Chinese Poetry (XIV): Verses of Red Beans 紅豆詞

Verses of Red Beans 紅豆詞
Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹
Hónglóumèng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber)

滴不盡相思血淚拋紅豆
Drip unceasingly blood-stained tears of longing, casting red beans in the air.
開不完春柳春花滿畫樓
Bloom endlessly the young willows and spring flowers, surrounding the ornate mansion.
睡不穩紗窗風雨黃昏後
Sleep unsettled, wind and rain thrashing the window screens after dusk.
忘不了新愁與舊愁
Forget hardly—sorrows, new and old,
嚥不下玉粒金波噎滿喉
Swallow barely delicate food and lush wine, sorrows choking the throat.
瞧不盡菱花鏡裡花容瘦
Gaze repeatedly in the petal-shaped mirror, countenance waning.
展不開的眉頭, 捱不明的更漏
Open not—furrowed brows,
Endure unending hours never dawning.

啊… 恰便似
Ah, . . . This agony is like:
遮不住的青山隱隱
The vague silhouette of mountains, unconcealable;
流不斷的綠水悠悠
The flowing crystal water, meandering.

__Cáo Xuěqín

Cáo Zhān 曹霑, (c. 1715-c. 1763), courtesy name Xuěqín 雪芹, was a scholar, poet, and author of the Qing Dynasty. His ancestors of Han origin rose through the ranks of military and civil services in the Manchu imperial court. The Kangxi Emperor appointed his great-grandfather Cao Xi 曹璽 (1629-1684) as the Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Jiangning (today’s Nanjing) 江寧織造, handling production and acquisition of silk and textiles for the imperial court. His grandfather Cao Yin 曹寅 (1658-1712) held similar positions in Suzhou 蘇州 and Jiangning as well as managed the salt production in the Lianghuai 兩淮 area.^[1] These administrative positions, though not high in rank, were instrumental to governmental revenue as well as the economic growth of the nation.

Members of the Cao family also had close personal links to the imperial court. Cao Xi’s wife Lady Sun was Kangxi’s wetnurse. As a result, Cao Yin had life-long friendship with the emperor. The Cao residence was set up as the temporary imperial sojourn repeatedly during the emperor’s southern inspection tours.^[2] Yin’s eldest daughter, Xueqin’s aunt, was granted marriage to Prince Keqin Na’ersu 克勤郡王訥爾蘇.^[3]

As a sportsman, Cao Yin excelled in horsemanship and archery. He was a frequent participant of the imperial hunts. As a learned man, he befriended the intelligentsia and sponsored publications of scholarly works. In 1705, Emperor Kangxi decreed Cao Yin as the lead compiler and editor of an anthology of the Tang-Dynasty poetry. Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 (“The Complete Poems of Tang”), though not without editorial errors, contributed to the revival of Chinese poetic tradition.^[4]

After Cao Yin’s death in 1712, his only son Cao Yóng 曹顒, Xueqin’s father, inherited the official position as well as the family wealth. Unfortunately, he died of illness in the winter of 1714 as his wife was pregnant with Xueqin. The emperor praised Cao Yóng for his well-rounded abilities in literature and martial arts. He allowed the family to adopt Cao Fǔ 曹頫 (c. 1695-?), the fourth son of Cao Quan 曹荃 (1661-1708)—Yin’s brother—as the heir.

Unlike his predecessors/ancestors, Cao Fu was negligent in his official duties. In 1728, the sixth year of the reign of the new emperor Yongzheng 雍正, Cao Fu, falling victim to political conflicts, was stripped of his position, and put in prison. The entire wealth of the Cao clan was confiscated. Cao Xueqin, still in his early teens, witnessed the demise of his family and relocated back to their northern roots.

For most of his life, Cao Xueqin lived in poverty outside of Beijing. Few documents about his life exist. Based on anecdotal accounts from his contemporaries, while gifted in painting, and poetry, he was a habitual drinker. By the time of his sudden death around 1763-4, his life-time work Hónglóumèng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber) was incomplete. Manuscripts of the first 80 chapters had been circulating—some are still extant. The first printed version of the novel, edited and extended by Gao E 高鶚 and Cheng Weiyuan 程偉元, was brought to light in 1791. There were 120 chapters in total.

__Shítóu jì 石頭記 (Chronicle of the Stone)

The original title of Hónglóumèng was Shítóu jì. In the opening chapter, functionally a prologue, the author told the story of a stone, discarded by the goddess Nüwa 女媧 when she patched the holes in heaven.^[5] Over the eons, having absorbed cosmic spirituality, the stone was brought to the mundane world, with inscriptions, by two transcendental beings—a Buddhist monk and a Daoist priest. Years passed, a Daoist Kongkong 空空道人 found the stone and reveled its legend.^[6] From the dialogue between Kongkong and the stone, it is not difficult for the reader to see how the author and the stone are one and the same.

Carved on the stone was an invocation:

___無才可去補蒼天，枉入紅塵若許年。此系身前身後事，倩誰記去作奇傳？ “Inadequate for mending the heaven, in vain, falling into the mundane for ages. What preceded. . . what succeeded, whom could be expect to recount the legend?”

What Cao Xueqin proceeded to tell, on the surface, seemed to be frivolous affairs of a noble family. At its core, it was a cautionary tale, reflecting on current events, social hierarchy, and traditional moral values.

The main protagonist of the tale, Jiǎ Bǎoyù 賈寶玉, was the stone incarnated, born with a jade in his mouth.^[7] Surrounded by women in his household, he favored his cousin Lín Dàiyù 林黛玉, a sensitive and frail maiden. Yet, Baoyu was destinated to marry another cousin Xuē Bǎochāi 薛寶釵, born with a golden lock. The intricate relationship of the three, interwoven with lives of a network of characters in the Jia family, shaped the framework of the novel.^[8]

All novels of the Ming and the Qing Dynasties were written in colloquial style with occasional use of classical literary Chinese. Vernacular expressions in Beijing dialect distinguished Hónglóumèng from other great works. Cao’s language was vivid and eloquent; refined and, always, symbolic.

Centuries after its creation, the scholarly work on Hónglóumèng has become a subject of its own, known as “Red-ology” 紅學. In the early 20^th century, scholars discussed, often vehemently, the authorship, authenticity of the text—especially of the later in the extended chapters, the linguistic characteristics, symbolism of the text/content. In recent decades, Redology has expanded into psychological studies of the characters, social analysis, fashion, and gender studies.

The unworthy stone did not come to the mundane world in vain.

__Verses of Red Beans

In Chapter 28 of Hónglóumèng, Baoyu, and friends were playing drinking games, making up new verses and new lyrics. Baoyu sang 紅豆詞 “Red Bean Ci,” accompanied by courtesan Yún ér 雲兒 playing the pipa.

The “red beans” in the verses are Abrus precatorius, commonly known as rosary peas.^[9] In Chinese legend, the wife of a warrior, longing for him, often shed tears till they turned into blood. Her blood-stained tears turned into seeds and grew red beans. Hence, in poetic tradition, red beans symbolize nostalgia or longing—be it for a friend or a lover.^[10]

Baoyu’s verses, commonly known as “Red Bean Ci” 紅豆詞, were to be sung. He himself called it quzi 曲子. He related the red beans to lovesickness—that of young and passionate love. It is of interest that all the verses started with a three-word phrase, all with a sense of endlessness. This structural detail mirrored a feature in the drinking game, in which each verse of an impromptu quatrain would open with 女兒悲, . . . 女兒愁, . . . 女兒喜, . . . 女兒樂, (“Girls saddened, . . . Girls worried, . . . Girls pleased, . . . Girls delighted, . . .“). Though a simple and playful drinking game, Cao Xueqin’s poetic artistry is clearly in display. Indirectly, within these paragraphs, the readers are led to appreciate Baoyu’s knowledge and skills in poetry.

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^[1] Salt_in_Chinese_history_Wiki
Map of two Huai salt fields and transportation in four provinces/Library of Congress
Huai is the abbreviation of the Huai River. Lianghuai, meaning two Huai, covered the region north of the Yangtze River, along the Huai River.
^[2] Kangxi traveled to the south six times—in 1684, 1689, 1699, 1703, 1705, and 1707—to inspect regional political and economic developments, as well as the livelihood of general population. Painted scrolls were commissioned to document these expeditions. the-Kangxi-emperors-southern-tour-scrolls/sothebys.com/en/articles/
^[3] Prince_Keqin_Wiki
^[4] Quan_Tangshi_Wiki
^[5] Nüwa_Wiki
^[6] Kong 空 means “empty” or “unreal.”
^[7] The surname Jia 賈 and the word “fake” 假 are homophones. Jiǎ Bǎoyù 賈寶玉 insinuates “fake precious jade.”
^[8] There are over 400 characters total in the novel.
^[9] Google_Images_Abrus_precatorius
^[10] Wang Wei 王維 of the Tang Dynasty dedicated a poem to his friend Lǐ Guīnián 李龜年:
紅豆生南國，春來發幾枝。願君多採擷，此物最相思。
“Red beans grow in the south, new shoots sprout out in the spring. Pray that you collect them often, for they are the most nostalgic.”

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