The Story of the Stone: The Crab-Flower Club (Volume II): The Crab-Flower Club v. 2 by Xueqin Cao

Author:Xueqin, Cao [Xueqin, Cao]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780141968902
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

carved in li-shu characters on one side and

Wang Kai his Treasure

in little autograph characters, on the back, followed by another column of tiny characters:

Examined by Su Dong-po in the Inner Treasury

Fourth month Yuan-feng era anno 5°

When she had poured tea into this cup she handed it to Bao-chai.

The other cup was shaped like a miniature begging-bowl and was inscribed with the words

THE HORN LINK GOBLET

in ‘pearl-drop’ seal script. Adamantina filled it and handed it to Dai-yu.

She poured tea for Bao-yu in the green jade mug that she normally drank from herself. Bao-yu commented jokingly on the choice:

‘I thought you religious were supposed to treat all earthly creatures alike. How comes it that the other two get priceless heirlooms to drink out of but I only get a common old thing like this?’

‘I have no wish to boast,’ said Adamantina, ‘but this “common old thing” as you call it may well be more valuable than anything you could find in your own household.’

‘In the world’s eyes, yes,’ said Bao-yu. ‘But “other countries, other ways”, you know. When I enter your domain, I naturally adopt your standards and look on gold, jewels and jade as common, vulgar things.’

Adamantina glowed with pleasure. In place of the jade mug she hunted out a large drinking-bowl for him to drink out of. It was carved from a gnarled and ancient bamboo root in the likeness of a coiled-up dragon with horns like antlers.

‘There, that’s the only thing I’ve got left. Do you think you can drink so much?’

Delightedly he assured her that he could.

‘Yes, I dare say you could too,’ said Adamantina. ‘But I’m not sure that I’m prepared to waste so much of my best tea on you. You know what they say: “One cup for a connoisseur, two for a rustic, and three for a thirsty mule”. What sort of creature does that make you if you drink this bowlful?’

Bao-chai, Dai-yu and Bao-yu all three laughed at this. Adamantina poured the equivalent of about a cupful into the bamboo-root bowl. Savouring it carefully in little sips, Bao-yu found it of incomparable freshness and lightness and praised it enthusiastically.

‘You realize, of course,’ said Adamantina seriously, ‘that it is only because of the other two that you are drinking this. If you had come here alone, I should not have given you any.’

Bao-yu laughed.

‘I fully realize that, and I don’t feel in the least indebted to you. I shall offer my thanks to them.’

Adamantina pondered this statement with unsmiling gravity.

‘Yes. I think that would be sensible.’

‘Is this tea made with last year’s rain-water too?’ Dai-yu asked her.

Adamantina looked scornful.

‘Oh! can you really not tell the difference? I am quite disappointed in you. This is melted snow that I collected from the branches of winter-flowering plum-trees five years ago, when I was living at the Coiled Incense temple on Mt Xuan-mu. I managed to fill the whole of that demon-green glaze water-jar with it. For years I couldn’t bring myself to start it; then this summer I opened it for the first time.

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