Chapter 20
Chapter 20
A Dance (4)
At this moment, came the sudden twangs of a guqin4. It seemed to have come from the nine heavens, and melded perfectly with the dance. The sonorous sounds of the guqin rang out loud and vibrant like pearls falling on a plate, or a silver vase being broken.
Resounding raindrops fell heavily; accompanied by the violent storm, lightning and thunder, Zheng Wan spun more rapidly and performed a thirty-six spin move——the music caressed the ears of the crowd, passed through their hearts, travelled out of the marble boat, out of the waterside pavilion, and finally floated along the everlasting Lisi Spring.
Whether it was the people who were writing poems by the window or those who were laughing and talking, everyone stopped in mid-action, and listened quietly with their ears cocked.
They heard the golden sword and iron horse, heard the gurgling water, heard the mist and rain of the south of the Yangtze River, heard the smoke signals in the north of the Gobi Desert.
At the beginning of the founding of the Liang Dynasty5, the country was fragmented; it was Liang Taizong who had gone from the east to the west, reclaiming the lost lands piece by piece——
Those who had lived long enough could still remember those times.
The sound of the guqin rose to its highest point and ended abruptly.
A white-haired old man’s face streamed with tears.
Zheng Wan also stopped dancing when the music stopped.
She looked at Cui Wang, who still seemed to be lost to the present. On his knees was the famous Jiaoweiqin6; his jade-like fingers were still pressed on its strings, and for the first time, she saw emotions in his eyes.
Like the breeze on the streets in spring, neither too strong nor too warm, but made one feel like falling asleep on the spot.
“You——”
Clap clap clap—— Rong Yi applauded wildly, her cheeks flushed and beaming. “Wan’niang, Wan’niang, you danced so well! This gentleman’s music is also heavenly.”
“This music and this dance, to be able to witness it, I have no regrets in this life.”
One of the gentlemen got up and handed the flower pinned on the side of his bun to Zheng Wan. “Lady Zheng, it’s my fault for being rude earlier. For a person to be able to dance like this, even if they are a little audacious, it is only natural.”
It was as if this man had opened the floodgates; the gentlemen who had all turned a blind eye to her humiliation earlier took off the flowers from their heads and gave them to Zheng Wan.
In a short while, she had a heap of them in her hands.
Giving flowers was a reward; to the people of Liang, receiving flowers from people meant receiving that person’s admiration and respect.
Rong Qin wrinkled her nose and said after some time, “Wan’niang, you’ve fooled me hard!”
Zheng Wan did not say anything; she carried the flowers and silently went back to her seat.
“So Wan’niang is actually trained in the art of dance, I was worried for nothing. I don’t know who spread those rumours last time and had everyone talking about it for so many years!” said Second Lady Liu, half in anger and half in blame.
Who else could it be?
It was her father.
When Zheng Wan was five years old, her father invited the accomplished dance master, Master Fang to live in the residence and tutor her personally. After she had studied the art for six years, Master Fang felt that there was nothing left to teach, and requested to leave.
Everyone knew that the current emperor loved dance; her father naturally didn’t want people to know of her abilities7, which was why that rumour surfaced.
Zheng Wan smiled silently. After some time, everyone went about their own business. Only the Crown Prince’s face wore a complicated expression—it was a mix of little chagrin, a little longing—he looked at her for a long time before he was willing to look away.
“The gentleman initially did not want to be my accompaniment, but why did you help out later?”
Zheng Wan’s dance was indeed moving, but without the enhancement of Cui Wang’s guqin, it wouldn’t have been as moving as it was.
She still remembered that other than cultivating his swordsmanship, this person had only two other hobbies—one was making sword tassels8. Although he never used them, he had amassed hundreds of them.
The other was playing the guqin; he had inherited the jiaoweiqin from his mother.
“It was just a whim.”
Cui Wang took out a handkerchief from his wide sleeves and spread it out; the scarlet bloodstone fragments were wrapped carefully inside.
“Is this something you lost?”
Zheng Wan wore an expression of astonishment, but she was secretly delighted.
“Yes indeed.”
The prey has taken the bait.
Footnotes:
4 guqin: 古琴; A plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as well as being associated with Confucius. It is sometimes referred to by the Chinese as “the father of Chinese music” or “the instrument of the sages”. The guqin is not to be confused with the guzheng, another Chinese long stringed instrument also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string.
5 Liang Dynasty: If you google Liang Dynasty, the common search result is the Liang Dynasty from AD502 – 557 (also known as Southern Liang). There are also a few other smaller dynasties/ kingdoms that go by Liang, but based on the clues given in the story so far, it seems to be closest to the Later Liang Dynasty (AD 907 –903), one of the Five Dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in China. I’m making this guess based on the clues that 1) the Later Liang Dynasty was founded by Zhu Wen, posthumously known as Taizu of Later Liang; 2) several of the cultural references such as dances and clothing are from the Tang dynasty, which precedes the Later Liang, so it makes sense that they’d still be in fashion. However, there are also some incongruous parts (like Third Lady Jiang’s father being the head of the Shenyijing, which was found in the Ming Dynasty about 400-500 years later). As the term “Later Liang” is given posthumously by historians to differentiate between the different Liang dynasties, I chose to translate it as just “Liang Dynasty”, which is also what the people in the novel refer to themselves as (大梁 daliang; meaning Great Liang). This is just a very long footnote to say that this Liang Dynasty of the novel is definitely not the mainstream one, and might be referring to Later Liang, but may also be entirely fictional.
6 Jiaoweiqin: 焦尾琴; One of the four most famous guqin of ancient China. The “Jiaowei ” was made by Cai Yong, a literati and musician of the Eastern Han (25–220). Each of these four famed guqin has an interesting backstory or anecdote. For example, it is said of the Jiaowei that when Cai Yong was passing through Wu county, he came across a large cauldron being heated over a pile of crackling firewood. Catching sight of a fine wooden parasol about to go up in flames, Cai rescued it and had it made into a guqin. Due to the burn marks on the bottom of Cai’s guqin, it was given the extraordinary name of Jiaowei, or “Scorched Tail.”
7 this sentence is a little puzzling, but it probably implies that her father is concerned that Zheng Wan will gain the emperor’s attention if he got to know of her dancing skills.
8 sword tassels: Tassels on Chinese swords have different purposes. It can be for adjusting the sword’s weight, showing the smoothness of one’s movement, improving the wielder’s balance, or to simply make handling easier. There are also prestige tassels that are heavier and meant for decoration and to show prestige.