Xu Xiaobin - Dunhuang Dream

Exhausted, he lay by her side, watching with half-open eyes as she dressed, how she sat, and how she began to embroider. Yu’er was quite adept at embroidery and weaving carpets. She was good at embroidering all sorts of devas and her work sold well. When she came, she always brought her embroidery basket. After the “ceremony,” she would begin embroidering.

“Yu’er.”

“Hmm.”

“That painting. . your mother doesn’t want it back, does she?”

“No,” Yu’er said, looking up from the red sleeve covered with devas that she was embroidering. “What do you actually want to do with that painting?”

“Nothing,” he said, lazily cradling his head in his arms. “I’m just curious. I’m trying to figure out why Yiseng painted Lakshmi as such a beauty.”

Yu’er tittered and ran the embroidery needle through her hair a couple of times. Zhang Shu felt the needle became as golden as her hair.

“Silly, why are you trying to figure that out? Why don’t you just ask me?”

“Do you know?”

“Do I know? Just listen: Yu-Chi Yiseng was a member of King Yutian’s clan. He could paint Buddhas, bodhisattvas, all manner of foreigners, and deities. .”

“I know all that.”

“He fell in love with his cousin at a young age.”

“His cousin?”

“Yeah. Her childhood name was Guonu, and she was a princess of Yutian. Legend has it that she was a born beauty and intelligent too. She was good at calligraphy and embroidery. And like Yiseng, she was a Buddhist. During the Wude reign—618 to 626—of the Tang dynasty, Emperor Gaozu established the five prefectures west of the river, including Liang, Gan, Gua, Su, and Sha. Our Dunhuang was originally Gua Prefecture. In those days, the eastern part of Lanzhou and the Gansu Corridor set up a separatist regime to oppose the great Tang Dynasty. During the Zhenguan reign period—627 to 649—the communications between east and west were not up to the Sui dynasty, the one preceding the Tang dynasty. This was an intolerable state of affairs for Emperor Taizong, and he quickly sent the army to clean up the Silk Road. He also sent members of royal clans including the Tujue, Yutian, and Dayue to the Central Plains as hostages. In the thirteenth year of the Zhenguan reign period, both Yiseng and his cousin were sent to the Central Plains. Emperor Taizong was an intelligent man and highly valued Yiseng. In those days everyone said that Yan Liben was the best painter in the Central Plains. The only painter of the Yutian clan in the west was Yiseng. He painted a lot and his large frescoes can still be seen today in the Ci’en Temple and the Feng’en Temple. These are probably the earliest oil paintings. Once, Emperor Taizong went to see Yiseng paint. He was never so startled to see such beauty as that possessed by Yiseng’s cousin because in all Emperor Taizong’s harem there was no beauty to compare with the princess of Yutian.”

“That’s just more conjecture on your part, right?”

“Right away, Emperor Taizong adopted Guonu as his daughter. Yiseng’s family on the Central Plains rose in his esteem. But the situation in the Gansu Corridor grew tense in the first year of the Shenlong reign period, 705 AD. The emperor sent experienced troops to guard the area. In order to placate the troops, he married Guonu off to one of the generals guarding the Gansu Corridor. That’s how the Yutian princess ended up here at our Gua Prefecture. Before she left, Yiseng painted his Lakshmi Bathing painting and gave it to Guonu. People say that that Lakshmi is the likeness of Guonu. Guonu brought the painting with her to Gua Prefecture. Later, the artisans of the thousands of caves copied the painting in Cave Seventy-three.”

Zhang Shu remained silent for a long time. Then he suddenly asked, “Was it your mother who told you all of this?”

“Who else?” said Yu’er as she put down her embroidery. Her tiger jade eyes glowed. “My mother’s childhood name was Guonu, the same as the Yutian princess. As a matter of fact, my mother is also of the Yutian race. Our Yugur people were originally from Xinjiang and later we migrated to the Gansu Corridor. Do you know what it means to migrate? Oh, you know. In her youth my mom was so beautiful that she looked like a fairy descended from Heaven. Everyone said that she was the reincarnation of the Yutian princess. If you don’t believe me, ask Chen Qing, who is an old friend of my mom’s. He knows everything about my mom.”

Zhang Shu was stunned. So Chen Qing was Yu’er’s mother’s lover. It was beyond belief.

“How did your mother lose her eye?”

“How did she lose her eye?” Yu’er was taken aback. “She plucked it out herself.”

Zhang Shu was stunned again.

“She was mad at my father. . she didn’t want my father close to her, so she plucked it out.”

“What did your father do?”

Yu’er blinked her long black lashes and said, “I can’t really say what he did. My dad was my mom’s second man. My mom said she couldn’t forget her dead husband and so couldn’t live with my dad with her whole heart. After she had me, she sent him packing.”

“Did your mother have a child with her first husband?”

Yu’er closed her eyes and spoke as if preferring not and said, “She had a daughter. She’s my older sister.”

“Is she here, too?”

“Yes, she meddles around here. I don’t see eye to eye with her.”

“Does your mom have anything to do with her?”

“Not much, but a few years ago, she saw her every day. As soon as my mom made a little money, she ran off to see her. My sister was shameless. She said she didn’t need anything and then swore at Mom and forced her to leave. Mom has cooled toward her in the last two years and doesn’t visit her anymore. .”

5

Zhang Shu for the life of him couldn’t imagine that the woman guarding Cave 73 had ever once been beautiful. To find out more, he went to see Chen Qing. In no uncertain terms, the old man said it was true, and without batting an eye said, “You think Yu’er is beautiful? Well, she couldn’t hold a candle to even one of her mom’s fingers.”

These words left Zhang Shu indignant. He didn’t know much about Yu’er’s background and didn’t really want to pursue the matter, nor did he have any hope that the mysterious girl would love him. But there was one thing of which he was certain: she was beautiful. She was ravishingly beautiful, blindingly beautiful. It sent him back to himself and made him realize that he was just an average guy. Xiao Xingxing’s beauty was capricious by comparison. He realized why some men could become enslaved by beautiful women. Beauty really had its own power to subjugate.

Each time before leaving, Yu’er would wash and brush her hair. Her head of shimmering black hair, full and alive, contained a certain warmth. It was as bright as gold. She’d brush her hair, change it around, braid it into a golden snake, pile it up, and use a dozen golden hairpins to make it in the style of an ancient Greek sculpture. Then she would apply the greenish juice of a plant to her body. That fragrance reminded him of Beijing in May. Her jewelry, the heavy coral and shell, was polished to a high sheen with that juice. In the middle of her coral necklace was a huge silver pearl that shone between her breasts, like a huge star between two moons. She applied perfume to her entire body and pasted two strangely shaped leaves to the skin by her belly button. She did all of this in a skillful manner to perfection, which Zhang Shu found, in addition to being beautiful, also a bit exotic.

He couldn’t think of anything more lovely than this rare beauty.

“You don’t believe me?” Chen Qing continued stubbornly, “Just look at their skin. Yu’er’s is bronze while her mother’s — when she was young — was as white as white ‘mutton-fat’ jade!”