being laid up just now, and he asked if Madame

Phoenix would be willing to help out by taking over the role of mistress

ol the house during the weeks of mourning.

That all depends on whether Aunt Cheng can do without her," re‐ 

marked Princess Shieh laughing.

"She is still young and inexperienced, and will scarcely be able to

undertake such a difficult task. What if she were to make some mis‐ 

take?' It would be better if you would ask someone else," said Aunt

Cheng, dubiously.

But Phoenix did not consider the matter for long. She was confident

of her ability for the difficult task, and as the princely cousin begged

and implored so pathetically, she gave her consent. The Prince thanked

her with a low bow and straight away gave her full authority in writing.

He warmly impressed upon her that she should manage the servants

and the palace housekeeping funds quite freely and absolutely at her

discretion just as if they were her own servants and her own funds.

Further, he suggested that she should move over to the Ningkuo palace

for the period of her management in order to spare herself the frequent

journeys back and forth. But Phoenix said, smiling, that she thought

she could not be done without in the Yungkuo palace either, so she

would prefer to come over every day.

That same day Phoenix took up the management. The first thing she

did was to make a list of the names of all the staff. And then, every

morning at half‐past six punctually, she held the roll call. With this list

in her hand and the wife of the majordomo Lai Sheng by her side,

she had each manservant and maidservant more than a hundred, in

all come to her one after another, and she herself set them their tasks

for the day. And even when she had had only a few hours' sleep, she

never missed this hour of the roll call. She demanded the same punctu‐ 

ality from the servants. Her own servants all had watches and were

trained to be punctual to the minute, she told the staff. There must also

be watches in the Ningkuo palace. Among other things, she introduced

a daily consultation hour from ten until half‐past eleven, when all re‐ 

quests and needs were to be submitted to her. Every evening at seven

o'clock she made the round of the entire premises. She took stern meas‐ 

ures against any dawdling or negligence. Once when a servant was miss‐ 

ing from the roll call she punished him with twenty strokes and the

deduction of a full month's wages. This had its effect. The slovenliness

which hitherto had reigned in the Ningkuo palace was replaced by stern

discipline, and the long weeks of mourning ceremony passed off to thi

great satisfaction of Prince Chen and, thanks to the energy and discre‐ 

tion of Phoenix, without the least violation of form or custom which

would have given cause for mockery or laughter.