The Cloud Dream of the Nine by Kim Man-Choong (spiritual books to read txt) 📖

Justice Cheung is truly a very beautiful girl. He and she have met and seen each other. How can he readily cast her aside? My idea is to take advantage of So-yoo’s absence, issue an order commanding Justice Cheung to marry off his daughter elsewhere, and so do away for ever with this desire of So-yoo. How can they fail to do as we command?”

His Majesty did not reply, but waited for a moment. He then got up quietly and went out. At this the Crown Princess, who was seated by the side of her mother, said: “Mother, your honourable decision is indeed quite wrong. The question of Cheung See’s marriage belongs not to us but to her family. How can [p170] the Government undertake to direct a matter of this kind?”

The Empress replied: “This is a matter of exceeding great importance to yourself as well as to the State. I must talk with you about it. General Yang So-yoo is not only superior to others in looks and learning, but already by the tune he played on the jade flute he has proven himself your chosen affinity. You cannot possibly turn him away and choose another. So-yoo has already established a special attachment with the house of Justice Cheung, and cannot cast that off either. This is a most perplexing matter. I think that after So-yoo’s return, if he is married to you, he will not object to take Cheung’s daughter as a secondary wife. I wanted first to inquire what you thought of this.”

The Princess said: “I am not a person given to jealousy. Why should I dislike Cheung See? But the fact that Yang had already sent her his wedding presents forbids his making her his secondary wife. An act like this would be contrary to all good form. Justice Cheung’s is one of the oldest ministerial families, distinguished from time immemorial for ability and learning. Would it not be high-handed oppression to force her into the place of secondary wife? It would never never do.”

The Empress said: “Then what do you propose that we should do?”

The Princess replied: “Ministers of State may have three wives of the first order. When General Yang returns with his high honours, if he attain to the highest he will be made a subject king, if to the lowest he will still be a duke, and it will be no presumption [p171] on his part to take two wives. How would it do to have him take Justice Cheung’s daughter as his real wife as well as myself?”

“It would never do,” said the Empress. “When two women are of the same rank and station there need indeed be no harm or wrong done, but you are the beloved daughter of his late Majesty and the sister of the present monarch. You are therefore of specially high rank and removed from all others. How could you possibly be the wife of the same man with a common woman of the city?”

The Princess said: “I am truly high in rank and station; this I know, but the enlightened kings of the past and those who were sages honoured good men and great scholars regardless of their social position. They loved their virtue, so that even the emperor of a thousand chariots made friends and intimates of such and took them in marriage; why should we talk of high rank or station? I have heard that Cheung’s daughter, in beauty and attainments, is not behind any of the famous women of the past. If this be true I should find it no disgrace at all but an honour to make an equal of her. Still, what I have heard of her may not be true, and by rumour alone one cannot be sure of the real or the imaginary. I should like to see her for myself, and if her beauty and talents are superior to mine I shall condescend to serve her, but if they are not as we hear them reported, then we might make her a secondary wife, or even a serving-maid, just as your Majesty may think best.”

The Empress sighed, and said: “To be jealous of another’s beauty is a natural feeling with women, but [p172] this daughter of mine loves the superiority of another as much as if it were her own, and reverences another’s virtue as a thirsty soul seeks water; how can the mother of such a one as she fail to be happy? I, too, would like to see Cheung’s daughter. I shall send a dispatch to that effect to-morrow.”

The Princess replied: “Even though your Majesty should send such a command I am sure Cheung’s daughter would feign sickness and not come. If she should decline there would be no way of summoning her by force as she belongs to a minister’s household. Let us do it by means of the Taoist priestess and the Buddhist nun. If we knew of Justice Cheung’s day of sacrifice in advance, I imagine we should have no difficulty in meeting her.”

The Dowager thought well of this and sent a special servant to make inquiry of the various Taoist priestesses who lived in the neighbourhood. The old woman superior of the Chong-se Temple said: “Usually Justice Cheung’s family do their sacrificing to the Buddha at our temple, but the daughter does not come herself; she sends her servant, General Yang’s secondary wife, Ka Choon-oon. She comes with orders for her mistress and with prayers written out that are placed before the Buddha. You may take this written prayer of hers if you care to show it to Her Majesty the Dowager.”

The eunuch accepted it, returned, and told what he had heard and showed Cheung See’s written prayer.

The Dowager said: “I am afraid in these circumstances that it will be difficult to see her.” With that the Crown Princess and she unfolded the written prayer and they read it together: [p173]

“Thy disciple, Cheung Kyong-pai, by means of her servant Cloudlet, who has bathed and made the required offerings, bows low, worships and makes her petition. I, thy disciple, Kyong-pai, have many sins to answer for, sins of a former existence as yet unexpiated. These account for my birth into this life as a desolate girl who never knew the joy of sisterhood. Already had I become the recipient of marriage gifts from General Yang and had expected to live my life in his home, but the choice of Yang as son-in-law to her Majesty the Empress Dowager has reduced all my poor hopes to nothingness. I am cut off from him, and can only regret that the ways of the gods and the ways of men do not harmonise. Such an unlucky person as I have therefore no place of expectation. Though I had not yet given my body, my mind and soul were already given, and for me to change and put my affections elsewhere would not be according to the law of righteousness. I will stay then with my parents during their remaining years. In this moment of sadness and disappointed experience I come to offer my soul to the Buddha, and to speak my heart’s desire. Please condescend, ye Holy Ones, to accept this prayer of mine, extend to me pity, and let my parents live long like the endless measure of the sky. Grant that I be free from sickness and trouble so that I may be able to dress neatly, and to please them, and thus play out my little part in life on their behalf. When their appointed span is over I will break with all the bonds of earth, submit my actions to the requirements of the law and give my heart to the reading of the [p174] sacred sutras, keep myself pure, worship the Holy One, and make payment for all the unmerited blessings that have come to me. My servant, Ka Choon-oon, who is my chosen companion, brings this to thee. Though in name we are maid and mistress, we are in reality friend and friend. She, in obedience to my orders, became the secondary wife of General Yang, but now that matters have fallen otherwise, and there is no longer hope for the happy affinity that was mine, she too has bade a long farewell to him and come back to me so that we may be one in sorrow as well as in blessing, in death as well as in life. I earnestly pray that the divine Buddha will condescend to read our two hearts, and grant that for all generations and transmigrations to come, we may escape the lot of being born women [36]; that thou wilt put away all our sins of a former existence, give blessing for the future, so that we may transmigrate to some happy place to share endless bliss for ever. Amen.”

When the Princess had read this she knit her brows, and said: “By one person’s marriage decision two happy people’s hopes are broken. I fear that a great wrong may be done to worth and virtue unknown to us.”

The Dowager heard this and sat silent.

At this time Cheung’s daughter waited upon her parents with placid countenance and resigned expression. Not a trace was there of dejection or sorrow. When her mother saw her she felt overcome with a sense of pity and dismay. Cloudlet attended lovingly [p175] and compelled Cheung See to engage in writing or games so as to pass the time, her own mind likewise being most desolate and her heart broken. Little by little she became thin and frail, as one overcome by an incurable sickness. Cheung See served her parents on the one hand, and on the other engaged herself on behalf of poor Cloudlet. Thus was her heart hopelessly confused, finding no place of peace, though others would not have guessed it. The daughter, wishing to comfort her mother by means of the servants, sought every variety of music or interesting recreation, and so moment by moment tried to gladden her ears and eyes.

On a certain day a woman came bringing two embroidered pictures to Cheung’s house desiring to sell them. When Cloudlet had unrolled and looked at them, one was a picture of a peacock among the flowers, and the other of a partridge in the forest. All the embroidery work was exquisitely done. Greatly admiring them, Cloudlet made the maid wait till she had shown them to the mother and daughter. She said: “My mistress is always praising my embroidery, but look at these pictures, please. What do you think of them for skill?”

[IMG: Visit to the Monastery: Pictures to Sell]

The young lady opened them out before her mother, gave a great exclamation of surprise, and said: “No present day embroidery can possibly equal these, and yet the colour and decorations mark them as new and not old. They are wonderful. Who can possess skill such as this?” She bade Cloudlet ask the maid whence they came, and the maid replied: “This embroidery is done by the hand of the young [p176] mistress of our home. Just now she is living alone, and finding special need of money wants to sell them regardless of price.”

Cloudlet asked: “To what family does your mistress belong, pray, and for what reason is she staying alone?”

The maid replied: “Our mistress is the sister of Yi Tong-pan, who, with his mother, has gone to Chol-dong where he holds office. Because she was unwell and unable to follow, the young lady remained at the home of her maternal uncle, Chang the Charioteer. Her quarters are occupied by Madam Sa, just over the way, where she is awaiting the return from Chol-dong.”

Cloudlet, on hearing this, went in and told it to her mistress. The young lady gave a liberal price in hairpins and other ornaments for the pictures, and had them