Chapter 102

宁国府骨肉病灾祲

大观园符水驱妖孽

Lady Wang asks Baochai to cheer Tanchun up before she leaves, and warns her that Fivey does not seem reliable. Tanchun leaves the next day; Baoyu is upset, but her outlook is calm and philosophical. After seeing her off, Youshi returns to Ningguo via Prospect Garden, and is struck by its desolation; she is soon struck by a serious fever. After medicine fails, Jia Rong calls for a fortune teller. The fortune teller prays, divining through trigrams and the Yijing; the divinations show dire misfortune to come. Jia Rong is stunned at the inauspicious reading. Rong and Zhen discuss the divination; they remember that Xifeng also fell ill after seeing spirits in the Garden, and that Skybright and Daiyu’s spirits are probably there. Youshi screams deliriously; word spreads and soon even the servants dare not enter the Garden. Cousin Zhen soon falls ill too, as divined. They burn paper money in the Garden, but all are afraid of it; the costs of keeping it up escalate, and before long it is abandoned and locked up.

Skybright’s cousin’s promiscuous wife is found suddenly dead, exacerbating the rumours of Garden spirits and general apprehension. Jia She, completely disbelieving the rumours, inspects the Garden himself; even he is a shaken by its oppressive nature, which his servants enjoy embellishing. He decides to call for an exorcism; on a suitable day, priests, monks and deacons descend on the Garden. The household menfolk watch the elaborate ceremony, and conduct them round every corner of the Garden. The spirits are ‘contained’ in jars and stored in a geomantic place. The younger men find the ceremony absurd, but there is an observed diminution of demonic activity and the invalids recover; all are half convinced, but the Garden remains empty and unused.

Jia She thinks to move some servants back into the Garden; however, Lian arrives with news that Zheng has been impeached. She is stunned, having just received a letter from him with good news, but Lian soon confirms the news. Zheng has been inept at managing his staff, who have proven exploitative and extortionate. Zheng is just demoted three grades and sent back to Beijing, thanks to Imperial dispensation, but his reputation is ruined. Lian takes the news to Lady Wang.