Gagahi

    I was out of job for several years, and had set up a shop for selling books and paintings in my own home. The income of the shop for three days was hardly sufficient to meet one day's expenses, and I was hard pressed for money and worried all the time.     I went through the severe winter without a padded gown and Ch'ingchun too was often shivering in her thin dress, but insisted on saying that she did not feel cold at all. For this reason, Yun swore that she would never see any doctor or take any medicine.     It happened once that she could get up from bed, when my friend Chou Ch'unhsu, who had just returned from the yamen of Prince Fu, wanted to pay for someone to embroider a buddhist book, the Prajnapararnita Sutra . Yun undertook to do it, being attracted by the handsome remuneration and besides believing that embroidering the text of a buddhist sutra might help to bring good luck and ward off calamities.     My friend, how...

    It was proposed then that Yun might stay at her maiden home, but her mother was dead and her younger brother had run away from home, and she was not willing to go and be a dependent on her kinsfolk.     Fortunately, my friend Lu Panfang heard of the matter and look pity on us, and asked us to go and stay in his home called Hsiaoshuanglou. After two years had passed, my father began to know the whole truth.     It happened that shortly after I returned from Lingnan [ in Kwangtung ], my father personally came to the Hsiaoshuanglou and said to Yun, "Now I understand everything. Why not come home?" Accordingly we returned happily to the old home and the family was reunited. Who would suspect that the affair of Hanyuan was still brewing ahead!     Yun used to have woman's troubles, with discharges of blood. The ailment developed as a consequence of her brother K'ehch'ang running away from home and her mother dying of grief over it wh...

    Fouting passed on the word to me, and I secretly wrote to Yun, asking her to look round for a girl. She did, and found one of the Yao clan. As Yun was not quite sure whether my father would rake her or not, she did not tell mother about it.     When the girl was leaving, she merely referred to her as a girl in the neighbourhood who was going for a pleasure trip. After learning, however, that my father had instructed me to bring the girl to his quarters for good, she listened to some one's advice and invented the story that this was the girl my father had had in mind for a long time. "     But you said she was going for a pleasure trip! Now why does he marry her?" remarked my mother. And so Yun incurred my mother's displeasure, too.     I was working at Chengchow (cheng, Kiangsu) in the spring of 1792. My father happened to be ill at Yangchow, and when I went there to see him, I fell ill, too. At that time, my younger brother Ch'it'an...

    Why is it that there are sorrows and hardships in this life? Usually they are due to one's own fault, but this was not the case with me.     I was fond of friendship, proud of keeping my word, and by nature frank and straightforward, for which I eventually suffered. My father Chi-afu, too, was a very generous man; he used to help people in trouble, bring up other people's sons and marry off other people's daughters in innumerable instances, spending money like dirt, all for the sake of other people.     My wife and I often had to pawn things when we were in need of money, and while at first we managed to make both ends meet, gradually our purse became thinner and thinner. As the proverb says, “To run a family and mix socially, money is the first essential. ” At first we incurred the criticism of the busybodies, and then even people of our own family began to make sarcastic remarks. Indeed "absence of talent in a woman is synonymous with virtue...

    "Did you enjoy it today?" I asked Yun.     "We would not have enjoyed it so much, had it not been for Madame!" All of us exclaimed. Then merrily we parted.     A poor scholar should try to be economical in the matter of food, clothing, house and furniture, but at the same time be clean and artistic. In order to be economical, one should "manage according to the needs of the occasion." as the saying goes.     I was very fond of having nice little suppers with a little liquor, but did not care for many dishes. Yun used to make a tray with a plum-blossom design. It consisted of six deep dishes of white porcelain, two inches in diameter, one in the centre and the other five grouped round it, painted grey and looking like a plum flower,     Both its bottom and its top were  bevelled and there was a handle on the top resembling the stem of a plum flower, so that, when placed on the table, it looked like a regular plum blossom dropped ...

    There are two places in Soochow called the South Garden and the North Garden. We would go there when the rape flowers were in bloom, but there was no wine shop nearby where we could have a drink. If we bought eatables along in a basket, there was little fun drinking cold wine in the company of the flowers.     Some proposed that we could look for some place to get a drink in the neighbourhood, and others suggested that we should look at the flowers first and then come back for a drink, but this was never quite the ideal thing, which should be to drink warm wine in the presence of flowers.     While no one could make any satisfactory suggestion, Yun smiled and said, "Tomorrow you people provide the money and I'll carry a stove to the place myself." "Very well." They all said.     When my friends had left, I asked Yun how she was going to do it. "I'm not going to carry it myself," she said, "I have seen wonton sellers in the streets who car...

    Among the friends at Hsiaoshuanglou, four things were tabooed: firstly, talking about people's official promotions; secondly, gossiping about law-suits and current affairs; thirdly, discussing the conventional eight-legged essays for the imperial examinations; and fourthly, playing cards and dice. Whoever broke any of these rules was penalized to provide five catties of wine.     On the other hand, there were four things which we all approved: generosity, romantic charm, free and easy ways, and quietness. In the long summer days when we had nothing to do, we used to hold examinations among ourselves.     At those parties, there would be eight persons, each bringing two hundred cash along. We began by drawing lots, and the one who got the first would be the official examiner, seated on top by himself, while the second one would be the official recorder, also seated in his place. The others would then be the candidates, each taking a slip of pap...

    One can make several of these things and place them wherever one pleases, before windows or doors, and they will  look like living plants, casting their green shade into the house, warding off the sun and yet allowing the wind to come through. They can be placed in any irregular formation, adjustable according to time and circumstances, and are, therefore, called "movable flower screens."     With this method, one can use any kind of fragrant weeds of the creeper family, instead of peas. It is an excellent arrangement for people staying in the country.     My friend Lu Panfang's name was Chang and his literary name Ch'unshan. He was very good at painting pine-trees and cypresses, plum blossoms and chrysanthemums, as well as writing the lishu  style of calligraphy, besides specializing in carving seals.     I stayed in his home called Hsiaoshuanglou for a year and a half. The house faced east and consisted of five beams, of ...

    To burn incense in a quiet room is one of the cultivated pleasures of a leisurely life. Yun used to burn aloes-wood and shuhsiang （a kind of fragrant wood from Cambodia）. She used to steam the wood first in a cauldron thoroughly, and then place it on a copper wire net over a stove, about half an inch from the fire. Under the action of the slow fire, the wood would give out a kind of subtle fragrance without any visible smoke.     Another thing, the "buddha's fingers" [a variety of citron] should not be smelt by a drunken man, or it would easily rot. It is also bad for the quince to perspire (as under atmospheric changes), and when it does so, one should wash it with water.     The citron alone is easy to take care of, because it is not afraid of handling. There are different ways of taking care of the “buddha's fingers" and the quince which cannot be expressed in so many words.     I have seen people who take one of these things...

    Poor scholars who live in crowded houses should follow the method of the boatmen in our native district who make clever arrangements with their limited space on the sterns of their boats by devising certain modifications, such as making a series of successive elevations one after another, and using them as beds, of which there may be three in a little room, and separating them with papered wooden partitions. The effect will be compact and wonderful to look at, like surveying a long stretch of road, and one will not feel the cramping of space.     When my wife and I were staying at Yangchow, we lived in a house of only two beams, but the two bedrooms, the kitchen and the parlour were all arranged in this method, with an exquisite effect and great saving of space. Yun once said to me laughingly, "The arrangements are exquisite enough, but after all, they lack the luxurious atmosphere of a rich man's house. " It was so indeed.       Once I visite...

    When arranging miniature sceneries with flowers and stones in a pot, design so that a small one could suggest a painting, and a big one the infinite. One should make it so that, with a pot of tea, one could lose oneself in a world of imagination; and only this kind should be kept in one's private studio for enjoyment.     Once I planted some narcissus and could not find any pebbles from Lingpi for use in the pot, and I substituted them with pieces of coal that looked like rocks. One can also take five or seven pieces of yellow-brimmed white cabbage of different size, whose core is white like jade, and plant them in sand in an oblong earthen basin, decorated with charcoal instead of pebbles. The black of the charcoal will then contrast vividly with the white of the cabbage, quite interesting to look at.     It is impossible to enumerate all the possible variations, but if one exercises one's ingenuity, it will be found to be an endless source of ple...

    In the case of flower bowls or open dishes, the method of making a support for the flowers is to mix pitch and refined resin with elm bark, flour and oil, and heat up the mixture with hot hay ashes until it becomes a kind of glue, and with it glue some nails upside down on to a piece of copper. This copper plate can then be heated up and glued on to the bottom of the bowl or dish.     When it is cold, tie the flowers in groups by means of wire and stick them on those nails. The flowers should be allowed to incline sideways and not shoot up from the centre; it is also important that the stems and leaves should not come too closely together. After this is done, put some water in the bowl and cover up the copper support with some clean sand, so that the flowers will seem to grow directly from the bottom of the bowl.     When picking branches from flower-trees for decoration in vases, it is important to know how to trim them before putting th...

    When I was grown up, I loved flowers very much and was very fond of training pot flowers and pot plants. Whe I knew Chang Lanp'o, I learnt from him the secrets of trimming branches and protecting joints, and later the art of grafting trees and making rockeries.     The orchid was prized most among all the flowers because of its subdued fragrance and graceful charm, but it was difficult to obtain really good classic varieties. At the end of his days, Lanp'o presented me with a pot of orchids, whose flowers had lotus-shaped petals; the centre of the flowers was broad and white, the petals were very neat and even at the "shoulders," and the stems were very slender. This type was classical, and I prized it like a piece of old jade.     When I was working away from home, Yun used to take care of it personally and it grew beautifully. After two years, it died suddenly one day. I dug up its roots and found that they were white like marble, while noth...

    What are the Christmas dating activities? How would you arrange a romantic date with your girlfriend at Christmas Day? Give your beloved her a different surprise and feel the romance you have arranged with your heart. There are some information about Christmas dating strategies, let’s learn how to make a romantic date at Christmas Day. No.1 Creative surprise     At the Christmas Eve, you tell your girlfriend that you can’t spend this Christmas with her, and then ask her best friend to invite her to the cinema at Christmas Day. When she sees you hold Christmas gifts, movie tickets, and popcorn, she will be very happy. After watching the movie, you can also go to the restaurant to enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner. There are many customers in the restaurant at Christmas. So you remember to make an appointment in advance. This Christmas dating strategy is very romantic. No.2 Fun in the amusement park     You can choose a very enjoyable play...

     I remember that when I was a child, I could stare at the sun with wide, open eyes. I could see the tiniest objects, and loved to observe the fine grains and patterns of small things, from which I derived a romantic, unworldly pleasure.     When mosquitoes were humming round in summer, I transformed them in my imagination into a company of storks dancing in the air. And when I regarded them that way, they were real storks to me, flying by the hundreds and thousands, and I would look up at them until my neck was stiff.     Again, I kept a few mosquitoes inside a white curtain and blew a puff of smoke round them, so that to me they became a company of white storks flying among the blue clouds, and their humming was to me the song of storks singing in high heaven, which delighted me intensely.     Sometimes I would squat by a broken, earthen wall, or by a little bush on a raised flower-bed, with my eyes on the same level as th...

    "Now I have found a girl who has both beauty and charm," Yun said to me. "I have already asked Hanyuan to come and see us tomorrow, and I'll arrange it for you." I was taken by surprise.     " You know we are not a wealthy family. We can't afford to keep a girl like that, and we are so happily married. Why do you want to find somebody else?"     "But I love her," said Yun smilingly. "You just leave it to me."     The following afternoon, Hanyuan actually came. Yun was very cordial to her and prepared a feast, and we played the finger-guessing game and drank, but during the whole dinner, not a word was mentioned about securing her for me.     When Hanyuan had gone, Yun said, "I have secretly made another appointment with her to come on the eighteenth, when we will pledge ourselves as sisters. You must prepare a sacrificial offering for the occasion"; and pointing to the emerald bracelet on her arm, she continued, ...

    The annual Christmas is coming soon. This is a special festival for couples and to enhance the relationship between two people.      On this day, lovers can do something The little things of ritual sense enhance the relationship between two people and keep love fresh for a long time. No.1 Happiness home     In the morning of this day, you could decorate home with prepared Christmas tree, many kinds of socks and Christmas clothes, etc. During your lunch, you eat steak at outside restaurant. In the evening, you could buy some favorite vegetables, fruits and other daily necessities in the supermarket. It is a warm picture that lover cook for you surrounded by romantic atmosphere. No.2 Romance&Surprise     The traditional Christmas custom is that children should put a red sock in front of the fireplace or next to the pillow before they go to bed, and wait for Santa to put gifts in the sock after they fall asleep. So if you are couples, th...

    "She breaks the rule! Two big cups!" Yun shouted.      "He called me 'common little fellow.' Why shouldn't I strike him?" protested Suyun.     “He really means by the 'common little fellow' something which you don't understand. You finish these two cups first and I'll tell you."     When Suyun had finished the two cups, Yun told her of our discussion about the jasmine at the Ts'anglang Pavilion. "Then the mistake is mine. I must be penalized again," said Suyun. And she drank a third cup. Yun said then that she had long heard of her reputation as a singer and would like to hear her sing. This Suyun did beautifully, beating time with her ivory chopsticks on a little plate. Yun drank merrily until she was quite drunk, when she took a sedan-chair and went home first, while I remained chatting with Suyun for a moment, and then walked home under the moonlight.     At this time, we were staying in the home of our fr...

    We then came back hand-in-hand to the boat, and when we stopped at the Bridge of Ten Thousand Years. The sun had not yet gone down. And we let down all the windows to allow the river breeze to come in, and there, dressed in light silk and holding a silk fan, we sliced a melon to cool ourselves.     Soon the evening glow was casting a red hue over the bridge, and the distant haze enveloped the willow trees in twilight. The moon was then coming up, and all along the river we saw a stretch of lights coming from the fishing boats. I asked my servant to go astern and have a drink with the boatman. The boatman's daughter was called Suyun. She was quite a likeable girl, and I had known her before. I beckoned her to come and sit together with Yun on the bow of the boat. We did not put on any light, so that we could the better enjoy the moon, and there we sat drinking heartily and playing literary games with wine as forfeit.  Suyun just stared at us, l...

    Yun then had such fun looking at herself in the mirror. I dragged her along and we stole away together to the Temple. For a long time nobody in the Temple could detect it. When people asked, I simply said she was my boy cousin, and people would merely curtsy with their hands together and pass on. Finally, we came to a place where there were some young women and girls sitting behind the flower show. They were the family of the owner of that show, by the name of Yang. Yun suddenly went over to talk with them, and while talking, she casually leant over and touched the shoulder of a young woman. The maid-servants nearby shouted angrily, "How dare the rascal!" I attempted to explain and smooth the matter over, but the servants still scowled ominously on us, and seeing that the situation was desperate, Yun took off her cap and showed her feet, saying “Look here, I am a woman, too!" They all stared at each other in surprise, and then, instead of being angry, began ...