6 ABANDONING HIS FAMILY BONDS, XIANGZI CULTIVATES HIMSELF

Discarding his home he roams dissolutely,

Regarding the nobles with cold, indifferent eyes.

In the end, great literary talents return to the yellow earth;

Eventually, great military heroes grow white-haired and frail.

After a bowl of cold rice he takes leave of the wilderness temple;

Sorrowed by the passing of the ages, he sheds tears for the early autumn.

Clad in a torn cassock, he sits on rush mat,

Resting whenever he reaches a place to rest in.

Xiangzi marched along the road for two days, eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, resting at night, walking on at day, even though he did not know in which prefecture, which district, and what place the Zhongnan Mountains might be.

His masters Zhong and Lü had seen him climb over the wall and run away on his quest to seek them, but they feared that there might come a time when he would regret his decision, and then he would not be able to ascend to perfection and realize the fruits of his efforts. So they lowered their clouds, called forth the local earth god, and ordered him, “We received the Jade Emperor’s command to enter the human world and deliver Han Xiang. Because Han Xiang agreed to follow us and cultivate himself, he abandoned his family bonds and gave up his relatives. Although he is now on his way looking for us, we are afraid that his determination may not be firm, so that it will be difficult for him to achieve success. During his journey you are to transform yourself many times and test him repeatedly. If he really has a true heart set upon studying the Way, and if he is not moved by lust and desires or confused by gain and loss, then we shall deliver him to the best of our ability. However, if he is lustful and filled with regret, then we shall send down heavenly thunder, and throw him into the darkest corner of hell, where he shall never be saved.”

The old earth god bowed and promised, “I shall reverently obey your command.”

When the two masters had given their orders to the mountain and earth god, they returned to the Zhongnan Mountains.

The old earth god got up and, by pointing with one finger of his hand, made a house appear. Outside its door there were three stalls. On one side were laid out new fruits of the season, fresh game, chickens and geese, seafood and mountain delicacies, meat and vegetables to go with the rice of one’s meal. On the other side were displayed Hemp Maiden wine, Three Whites wine, Source of Kindness wine, Perfumed Snow wine, and both fresh unfermented and old fermented liquor, their aroma striking the nose and exciting the senses.

Between these shop counters sat a maiden neither tall nor short in stature, neither fat nor thin. Her eyebrows were knitted like the twigs of spring willows, her eyes shining like the ripples of autumn waves. Her two hands were soft and delicate, tender and white. Her feet were fine and small, pointed and curved. She was not dressed in rare brocade or extraordinary silks; still, she was so refined and delicate in her plain attire that it startled people’s hearts and made them rub their eyes in wonder. It really seemed as if the ravishing Xishi of the state of Yue had been reborn in her native village of Zhuluo, or as if the famed beauty Flying Swallow of the Han dynasty had come again to enchant people with her bird-shooting dance.

When you entered the house there were carved balustrades and painted beams, beautiful shelves and lattice windows, embroidered curtains and vermilion blinds, colorful screens and ornamented mats. On the walls hung poems and paintings by renowned artists; on the tables were placed antiques and curiosities. Though the wealth thus displayed may not have surpassed that of a Wang Kai or a Shi Chong, neither did it fall short of the riches of a Dao Zhu or an Yi Dun. Leaning on a long staff, an old man wearing a blue headcloth and cotton gown sat in front of the entrance, letting the sun shine on his back.

As he came up the road, Xiangzi stopped before the old man in the doorway, bowed low, and said, “Old grandfather, I venture to ask which road I should take for the Zhongnan Mountains.”

The old man shook his head and asked back, “Little master, why do you ask for the road to the Zhongnan Mountains?”

“I come from Changli County, and want to go to the mountains to look for my two masters,” Xiangzi replied.

The old man shook his head again and said, “You won’t be able to get there.”

“What do you mean, I won’t be able to get there?” asked Xiangzi.

The old man continued, “From here to the Zhongnan Mountains is 108,985 miles by road, plus another 3,000 miles by waterway. All along the way there are steep mountains and dangerous paths, winding cliffs and deep valleys, stone walls thousands of feet high, rocky hills in multitudes, curving streams tens of thousands of yards wide, swirling and beating up great waves. The traveler has to clamber along, pulling himself up by means of ropes. Furthermore, these mountains are full of ghosts and demon kings, poisonous snakes and fierce beasts, monstrous and evil birds, who devour anyone who comes along. Even a divine immortal passing through this area would become paralyzed with fear. You, wee little Daoist, are not even enough to make these monsters a full meal—how could you get that far?”

Xiangzi said, “Old grandfather, though you are so advanced in years, you can’t even give a few honest words of guidance to your juniors, but instead try to scare people with improper talk. You don’t expect me to listen to you and give up halfway, do you?”

The old man laughed, “Your words, little master, are foolish. Even though I am so advanced in years, and neither see nor hear very well, I do know that the road to the Zhongnan Mountains is difficult to travel. If you say my words are dishonest, all right, let me be wrong then.”

“Old grandfather, it’s not that I blame you for your words. It’s just that my heart is firm and determined in the Way, and so I’m not afraid of your ten thousand rivers and thousand mountains, your snakes and tigers, spirits and ghosts. I am afraid only that there might be no such place as the Zhongnan Mountains in this world. If it does exist, then my masters are there. And in that case, nothing can keep me from getting there.”

“If you say so,” the old man said, “I won’t get in your way. However, it is already getting dark, so how about staying in my house for the night and continuing your journey early tomorrow?”

“Having received your command, old grandfather, how could I disobey it?” Xiangzi replied. He got up, put his cloth bundle on his back, and walked into the inn. The old man remained sitting on the chair at the entrance and did not come inside.

Xiangzi stepped straight inside without first looking in, and so he was caught by surprise when a young woman come forth from beside the counter with smooth, swaying steps, in her hands a cup of fragrant, strong tea. She called out, “Sir, you had an arduous journey; please have some tea.”

When Xiangzi received the tea in his hands, the girl lightly pressed them and said, “Sir, in which room would you like to rest?”

Xiangzi answered, “For us ascetics, a simple place with a mat is enough to pass the night. Why should I care what room I take?”

The girl made a low and gentle sound and said, “Sir, we have three classes of rooms. Cloud-traveling leaders of the immortals and officials who are passing through stay in the first-class rooms. Traveling merchants with ten thousand strings of cash hanging from their waist stay in the second-class rooms. Those who travel carrying burdens with a pole over the shoulder, who daily eat what they daily earn, settle down in the third-class rooms.”

Her voice was high and clear, just like the twittering voice of the oriole warbling beside a flower. It pierced the heart and penetrated the marrow, driving men mad with desire.

“Madam, your house may have several classes of rooms, but I do not love luxury and will simply rest in a third-class room.”

“I am a virgin and have never been given in marriage to a husband,” she said angrily. “Why are you calling me ‘madam’?”

“In addressing you I inadvertently made a mistake. I am sorry. Older Sister, do not be cross with me.”

“We don’t know each other, and don’t belong to the same family either,” the girl screamed at him. “How can you call me Older Sister?”

“As you aren’t married yet, I erred in addressing you as ‘madam,’ so I called you Older Sister instead. What does that have to do with knowing or not knowing each other?”

The girl’s face changed color as she said, “You ascetics don’t know the difference between high and low and have no discrimination whatsoever. I heard that those girls in brothels are called ‘older sisters.’ I am a virgin of good family, so why do you call me Older Sister rather than ‘maid’ or Miss?”

“You are right, maid; it is I who was wrong,” Xiangzi acquiesced.

The girl said, “I too received my essence from my father and my blood from my mother. Like any human being, I was nurtured in the womb for ten months, not baked out in a tile kiln. Calling me ‘maid,’ as you did just now, enrages even a sweet-tempered person like me!”

Xiangzi said to himself, “This girl is excessive in her moods and difficult to talk to. She is really embarrassing.”

Laughing, the girl drew Xiangzi towards her and said, “A handsome little master like you must be the child of a wealthy and noble family. Why do you want to go and stay in a third-class room? Trust me, you don’t want the first or second class either. Go instead to my hall; it’s a very quiet, elegant, and clean place. Wouldn’t it be nice for you to spend the night there all by yourself?”

“I spend my time begging for alms, and pass my days following my destiny without so much as half a penny in my pocket,” Xiangzi replied. “Like everybody else I’ll make my bed in the cheapest room and set out early in the morning.”

“Adjacent to that hall is my bedroom, which no man has ever entered,” the girl said. “Now, sir, today I want to open my charitable heart, and won’t take any of your silver. How about I trick the old grandfather and lead you to bed, sir?”

Xiangzi protested, “I am an ascetic. I do not enter the women’s quarters, and in my affairs I do not deceive and do not act contrary to my conscience. How could I dare enter your room, maid?”

“There is a confidential matter that I want to tell you about. You must trust me,” said the girl.

“I am listening.”

“This year I am fifteen years old. I have neither brothers nor sisters, only my grandfather, who is more than ninety years old and almost deaf and blind. He has gathered a fortune of a million strings of cash, but it is of no use, because there is no one to take over its management and inherit it. I am here every day, receiving the guests and merchants who come and go, but there’s never been one as young and handsome as you, sir. Now I’ll tell Grandfather that I would be willing to turn over my bridewealth to take you into the family as a son-in-law and husband, to be head of the family and take charge of the accounts. That we have met today proves the saying ‘If they are destined for each other, two people will meet even if they are a thousand miles apart. Without predestination, they won’t meet even when facing each other.’ I don’t know if in your heart you will consent or not?”

Xiangzi blushed and his ears got hot; he couldn’t bring out even half a sound in response.

“Little master, stop putting on airs and throwing poses!” the girl pursued. “Whenever ascetics see a woman, they’re like leeches stinging for blood—all they want is to penetrate inside. Why don’t you say anything when a virgin like myself is willing to receive you as a husband? Is it that you still have parents and elders and you fear the crime of marrying without their permission? In ancient times, the Great Shun married without telling his parents. You’re not a Great Shun, are you? If you commit this little wrong, your parents won’t blame you. The magistrate won’t find fault with you either, and even if there should be some trouble with the officials, I’ll arrange for a few hundred taels of silver in bribes to guarantee that the magistrate won’t bother you. Why worry about him?”

Xiangzi exploded angrily, “I just said that you are a daughter of good family, but in fact you are a shameless, lewd, debased person. My uncle is Minister of Justice. My father-in-law is a scholar in the Hanlin Academy. My beautiful wife is the daughter of a respectable official family. I gave up all of this to become an ascetic. How can I respect a wretch who has so little regard for face?”

“You are a vagrant and vagabond,” the girl shot back, “an uncouth Daoist who goes from door to door. As I meant well and did not want to despise you, I offered to give you some family property and receive you as my husband, but you berated me as shameless, lewd, and debased. You really are a hapless fellow who doesn’t recognize his good fortune.”

“The good fortune that I enjoy is of a pure kind that can never be used up,” Xiangzi said. “Why should I value your filth and your stinking money?”

“Pure or not, enjoyment or not—that’s not up to me,” the girl retorted. “What I need to know is, do you want an official settlement or a private settlement?”

“What do you mean, ‘official or private settlement’?” Xiangzi asked.

“Well, I won’t let you go,” the girl replied. “If you want the official settlement, I’ll start screaming and say that you, an ascetic, have raped a girl of good family. I’ll have the local official send you to the magistrate. He’ll give you a few thousand lashes with the thorny stick, display you in a cangue in some marketplaces, revoke your Daoist diploma, and return you to lay status. That’s the official settlement. If you agree to enter my family as a son-in-law and marry me, you will become a model husband like Liang Hong and I will imitate that perfect wife Meng Guang and never utter an idle word. That’s the private settlement.”

“There is a cauldron of seething oil in front of me, knives and saws behind me, tigers and wolves on my left, and a great flood on my right,” Xiangzi said. “But I will maintain my original nature and destiny, and my inborn character. Why be afraid of settling officially and not privately, or settling privately and not officially?”

The girl then grabbed Xiangzi with one hand and shouted, “Grandfather, come quickly. The Daoist wants to rape me.”

The old man came in, grasping a stick, his head shaking with rage, and said, “What’s that you say, Granddaughter?”

Xiangzi was frightened out of his wits, but he managed to say “I, Han Xiang, have one former life less than you. This morning I am willing to make good the difference. It’s up to you, old grandfather. Whatever you may do with me, I won’t object.”

“My little gentleman, you really are foolish,” the old man said. “A young lad like you ought to be somebody’s son-in-law, manage some family property, beget sons and bring up daughters, thus connecting the ancestors and later generations. You didn’t get your life in exchange for a little salt—it’s too precious for you to speak of dying.”

“Grandpa,” the girl interjected, “When he saw that I was alone, he held me in his arms, kissed me, and touched my waist. Since I cried out, now he’s trying to deceive us by pretending he wants to die. But really he’s by three parts fiercer than a robber.”

“All I have to say is, why do you want to die?” the old man said. “If my grand-daughter is acceptable to you, I will have her marry you and make you a grandson-in-law. You’ll manage the shop outside the front door and keep me fed until I die, that’s all. Why do you have to seek death?”

“Old grandfather, I removed myself from my family bonds. When I walked away, I left my life behind me. How can you say I don’t need to die?” Xiangzi said.

“If you seek death, there are several kinds you can get,” the old man said. “If you owe money to the officials on one side and private debts on the other, you will be pressed, flogged, and beaten until you can take no more. No clothes will cover your body, no food will fill your mouth. You won’t be able to stand the hunger, cold, poverty, and suffering. All kinds of diseases and pains will assault you until you are neither dead nor alive. Lying on the bed, struggling to get up, groping about and falling down—you won’t be able to endure it. If you do evil and commit crimes, your legs will be fettered and your hands manacled. You will suffer unbearable ordeals before finally you go in search of the road of death. If someone has a beautiful daughter and a well-endowed household and wants to take you in as a son-in-law, won’t you then agree to follow your heart? Why do you have to die?”

Xiangzi replied, “I want with all my heart simply to lead an ascetic life and cultivate myself. Don’t bring up entering the family as a son-in-law again.”

The old man said, “If you want to know the way in the mountains, you have to ask people who have been there. I, too, when I was young, once encountered two itinerant Daoists who bragged that they possessed divine powers that could lift up the heavens and pull up the earth, as well as magical methods that could stir up the sea and overturn the rivers. They would tip over their gourds and let out a thousand rays of auspicious pneuma. They would swish about their fly-brushes and gather up ten thousand kernels of golden elixir.

“When they saw that I was good-looking, they deceived me by praising the benefits of self-cultivation. I was so impressed by them that I reckoned that if they were not heavenly divine immortals, they must at least be Daoists who had come from the three islands of Penglai. If I went with them to cultivate myself, that would be better than to be an ordinary person in this world of red dust, a dull peasant in a thatched hut.

“Thereupon I turned my back on father and mother and went away with the Daoists to seek eternal life. Who would have known that these two were charlatans and crooks, out to deceive people? They had tricked me into following them. The whole journey they used me, by day as a slave, by night as a wife. We traversed prefectures and crossed districts, passing through countless places. All the while they made such game of me that I was at a loss what to do.

“Eventually I decided it was best to abandon them without saying anything and return home. I was an only child, so you can imagine how my parents had cried and wailed when they discovered that I was gone. They put up search notices everywhere, asked the oracle sticks, and paid for divination, spending untold sums of money. When they saw me return home, what great joy there was—just as if they had found a treasure!

“Behind my back, my parents discussed the situation and said, ‘Our child spent a lot of time with the two villainous Daoists, and surely was corrupted by them. How could he, in his heart, not know about sex? If we don’t get him a wife soon, and somebody takes him away again, this time we may not hope for his return.’ They hurried to find a go-between, who mediated a betrothal for me. She got me a wife, who gave birth to a son.

“Years and months went by and my son grew up. He married and brought in a daughter-in-law. He had only one child, the granddaughter that you see here. When she was three years old, my son fell ill and died. My daughter-in-law remarried and left, and my wife and I underwent innumerable hardships until we succeeded in bringing up our granddaughter. My wife also passed away two years ago. There’s all this family property, and not one relative to come and inherit it. Therefore I want to take a son-in-law into the family.

“Now, you ponder becoming an ascetic and cultivating yourself, probably because you met some vagrant Daoists who moved your heart by deception. Why put yourself to so much trouble? It is better to do as my granddaughter says, remain in my family as a son-in-law, continue this bloodline, and take charge of this family’s property. Wouldn’t this be convenient for both of us?”

“The words you speak, old man, are all confused,” Xiangzi retorted. “It is in vain that you were allowed to live to such an old age. Now I am going to leave this inn, and that will be it.”

The girl spoke to him again, in a seductive tone. “It is already dusk, sir. Everywhere on your way you’ll run into jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, snakes, scorpions, spirits, and demons. If you leave my door, it will mean uselessly throwing away your life. If you don’t agree to marry in as a son-in-law, at least rest for a night in the third-class rooms and set out again when it’s light outside. What do you say?”

“Whether snakes harm me or tigers maul me—this has been predestined in a former life. Whether I die well or violently, I’ll be equally dead. I won’t bother you to concern yourselves with me,” Xiangzi said.

“Whenever you say something, one hears foolishness,” the old man said. “You want to become an ascetic and look for your masters, yet you need to preserve your present life before you can reach that eternal life. If you now are going to die, what was the point in becoming an ascetic and seeking immortality? I’ll explain it to you with a story.”

“What story, old man?” Xiangzi asked.

“As an old man, I have eaten a bit more salt than you have tasted soy sauce in your life. I read in a book that Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty once heard that there were several pecks of magical wine in a cave on Mount Jun. Anyone who drank it would enjoy eternal life and would never die.

“So the emperor fasted for seven days, then looked for and found the wine. His minister Dongfang Shuo said, ‘I’ve heard of this wine. I would like to taste it first.’ He took the wine and drank it all up in one draught. Emperor Wu was very angry and wanted to kill him, but Dongfang Shuo said, ‘What your minister drank was a magical wine of deathlessness. Now, if Your Majesty kills me, then it is actually a wine that speeds up death, and it would have been no use to Your Majesty. If it really is magical wine, even if Your Majesty tried to kill me, I still would not die.’ Emperor Wu laughed and pardoned him.

“As you can see, it was a magical wine of deathlessness only because Dongfang Shuo’s life was spared. You hope for eternal life, yet you first set off on the road of death. This way you’ll just speed up your own demise. So why become an ascetic? Why cultivate yourself?”

“After all your talk, I am all the more determined to leave. I won’t listen, I won’t!” said Xiangzi.

“Grandfather, don’t waste your breath on an uncouth Daoist who doesn’t appreciate the favors people do for him,” the girl said angrily. “It’s like blowing hot air against a wall. Get a rope, hang the villainous Daoist from a rafter at the back of the house, and let him starve to death. I don’t expect there are any relatives to come and plead for his life.”

“Since he does not know good from bad, there is no point in hanging him,” the old man answered. “Let’s just chase him out the door and let him throw away his own life!”

The girl did as she was told, and with one push shoved Xiangzi out the door. As she did it she chanted,

“Ten fine fingers came to serve tea,

A golden bowl full of peonies.

The fool did not realize the flowers’ meaning.

Disappointed I go to the balcony, but I do not sigh.”

Xiangzi was extremely happy to find himself outside the inn’s door. Quickly he answered,

“You say your face is beautiful like a flower;

In my view it is more like a rotten white gourd.

A flowery face will not be pretty for even a thousand days;

A rotten gourd is cast away without anyone sighing for it.”

How did Xiangzi fare after he left this place? Listen to the explanations of the next chapter.