Blessed by God

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While investigating for this chapter, I stumbled upon this gallery: Click to see. We can see the ordinary life of wealthy and poor people and how they looked. I myself I’m baffled at how young the girls looked! No wonder many died of dystocia. I added a few images that are relevant to the chapter. The Qing Dynasty started in 1644 and ended in 1912, so this novel is set in the first (golden) years of the dynasty while the images I’m about to show you are set in the last few years of the dynasty. Thank you for reading. —Bambi.

Chapter 49: Unforeseen event

Swearing brotherhood, 

they’re overjoyed to find like-minded friends.

Peach blossoms are also smiling at the altar.

Swearing brotherhood, 

They share the ambition to serve the kingdom. 

Oath of Peach Garden (Spotify, sang by Liu Huan 刘欢)

 

The dust had settled regarding the titles of the princes. The older ones were very satisfied, and the younger ones had no objections. After all, titles depended on age, seniority, and meritorious service. One’s performance on the battlefield should also be very heroic. 

Although the third prince’s performance on the battlefield was average, he was excellent in poetry, calligraphy and painting. In addition, his birth mother, Consort Rong had been favored by the emperor for many years, and being a Prince of the Second Rank was feasible. The other younger ones, like the seventh prince, may have great military achievements, but he was still young, so he could only be a Prince of the Third Rank.

The eldest brother’s mansion was far away from Yinyou; the closest to him were the fourth brother and the eighth brother. The three of them were basically neighbors. Yinyou went out from the main entrance and invited the fourth brother and eighth brother to go with him; regardless of their true feelings, they had to put on a good show of brotherhood, after all, they were each in their own sedan chairs, and they couldn’t see each other.

Arriving at the eldest brother’s mansion, Yinyou got out of the sedan chair. Someone had already handed over his name card, and the housekeeper personally awaited them at the entrance.

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“Servant greets the fourth Master, the seventh Master, and the eighth Master. Master has been looking forward to you for a long time,” the steward bowed to welcome the three of them into the mansion. 

After walking for a while, Yinyou saw a stage set up in the garden, on which singers were performing and the eldest brother stood in front and waited for them in a brocade robe1Clothes showed rank. The more elaborate the clothes, the higher the status of the person wearing them..

 

Two singing girls pose for the camera. The instrument that the girl on the left is holding is called an erhu. Hong Kong. 1901. See clearly here.

The brothers greeted each other, and not long after they sat down, other brothers came one after another. They talked and laughed together with wine and snacks. Overall, the atmosphere was very pleasant.

Already years ago, Yinyou already knew that the eldest brother didn’t like him very much. Thus he sat quietly on the side and listened attentively to the opera, and only after listening for a long time did he finally figure out which play it was. It turned out to be “Oath of Peach Garden”2桃园结义 táoyuánjiéyì. Lit. Oath of Peach Garden, it means to make a pact of brotherhood (from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”). “Oath of Peach Garden” talks about the oath bound the three men to be of one mind and devote themselves to their country in the Three Kingdoms period. / The story is often alluded to as a symbol of fraternal loyalty. The three men’s solidarity, loyalty and righteousness have inspired Chinese people for generations. / Bambi: It’s a very cool melody, and I love the male voice, please listen to it here: Youtube (without subs) and Spotify. / You can see the scene from the 2010 adaptation on YouTube with English subs (captions): Here. On minute 26:04 begins the music Yinyou’s listening to! . Yinyou had always held a heart of admiration for opera, a national quintessence treasure3 The Peking opera is regarded as an expression of the aesthetic ideal of opera in traditional Chinese society and remains a widely recognized element of the country’s cultural heritage. The traditional repertoire of Beijing opera includes more than 1,000 works, mostly taken from historical novels about political and military struggles with little to no romance., but he really lacked the ability to appreciate it. At most, just look at the body moving and listen to the voice singing, whether it was good or not he didn’t understand.

“Didn’t expect these opera performers4戏子 xìzi. (derog.) opera singer / actor. It was considered a low-status job. Wikipedia: “Qing dynasty emperors repeatedly banned female performers beginning with Kangxi Emperor in 1671.” (Since we’re in the 36th Year of Kangxi (1697), the ban should already be implemented. It may be the author’s mistake.)/ “In 1912, with the collapse of the Qing empire, its ban on female actors in theatre was officially lifted. The early Qing emperors’ repeated prohibitions banished women from the imperial stage (with a few notable exceptions), because the Manchu rulers were concerned about female performers’ sexual appeal, which was said to threaten social morality.” 2013, Guanda Wu. in the eldest brother’s villa to be this good. I heard they are the girls found and brought back by the eldest sister-in-law.” The third brother smiled and took a sip of clear tea. “Sister-in-law is very virtuous.”

“The third brother is joking, didn’t I hear that the Ge Ge5Ge Ge is the polite Manchu title concubines receive. in your house added a little baby boy to you two days ago?” The eldest elder brother smiled a little, obviously very satisfied with his wife raising these playthings6One of the ways the legal wife attained favor was sending beauties to his husband, if they had children, the women would always recognize her as their backer since without her, they wouldn’t gain the opportunity to be favored, and the wife also gained the fame of being virtuous. for him. “Performers are just that, what’s so nice about them? If you like, I’d send you some for you to raise.”

When the third brother heard the words, his smile faltered slightly, but then he laughed again, “If the eldest brother is willing, the younger brother will definitely not refuse.”

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Two wealthy merchants eat and enjoy the company of girls paid to sing. These men, as part of the bourgeois, would be major targets of the new regime after the Communist Revolution. Beijing. 1901. See clearly here.

 

Hearing the two brothers’ tone as if they were discussing a few Chinese cabbages, Yinyou couldn’t help thinking that if these two were really to transmigrate to the modern age, they’ll be fine if they’re powerful and wealthy but if they had a normal family background, just this virtue, the majority of single women will despise them and think that they are wasting air, obstructing sight, and wasting food, condemned to be forever bachelors. Yet, at this time and age, actors were no different from playthings in the eyes of ordinary people, let alone these princes who had no shortage of women.

“I heard that the seventh younger brother accepted a Ge Ge a few days ago, he’s very lucky,” The eldest brother commented, but there was a hint of irony in his voice. 

All the brothers present knew that the seventh brother’s Fu Jin’s family was average at best, and now one year had passed and she wasn’t pregnant. Now, there was one more Ge Ge with a mediocre background. Except for the eighth brother, there were many other brothers with at least a Ce Fu Jin and Shu Fu Jin7 Di Fu Jin is the main wife or first wife, she’s the highest ranked woman in the backyard of a prince. Ce Fu Jin means side Fu Jin and she’s the second wife, she can’t top the first wife though. The third level of prestige, that is, the third wife, is the Shu Fu Jin. / To explain where the irony comes from: “Polygamy was an affirmation of male potency. The presence of many women connoted a strong ruler blessed with fertility.” (…) “Taking multiple wives was a way in which men made themselves appear exceptional. The exceptional men distinguished themselves from all other men and women by exerting privileges that others did not have. Their exceptionality had a kind of magical or even sacred quality to it, as if they harbored an essence that made them something like gods. Polygamy also of course relied on the social and economic power of men. Women became concubines because they suffered social and economic disadvantage.” (From The Institution of Polygamy in the Chinese Imperial Palace by Keith Mcmahon, 2013. Recommend reading it, it’s super interesting .

“It’s just a girl who hasn’t grown up, what kind of blessings can she bring?” Yinyou pretended not to hear the sarcasm in his words, and calmly took a sip of steaming tea. “This reminds me of a few days ago when I played chess with Huang Ama and he made fun of me as a foodie whose only redeeming quality is not being obsessed with beauties, pity me.”

When the eldest brother heard these words the smile on his face turned ugly. These words were obviously self-deprecating but were also a taunt back to the sarcasm he’d previously deployed. Since he couldn’t contradict Huang Ama, he could only reluctantly offer an insincere smile, “It’s exactly as what Huang Ama said.”

These words implied that Yinyou had no other skills, and Yinyou accepted it with a smile. His unflappable demeanor only made the eldest brother lose his enthusiasm and once again, he accurately felt that he and his seventh younger brother didn’t seem to match well!

The eighth brother was the only one of the brothers with just one Fu Jin and he didn’t even have a Ge Ge. While the elder brother’s words were clearly mocking him, he maintained his composure and smiled from start to finish, never once letting on a hint of displeasure.

Recently, the emperor was going to let the clan and children of the Eight Banners to participate in the provincial examination8乡试 xiāngshì. The triennial provincial imperial exam during the Ming and Qing. “Racial quotas were placed on the number of graduates permitted. In the early Qing period, a 4:6 Manchu to Han quota was placed on the palace examination, and was in effect until 1655. Separate examinations were held for bannermen from 1652 to 1655 with a ten-point racial quota of 4:2:4 for Manchus, Mongols, and Han Chinese.”. Some dissolute youngsters who walked around swinging bird-cages on the streets9 In China, a pronounced appreciation for bird keeping arose during the Qing dynasty. As aviculture spread throughout the country, many men would stroll through the early morning streets, swinging their birdcages back and forth like a pendulum. To this day, Chinese bird keepers swing cages to encourage birds to grip to their perch, an exercise which prevents birds’ feathers from falling off. Source. (Bambi: so rich playboys with a hobby of bird-keeping).  now began to feel anxious, and even had the idea of using connections to get a place in the list of accepted candidates. Thus, the eldest brother has received a lot of “gifts” in recent days, and it was inevitable that he will be a bit over the top in both words and action. Now that his enthusiasm had been splashed with cold water, he even felt that his words were inappropriate yet seeing that Yinyou didn’t care for it, he suppressed his thoughts; whether he looked left and right, he would not find a more unimportant brother than Yinyou and he didn’t need to bend over to apologize or justify himself.

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The fourth brother had been indifferent to their scruffle from beginning to end, and because several brothers also knew of his cold temperament, there was no one who was foolish enough to provoke him. In this way, the eldest brother and the third brother became the main characters of this brotherly play.

As Yinyou observed the performance of the eldest brother and the third brother, he also secretly sneered. No wonder they couldn’t compare to Yinzhen. Both of them were proud of becoming a Prince of the Second Rank and didn’t even stop to think about Kangxi’s suspicious disposition. There was also the Crown Prince whose ambitions were getting bigger and bigger, why did they thought that the more prominent they were, the more the Crown Prince will regard them as thorn in his flesh?10刺在他肉里 cì zài tā ròu lǐ. This idiom implies that the person or issue in question is a continual source of frustration or trouble for the individual. It often refers to a longstanding problem or annoyance that is difficult to eliminate or resolve. 

Ha! “luckily,” he was still the eldest brother! Why can’t he learn from the fourth brother?

Turning his head to look at Yinzhen who was drinking tea quietly, Yinyou nodded secretly. As expected of the future Emperor Yongzheng, he knew the virtue of keeping a low profile. Apart from that shiny forehead, Yinzhen’s appearance was considered pretty good among the brothers. Although his temperament was cold, his appearance had a hint of elegance. The combination of the two makes him even more outstanding. But when it came to the most beautiful face, the first thing Yinyou thought of was of the thirteenth brother’s adorable face. 

Some people in later generations said that the ninth brother looked like a woman. In fact, the ninth brother was only average in appearance among brothers, and Kangxi did not favor him very much. On the contrary, the thirteenth brother’s looks follow that of the lucky boy in the New Year’s painting and Kangxi favored him very much.

“What is the seventh brother thinking?” Seeing that Yinyou was holding a teacup in a daze, looking stupid, the eighth brother couldn’t help laughing and casually asked, “Did something good happened?”

“It’s not like that,” Yinyou shook his head, put down his teacup, and sighed, “Thirteenth has a lot of homework recently and has no chance to go out of the palace, so he asked me to bring him some food from outside the palace for him to taste. I got busy and forgot until today.”

The eighth brother also laughed when he heard these words. Several brothers knew about the relationship between Yinyou and the thirteenth younger brother. The thirteenth brother started pestering the seventh brother to draw him some puppies and pigs since he was very young, and now he was still close to Yinyou. 

Yinzhen on the side heard Yinyou’s words and joined in, “No wonder, I met him the other day and he asked about you, so it was him looking forward to your food.” After speaking, he shook his head. “Tomorrow I will ask someone to send some in for you, lest we keep him waiting.”

Hearing this, the eighth brother frowned slightly and lowered his head to take a sip of tea. The brothers were very careful when sending food, how could they even think of sending food on behalf of others? If something happened in the middle, no one could testify to it. For a person as cautious as the fourth child, to say such things, it seemed that his relationship with the seventh brother and the thirteenth brother was really close.

Yinyou felt that he had saved himself a task, so he happily agreed, and then continued to appreciate the quintessence of Chinese opera.

After the brothers gathered for a while, they each got up and bid farewell, being the perfect image of brotherhood and respect.

After leaving the eldest brother’s lofty villa, Yinyou breathed a sigh of relief, and only when the Crown Prince’s sedan chair moved forward, did he got in his and started leaving. He simply wanted to distance himself from these brothers who were excellent at either attacking or defending.

 

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While shaking the fan, thinking about the scene of the brothers’ gathering from a few days ago, Yinyou suddenly opened his eyes wide. This time, the Crown Prince didn’t say much from the beginning to the end. Even when the eldest brother said something rude, the Crown Prince smiled. Him being like this was really shocking.

What a Crown Prince hated the most was someone threatening his position, was the Crown Prince holding back now but secretly planning something?

Fanning vigorously, Yinyou lifted up the screen window and wisps of wind blew in; he immediately felt comfortable physically and mentally. Oh, well, fight all you want, as a matter of fact, he only knew the ending of the eldest brother and not how…

The summer was gradually passing, the leaves were starting to turn yellow, the weather was getting colder, and autumn had already a month in. The provincial imperial examination had ended, and the princes closed their doors to refuse guests; each one of them worked in a low-key manner, for fear of getting into trouble.

Yinzhen was copying Buddhist scriptures in the study room when he heard the sound of impatient footsteps outside the study. Displeased, he frowned, and said in a deep voice, “Who is making noise outside?”

Xiao Luzi, who was waiting outside the study, hurried in, and then knelt down with a plop, “Master, the news has just come that the pregnant Ge Ge in the seventh Master’s mansion,  both mother and child are gone! This servant heard that the fetus had already taken shape. It was a baby boy.”

Hearing this, Yinzhen was startled and due to his sudden movements, the ink splashed onto the paper without him realizing it; it took him a long while to come back to his senses, “What’s going on?”

Xiao Luzi kowtowed again, “This slave doesn’t know. But the seventh Master’s house is in a mess at the moment, this slave heard that the seventh Master was so angry that he smashed several precious porcelains in the house. Fu Duo, who serves closely at the seventh Master’s side was worried and send someone to tell the Master.”

Putting down the writing brush in his hand, Yinzhen didn’t even consider to change his clothes. “What are you doing in a daze, you’re still not moving! Let’s go to the seventh brother’s mansion!”

As soon as Yinzhen arrived at Yinyou’s mansion, he saw that the servants were panic-stricken. When he arrived at Yinyou’s courtyard, he saw several servants kneeling outside in a row, and he asked Fu Duo in a quiet voice, “What’s going on? How is your Master?”

Seeing that it was Yinzhen, Fu Duo replied honestly but in a hurry, “This servant greets the fourth Master. Today, when the Lord came back, he heard that Ge Ge’s child was gone. Just when the imperial doctor had arrived, Ge Ge too followed the child. The imperial doctor’s diagnosis was that Ge Ge’s food had problems, hearing this, the Master lost his temper. Now he has locked himself in the room. Us servants are all worried about the Lord’s health, asking the fourth Master to help persuade the Lord.” 

After finishing speaking, he knelt straight down in front of Yinzhen.

 

The translator has something to say: Lord = Master. Who do you think plotted against Yinyou’s Ge Ge? You guessed it right, it is… I did some digging for this chapter, as you can tell from the long footnotes. I am pleased with finally having understand the “bird-keeping” hobby of the noble dudes, apparently, the Qianlong emperor himself loved birds. While I researched that bit, I thought of Mulan’s grandma and her good luck Cricket, pff. Ty for reading! —Bambi.

 

1Clothes showed rank. The more elaborate the clothes, the higher the status of the person wearing them.2桃园结义 táoyuánjiéyì. Lit. Oath of Peach Garden, it means to make a pact of brotherhood (from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”). “Oath of Peach Garden” talks about the oath bound the three men to be of one mind and devote themselves to their country in the Three Kingdoms period. / The story is often alluded to as a symbol of fraternal loyalty. The three men’s solidarity, loyalty and righteousness have inspired Chinese people for generations. / Bambi: It’s a very cool melody, and I love the male voice, please listen to it here: Youtube (without subs) and Spotify. / You can see the scene from the 2010 adaptation on YouTube with English subs (captions): Here. On minute 26:04 begins the music Yinyou’s listening to! 3 The Peking opera is regarded as an expression of the aesthetic ideal of opera in traditional Chinese society and remains a widely recognized element of the country’s cultural heritage. The traditional repertoire of Beijing opera includes more than 1,000 works, mostly taken from historical novels about political and military struggles with little to no romance.4戏子 xìzi. (derog.) opera singer / actor. It was considered a low-status job. Wikipedia: “Qing dynasty emperors repeatedly banned female performers beginning with Kangxi Emperor in 1671.” (Since we’re in the 36th Year of Kangxi (1697), the ban should already be implemented. It may be the author’s mistake.)/ “In 1912, with the collapse of the Qing empire, its ban on female actors in theatre was officially lifted. The early Qing emperors’ repeated prohibitions banished women from the imperial stage (with a few notable exceptions), because the Manchu rulers were concerned about female performers’ sexual appeal, which was said to threaten social morality.” 2013, Guanda Wu.5Ge Ge is the polite Manchu title concubines receive. 6One of the ways the legal wife attained favor was sending beauties to his husband, if they had children, the women would always recognize her as their backer since without her, they wouldn’t gain the opportunity to be favored, and the wife also gained the fame of being virtuous.7 Di Fu Jin is the main wife or first wife, she’s the highest ranked woman in the backyard of a prince. Ce Fu Jin means side Fu Jin and she’s the second wife, she can’t top the first wife though. The third level of prestige, that is, the third wife, is the Shu Fu Jin. / To explain where the irony comes from: “Polygamy was an affirmation of male potency. The presence of many women connoted a strong ruler blessed with fertility.” (…) “Taking multiple wives was a way in which men made themselves appear exceptional. The exceptional men distinguished themselves from all other men and women by exerting privileges that others did not have. Their exceptionality had a kind of magical or even sacred quality to it, as if they harbored an essence that made them something like gods. Polygamy also of course relied on the social and economic power of men. Women became concubines because they suffered social and economic disadvantage.” (From The Institution of Polygamy in the Chinese Imperial Palace by Keith Mcmahon, 2013. Recommend reading it, it’s super interesting 8乡试 xiāngshì. The triennial provincial imperial exam during the Ming and Qing. “Racial quotas were placed on the number of graduates permitted. In the early Qing period, a 4:6 Manchu to Han quota was placed on the palace examination, and was in effect until 1655. Separate examinations were held for bannermen from 1652 to 1655 with a ten-point racial quota of 4:2:4 for Manchus, Mongols, and Han Chinese.”9 In China, a pronounced appreciation for bird keeping arose during the Qing dynasty. As aviculture spread throughout the country, many men would stroll through the early morning streets, swinging their birdcages back and forth like a pendulum. To this day, Chinese bird keepers swing cages to encourage birds to grip to their perch, an exercise which prevents birds’ feathers from falling off. Source. (Bambi: so rich playboys with a hobby of bird-keeping). 10刺在他肉里 cì zài tā ròu lǐ. This idiom implies that the person or issue in question is a continual source of frustration or trouble for the individual. It often refers to a longstanding problem or annoyance that is difficult to eliminate or resolve.