Chapter 33: CH 33

At the poetry gathering, shengyuan and Confucian scholars all exhibited their abilities and vied with the others. Those that were hosts, examiners, and the highly anticipated number one talent in Qian’an, unexpectedly threw the thoughts of poetry and literature out of their heads and started talking about painting prints.

And it was something about a beauty print?

The other names had gone through one ear and out the other but the fragrant and alluring name of ‘Beauty Paper’ was extremely stimulating to a scholar’s heart. After Tang Ning finished writing two or three verses, he threw down his brush and went to the Chief, wanting to see what the beauty paper looked like.

Shengyuan: (生員, lit. “student member”), also commonly called xiucai (秀才, lit. “distinguished talent”), an entry-level licentiate who had passed the college exam

Tongsheng (童生, lit. “child student”), an entry-level examinee who had passed the county/prefecture exams but not the college exams

Before going to look, he had roughly sketched out a portrait of a beautiful woman in mind, ready to pick the faults out at any time; after seeing it, the beauty in his heart disappeared without a trace and only the beauty drawn on the paper was deeply imprinted into his heart.

How could there be such an alluring, graceful, charming, lovable and beautiful beauty in this world?!

Tang Ning hated that he could not just snatch one piece away, but he had a few worries regarding his status and his gaze wandered at the gathering that was fully booked with talented scholars, all looking in their direction. After enduring and enduring, he finally asked one line, “Young Master, who is in this painting?”

Cui Xie also glanced at the beauty in the painting, a gentle smile appearing, “She was originally called A Wan and was a fox demon, but she was innocent and gentle by nature. Because she fancied the talented scholar, Fang Ning, the scholar who was staying overnight at the ancient Buddhist temple, she gave him gold and silver to take the Imperial examinations in Beijing. After he returned from the examinations, she became conscious of her own identity as a demon and thought herself unworthy of a jinshi. In the end, she took great pains to help him marry a beautiful and noble wife. In the end, she chose the ‘Ning’ character from Fang Ning’s name to add to her own name, Wan Ning, and returned to the  mountains and fields alone. Wan Ning spent her entire life cherishing the memory and missing her loved one.

Jinshi: highest rank a scholar can get and is attained after passing the imperial court exam, when scholars attain this rank they usually become court officials. It should be noted that the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) had a very large number of jinshi graduates reaching up to around 24, 536 in total.

Cui Xie spoke with compassion, as if he was telling the story of a lovely demon who truly existed in the world. Tang Ning listened in rapt attention like it was true and sighed, “I am also named with a ‘Ning’ character, so why do I not have the blessing to meet such a beauty?”

Tang Ning’s state of mind was floating and drifting, rather unstable, and he looked at Cui Xie, “Cui shidi, is it possible to gift me a copy of this beauty paper, so I can compose a poem for Wan Ning, to showcase and manifest a beautiful woman’s virtue?”

Shidi: little brother disciple/junior (male only); usually a disciple of the same master

The slight smile on the corner of Cui Xie’s mouth slowly grew and he took out a few print copies from the box, handing them over like they were a precious treasure, replying, “Shixiong can love Wan Ning as much as I do, and my heart is unable to contain my joy. These trifling prints are not worth much.” 

Shixiong: big brother disciple/senior/older brother (man). This is usually used by peers to refer to their classmates, members of the same sect/school etc, otherwise it is used to call someone senior to yourself.

Tang Ning returned to his seat with the print in hand, but was reluctant to write on it, and first drafted the manuscript on ordinary paper first. The scholar next to him took the opportunity to grab the sheet of paper over, unfolded the drawing print and was immediately impressed by the beauty in the painting.

On this day celebrating the Chongyang Festival, there were only a few people still thinking about enjoying chrysanthemums. But rather, they were all focused on being able to write the poem on Cui Xie’s beauty prints. It had become even a more glorious thing than having their poems personally sung by the courtesans. Even the women who had been invited did not need the xiucai to compose a poem on the spot, just asking for a copy of that beauty paper.

Chongyang Festival: Double Ninth Festival or Double Yang Festival occurs on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month which is said to have a lot of yang (sun/warm) energy and is a very auspicious date. It is customary to climb a high mountain, drink chrysanthemum liquor and wear the zhuyu (japanese cornel dogwood) plant (considered to have cleansing qualities). Chongyang cake is popular and incense sticks are burned. Some Chinese will visit the graves of their ancestors to pay respects on this day as well.

Cui Xie brought tens of copies of the prints, but there were only six or seven servant boys in the Chongyang Poetry Gathering and there were more than ten winners. It truly became necessary to allocate the paper according to rank. Giving one copy to one person naturally left a surplus, and these people were willing to write poems and lyrics for him to advertise. But even in these circumstances, he still stayed sensible and remember to engage in hunger marketing*.

*Hunger marketing: marketing strategy specially focusing on the emotions of human beings. It is a psychological strategy focusing on a consumer’s desire, making them hungry, thus having a strong desire to buy products that other people also want to buy.

Even if it was given to this group of potential spokespersons, he needed to stretch them thin, and cannot give it to them so easily!

He smiled apologetically, “These papers are for me to write down the masterpieces in the gathering and later I will show them to Zhao shixiong. If the seniors and schoolmates want it, how about I go home and ask the artisans to print and send off a few more copies, will that be feasible? In the future, I will draw the portraits of the beautiful women in the other three stories to compensate everyone. May you all not blame me for being stingy today.”

No blame, no blame….it was just such a good print, it would be a pity if the poem paired with it was just ordinary.

Teacher Lin nitpicked and nitpicked, and selected and selected, and only three poems worth writing on the drawing prints were selected, and he copied the rest using ordinary paper. Teacher Lin cherishingly said: “Your drawing prints are rare treasures, and pairing them with mediocre poems will be wasting natural resources recklessly.”

The best of the first three poems was naturally Guo Yong, followed by a young shengyuan named Wang Pu and the last one was an old pedant named Zhao Yangcui. Tang Ning’s hurriedly rushed poem had not been selected, but he had still been given three sheets of the drawing print, becoming the envy of others.

Several people who were particularly fond of the painting could not help but imitate Tang Ning, willing to write poems and essays for the fox demon in exchange for a piece of the paper. As soon as floating wine goblets on a stream began, other people relinquished their arrogance and attempted to use poetry and literature to exchange for the paper. Cui Xie was full of joy, deeply satisfied by each one, but regretfully said: “I hate that I am not eloquent, and cannot tell the stories of the four women as wonderfully as the original authors do. If the direct recitation is too stiff, it will hurt the beauty of the original composition. Later, when my bookstore prints the books, you senior brothers can personally read the stories of these beautiful women with your own eyes.”

floating wine goblets on a stream: meaning the origin of some phenomenon

After asking him about the drawing prints and stories for a long time, all the talented scholars and courtesans at the gathering all felt a strong impulse bubbling inside to buy the novel. Even Teacher Lin could not help but start recalling the sample manuscripts he had read, thinking about whether that set of works really had been so touching.

Could it be that the time he had read them was too short that day? Or was he too busy revising and hadn’t taken a close enough look? 

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After the poetry commentary concluded, the top three masterpieces were copied onto the drawing prints and returned to their respective authors. The remaining task was to let the courtesans check the poems and pluck their instruments to duqu, delicately sung and play the poem. Among the tongsheng, there weren’t any good enough poems that could be copied onto the drawing prints, but the first ranked among them was chosen and a courtesan sang it as they enjoyed the drinks and food.

Duqu: composing lyrics and music and usually the lyrics are taken from the previously written articles. In this case, whoever wins will get a courtesan to sing their poem into a song for them.

After the banquet, everyone headed to the mountains to stand tall and see far, enjoying the sight of the Japanese cornel dogwood, eating Chongyang pastries, drinking chrysanthemum wine and following the other traditional customs of the Chongyang festival, the banquet ending around noon.

Stand tall and see far (idiom): taking the long and broad view; enjoying scenery

The xiucai still had a seat in the evening, but the tongsheng needed to head home before dark and needed to head down the mountain earlier. Shen Zheng arranged for someone to set up the carriages early and Cui Yuan and his son came back to wait for their master after lunch, going back together at this time.

At the time of parting, there were still a few people earnestly reminding him repeatedly to print a few more copies of the drawing prints earlier so that when they head on over, they were available for sale. Cui Xie happily agreed and only made one request, “These drawing prints will be printed a bit slowly. In the future, if there is not enough stock, you all do not need to go to the store to urge a restock, just come to my residence. Once the artisans have printed it out, I will ask the family’s servants to send it over.”

This kind of paper, compared to paintings, this kind of printing should be slower.

Everyone did not have the slightest objection and Tang Ning sighed, “Young Master Cui is an affectionate character and affectionate people often attach importance to righteousness, truly a person one would want to associate with. Tang Ning will inevitably and frequently go to your residence to disturb you in the future.”

Guo Yong also grinned and said, “Although the autumn triennial provincial exam is within sight, I am afraid that I can’t be but a little bit attentive to this matter and visit a couple of times.”

With these two talents taking the lead, the other scholars disregarded the fact that Cui Xie had not even passed the county exam yet and were willing to treat him as a little friend they could talk to about poetry and books, and not just a mere bookstore owner.

Teacher Lin, the pleased master, was happy to see his disciple accepted by others and seemed to be happier than Cui Xie that he had made friends. On Cui Xie’s behalf, he thanked everyone for valuing him and when he said his farewells, he could not help but discipline Cui Xie a few words, saying that he should not indulge in novels and not to waste too much time on drawing and poems, that he should focus on his homework. 

Cui Xie well-behavedly received his instructions and advice, lowering his head to reply, “Sir, do not worry, I do not dare to do anything else until my homework is finished.”

“En, then this means that the schoolwork is not strict enough.” Teacher Lin twisted his beard, “Since you still have energy left over, when you come back from holiday, you can learn to do chengti and yuanti.

Chengti: continuation or “receiving the topic” following after poti or “breaking open the topic” in the eight-legged essay composition. Several phrases in prose further develop the topic, making the issue clearer to the reader

Yuanti: exordium or “beginning the discussion”; continuation after chengti, several phrases fixing and shaping the topic using several different methods that will be discussed later

….If I hadn’t said I only painted after finishing my studies, wouldn’t you be less eager to add new lessons….

But this thought quickly passed and it was not like Cui Xie really did not want to learn. These days, he had done a lot of dati and memorized dozens of xiaoti from the county, provincial and dao examinations. He had mastered how to add on to phrases, continue phrases, doing it sentimentally or ruthlessly, he had mastered these trains of thoughts, and it was time to learn what to write next.

Dati: great themes used in provincial and capital examinations

Xiaoti: lesser themes used for tongshi (apprentice examinations)

Dao examinations: the first of three sessions for the provincial/metropolitan examinations. The provincial and metropolitan examinations were organized in three sessions: The first session is three questions (dao) on the interpretation of the Four Books and four on the Five Classics. Three days later, the second session will take place with the challenge to compose one discursive essay (lun), five critical judgments (pan), an announcement (gao) and a memorial (biao). Again, three days latter, the third session is held in which five essays are to be compiled on Classics, historiography and contemporary affairs.

It was only under chengti  and yuanti that the true story unfolded, and there was still the ruti, the eight pairs of comparative phrases, and the big conclusion…..if he did not hurry to learn the next steps, in the remaining five hundred or so days, how could one write an essay that would be enough to pass the county test?

Ruti: several phrases in prose merging into the discussion

Dajie: conclusion

While a scholar’s popularity and prestige did need to be brushed up on, one also needed to have a firm grasp on their one knowledge. To have both aspects, one needed to be resolute, so that one is more likely to pass through these three examinations, which were almost entirely determined by the examiner’s own preferences.

He smiled and sincerely said to Teacher Lin, “Yes, many thanks to Teacher Lin’s affection.”

Teacher Lin was smoothly reconciled in his heart and nodded, “It is rare for you to be so sensible.”

Several of the seniors who had been fined with copying 《Great Learning》looked at Cui Xie incredulously and after boarding the carriage, they whispered, “Unexpectedly, Cui shidi is this eager to study? He is the son of an official, and can subdue the county’s shengyuan with just a drawing print, why is there a need to study too hard? It is not too late if he becomes a shengyuan in his twenties!”

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And Cui Xie, whom they regarded as a model of their aspirations, put his studies to the back of his head when he arrived home, throwing the verse manuscripts for Pengyan copy and he turned around and went into the rear workshop studio for a meeting.

The printers in the bookstore were also looking forward to the results of the Boss going to the poetry gathering to promote sales, even Shopkeeper Ji was in attendance. After Cui Xie entered the door, he asked him, “Young Master, how was the response to the print?”

Here, Cui Xie no longer needed to pretend and he grinned, “Great, excellent, fantastic. Everyone here today all played a role, each person will receive three or two bonuses. Master Zhang Da and Master Zhao Shi will be given an additional two taels of silver. This will all be issued at the end of the month along with this month’s salary.”

The artisans were simply overjoyed.

Although Cui Xie had set up the bonuses as a reward in the beginning, in the end, he was able to print paper like this in the end. Most of the credit was attributed to the portrait of the beauty he had drawn himself and as for the other contributions, he had indeed given a few pieces of advice and service here and there. Those unskilled workers who had prepared the materials for the woodblocks, dyed paper and the rest of the operational labors, were pleased beyond one’s expectations, chanting that Cui Xie had been graced by the Bodhisattva herself and hated that they could not go to a temple right not to offer some incense in his name.

Cui Xie waved his hands, “Do not be so busy to thank me just yet. Starting today, you will be working overtime to print the prints. I will also draw a few more colored pictures when I have time. Everyone prepare to manufacture the prints—— certainly, that first portrait should be printed and prioritized first.”

After assigning the artisans their respective tasks, he specifically called Shopkeeper Ji over and privately inquired, “It is my understanding that you are familiar with the bookstores in the area and have handed over a lot of printing jobs, so which ones are willing to accept private jobs?”

Shopkeeper Ji immediately began to sweat from his forehead, his cheek emitting heat, vowing, “This old one will never do that again. At the beginning, this old one asked a few of the artisans to take jobs outside, but that was but a mere moment of confusion. If I had known that the Young Master was planning on returning home, I would have waited. I would have naturally guarded the store even if it meant being poor to wait for you ah!”

Cui Xie shook his head lightly, and calmly said, “I did not find you to settle the old accounts. Earlier today, I copied down a lot of poems by the talented scholars who attended the poetry gathering. Let’s publish a collection of shengyuan poems, add colored pictures and sell them while it is still hot, so that the scholars do not forget us. If none of the four short stories can be engraved and printed in time, our workshop will focus on colored pictures and we can hire short-term workers to engrave the text.”

Shopkeeper Ji settled down and said while in deep thought, “Among the artisan workshops in the market, there is indeed a crippled artisan surnamed Fang who can engrave, and he will not pilfer the owner’s printing version. His son can also act as a small worker, if the boss is willing to use them…”

Cui Xie waved his hands, “I do not care about these, just do it as you see fit. You, Clerk Ji and Fang Ji are in charge of managing the store. Whoever can sell a set first, I will raise their salary by 30%. If the other two sell a set, I will raise their salary by 10%. If it can be sold to other places, there will naturally be another raise. But, if someone prints our manuscript ahead of time and tries to sell it, I will definitely report this to the officials, and you will all bear joint responsibility for the crime.”

When Shopkeeper Ji heard the mention of a raise, his heart seemed to jump out of his chest. Even in Qian’an, there would naturally be someone willing to buy such colorfully printed prints. If it could be shipped to the capital and the south, it would not be hard to sell tens of thousands of sets!

He began to sweat a little with excitement based on the scene he had just imagined, wiping his forehead and raising his eyebrows, he exclaimed, “Young Master, rest easy, this old one will take care of the shop for you!”

Cui Xie gave him a meaningful glance, “I believe you. Tell Huang dasao to cook a bit more meat dishes these days, you all will be extremely busy, take care not to let your body break down.”

Dasao: older brother’s wife/sister in law-so in this case, Huang dasao is the furen that was described earlier in previous chapters, but she is most likely married to the eldest Huang son.

After arranging all these tasks, he could finally take care of his own matters with a peace of mind. When Cui Xie arrived in his own study, he unrelentingly asked Pengyan to find and copy down the best poems in the other three short stories. He placed a felt mat on the table, put a layer of alum glue on it and then closed his eyes to flip through the small yellow (erotica) disk to find the characters that would correspond to the beauty in the poem so he could paint it.

The heroines in the four manuscripts were Gods, Immortals, Demons and Ghosts. Demons were referred to as extinct creatures and the other three were found in the folder: Ancient Hong Kong-Popular Folklore and Ideologies, those two folders.

The goddess’s head was crowned with a Nine-Tailed Phoenix hairpin, wearing a crimson peony-patterned face veil and a dragging eight-pleated Hunan-style skirt. The waist was draped with a gold-outlined phoenix patterned skirt, which was both noble and beautiful, making people afraid to gaze upon such a higher existence. The female self-cultivated immortal donned a yellow jacket and indigo skirt, the hair combed into a lingyun updo, clouds and mist swirling under her feet. The long draped silks drifted lightly and floated in the sky, the expression was cold as if she could not be tainted by the affairs of the mundane world. The female ghost wore a plain white jacket and skirt and a single slanting hairpin embellished with one tanhua flower. The thin and soft eyebrows were slightly knitted, the figure was slender, some pitiful tenderness and bashfulness within the somber picture.

Phoenix hairpins are a specific type of hairpin always in a pair. Nine-tailed phoenix and the five-footed dragon represented the Empress and Emperor, respectively. They represented the highest power/authority.

Nine tailed hairpin

Face veils

All red pictures above are some reference images for the Female Goddess/Empress of the Heavens

Lingyun (Uplifted Cloud) Updo and some other reference images for the Female Immortal

Tanhua hairpin and reference images for the female Ghost

These are just some personal reference images that come to mind, and these are all so pretty! I can imagine if any of this type of picture showed up in ancient times people would go crazy to buy them.

One demon woman, one Imperial older sister, one cold and collected, and the last was a cute girl. These works had collected all of the long tempered and slowly purified characteristics of the outstanding beauties in those harem comics, it was more than enough to enrapture all potential customers!

Taking advantage of the fact that Teacher Lin was staying overnight at the Shen Residence during the Chongyang Festival and the next morning was to be a holiday, he drew two sets consisting of seven colored pictures in succession..The middle of the paper was filled only with the heroine and he occasionally drew the back and corners of the clothes of the male lead so the readers could conveniently substitute such an image into mind.

After drawing two sets of pictures, the entire morning had almost passed. He looked at the sky, set down his brush and took a few drawing prints and the poems that had been copied down to distinguished neighbors Zhao’s residence to coax the child. Zhao Yingling did not truly blame him in the first place, and once he received the poems and prints, he had no other thoughts. He was overjoyed and said, “I will keep them for now. Later on, when I write a good poem and essay, I will write them on there. My current handwriting and compositional skills are not worthy to be put on this print. Cui shixiong, can I give one of these sheets to my elder brother?”

Cui Xie beamed and said, “The things that had been gifted to you are naturally left to your disposal. This drawing print is just starting to be mass printed, and not many copies have been printed. In the future, I will give you a few more boxes of it, do not be so reluctant to use it.”

Zhao Yinglin repeatedly shook his head, clearly stating, “This is the goods your store sells, I will buy it myself. There is no such thing as always asking for free things. In the future, if you want good-quality paper for printing novels and prints, you can come to our residence. My father and grandfather will definitely offer you a fair price. Don’t find someone else outside and get scammed by those unscrupulous sharks.”

This child was so sensible. Cui Xie also wanted to touch and pat his head. It was a pity that he wore a rujin and topknot and it was not as good as rubbing Pengyan’s head. He rubbed his fingers together regretfully, nodded and smiled, “Then my bookstore will rely on your family to provide paper.”

Rujin: a type of headscarf, literally means Confucian towel.

It would be the style of number 1 in the diagram

These two elementary school students could be considered to have forgotten their former enmity and once again made an appointment to walk to and from school together again.

Once school started back up again, Cui Xie continued to study and paint, keeping an eye on the workshop’s progress as they printed papers and engraving books, these two jobs. Because the colored prints were finely printed, the speed was slow. At most, only a few ten copies could be printed a day, and the printed prints were given priority to the scholars who ordered them at the Chongyang Festival poetry gathering, so there had been no time to offer them for sale in the store yet.

However, three days later, Young Master Wang Xiangzhen suddenly arrived at his gate as a visiting guest. He had really sent him a docile white little pony and a double-edged sword. And after dismissing the servants, looking left and right like a thief, he opened a roll of the fine and aesthetic colored drawing prints——

It was precisely the fox demon, Wan Ning, that he had printed!

Only, that print, the painter had magnified the portrait into a hanging vertical scroll. The facial features of the character in the painting inclined towards a more ordinary, traditional style of beautiful women, the face tender, mellow and full. It was not as bright and three-dimensional as his paintings.

Cui Xie asked in surprise, “Where did this portrait come from?”

Young Master Wang’s eyebrows wiggled, showing a romantic smile, he leaned into Cui Xie’s ear and said, “This was obtained from one of the sons of the next town over provincial officers under my father’s jurisdiction. They said it was something like the Cui beauty paper. Those scholars tried to hide them from others, so he tried his best to find someone to copy the portrait instead. Tsk tsk, I do not know what kind of beauty can make this kind of paper, but it is probably some scam that can be considered as contemporary substitute for Xue Jiao Shu….this painting has not been warmed by my hands yet so I will give it to you. Doesn’t gege treat you very well?”

Xue Tao: She was a Chinese poet and courtesan of the Tang Dynasty and one of the most famous Chinese woman poets of her time. Her history is fascinating, here is a link for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xue_Tao

Xue Jiao Book: There is a poem by Li Bai (famous, famous, famous poet) which was considered by many people to be written for the talented poetess Xue Tao. Xue Tao was known as a Jiao shu, a type of official who handled/proofread/ ancient books or records. If one calls someone like/compared to Xue Jiao Shu, this means they are a talented women with scholarly talent (Xue Tao was also well known for her artisanal craftsmanship of making paper). She was a girl celebrity who could write poetry and essays. However, according to the birth and death dates of Li Bai, the woman in question should not be about Xue Tao.

Gege: older borther

……who the f**k called it Cui beauty paper?

Whoever told this name outside, do you dare to separately say Cui paper and Cui beauty paper!

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