Chapter 76

凸碧堂品笛感凄清

凹晶馆联诗悲寂寞

Noting Baochai and Baoqin’s absence as the party regroups, Grandmother Jia again comments on how depleted the family seems. She is still game and drinking, and the other women, who are exhausted, are obliged to carry on at her pace. Looking at the large, clear moon, she calls for the flautist to play for them from far away. Hearing that Jia She has twisted his ankle, she tells Lady Xing to look after him; she also tells Youshi to leave, but she doesn’t want to. The rest of the party are admiring cassia when the beautiful flute music starts, startling them to silence and leading to great praise when it finishes. Grandmother Jia keeps drinking – against Faithful’s wishes, she wants to stay up till dawn – when the flute starts up again. This time it is so ghostly and melancholy that people try to escape it with forced talk; Youshi begins to tell Lady Jia a joke when she drops off. After denying her tiredness, she sees that the cousins (except Tanchun) have given in and gone to bed, so she calls an end to the party and returns to her room. One of the ladies notices a cup is missing; talking with Kingfisher, they establish that Xiangyun must have taken it to bed.

Xiangyun is actually comforting Daiyu, who, as an orphan, had found the family occasion painful. After lamenting that the poetry club wasn’t able to meet for the festival, she suggests composing linked verses together. They go to Concave Pavilion by the lake for a more inspirational environment. They discuss the poeticism of the words ‘convex’ and ‘concave’. The two night watchwomen at the Pavilion are not awake; Xiangyun and Daiyu sit and watch the lake and talk about poetry. When they hear the flute playing, they decide on a form and a rhyme and start their linked verses, joking, admiring and offering criticism on them as they go. Daiyu sees a dark shadow in the lake. Throwing a pebble into it, a stork flies out of the lake and into one of Xiangyun’s couplets. In awe of Xiangyun’s efforts, Daiyu ends the poem to Xiangyun’s reciprocated admiration. A stranger steps out and applauds their efforts – it is Adamantina, who has been tempted out to observe the moon by the flute playing. She invites them back to her Hermitage where they drink tea when their maids Nightingale and Kingfisher arrive, looking for them. Before leaving, Daiyu is impressed by Adamantina’s enthusiasm for poetry and asks for some criticism. She declares that she would like to bring their poem back to a Buddhist ‘proper aspect’ and adds thirteen more couplets to Daiyu and Xiangyun’s admiration. It is nearly dawn, and they leave the Hermitage for Daiyu’s where they go to bed. However, they are now beyond tiredness and neither can sleep.