Читать книгу Tales of a Chinese Grandmother - Frances Carpenter - Страница 17

VI

GUARDIANS OF THE GATE

CHANG is pasting the gods on the gate," Ah Shung called to his sister, Yu Lang, as he peeped around the spirit wall that shielded the Moon Gate in the Court of Politeness.

It was the day just before the New Year, the merriest of all the holidays in the Chinese calendar. In the Ling courtyards people were going and coming, everyone bent on some important errand. Ah Shung ran through the Moon Gate and into the entrance court. Yu Lang followed, but she went more slowly because of her poor little bound feet. Behind the two children came their old nurse, Wang Lai. She was as eager as they to see what was going on at the red gate that led in from the city.

"How splendid the gate looks!" Yu Lang exclaimed. The great entrance gleamed in the winter sunlight. It looked glossier and redder than ever for it had lately been given a new coat of a special red varnish called lacquer. Over the gate, facing the world outside, was a long sign made of peach wood, also lacquered red. Upon it were some raised golden symbols which were the Chinese word pictures for "Good Luck to This Household."

"We are ready for the New Year," Old Chang, the gatekeeper, said, wagging his gray head and admiring the gate. The Chinese have always loved red. To them it is the color of joy and good luck. Over every door that opened upon the entrance court were red papers with lucky words cut out of them. Even the gates to the stables and the jinrikisha sheds had New Year trimmings of red. This first day of the First Moon was thought to be the very best day for luck in the whole year.

Old Chang was pressing flat a gaily colored picture which he had just pasted on one of the red doors of the gate. This picture showed an ancient warrior with a frowning black face. On the other half of the gate there was already pasted the likeness of another warrior whose face was white. With their eyes staring, and with their bows and arrows in hand, surely these gods of the gate were fierce enough to frighten any bad spirits that might come their way. Ah Shung and Yu Lang, Old Chang and Wang Lai, and, indeed, every man, woman, and child inside the Ling walls firmly believed that these gods kept bad spirits away from the gate.

When the boy and his sister went again to the family court they met their grandmother and Huang Ying coming back from the kitchen. The Old Mistress had been visiting the cooks to be sure that the New Year cakes and the meat dumplings, the New Year porridge, and all the other good things were ready for the feasting that would begin on the morrow and last through the month.

"Bring tea, Huang Ying," the old woman said to her maid. "Ah Shung will help me into my room. Let there be tea bowls for three."

While the two children sipped the hot tea from thin blue-and-white bowls they told their grandmother of their visit to Chang and the red gate.

"It is well," the Old Old One said, nodding her head when they spoke of the gate gods. "When our red gate is shut tight we shall seal its cracks with paper. Then nothing can come in to spoil our New Year luck."

"Who are those fierce men on the gate-pictures, Lao Lao?" Yu Lang asked between sips of tea and bites of steamed cakes.

"Perhaps they are Shen Shu and Yu Lu," the old woman explained. "I will tell you the story about them.

"As I heard my grandmother say," she began, "in the very earliest times there was a mountain in the Eastern Ocean upon which there grew a great peach tree. It was not at all like the peach trees in our Garden of Sweet Smells. Its trunk was larger around than the walls of our city. Its branches grew so long that it would take Wong, the jinrikisha man, many years to trot along the edge of the shadow they made on the earth.

"Now some of the lowest branches of this tree grew toward the northeast. They leaned toward each other, forming an arch, and through this there flew in and out of the world all the spirits of the air and the earth and the water.

"Two good spirits, whose names were Shen Shu and Yu Lu, were chosen by the Emperor of Heaven to stand guard over this gate that led in and out of the world. Ai, they were clever, those gate guards, Shen Shu and Yu Lu. They could tell at a glance which spirits were good and which spirits were bad.

"As soon as the gate guards saw a bad spirit they tied it up tight and threw it to the tigers. The Emperor who then sat upon the Dragon Throne of our Flowery Kingdom heard of these clever gate guards. He thought he should like them to protect his own palace doors. So he called for the court artists.

"'Take tablets of lucky peach wood,' he commanded. 'Paint upon them the likenesses of the guardians of the gates on the Eastern Mountain. Give them bows and arrows and spears. Then hang them upon the gates where the spirits can see them. Shen Shu and Yu Lu know bad spirits from good spirits. They will allow only the good spirits to come into my palace.'"

"Are those men that Chang, the gatekeeper, has pasted on our doors really Shen Shu and Yu Lu, Lao Lao?" Ah Shung asked, his black eyes shining bright with wonder at his grandmother's tale.

"O-yo, Little Bear, that I do not know," the old woman replied. "There are other guardians of the gate and another tale about them. Perhaps these are the ones that are protecting our sky-wells. Long, long ago there was in our land an Emperor whose name was Shih Ming. One day he fell ill. He could not sleep at night because bad spirits disturbed him. They threw tiles down from the roof. They hurled bricks at his door. They hooted and howled. All the night through they made such a clatter and din that Shih Ming could not rest.

"In the morning the Emperor was ill indeed. Doctors from the four corners of the empire gathered around him. The minsters of the court were called together.

"'This True Dragon is near death,' the doctors declared. 'His blood runs too hot. His mind is troubled with strange ideas. He hears nothing by day, but at night the spirits torment him. We do not know what to do.'

"Then there came forward a brave general whose name was Chin Shu-pao. He fell on his knees and kowtowed to the sick Emperor. 'Shining Son of Heaven,' he said, knocking his head on the ground, 'this unworthy servant of yours may be able to help you. He has killed men as easily as he cuts open a gourd. In battle the dead bodies left behind him are like ants in a hill. Why should he fear spirits? Why should his brave comrade, Hu Ching-te, be afraid? Let us both arm ourselves and let us stand by your door through the night to drive the spirits away.'

"Chin and Hu took up their posts beside the palace door. All night they stood on guard, and not once was there a sound to disturb the sick Emperor. He slept the night through, and from that moment his illness began to grow less. Night after night Chin and Hu stood by the door, until at last the Emperor recovered. But although he was well again he still feared that the spirits might come back if no guard stood on watch. At the same time he was troubled about his faithful Chin Shu-pao and Hu Ching-te.

"'The good generals must be weary,' Shih Ming said to his ministers. 'They need to rest. Call the court painters! Bid them paint likenesses of the brave Chin and Hu. Let the artists show them with armor and weapons so that they may be ready for the spirits! Then paste their pictures on the gates of the palace. We shall see if they will not be as powerful against the bad spirits as Chin and Hu themselves.'

"It was done. The pictures were fixed upon the gates of the palace. Ha, the spirits must have thought the painted figures were really the mighty warriors themselves, for none came that night to disturb the peace inside the palace walls. " Grandmother Ling laughed as she thought of the good joke on the spirits who were so stupid as to be so easily fooled.

The Ling family took every care to start the New Year with good luck. Besides the lucky red signs and the lucky dishes being prepared inside the family kitchen, they did not forget a single lucky custom. They were more than usually polite as they put up over the stove the new picture of the Kitchen God who, they thought, had returned from his visit to heaven. Knives and scissors and sharp tools were all put carefully away lest the New Year luck should be cut.

Throughout the evening the courtyards were filled with the din of popping firecrackers. Ah Shung and Yu Lang were allowed to light some of the little red tubes of gunpowder themselves. They enjoyed the sound of their bursting. The Chinese all liked their noise because they believed it helped to frighten the spirits away.

"It was in earliest times," the Old Old One had told the children, "that we found out that the bad spirits do not like sharp sounds. In the Western Mountain there was once a giant more than twice as tall as your father. He was so ugly to look upon that men fainted away when they saw him. At last they learned to drive him off by burning hollow stalks of bamboo, which made a crackling noise. Then someone or other thought of putting gunpowder inside hollow tubes made of paper. These first firecrackers made a much louder noise than burning bamboo. They frightened the ugly giant so badly that he never came back again.

"Tomorrow morning we shall break the paper seals that Chang has pasted over the cracks of the gates, and we shall open our doors to fortune with lucky phrases. Every one of us must guard his tongue against saying the wrong words. You, my thoughtless small ones, must take special care what word you speak first when you wake in the morning. For if it is a lucky word, you will be lucky through all the New Year. But if it is unlucky, o-yo, there will be trouble."

The boy and the girl trotted off with Wang Lai across the dark court to their own low house. The cold winter sky was dotted with stars, and the sound of popping firecrackers still came over the walls from the courtyards of neighboring houses. Ah Shung and Yu Lang exchanged their wadded day suits for their night garments of softer cloth. They climbed up on the heated brick floor of their bed, they arranged their hard little pillows of leather and wood, and they rolled themselves in their thick wadded comforters with sighs of content. They were tired with the excitement of the day's preparations. They wanted to go to sleep quickly so that the New Year would come soon. They could hardly wait for the gifts and the good things that the Old Man of the New Year would bring to them.

As Wang Lai pulled the bed curtains that shut them away from the night air, they were saying over and over to themselves the word they meant to speak the first thing in the morning. They decided upon it because it was the very word for good luck. If they could just remember to say it first, they would be sure of a splendid New Year.

"Fu. Fu. Fu-u-u..." Yu Lang whispered sleepily.

"Fu. Fu. Fu-u-u-u..." Ah Shung echoed. And then all was still inside their bed curtains.