Chapter 87

感秋声抚琴悲往事

坐禅寂走火入邪魔

Baochai’s servant delivers a letter to Daiyu in which Baochai anguishes about her current state. A poem is attached. Daiyu is greatly moved, and is lost in thought when Xiangyun, Tanchun and the Lis arrive. They discuss Baochai’s absence from the Garden and her current predicaments, when a scent wafts in; Daiyu thinks it smells like cassia, which provokes a discussion about Northerners and Southerners and people’s karmic ties to places. When her guests, Daiyu drifts into a daydream about what her life would have been like in the South if her parents had lived. Nightingale, understanding the cause of her absence, reassures her that she is neither unpopular nor imposing on people in her illnesses. Snowgoose brings her soup, cooked by Fivey, and makes her some Southern slaw. The maids eat while Daiyu’s attention is caught by the melancholy wind; she asks Snowgoose for her fur clothes, as it is getting colder. In the bundle of clothes she finds the silk, tear-stained handkerchiefs with poetry written on them which Baoyu had sent her, and the remains of the cord she made for his jade and torn fancase. Nightingale enters and sees her new tearful reverie and, realising sympathy will not work, offers a cheerful rebuke, which only releases more tears. She finally puts on some furs and, in the next room, picks up Baochai’s letter again, and in the spirit of empathy decides to write some stanzas and set them to the qin. Snowgoose brings her her brush, music and qin, and she sets to it.

On the way to school, Baoyu is told by a pageboy that he has the day off. Having confirmed it with Huan and Lan, he returns to Green Delights before setting out to see the girls. Daiyu is sleeping, but he finds Xichun playing Go with Adamantina. He listens in to their game at length, not wishing to disturb them, but finds himself bursting out in laughter at a victorious joke by Adamantina, startling them. He enters and tries to charm the embarrassed nun. He is relieved when she speaks to him at last, asking from where he had come, but is tonguetied with worry that the question is more Zen subtlety than straightforward. Xichun banters him, but Adamantina also takes this badly and decides to leave; Baoyu offers to accompany her back to the Hermitage. Passing Daiyu’s, they hear her playing the qin, and listen to her four stanzas. They are moved, until Adamantina recoils at her sharp intonation. A string snaps, and the nun stands up to walk away.  She tells Baoyu not to speak of this event, her cryptic words leaving him confused.

Back at the Hermitage, she completes her religious duties and eats. She starts to meditate, but Baoyu’s earlier words keep her from doing so successfully. Her body seems to leave the Hermitage and is hustled and kidnapped; she screams, and the sisters find her in an apparent coma shouting at her fantasy ruffians. The nuns consult tallies (a Yin spirit has been offended) and reassure and massage her until she sleeps. Several doctors inspect her, coming up with several diagnoses, but one attributes it to an evil spirit entering during meditation; he writes her a prescription. She recovers, but loses her powers of concentration, and becomes a subject of gossip around town, exacerbated given her youth and looks. When Xichun hears from a maid, she is overwhelmed by an illuminative desire to become a nun. She meditates and studies Go, when she hears a voice outside calling.