1、THE GOLDEN CANGUE Translated by Eileen ChangSHANGHAI thirty years ago on a moonlit night . maybe we did not get to see the moon of thirty years ago. To young people the moon of thirty years ago should be a reddish-yellow wet stain the size of a copper coin, like a teardrop on letter paper by To-yn H
2、san worn and blurred. In old peoples memory the moon of thirty years ago was gay, larger, rounder, and whiter than the moon now. But looked back on after thirty years on a rough road, the best of moons is apt to be tinged with sadness.The moonlight reached the side of Feng-hsiao pillow. She was a sl
3、ave girl brought by the bride, the new Third Mistress of the Chiangs. She opened her eyes to take a look and saw her own blue-white hand on the half-worn blanket faced with quilted Korean silk. Is it moonlight? she said to herself. She slept on a pallet on the floor under the window. The last couple
4、 of years had been busy with the changing of dynasties. The Chiangs coming to Shanghai as refugees did not have room, so the servants quarters were criss-crossed with people sleeping.Feng-hsiao seemed to hear a rustle behind the big bed and guessed that somebody had got up to use the chamber pot. Sh
5、e turned over and, just as she thought, the cloth curtain was thrust aside and a black shadow emerged, shuffling in slippers trodden down in the back. It was probably Little Shuang, the personal maid of Second Mistress, and so she called out softly, Little Sister Shuang.Little Shuang came, smiling,
6、and gave a kick to the pallet. I woke you. She put both hands under her old lined jacket of dark violet silk, worn over bright oil-green trousers. Feng-hsiao put out a hand to feel the trouser leg and said, smiling:2Colorful clothes are not worn so much now. With the people down river, the fashions
7、are all for no color.Little Shuang said, smiling, You dont know, in this house we cant keep up with other people. Our Old Mistress is strict, even the young mistresses cant have their own way, not to say us slave girls. We wear whats given dressed like peas-ants. She squatted down to sit on the pall
8、et and picked up a little jacket at Feng-hsiaos feet. Was this newly made for your ladys wedding?Feng-hsiao shook her head. Of my wardrobe for the sea-son, only the few pieces on view are new. The rest is just made up of discards.This wedding happened to run into the revolution, really hard on your
9、lady.Feng-hsiao sighed. Dont go into that now. In times like this, one should economize, but there was still a limit! That wedding really lacked style. That one of ours didnt say any-thing, but how could she not be angry?I shouldnt wonder Third Mistress is still unhappy about it. On your side the tr
10、ousseau was passable, the wedding prepara-tions we made were really too dismal. Even that year we took our Second Mistress it was better than this. Feng-hsiao was taken aback. How? Your Second Mistress .Little Shuang took off her shoes and stepped barefoot across Feng-hsiao to the window. Get up and
11、 look at the moon, she said.Feng-hsiao scrambled quickly to her feet. I was going to ask all along, your Second Mistress .Little Shuang bent down to pick up the little jacket and put it over her shoulders. Be careful you dont catch cold.Feng-hsiao said, smiling, as she buttoned it up, No, youve got
12、to tell me.My fault, I shouldnt have let it out, Little Shuang said, smiling.We are like sisters now. Why treat me like an outsider?If I tell you, dont you tell your lady though. Our Second Mistresss family owns a sesame oil shop.Oh! Feng-hsiao was surprised. A sesame oil shop! How on earth could th
13、ey stoop so low! Now your Eldest Mistress is from a titled family; ours cant compare with Eldest Mistress, but she also came from a respectable family.Of course there was a reason. Youve seen our Second Master, hes crippled. What mandarin family would give him a daughter for wife? Old Mistress didnt
14、 know what to do, First was going to get him a concubine, and the matchmaker found this one of the Tsao family, called Chi-chiao4 because she was born in the seventh month.Oh, a concubine, said Feng-hsiao.Was to be a concubine. Then Old Mistress thought, since Second Master was not going to take a w
15、ife, it wouldnt do ei-ther for the second branch to be without its proper mistress. Just as well to have her for a wife so she would faithfully look after Second Master.Feng-hsiao leaned her hands on the window sill, musing. No wonder. Although Im new here, Ive guessed some of it too.Dragons breed d
16、ragons, phoenixes breed phoenixesas the saying goes. You havent heard her conversation! Even in front of the unmarried young ladies she says anything she likes. Lucky that in our house not a word goes out from inside, nor comes in from outside, so the young ladies dont understand a thing. Even then
17、they get so embarrassed they dont know where to hide.Feng-hsiao tittered. Really? Where could she have picked up this vulgar language? Even us slave girls-Little Shuang said, holding her own elbows, Why, she was the big attraction at the sesame oil shop, standing at the counter, and dealing with all
18、 kinds of customers. What have we got to compare with her?Did you come witb her wheu she was married?Little Shuang sneered. How could she afford me! I used to wait on Old Mistress, but Second Master took medicine all day and had to be helped around all the rime, and siuce they were short of hands, I
19、 was sent over there. Why, are you cold? Feng-hsiao shook her head. Look at you, the way you pulled in your neck, so cuddlesome! She had hardly finished speaking when Feng-hsiao sneezed. Right away Little Shuang gave her a push. Go to bed, go to bed. Warm yourselfFeng-hsiao knelt down to take her ja
20、cket off Its not win-ter, you dont catch cold just like that.The window may be closed but the wind squeaks in through. the crevices.They both lay down. Feng-hsiao asked in a whisper, Been married for four, five years now?Who?Who else?Oh, she. Thats right, its been five years.Had children too, and ga
21、ve people nothing to talk about? As to that! Plenty to talk about. The year before last Old Mistress took everybody in the house on a pilgrimage to Mount Pu-to. She didnt go because it was just after her lying-in, so she was left at home to look after the house. Master-in-law5 called a bit too often
22、 and a batch of things was lost.Feng-hsiao was startled. And they never got to the bottom of it?What would have come of that? It would have been embar-rassing for everybody. Anyway, the jewelry would have gone to Eldest Master, Second Master, and Third Master one day. Eldest Master and Eldest Mistre
23、ss couldnt very well say any-thing on account of Second Master. Third Master was in no positiou to, he himself was spending money like water and had borrowed a lot from the family accounts.The two of them talked across ten feet. Despite their effort to lower their voices, a louder sentence or two wo
24、ke up old Mrs. Chao on the big bed. She called out, Little Shuang. Little Shuang did not dare answer. Old Mrs. Chao said, Little Shuang, if you talk more nonsense and let people hear you, be careful you dont get skinned tomorrow! Little Shuang kept still. Dont think youre still in the deep halls and
25、 big court-yards we lived in before, where you had room to talk crazy and act silly. Here its cheek by jowl, nothing can be kept from other people. Better stop talking if you want to avoid a beating.Immediately the room became silent. Old Mrs. Chao, who had inflamed eyes, had stuffed her pillow with
26、 chrysanthemum leaves, said to make eyes clear and cool. She now raised her head to press down the silver hairpin tucked across her bun and the chrysanthemum leaves rustled with the slight stir. She turned over, her whole frame pulled into motion, all her bones squeaking. She sighed, You people! Wha
27、t do you know? Little Shuang and Feng-hsiao still dared not reply. For a long time nobody spoke, and one by one they drifted off to sleep.It was almost dawn. The flat waning moon got lower, lower and larger, and by the time it sank, it was like a red gold basin. The sky was a cold bleak crab-shell b
28、lue. The houses were only a couple of stories high, pitch-dark under the sky, so it was possible to see far. At the horizon the morning colors were a layer of green, a layer of yellow, and a layer of red like a watermelon cut open-the sun was coming up. Gradually wheelbarrows and big pushcarts began
29、 rattling along the road, and horse carriages passed, hoofs tapping. The beancurd soup vender with the flat pole on his shoulder hawked his wares slowly, swingingly. Ouly the long-drawn last syllable carried, Haw. 0! Haw. 0! Farther off, it became Aw. 0! Aw. 0!In the house the slave girls and amahs
30、had also got up, in a flurry to open the room doors, fetch hot water, fold up bed-ding, hook up the bed-curtains, and do the hair. Feng-hsiao helped Third Mistress Lan-hsien get dressed. Lan-hsien leaned close to the mirror for a careful look, pulled out from under her armpit a pale green blossom-fl
31、ecked handkerchief, rubbed some powder off the wings of her nose, and said with her back to Third Master on the bed. Id better go first to pay my respects to Old Mistress. Id be late if I waited for you.As she was speaking, Eldest Mistress Tai-chen came and stood on the doorstep, saying with a smile
32、 Third Sister, lets go together.Lan-hsien hurried up to her. I was just getting worried Id be lateso Eldest Sister-in-law hasnt gone up yet. What about Second Sister-in-law?Shell still be a while.Getting Second Brother his medicine?Tai-chen looked around to make sure there was no one about before s
33、he said, smiling, Its not so much taking medi-cine as She put her thumb to her lips, made a fist with the three middle fingers, sticking out the little finger, and shushed softly a couple of times.Lan-hsien said, surprised, They both smoke this?Tai-chen nodded. With your Second Brother its out in th
34、e open, with her its kept from Old Mistress, which makes things difficult for us, caught in between-have to cover up for her. Actually Old Mistress knows very well. Purposely pretends she doesnt, orders her around and tortures her in little ways, just so that she cant smoke her fill. Actually, to th
35、ink of it, a woman and so young, what great worries could she have, to need to smoke this to take her mind off things?Tai-chen and Lan-hsien went upstairs hand in hand, each followed by the slave girl closest to her, to the small anteroom next door to Old Mistresss bedroom. The slave girl Liu-hsi ca
36、me out to them whispering, Not awake yet.Tai-chen glanced up at the grandfather clock and said, smil-ing, Old Mistress is also late today.Said she didnt sleep well the last couple of days, too much noise on the street, Liu-hsi said. Probably used to it now, making up for it today.Beside the little r
37、ound pedestal table of purple elm covered with a strip of scarlet felt sat Yun-tse, the second daughter of the house, cracking walnuts with a little nutcracker. She put it down and got up to greet them. Tai-chen laid a hand on her shoulder. Sister Yn, you are really filial. Old Mistress hap-pened to
38、 be in the mood yesterday to want some sugared wal-nuts made, and you remembered.Lan-hsien and Tai-chen sat down around the table and helped to peel the walnut skin. Yun-tses hands got tired and Lan-hsien took the nutcracker that she put down.Be careful of those nails of yours, as slender as scallio
39、ns. It would be a pity to break them when youve grown them so long, said Tai-chen.Have somebody go and get your gold nail sheath, Yun-tse said.So much bother, we might as well have them shelled in the kitchen, said Lan-hsien.As they were talking and laughing in undertones, Liu-hsi raised the curtain
40、 with a stick, announcing, Second. Mistress is here.Lan-hsien and Yun-tse rose to ask her to sit down but Tsao Chi-chiao would not be seated as yet. With one hand on the doorway and the other on her waist, she first looked around. On her thin face were a vermilion mouth, triangular eyes, and eyebrow
41、s curved like little hills. She wore a pale pink blouse over uarrow mauve trousers with a flickering blue scroll design and greenish-white incense-stick binding. A lavender silk crepe handkerchief was half tucked around the wrist in one narrow blouse sleeve. She smiled, showing her small fine teeth,
42、 and said, Everybodys here. I suppose Im late again today. How can I help it, doing my hair in the dark? Who gave me a window fac-ing the back yard? Im the only one to get a room like that. That one of ours is evidently not going to live long anyway, were just waiting to be widow and orphans-whom to
43、 bully, if not us?Tai-chen blandly said nothing. Lan-hsien said, smiling, Second Sister-in-law is used to the houses in Peking, no won-der she finds it too cramped here.Yun-tse said, Eldest Brother should have got a larger one when he was house-hunting, but Im afraid this counts as a bright and airy
44、 house for Shanghai.Lan-hsien said, That is so. Its true its a bit crowded, really, so many people in the house-Chi-chiao rolled up her sleeve and tucked the handkerchief in her green jade bracelet, glanced sideways at Lan-hsien, and said, smiling, So Third Sister feels therere too many people. If i
45、ts too crowded for us, who have been married for years, natu-rally its too crowded for newlyweds like you.Before Lan-hsien could say anything, Tai-chen blushed, say-ing, Jesting is jesting, but theres a limit. Third Sister has just come here, what will she think of us?Chi-chiao pulled up a corner of
46、 her handkerchief to cover her mouth. I know youre all young ladies from respectable homes. Just try and change places with me, Im afraid you couldnt put up with it for even one night.Tai-chen made a spitting noise. This is too much. The more you talk, the more impertinent you get.At this Chi-chiao
47、went up and took Tai-chen by her sleeve. I can swearI can swear for the last three years. Do you dare swear? You dare swear?Even Tai-chen could not help a titter, and then she mut-tered, How is it that you even got two children?Chl-chiao said, Really, even I dont know how the children got born. The
48、more 1 think about it the more I cant under-stand.Tai-chen held up her right hand and waved it from side to side. Enough talk in this vein. Granted that you take Third Sister as one of our own, and feel free to say anything you like, still Sister Yens here. If she tells Old Mistress later, youll get more than you want.Yun-tse had walked off long ago, and was standing on the veranda with her hands behind her back, whistling at the canary to make it sing. The Chiangs lived in a modern for
