Mingmei Yip - Peach Blossom Pavilion

Some silence, then I remembered the haunted garden and blushed deeply.

‘What is it, Xiang Xiang?’

I felt as if a firefly were caught in my throat.

‘Is there something you want to ask me?’

Finally I was able to manage, in a whisper, ‘Sister Pearl, was … the man in the garden … Jiang Mou?’

She cocked an eye at me. ‘Xiang Xiang, be careful what you say! No one can find out.’

I nodded. ‘Did you let me and Spring Moon see you on purpose?’

She smiled, looking very mysterious under the yellowish light of her bejewelled lamp.

‘So do you love Jiang Mou?’ I took her silence as yes. ‘Then why don’t you marry him and leave Peach Blossom?’

‘Because he’s poor and he’s already married.’ Pearl sighed, her fingers caressing her luminous jade bracelet. ‘Don’t think about love, Xiang Xiang. Love never lasts; think about pleasure.’

‘But that doesn’t last either.’

‘But unlike love, it won’t bring pain afterwards.’ She looked at the clock. ‘We’d better start our lesson now.’

Pearl led me to sit beside her in front of the vanity table. ‘Xiang Xiang,’ she said, carefully studying our reflections in the mirror, ‘now you know about the clouds and rain.’

I nodded.

She went on, ‘The most important thing is to tease. Because if you let those chou nanren get there too quickly, they’ll be disappointed. Remember, their wives all have the same cinnabar crevices as we do. But we have the art of coquetry to excite. You tease not only in how you look, but also in the ways you move, even when you’re sleeping.’

‘But Sister Pearl, sleeping has no movement!’

‘But we feign sleep to seduce. Have you not heard of the phrase “crabapple sleeping in spring”? It means a beautiful woman sleeping seductively. And it’s spring that makes all the difference—’

‘Why?’

‘Because spring is the season for lust, for the stirring of love!’

With a dreamy expression, Pearl slightly parted her lips, then the delicate tip of her tongue reached to touch her upper lip – like a rosebud emerging from a deep hole. ‘We sisters are like good cooks who mix the five flavours harmoniously into a delicious soup.’

‘I like soup.’

‘Xiang Xiang, you don’t know; do you? Before you came to Peach Blossom, all you did was study. Not much use for you now, is it?’

I said dreamily, ‘My parents always wanted me to be the first woman zhuang yuan. ’ Number One Scholar.

Pearl stared at me pityingly, then spoke again, a little sharply, ‘I’m also teaching you to be the Number One Scholar of charming those chou nanren . Have you forgotten that your “examination” is coming next week with Big Master Fung?’

She went on, ‘A woman’s most fascinating feature is her eyes.’ Pearl lowered her eyelids and peeked down at me. Her pupils, looking glazed, slowly moved around as if she were drunk. Her eyes possessed a kind of magnetism that pulled me toward her like her lover clinging to her body. I felt colour rising to my cheeks.

‘Xiang Xiang, you told me your baba taught you kung fu?’

I nodded.

‘So think about your eyes as weapons for sexual kung fu. Attack like a tiger and retreat like a virgin.’

While I was trying to digest this recipe for sexual kung fu, Pearl was speaking again, ‘Always look exciting. The worst is spiritless eyes they are like fish left out of water for days.’

I giggled.

She gave me a chiding look. ‘Xiang Xiang, you have to gaze at your customers until they feel their bones are pickled in vinegar, until they are so numbed that they have no power left to resist you. Of course, if a customer likes modest women, then you’d pretend to be shy, breaking away your gaze from time to time. That’s why in Peking opera … Xiang Xiang, are you paying attention?’

‘Baba!’ I burst into tears and ran from Pearl’s room.

The next afternoon when I went to visit Pearl, she said nothing about my abrupt departure the day before. We sipped the tea she poured and sat absorbed in our own thoughts. Was she also thinking about my baba? I’d always been curious to know what was inside Pearl’s head. However, although she was very nice to me, she still remained as mysterious as the halo behind Guan Yin’s head.

Pearl seemed in no mood to be the teacher today. She nursed her cup for long moments before she stood up from the sofa. ‘Today I better teach you how to walk. Remember, never rush, but move leisurely, like this.’ She began to pace, her steps delicate and small. ‘This is called “shredded steps of the golden lotus.” Try to picture lotuses blossoming under your feet, or bending with the wind in the golden twilight.’

I closed my eyes and tried. But what flashed across my mind was my baba, my mother, and I rowing a boat on the West Lake covered with lotuses. Mother, looking very pretty and happy, bent her slender torso and, with her delicate fingers, reached to spread the leaves. Baba picked one of the flowers and pinned it on her hair dyed gold by the twilight …

Now Pearl went to rest by a wall. ‘When you stand, your body should be slightly slanted – but not stooped – as if drawn to something. Moreover, it should also be in constant motion – your backside swaying, your fingers twisting a handkerchief, your fingertips stroking your teeth, your eyes darting around.’

I blurted out, ‘Sister Pearl, I’m confused. My mother used to teach me just the opposite. She warned me never to sway my body, for it’s very unladylike. She liked to quote the saying “A swaying tree has fallen leaves; a swaying woman has an ill fate.”’

Pearl sighed heavily. ‘Yes, your mother was right. But now we’re no ladies, but whores.’

A long, sorrowful silence.

She stared at my feet. ‘Xiang Xiang, your feet are the only flaw of your whole body; they’re a little big.’

I immediately slid them under the table.

‘Good, always hide your flaw. But never forget to show off your good features. So if someone has a really nice figure,’ Pearl thrust out her chest, ‘like me, then I always lean forward. This is called “offering the body to preach the Dharma.”’ Pearl pinched my cheek. ‘Xiang Xiang, sex is our only power over men. Even when you have sex with the ugliest, one-of-his-feet-already-inside-the-coffin customer, try your best to act as if he were the only man left under heaven. Remember what I teach you and you’ll enjoy your ming ji status until the day you die.’

I nodded emphatically.

She came back to sit down by my side. ‘Xiang Xiang, have you noticed in our country, nothing expresses itself directly, but always in a meandering way?’

I tried to respond, but Pearl waved me into silence. ‘In China, corridors are not built in a straight line but always winding.’ She glanced outside the window. ‘So when we walk along, we’re always in suspense about what we’ll run into: a moon-shaped gate inside which are nestled clumps of bamboo, or a tiny gourd-shaped opening through which your eyes can discern a distant mountain shrouded in the mist.’

When I was reflecting on this, Pearl went to take out the qin and put it on the table. I went to sit opposite her, my heart instantly filled with joy.

‘See, Xiang Xiang,’ she said, beginning to play, ‘ qin music meanders, too.’

Now Pearl glided her fingers on the instrument. ‘This fingering is called “the cicada calling for autumn.” When the cicada flutters its wings, it makes a lingering tone.’ She stroked the strings again. ‘And this lingering tone is “the monkey climbing up a tree,” because a monkey climbing a tree alternates between halting and ascending.’

Finally she stopped the strings with her hand. ‘Because of its meandering melodies, when the playing is over, qin music continues to reverberate in your heart … If only we could make the same impression on men’s hearts.’ An insinuating smile played on her lips. ‘Then all the stinking males will pour the money from their fat pockets into ours. Otherwise why not just stay home and fuck their wives, which is free?’