It is recorded that when the Pearl Empress (his mother) asked of the
philosophic Yellow Emperor which he considered the most beautiful of the
Imperial concubines, he replied instantly: “The Lady A-Kuei”: and when
the Royal Parent in profound astonishment demanded bow this could
be, having regard to the exquisite beauties in question, the Emperor
replied;
“I have never seen her. It was dark when I entered the Dragon Chamber
and dusk of dawn when I rose and left her.”
Then said the Pearl Princess;
“Possibly the harmony of her voice solaced the Son of Heaven?”
But he replied;
“She spoke not.”
And the Pearl Empress rejoined:
“Her limbs then are doubtless softer than the kingfisher’s plumage?”
But the Yellow Emperor replied;
“Doubtless. Yet I have not touched them. I was that night immersed in
speculations on the Yin and the Yang. How then should I touch a woman?”
And the Pearl Empress was silent from very great amazement, not daring
to question further but marveling how the thing might be. And seeing
this, the Yellow Emperor recited a poem to the following effect:
“It is said that Power rules the world
And who shall gainsay it?
But Loveliness is the head-jewel upon the brow of Power.”
And when the Empress had listened with reverence to the Imperial Poet,
she quitted the August Presence.
Immediately, having entered her own palace of the Tranquil Motherly
Virtues, she caused the Lady A-Kuei to be summoned to her presence, who
came, habited in a purple robe and with pins of jade and coral in her
hair. And the Pearl Empress considered her attentively, recalling the
perfect features of the White Jade Concubine, the ambrosial smile of the
Princess of Feminine Propriety, and the willow-leaf eyebrows of the Lady
of Chen, and her astonishment was excessive, because the Lady A-Kuei
could not in beauty approach any one of these ladies. Reflecting further
she then placed her behind the screen, and summoned the court artist, Lo
Cheng, who had been formerly commissioned to paint the heavenly
features of the Emperor’s Ladies, mirrored in still water, though he had
naturally not been permitted to view the beauties themselves. Of him the
Empress demanded:
“Who is the most beautiful--which the most priceless jewel of the
dwellers in the Dragon Palace?”
And, with humility, Lo Cheng replied:
“What mortal man shall decide between the white Crane and the Swan,
or between the paeony flower and the lotus?” And having thus said he
remained silent, and in him was no help. Finally and after exhortation
the Pearl Empress condescended to threaten him with the loss of a head
so useless to himself and to her majesty. Then, in great fear and haste
he replied:
“Of all the flowers that adorn the garden of the Sun of Heaven, the Lady
A-Kuei is the fittest to be gathered by the Imperial Hand, and this is
my deliberate opinion.”
Now, hearing this statement, the Pearl Empress was submerged in
bewilderment, knowing that the Lady A-Kuei had modestly retired when the
artist had depicted the reflection of the assembled loveliness of the
Inner Chambers, as not counting herself worthy of portraiture, and her
features were therefore unknown to him. Nor could the Empress further
question the artist, for when she had done so, he replied only:
“This is the secret of the Son of Heaven,” and, having gained
permission, he swiftly departed.
Nor could the Lady A-Kuei herself aid her Imperial Majesty, for on being
questioned she was overwhelmed with modesty and confusion, and with
stammering lips could only repeat:
“This is the secret of his Divine Majesty,” imploring with the utmost
humility, forgiveness from the Imperial Mother.
The Pearl Empress was unable to eat her supper. In vain were spread
before her the delicacies of the Empire. She could but trifle with a
shark’s fin and a “Silver Ear” fungus and a dish of slugs entrapped upon
roses, with the dew-like pearls upon them. Her burning curiosity had
wholly deprived her of appetite, nor could the amusing exertions of
the Palace mimes, or a lantern fete upon the lake restore her to
any composure. “This circumstance will cause my flight on the Dragon
(death),” she said to herself, “unless I succeed in unveiling the
mystery. What therefore should be my next proceeding?”
And so, deeply reflecting, she caused the Chief of the Eunuchs to summon
the Princess of Feminine Propriety, the White Jade Concubine and all the
other exalted beauties of the Heavenly Palace.
In due course of time these ladies arrived, paying suitable respect and
obeisance to the Mother of his Divine Majesty. They were resplendent in
king-fisher ornaments, in jewels of jade, crystal and coral, in robes
of silk and gauze, and still more resplendent in charms that not
the Celestial Empire itself could equal, setting aside entirely all
countries of the foreign barbarians. And in grace and elegance of
manners, in skill in the arts of poetry and the lute, what could surpass
them?
Like a parterre of flowers they surrounded her Majesty, and awaited her
pleasure with perfect decorum, when, having saluted them with affability
she thus addressed them--“Lovely ones--ladies distinguished by the
particular attention of your sovereign and mine, I have sent for you
to resolve a doubt and a difficulty. On questioning our sovereign as to
whom he regarded as the loveliest of his garden of beauty he benignantly
replied: “The Lady A-Kuei is incomparable,” and though this may well be,
he further graciously added that he had never seen her. Nor, on pursuing
the subject, could I learn the Imperial reason. The artist Lo Cheng
follows in his Master’s footsteps, he also never having seen the favored
lady, and he and she reply to me that this is an Imperial secret.
Declare to me therefore if your perspicacity and the feminine interest
which every lady property takes in the other can unravel this mystery,
for my liver is tormented with anxiety beyond measure.”
As soon as the Pearl Empress had spoken she realized that she had
committed a great indiscretion. A babel of voices, of cries, questions
and contradictions instantly arose. Decorum was abandoned. The Lady of
Chen swooned, nor could she be revived for an hour, and the Princess of
Feminine Propriety and the White Jade Concubine could be dragged apart
only by the united efforts of six of the Palace matrons, so great was
their fury the one with the other, each accusing each of encouragement
to the Lady A-Kuei’s pretensions. So also with the remaining ladies.
Shrieks resounded through the Hall of Virtuous Tranquillity, and when
the Pearl Empress attempted to pour oil on the troubled waters by
speaking soothing and comfortable words, the august Voice was entirely
inaudible in the tumult.
All sought at length in united indignation for the Lady A-Kuei, but she
had modestly withdrawn to the Pearl Pavilion in the Imperial Garden and,
foreseeing anxieties, had there secured herself on hearing the opening
of the Royal Speech.
Finally the ladies were led away by their attendants, weeping,
lamenting, raging, according to their several dispositions, and the
Pearl Empress, left with her own maidens, beheld the floor strewn with
jade pins, kingfisher and coral jewels, and even with fragments of silk
and gauze. Nor was she any nearer the solution of the desired secret.
That night she tossed upon a bed sleepless though heaped with down,
and her mind raged like a fire up and down all possible answers to the
riddle, but none would serve. Then, at the dawn, raising herself on one
august elbow she called to her venerable nurse and foster mother, the
Lady Ma, wise and resourceful in the affairs and difficulties of women,
and, repeating the circumstances, demanded her counsel.
The Lady Ma considering the matter long and deeply, slowly replied:
“This is a great riddle and dangerous, for to intermeddle with the
divine secrets is the high road to the Yellow Springs (death). But the
child of my breasts and my exalted Mistress shall never ask in vain, for
a thwarted curiosity is dangerous as a suppressed fever. I will conceal
myself nightly in the Dragon Bedchamber and this will certainly unveil
the truth. And if I perish I perish.”
It is impossible to describe how the Empress heaped Lady Ma with costly
jewels and silken brocades and taels of silver beyond measuring--how she
placed on her breast the amulet of jade that had guarded herself from
all evil influences, how she called the ancestral spirits to witness
that she would provide for the Lady Ma’s remotest descendants if she
lost her life in this sublime devotion to duty.
That night Lady Ma concealed herself behind the Imperial couch in the
Dragon Chamber, to await the coming of the Son of Heaven. Slowly dripped
the water-clock as the minutes fled away; sorely ached the venerable
limbs of the Lady Ma as she crouched in the shadows and saw the rising
moon scattering silver through the elegant traceries of carved ebony and
ivory; wildly beat her heart as delicately tripping footsteps approached
the Dragon Chamber, and the Princess of Feminine Propriety, attended by
her maidens, ascended the Imperial Couch and hastily dismissed them. Yet
no sweet repose awaited this favored lady. The Lady Ma could hear her
smothered sobs, her muttered exclamations--nay could even feel the
couch itself tremble as the Princess uttered the hated name of the Lady
A-Kuei, the poison of jealousy running in every vein. It was impossible
for Lady Ma to decide which was the most virulent, this, or the poison
of curiosity in the heart of the Pearl Empress. Though she loved not the
Princess she was compelled to pity such suffering. But all thought was
banished by the approach of the Yellow Emperor, prepared for repose and
unattended, in simple but divine grandeur.
It cannot indeed be supposed that a Celestial Emperor is human, yet
there was mortality in the start which his Augustness gave when the
Princess of Feminine Propriety flinging herself from the Dragon couch,
threw herself at his feet and with tears that flowed like that river
known as “The Sorrow of China,” demanded to know what she had done that
another should be preferred before her; reciting in frantic haste such
imperfections of the Lady A-Kuei’s appearance as she could recall (or
invent) in the haste of that agitating moment.
“That one of her eyes is larger than the other--no human being can
doubt” sobbed the lady--“and surely your Divine Majesty cannot be aware
that her hair reaches but to her waist, and that there is a brown mole
on the nape of her neck? When she sings it resembles the croak of the
crow. It is true that most of the Palace ladies are chosen for anything
but beauty, yet she is the most ill-favored. And is it this--this
bat-faced lady who is preferred to me! Would I had never been born: Yet
even your Majesty’s own lips have told me I am fair!”
The Yellow Emperor supported the form of the Princess in his arms.
There are moments when even a Son of Heaven is but human. “Fair as the
rainbow,” he murmured, and the Princess faintly smiled; then gathering
the resolution of the Philosopher he added manfully--“But the Lady
A-Kuei is incomparable. And the reason is--”
The Lady Ma eagerly stretched her head forward with a hand to either
ear. But the Princess of Feminine Propriety with one shriek had swooned
and in the hurry of summoning attendants and causing her to be conveyed
to her own apartments that precious sentence was never completed.
Still the Lady Ma groveled behind the Dragon Couch as the Son of
Heaven, left alone, approached the veranda and apostrophizing the moon,
murmured--
“O loveliest pale watcher of the destinies of men, illuminate the beauty
of the Lady A-Kuei, and grant that I who have never seen that beauty may
never see it, but remain its constant admirer!” So saying, he sought
his solitary couch and slept, while the Lady Ma, in a torment of
bewilderment, glided from the room.
The matter remained in suspense for several days. The White Jade
Concubine was the next lady commanded to the Dragon Chamber, and again
the Lady Ma was in her post of observation. Much she heard, much she
saw that was not to the point, but the scene ended as before by the
dismissal of the lady in tears, and the departure of the Lady Ma in
ignorance of the secret.
The Emperor’s peace was ended.
The singular circumstance was that the Lady A-Kuei was never summoned
by the Yellow Emperor. Eagerly as the Empress watched, no token of
affection for her was ever visible. Nothing could be detected. It was
inexplicable. Finally, devoured by curiosity that gave her no respite,
she resolved on a stratagem that should dispel the mystery, though it
carried with it a risk on which she trembled to reflect. It was the
afternoon of a languid summer day, and the Yellow Emperor, almost
unattended, had come to pay a visit of filial respect to the Pearl
Empress. She received him with the ceremony due to her sovereign in the
porcelain pavilion of the Eastern Gardens, with the lotos fish ponds
before them, and a faint breeze occasionally tinkling the crystal
wind-bells that decorated the shrubs on the cloud and dragon-wrought
slopes of the marble approach. A bird of brilliant plumage uttered a cry
of reverence from its gold cage as the Son of Heaven entered. As was
his occasional custom, and after suitable inquiries as to his parent’s
health, the attendants were all dismissed out of earshot and the Emperor
leaned on his cushions and gazed reflectively into the sunshine
outside. So had the Court Artist represented him as “The Incarnation of
Philosophic Calm.”
“These gardens are fair,” said the Empress after a respectful silence,
moving her fan illustrated with the emblem of Immortality--the Ho Bird.
“Fair indeed,” returned the Emperor.--“It might be supposed that all
sorrow and disturbance would be shut without the Forbidden Precincts.
Yet it is not so. And though the figures of my ladies moving among the
flowers appear at this distance instinct with joy, yet--”
He was silent.
“They know not,” said the Empress with solemnity “that death entered the
Forbidden Precincts but last night. A disembodied spirit has returned to
its place and doubtless exists in bliss.” “Indeed?” returned the Yellow
Emperor with indifference--“yet if the spirit is absorbed into the
Source whence it came, and the bones have crumbled into nothingness,
where does the Ego exist? The dead are venerable, but no longer of
interest.”
“Not even when they were loved in life?” said the Empress, caressing the
bird in the cage with one jewelled finger, but attentively observing
her son from the corner of her august eye. “They were; they are not,” he
remarked sententiously and stifling a yawn; it was a drowsy afternoon.
“But who is it that has abandoned us? Surely not the Lady Ma--your
Majesty’s faithful foster-mother?”
“A younger, a lovelier spirit has sought the Yellow Springs,” replied
the trembling Empress. “I regret to inform your Majesty that a sudden
convulsion last night deprived the Lady A-Kuei of life. I would not
permit the news to reach you lest it should break your august night’s
rest.”
There was a silence, then the Emperor turned his eyes serenely upon his
Imperial Mother. “That the statement of my august Parent is merely--let
us say--allegoric--does not detract from its interest. But had the Lady
A-Kuei in truth departed to the Yellow Springs I should none the less
have received the news without uneasiness. What though the sun set--is
not the memory of his light all surpassing?”
No longer could the Pearl Empress endure the excess of her curiosity.
Deeply kowtowing, imploring pardon, with raised hands and tears which no
son dare neglect, she besought the Emperor to enlighten her as to this
mystery, recounting his praises of the lady and his admission that he
had never beheld her, and all the circumstances connected with this
remarkable episode. She omitted only, (from considerations of delicacy
and others,) the vigils of the Lady Ma in the Dragon Chamber. The
Emperor, sighing, looked upon the ground, and for a time was silent.
Then he replied as follows:
“Willingly would I have kept silence, but what child dare withstand the
plea of a parent? Is it necessary to inform the Heavenly Empress that
beauty seen is beauty made familiar and that familiarity is the foe
of admiration? How is it possible that I should see the Princess of
Feminine Propriety, for instance, by night and day without becoming
aware of her imperfections as well as her graces? How awake in the night
without hearing the snoring of the White Jade Concubine and considering
the mouth from which it issues as the less lovely. How partake of the
society of any woman without finding her chattering as the crane, avid
of admiration, jealous, destructive of philosophy, fatal to composure,
fevered with curiosity; a creature, in short, a little above the gibbon,
but infinitely below the notice of the sage, save as a temporary measure
of amusement in itself unworthy the philosopher. The faces of all my
ladies are known to me. All are fair and all alike. But one night, as I
lay in the Dragon Couch, lost in speculation, absorbed in contemplation
of the Yin and the Yang, the night passed for the solitary dreamer as a
dream. In the darkness of the dawn I rose still dreaming, and departed
to the Pearl Pavilion in the garden, and there remained an hour viewing
the sunrise and experiencing ineffable opinions on the destiny of man.
Returning then to a couch which I believed to have been that of the
solitary philosopher I observed a depression where another form had
lain, and in it a jade hairpin such as is worn by my junior beauties.
Petrified with amazement at the display of such reserve, such
continence, such august self-restraint, I perceived that, lost in
my thoughts, I had had an unimagined companion and that this gentle
reminder was from her gentle hand. But whom? I knew not. I then observed
Lo Cheng the Court Artist in attendance and immediately despatched him
to make secret enquiry and ascertain the name and circumstances of that
beauty who, unknown, had shared my vigil. I learnt on his return that
it was the Lady A-Kuei. I had entered the Dragon Chamber in a low
moonlight, and guessed not her presence. She spoke no word. Finding her
Imperial Master thus absorbed, she invited no attention, nor in any way
obtruded her beauties upon my notice. Scarcely did she draw breath. Yet
reflect upon what she might have done! The night passed and I remained
entirely unconscious of her presence, and out of respect she would not
sleep but remained reverently and modestly awake, assisting, if it may
so be expressed, at a humble distance, in the speculations which held me
prisoner. What a pearl was here! On learning these details by Lo Cheng
from her own roseate lips, and remembering the unexampled temptation
she had resisted (for well she knew that had she touched the Emperor
the Philosopher had vanished) I despatched an august rescript to this
favored Lady, conferring on her the degree of Incomparable Beauty of the
First Rank. On condition of secrecy.”
The Pearl Empress, still in deepest bewilderment, besought his majesty
to proceed. He did so, with his usual dignity.
“Though my mind could not wholly restrain its admiration, yet secrecy
was necessary, for had the facts been known, every lady, from the
Princess of Feminine Propriety to the Junior Beauty of the Bed Chamber
would henceforward have observed only silence and a frigid decorum in
the Dragon Bed Chamber. And though the Emperor be a philosopher, yet a
philosopher is still a man, and there are moments when decorum--”
The Emperor paused discreetly; then resumed.
“The world should not be composed entirely of A-Kueis, yet in my mind I
behold the Incomparable Lady fair beyond expression. Like the moon she
sails glorious in the heavens to be adored only in vision as the one
woman who could respect the absorption of the Emperor, and of whose
beauty as she lay beside him the philosopher could remain unconscious
and therefore untroubled in body. To see her, to find her earthly,
would be an experience for which the Emperor might have courage, but the
philosopher never. And attached to all this is a moral:”
The Pearl Empress urgently inquired its nature.
“Let the wisdom of my august parent discern it,” said the Emperor
sententiously.
“And the future?” she inquired.
“The--let us call it parable--” said the Emperor politely--“with which
your Majesty was good enough to entertain me, has suggested a precaution
to my mind. I see now a lovely form moving among the flowers. It is
possible that it may be the Incomparable Lady, or that at any moment I
may come upon her and my ideal be shattered. This must be safeguarded.
I might command her retirement to her native province, but who shall
insure me against the weakness of my own heart demanding her return?
No. Let Your Majesty’s words spoken--well--in parable, be fulfilled in
truth. I shall give orders to the Chief Eunuch that the Incomparable
Lady tonight shall drink the Draught of Crushed Pearls, and be thus
restored to the sphere that alone is worthy of her. Thus are all
anxieties soothed, and the honours offered to her virtuous spirit shall
be a glorious repayment of the ideal that will ever illuminate my soul.”
The Empress was speechless. She had borne the Emperor in her womb, but
the philosopher outsoared her comprehension. She retired, leaving his
Majesty in a reverie, endeavoring herself to grasp the moral of which
he had spoken, for the guidance of herself and the ladies concerned. But
whether it inculcated reserve or the reverse in the Dragon Chamber, and
what the Imperial ladies should follow as an example she was, to the
end of her life, totally unable to say. Philosophy indeed walks on the
heights. We cannot all expect to follow it.
That night the Incomparable Lady drank the Draught of Crushed Pearls.
The Princess of Feminine Propriety and the White Jade Concubine,
learning these circumstances, redoubled their charms, their coquetries
and their efforts to occupy what may be described as the inner sanctuary
of the Emperor’s esteem. Both lived to a green old age, wealthy and
honored, alike firm in the conviction that if the Incomparable Lady had
not shown herself so superior to temptation the Emperor might have been
on the whole better pleased, whatever the sufferings of the philosopher.
Both lived to be the tyrants of many generations of beauties at the
Celestial Court. Both were assiduous in their devotions before the
spirit tablet of the departed lady, and in recommending her example of
reserve and humility to every damsel whom it might concern.
It will probably occur to the reader of this unique but veracious story
that there is more in it than meets the eye, and more than the one
moral alluded to by the Emperor according to the point of view of the
different actors.
To the discernment of the reader it must accordingly be left.