Love and Loyalty of a Courtesan
Anonymous, Translated by W. W. Yen
Li Shih-shih was the daughter of a dryer by the name of Wang Ying, who lived in the eastern suburbs of Kaifeng, then the capital of the Sung Empire. Her mother died soon after giving birth to her, and it was her father who raised her on millet gruel for want of milk. She rarely cried as a baby.
According to the local custom, children deeply beloved by their parents must be nominally adopted by some Buddhist temple in order to?? be saved from dying early, and as Wang Ying was very fond of his baby girl, he had her adopted by the Temple of the Sacred Nimbus.
‘Don’t you know what sort of a place this is, and yet you dare to come here’? said the old monk, gazing at the infant.
At these words the child commenced to cry. Then the priest rubbed the crown of her head with the palm of his hand and she stopped crying. Her father was delighted, saying that she was certainly destined to be a Buddhist disciple. Now the disciples of Buddhism were familiarly called Shih (teacher), so she was given the name Shih-shih.
When she was four years old, her father was sentenced for some criminal offence, and died in the prison. The child was left without a home, and Old Lady Li, a keeper of a house of pleasure, adopted her. As she grew in age, she excelled both in physical beauty and in her vocal art, and became the most famous of all the courtesans in the capital.
Now the Emperor Hui Tsung of the Sung Dynasty, who had just assumed the imperial yellow, initiated a reign of luxury and extravagance. The Prime Minister Tsai Ching and his gang had succeeded, in the name of restoring some of the financial reforms of the preceding reigns, in introducing various onerous taxes to raise funds for court expenditures. The capita took on a false and superficial air of wealth and prosperity. The duty on spirits alone amounted daily to ten thousand strings of cash, and the imperial treasury overflowed with gold, silver, jade and silks. The courtiers and favourites pandered to the young sovereign with the pleasures of wine, women and song, of hunting dogs and racing ponies, and with the lavish construction of palaces and gardens. Exotic and rare plants, bizarre and costly rocks, were transported from all over the empire to beautify the imperial pleasure grounds. To the north of the city a luxurious mansion was built, where His Majesty and his boon companions spent days and nights in wild dissipation.
However, the emperor was soon surfeited with these orgies and diversions, and desired to visit incognito the houses of joy in the capital. A eunuch, Chang, an imperial favourite, used to be gay young blade before he mutilated himself and entered the service of the palace. He knew Old Lady Li very well, as he had frequented many such houses in former days, hers among them, and he boasted to the emperor of the extraordinary beauty and talent of Li Shih-shih.
The emperor fell to the temptation, and the following day ordered Chang to convey to Old Lady Li valuable gifts of silks, velvet, pearls and silver shoes, all from the imperial treasury, and to inform her that a wealthy merchant by the name of Chao Yi would like to visit her house. Impressed with the presents, she gladly assented to the proposal. At night His Majesty changed his clothes and, mingling among some two score of eunuchs who accompanied him, left the palace by the Tung Hua Gate, arriving soon at Li’s establishment. At the door he waved his hand at the others to return, while he and Chang boldly entered.
The house was a small and modest one, but the mistress was exceptionally warm in the reception of her guests. She set forth before them freshly cut pieces of lotus root, dates as large as eggs, and many other kinds of fruit rarely seen even in the palace. The emperor helped himself to one of each kind, while the old lady continued to entertain him with gossip and small talk. But Shih-shih was nowhere to be seen though His majesty patiently waited.
After a while the eunuch retired, and Li conducted her guest to a small kiosk, charmingly furnished and with windows elegantly curtained, through which he could see young bamboo plants in the moonlight gently wafted by the breeze and casting their shadows here and there. The emperor was much delighted with the cozy boudoir and waited contentedly, though Shih-shih still failed to show herself.
Then, Old Lady Li took the distinguished visitor to a room in the rear, where were laid out on a dining table many dishes of venison, chicken, fish and lamb, all deliciously prepared, with rice of special fragrance, whereof he partook a bowl, she continuing to entertain him. Again, His Majesty was disappointed in that the famous beauty did not appear in his presence.
At this moment of bewilderment he was invited by the old lady to take a bath, which he refused.
‘Don’t be offended,’ she whispered to him, ‘but my dear daughter has a passion for cleanliness!’
His Majesty could not help but follow the old woman into a small bathroom, and after making his ablutions, was led back to the dining room where the table had been set anew with dainties and refreshments. He was urged to drink to his fill, but ” all by himself!
After another long wait, Old lady Li, holding a lighted candle, introduced him to a bedchamber, where he saw a lonely lamp standing behind the door curtain. He was more than amazed, but concealed his annoyance by reposing himself now in a chair, now on the couch. After long last Li returned to the room, leading by the hand a young woman, who walked slowly and hesitatingly. She wore her natural complexion, using neither powder nor rouge, and seemed to have emerged fresh from a bath. She was as pretty as lily on the surface of the water, but she manifested little interest in her visitor. In fact, she held herself in rather a cold and haughty posture and hardly acknowledged his presence.
‘Please don’t take offence,’ Li whispered in the guest’s ear, ‘My child is obstinate by nature.’
His Majesty stared at her intently in the lamplight, and was deeply impressed by her beautiful face and the brilliancy of her eyes, which shone with an air of surprise. He asked to know her age, but she made no reply, and when he insisted, she merely shifted to another seat. Li again told the visitor under her breath that the girl did not like to
talk much, and that he should not mind her seeming rudeness. She then retired.
Shih-shih left her chair to remove her outer coat of yellow satin and, rolling up the sleeves of her soft clinging gown, reached for her lute hanging on the wall. Placing the instrument on a long table and sitting down by its side, she played the classical tune of the Wild Geese’s Descent on the Smooth Sands, and the melody as well as the lightness of touch of her fingers fascinated the imperial ears, making him forget his drowsiness.
By the time she finished the third and last part of the piece, the cocks had begun to crow. The emperor hurriedly raised the door curtain to leave, and the old lady reappeared, bringing cakes and almond sauce. He took his departure shortly after, his escort waiting discreetly at the door, and returned to the palace. This happened on the seventeenth day of the eighth moon in the third year of the Ta Kuan period.
When alone by themselves Li complained cautiously to Shih-shih. ‘That Mr. Chao,’ she said, ‘treated you not badly; why were you so cool and indifferent’?
‘Why,’ she answered angrily, ‘he is nothing but a contemptible shopkeeper. What did he expect of me’?
‘You are stiff-necked enough to qualify you to be a censor,’ retorted the old woman with a laugh.
Before long, gossip began to circulate in the capital about the imperial nocturnal visit to the house of joy, and when Li heard of it, she was terrified. She wept day and night, saying to Shih-shih that if the report was true, it meant the death of her entire family.
‘Never fear,’ said Shih-shih, ‘if His Majesty deigned to call on me, he would surely not kill me. Moreover, he put no compulsion of any kind on me that night, proving that he had pity and love for me. What saddens me is that my fate in life is ill-starred ” lowering me to such a social level as to bring infamy by association to the noble sovereign. For my being guilty of this, even death itself cannot atone. There is no need of fear of punishment for having offended His Majesty, because, the whole affair being one of gallantry, the emperor would surely try to keep it quiet.’
When the New Year came, His Majesty bestowed on Shih-shih the ancient and renowned instrument known as the Lute of the Snake’s Skin (a treasure of the palace, so-called because the woodwork was varnished in the pattern and colour of a serpent’s skin) and, in addition, fifty teals of pure silver.
In the third moon of the following year His Majesty paid his second incognito visit to Shih-shih. When the latter, still plainly dressed, met the imperial guest on her knees, he smilingly raised her to her feet. He noticed that house had been entirely renovated and extended, and the rooms he previously visited had their furniture covered with
satin embroidered with the imperial dragon. The quiet kiosk had been transformed into a big pavilion with vermilion columns and brigt red railings, losing completely its former air of elegance.
Old Lady Li hid herself somewhere inside and when summoned to the imperial presence, trembled all over, all her previous familiarity and loquacity having vanished. His Majesty, inwardly displeased, put on an appearance of amiability, addressing her as Old Mother, and informing her that all the three of them being now of one family, she should not feel constrained or nervous. She prostrated herself on the floor to express her gratefulness.
His Majesty was then conducted to a newly built hall and Shih-shih, falling on her knees, begged the emperor to dedicate it. His eyes were met by the apricot trees in full bloom in front of the building, so he wrote three big characters meaning ‘The Hall of Intoxicating Apricot Blossoms.’
Soon the table was set; Shih-shih waited on His Majesty, while on bent knees Old Lady Li offered wine in honour of the emperor’s longevity. Shih-shih was granted a seat on one side and commanded to play on the royal gift of the famous lute, the tune she chose being the classical Playing Thrice for the Plum Blossoms. Drinking and listening, His Majesty applauded heartily when melody ended.
The emperor noted that the table-wares were painted with dragons and phoenixes, like those employed in the palace, and enquired where they originated. He was informed by Li that they were specially ordered at her own expense after the model provided by the cooks of the imperial household. Annoyed by the information, he warned her to continue in her former plain style of living and not indulge in ostentation. The dinner broke up somewhat abruptly on account of the incident.
His Majesty used to honour the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts with personal visits, when he would test the artists by commanding them to paint pictures with lines of poetry as themes. One or two pictures would be crowned each year with imperial awards. That year in the ninth moon a picture was painted having for its subject the following two
lines:
Chewing bits of gold the ponies neigh softly on the grass-green sward,
While in the House of Jade, the Lady drinks to the apricot flowers.
This painting was bestowed on Shih-shih. In addition she was given highly precious and artistic lanterns, ten of each kind, having such fanciful names as Silken Fibres of the Lotus Root, Warming Up in the snow, Fragrant Tulip, and the Fiery Phoenix holding a Pearl in the Mouth; four sets of bejeweled wine-cups, ten in each set; a hundred pounds each of three kinds of exquisite tea; different makes of delicious cakes; and one thousand taels each of gold and silver.
The affair soon became the topic of gossip in court circles. Her Majesty the Empress Cheng, getting knowledge of it, remonstrated with the emperor, appealing to his good sense which, she pleaded, should not allow him to associate with a courtesan. Besides, she pointed out, going out of the palace incognito at night might lead to some untoward incident. His Majesty nodded in approval of her words. For almost two years he refrained from leaving clandestinely the palace precincts, but there continued a stream of messages and gifts for Shih-shih.
In the second year of the Hsuan Ho period His Majesty again honour Shih-shih with a visit, and saw the painting which he had bestowed on her hung up in the Hall of Intoxicating Apricot Blossoms. Gazing at it for a long while, he suddenly turned and caught sight of Shih-shih. ‘Hello,’ he laughingly cried, ‘the beauty in the picture responds to my call.’
He had brought from the palace wonderful hairpins of gold, strings of pearls, a hand-mirror ornamented with a dancing phoenix and an incense-burner encircled by a golden dragon. To these gifts were added the next day a stone ink-slab carved with the phoenix, blocks of ink manufactured by the famous ink-maker Li Ting-kuei, writing brushes of fine art and jade holders, and paper made of silk. Old Lady Li received as present a large sum of silver.
The eunuch Chang now slyly suggested to His Majesty that visiting surreptitiously at night the home of Shih-shih was after all inconvenient and could not be often repeated. Now, he said, the imperial chateau outside of the capital and her house were separated only by a piece of vacant public land, a few hundred yards in length. If a private enclosed passage were built between the two places, the problem would be solved. His Majesty commanded the eunuch to execute the scheme.
Using as pretext that palace guards were obliged to live in the open, Chang and a few others in a formal petition recommended the building of barracks for the soldiers on the vacant public land, to be surrounded with a high wall. When the building was completed a safe and secret access was provided for His Majesty to Shih-shih’s quarters, and on account of the presence of the guards the populace kept away from the neighbourhoood.
In the third moon of the fourth year the emperor commenced his visits to Shih-shih by the newly provided route. He again showered presents on her, including dominoes and dice of ivory, a chessboard of jade and chess pieces of precious green and white stones, elegant fans painted by the artists of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, expensive mats and curtains of fine bamboo with hooks of jade. Losing good-humouredly to her in both games of dice and chess, he presented to her two thousand taels of pure silver. On her birthday she received two filigrees richly bedecked with pearls, and two gold bracelets, a box of precious stones, bolts of brocades, silks and another thousand taels of silver. On a subsequent occasion celebrating the military victory over the Northern barbarian, when honours and promotions were generally conferred on civil and army officials, Shih-shih received her bountiful share of gifts, including curtains of purple gauze with brightly colored tassels, bed covers of brocade, a thousand taels of gold and jars of famous wines. In all she and Old Lady Li received gifts of objects and money amounting in value to one hundred thousands taels of silver.
Once His Majesty and court ladies were assembled at a banquet, ‘What is this Li woman who seems to have bewitched Your Majesty’? he was quietly asked by the imperial consort Wei.
‘Oh, nothing,’ he replied, ‘but if the hundred of you ladies discarded your gorgeous costumes and replaced them with simple dresses, with Shih-shih standing in your midst, you will find her absolutely different. She has an air of quiet elegance and a carriage of sylphs and fairies entirely aside from her wonderful complexion and features.’
Some years later His Majesty abdicated, adopting the title of Pope of the Taoist Church and residing in an independent palace. He lost interest in the vain and idle pleasure of the flesh.
‘You and I,’ observed Shih-shih one day to her mother, ‘live so happily that we have no idea when a sudden disaster will bring us to ruin.’
Li asked her what they should do then.
‘You had better live in a place which nobody would know, and let me do the rest according to my own judgment,’ Shih-shih replied.
At the time the Chin nomadic tribes had already started hostilities against the empire, and north China appealed for military aid. Shih-shih gathered together all the gold and silver bestowed on her by the emperor and sent it, accompanied by a letter addressed to the Prefect of Kaifeng, as a contribution to the war-chest. At the same time, through bribing the eunuch Chang, she got word to His Majesty for permission to become a nun, and the latter bestowed on her the Temple of the Merciful Cloud outside the North Gate.
Before long the Chin invaders captured the capital. Their commanding general went in search of Shih-shih, for the King of the Chins had heard of her name and insisted on having her captured alive. For many days she could not be discovered, then the traitor officials Chang Pang-chang and others trailed her to the temple, and offered her to the
Chin commander.
‘I am but a humble woman of the house of joy,’ Shih-shih railed at them bitterly. ‘But since I have been honoured by the loved of His Majesty, I have no ambition now other than to die. You people have occupied high official positions and received handsome emoluments; in what way has the throne treated you unkindly that you do your best destroy the dynasty? You now serve as slaves to the wretched savages, hoping to find in me a suitable present with which to ingratiate yourselves with them. I will never let myself be the vicarious lamb or the sacrificial wild goose for you blackguards.’
She took her gold hairpin and pierced her throat with it, but failed to kill herself; then she bent and swallowed it, finding her death that way.
Later when the former emperor in exile heard of her tragic death, he wept inconsolably.
