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581
What a lucky coincidence!
582
Since my wife's death my mother-in-law in the capital has been worried because my daughter has no one to bring her up.
583
She has sent two boats with male and female attendants to fetch the child, but I delayed her departure while she was unwell.
584
I was wondering how to repay you for your goodness in teaching her.
585
Now this gives me a chance to show my appreciation.
586
I foresaw this possibility and have written a letter to my brother-in-law urging him to do all he can for you as a small return for what I owe you.
587
You mustn't worry either about any expenses that may be incurred --- I've made that point clear to my brother-in-law.
588
Yucun bowed with profuse thanks and asked.
589
May I know your respected brother-in-law's position?
590
I fear I am too uncouth to intrude on him.
591
My humble kinsmen belong to your honourable clan.
592
They're the grandsons of the Duke of Rongguo.
593
My elder brother-in-law Jia She, whose courtesy name is Enhou, is a hereditary general of the first rank.
594
My second, Jia Zheng, whose courtesy name is Cunzhou, is an under-secretary in the Board of Works.
595
He is an unassuming, generous man who takes after his grandfather.
596
That is why I am writing to him on your behalf.
597
If he were some purse-proud, fivolous official I'd be dishonouring your high principles, brother, and I myself would disdain to do such a thing.
598
This confirmed what Zixing had said the previous day, and once more Yucun expressed his thanks.
599
I've chosen the second day of next month for my daughter's departure for the capital.
600
It would suit both parties, surely, if you were to travel together?

561
Why not drink some more?
562
Yucun looked out of the window.
563
It's growing late.
564
They'll soon be closing the city gates.
565
Let's stroll back and continue our conversation in town.
566
With that they paid the bill.
567
They were on the point of leaving when a voice from behind called out
568
Congratulations, Brother Yucun!
569
Yucun turned to look.
570
But to know who it was, you must read the chapter which follows.
571
Chapter 3, Lin Ruhai Recommends a Tutor to His Brother-in-Law, The Lady Dowager Sends for Her Motherless Grand-Daughter
572
Yucun turned and saw that it was Zhang Rugui.
573
His former colleague who had also been dismissed from his post for the same reason as himself.
574
Now there was word from the capital that a request for the reinstatement of former officials had been sanctioned, and he was busily pulling strings to find some opening.
575
Re congratulated Yucun.
576
Once greetings had been exchanged, in telling him the good news.
577
Yucun was naturally overjoyed, but after some hurried remarks each went his own way.
578
Leng Zixing, who had heard everything, at once proposed asking Lin Ruhai to enlist the support of Jia Zheng in the capital.
579
Accepting his advice, Yucun went back alone to verify the report from the Court Gazette.
580
The next day he laid his case before Lin Ruhai.

541
只看这小一辈的，将来的东床何如呢。
542
正是。
543
方才说政公已有一个衔玉之子，又有长子所遗弱孙。
544
这赦老竟无一个不成？
545
政公既有玉儿之后，其妾又生了一个，倒不知其好歹。
546
只眼前现有二子一孙。
547
却不知将来何如。
548
贾琏，今已二十多岁了。
549
娶的是政老爷夫人王氏内侄女。
550
这位琏爷身上现捐了个同知，也是不喜正务的，于世路上好机变，言谈去得，所以目今现在乃叔政老爷家住，帮着料理家务。
551
谁知自娶了这位奶奶之后，倒上下无人不称颂他的夫人，琏爷倒退了一舍之地。
552
模样又极标致，言谈又爽利。
553
心机又极深细，竟是个男人万不及一的。
554
可知我言不谬了。
555
你我方才所说的这几个人，只怕都是那正邪两赋而来一路之人。
556
正也罢，邪也罢。
557
只顾算别人家的账。
558
你也吃杯酒才好。
559
只顾说话，就多吃了几杯。
560
说着别人家的闲话，正好下酒。

521
The second, Yingchun, is Jia She's daughter by a concubine.
522
The third, Tanchun, is Jia Zheng's daughter by a concubine.
523
The fourth, Xichun, is the younger sister of Jia Zhen of the Ning Mansion.
524
The Lady Dowager is so attached to these grand-daughters that she makes them study in the Rong Mansion near her, and I hear good reports of them all.
525
I prefer the Zhen family's way of giving their daughters the same sort of names as boys instead of choosing flowery names meaning Spring, Red, Fragrant, or Jade.
526
How could the Jia family sink to such vulgarity?
527
You don't understand.
528
They named the eldest girl Yuanchuns because she was born on New Year's Day, and so the others have chun in their names too.
529
But all the girls of the last generation had names like those of boys.
530
For proof, look at the wife of your respected employer Mr. Lin, the sister of Jia She and Jia Zheng in the Rong Mansion.
531
Her name, before she married, was Jia Min.
532
If you don't believe me, check up when you go back.
533
No wonder my pupil always pronounces mm as mi and writes it with one or two strokes missing.
534
That puzzled me, but now you've explained the reason.
535
And no wonder she talks and behaves so differently from the general run of young ladies nowadays.
536
I suspected she must have had an unusual mother.
537
If she's a grand-daughter of the Rong family that explains it.
538
What a pity that her mother died last month.
539
She was the youngest of four sisters, but now she's gone too.
540
Not one of those sisters is left.

501
Before you utter this word, mind you rinse your mouths with clear water or fragrant tea.
502
If you don't, your teeth will grow crooked and rip through your cheeks.
503
He had a fearful temper and could be incredibly stubborn and obstreperous.
504
But as soon as classes were over and he joined the girls he became a different person --- amiable, sensible and gentle.
505
Because of this, his father thrashed him within an inch of his life, but still that didn't change him.
506
When the pain became too much for him, he would start yelling, Sister! Little Sister!'
507
Once the girls in the inner chambers teased him saying.
508
Why do you call us when you're being beaten?
509
Do you want us to beg you off?
510
For shame!
511
The first time I called I didn't know it would ease the pain.
512
But then I discovered that it worked like magic.
513
So when the pain's worst, I keep on calling Sister.
514
Have you ever heard anything so ludicrous?
515
His grandmother indulged him so unwisely that she was often rude to his tutor or blamed her son.
516
That's why I resigned from that post.
517
A boy like that is bound to lose the property he inherits and won't benefit by the advice of teachers and friends.
518
The pity is, all the girls in his family are admirable.
519
The three girls in the Jia family aren't bad either.
520
Jia Zheng's elder daughter Yuanchun was chosen to be a Lady-Clerk in the palace of the heir apparent because of her goodness, filial piety and talents.

501
但凡要说的时节，必用净水香茶漱了口方可。
502
设若失错，便要凿牙穿眼的。
503
其暴虐顽劣，种种异常。
504
只放了学进去，见了那些女儿们，其温厚和平、聪敏文雅，竟变了一个样子。
505
因此他令尊也曾下死笞楚过几次，竟不能改。
506
每打的吃疼不过时，他便姐姐妹妹的乱叫起来。
507
后来听得里面女儿们拿他取笑。
508
因何打急了只管叫姐妹作什么？
509
莫不叫姐妹们去讨情讨饶？
510
你岂不愧些！
511
因叫了一声，果觉疼得好些。
512
遂得了秘法。
513
每疼痛之极，便连叫姐妹起来了。
514
你说可笑不可笑？
515
为他祖母溺爱不明，每因孙辱师责子
516
我所以辞了馆出来的。
517
这等子弟必不能守祖父基业、从师友规劝的。
518
只可惜他家几个好姊妹都是少有的！
519
便是贾府中现在三个也不错。
520
政老爷的长女名元春，因贤孝才德，选入宫作女史去了。

481
Even if born into luckless and humble homes, they will never grow up into yamen runners or servants at the beck and call of the vulgar --- they'll turn out celebrated actors or courtesans.
482
People of this type in the past were Xu You, Tao Qian, Yuan Ji, Ji Kang and Liu Ling, the two families of Wang and Xie, Gu Kaizhi, Chen Shubao, the Tang emperor Minghuang, the Song emperor Huizong, Liu Tingzhi, Wen Tingyun, Mi Fu, Shi Yannian, Liu Yong and Qin Guan.
483
More recent examples are Ni Zan, Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming. Then there are others like Li Guinian, Huang Fanchuo, Jing Xinmo, Zhuo Wenjun, Hongfo, Xue Tao, Cui Yingying and Zhaoyun.
484
All of these, in their different fields, were essentially the same.
485
You're saying that such people may become princes or thieves, depending on whether they're successful or not.
486
Exactly.
487
You don't know yet that since my dismissal I've spent two years travelling through different provinces and come across one or two remarkable children.
488
Hence my guess that this Baoyu you mentioned belongs to the same category.
489
Let me give you an example no further away than Jinling.
490
You know Mr. Zhen, who was principal of the Jinling Provincial College?
491
Who doesn't know him? 
492
The Zhen and Jia families are interrelated and on a very friendly footing.
493
I've done business with the Zhens a number of times.
494
Last year when I was in Jinling, someone recommended me to the Zhens as a resident tutor.
495
I was surprised to find their household so grand, yet it combined wealth with propriety.
496
Posts like that are not easy to come by.
497
But although my pupil was a beginner, he was harder to teach then a candidate for the Provincial Examination.
498
Here's an example of the absurd things he'd say: I must have two girls as company while I study, or I can't learn character my brain gets muddled.
499
The word “girl” is so honourable and pure, not even the supreme Buddhist and Taoist titles can compare with it.
500
You with your filthy mouths and stinking tongues must never violate it.

481
纵然生于薄祚寒门，甚至为奇优，为名娼，亦断不至为走卒健仆，甘遭庸夫驱制。
482
如前之许由、陶潜、阮籍、嵇康、刘伶、王谢二族、顾虎头、陈后主、唐明皇、宋徽宗、刘庭芝、温飞卿、米南宫、石曼卿、柳耆卿、秦少游。
483
近日倪云林、唐伯虎、祝枝山，再如李龟年、黄幡绰、敬新磨、卓文君、红拂、薛涛、崔莺、朝云之流。
484
此皆易地则同之人也。
485
依你说，成则公侯败则贼了？
486
正是这意。
487
你还不知，我自革职以来，这两年遍游各省，也曾遇见两个异样孩子。
488
所以方才你一说这宝玉，我就猜着了八九也是这一派人物。
489
不用远说，只这金陵
490
城内钦差金陵省体仁院总裁甄家，你可知道？
491
谁人不知！
492
这甄府就是贾府老亲，他们两家来往极亲热的。
493
就是我也和他家往来非止一日了。
494
去岁我在金陵，也曾有人荐我到甄府处馆。
495
我进去看其光景，谁知他家那等荣贵，却是个富而好礼之家。
496
倒是个难得之馆。
497
但是这个学生虽是启蒙，却比一个举业的还劳神。
498
说起来更可笑，他说：必得两个女儿陪着我读书，我方能认得字，心上也明白，不然我心里自己糊涂。
499
这女儿两个字极尊贵极清净的，比那瑞兽珍禽、奇花异草更觉希罕尊贵呢。
500
你们这种浊口臭舌万万不可唐突了这两个字。

441
His second child was a daughter, born strangely enough on the first day of the year.
442
But stranger still was the birth later of a son who came into the world with a piece of clear, brilliantly coloured jade in his mouth.
443
There are even inscriptions on the jade.
444
Isn't that extraordinary?
445
It certainly is. The boy should have a remarkable future.
446
That's what everyone says.
447
And for that reason his grandmother dotes on him.
448
On his first birthday Jia Zheng tested his disposition by setting all sorts of different objects before him to see which he would select.
449
Believe it or not, ignoring everything else he reached out for the rouge, powder-boxes, hair ornaments and bangles!
450
His father was furious and swore he'd grow up to be a dissolute rake.
451
Because of this he's not too fond of the boy.
452
But the child's still his grandmother's darling.
453
He's seven or eight now and remarkably mischievous, yet so clever you won't find his equal in a hundred.
454
And he says the strangest things for a child.
455
Girls are made of water, men of mud.
456
I feel clean and refreshed when I'm with girls but find men dirty and stinking.
457
Isn't that absurd?
458
He's bound later on to run after women like the very devil.
459
That doesn't follow.
460
You don't know how he's come into the world.

421
I can't vouch for our other branches, but I've always heard that these two houses take great pains over the education of their sons.
422
It's these two houses I'm talking about.
423
Just hear me out.
424
The Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo were brothers by the same mother.
425
The Duke of Ningguo, the elder, had two sons and after his death the oldest of these, Jia Daihua, succeeded to the title.
426
The elder of his two sons, Jia Fu, died at the age of eight or nine leaving the younger, Jia Jing, to inherit the title.
427
But he's so wrapped up in Taoism that he takes no interest in anything but distilling elixirs.
428
Luckily when he was younger he had a son Jia Zhen, to whom he's relinquished the title so that he can give all his mind to becoming an immortal.
429
And instead of going back to his native place he's hobnobbing with Taoist priests outside the city.
430
Jia Zhen has a son called Rong just turned sixteen.
431
Jia Jing washes his hands of all mundane matters, and Jia Zhen has never studied but lives for pleasure.
432
He's turning the Ning Mansion upside down, yet no one dares to restrain him.
433
Now for the Rong Mansion, where that curious business I just mentioned took place.
434
After the death of the Duke of Rongguo, his elder son Jia Daishan succeeded to the title and married a daughter of Marquis Shi of Jinling, by whom he had two sons, Jia She and Jia Zheng.
435
Jia Daishan has been dead for many years but his wife, Lady Dowager Shi, is still alive.
436
Their elder son Jia She inherited the title.
437
The younger, Jia Zheng, was so fond of studying as a child that he was his grandfather's favourite and he hope to make a career for himself through the examinations.
438
When Jia Daishan died, however, he left a valedictory memorial, and the Emperor out of regard for his former minister not only conferred the title on his elder son but asked what other sons there were, granted Jia Zheng an audience, and as an additional favour gave him the rank of Assistant Secretary with instructions to familiarize himself with affairs in one of the ministries.
439
He has now risen to the rank of Under-Secretary.
440
Jia Zheng's wife, Lady Wang, bore him a son called Jia Zhu who passed the district examination at fourteen, married before be was twenty and had a son, but then fell ill and died.

421
别门不知，只说这宁荣两宅，是最教子有方的，何至如此？
422
正说的是这两门呢。
423
等我告诉你。
424
当日宁国公荣国公是一母同胞弟兄两个。
425
宁公居长，生了两个儿子。宁公死后，长子贾代化袭了官。
426
也养了两个儿子：长子名贾敷，八九岁上死了，只剩了一个次子贾敬，袭了官。
427
如今一味好道，只爱烧丹炼汞，别事一概不管。
428
幸而早年留下一个儿子，名唤贾珍，因他父亲一心想作神仙，把官倒让他袭了。
429
他父亲又不肯住在家里，只在都中城外和那些道士们胡羼。
430
这位珍爷也生了一个儿子，今年才十六岁，名叫贾蓉。
431
如今敬老爷不管事了，这珍爷那里干正事？
432
把那宁国府竟翻过来了也没有敢来管他的人。
433
再说荣府你听：方才所说异事就出在这里。
434
自荣公死后，长子贾代善袭了官，娶的是金陵世家史侯的小姐为妻。生了两个儿子，贾赦和贾政。
435
如今代善早已去世，太夫人尚在。
436
长子贾赦袭了官。
437
次子贾政，自幼酷喜读书，为人端方正直。
438
祖父钟爱，原要他从科甲出身，不料代善临终遗本一上，皇上怜念先臣，即叫长子袭了官；又问还有几个儿子，立刻引见，又将这政老爷赐了个额外主事职衔，叫他入部习学。
439
如今现已升了员外郎。
440
这政老爷的夫人王氏，生的公子名叫贾珠，十四岁进学，后来娶了妻、生了子，不到二十岁，一病就死了。

401
But they're so grand that we've never claimed relationship and are gradually drifting further and further apart.
402
Don't talk like that.
403
Both the Ning and Rong branches have declined..
404
They're not what they used to be.
405
They used to be enormous households.
406
How is that possible? 
407
It's a long story.
408
Last year when I was in Jinling, on my way to visit the Six Dynasty ruins I went to the Stone City and passed the gates of their old mansions.
409
Practically the whole north side of the street is taken up by their houses, the Ning Mansion on the east and the Rong Mansion adjoining it on the west.
410
There wasn't much coming and going outside their gates, but over the wall I caught glimpses of most imposing halls and pavilions, while the trees and rockeries of the gardens behind had a flourishing, opulent look.
411
There was nothing to suggest a house in decline.
412
For a Palace Graduate you're not very smart.
413
A centipede dies but never falls down, as the old saying goes.
414
Although they're not as prosperous as before, they're still a cut above ordinary official families.
415
Their households are increasing and their commitments are growing all the time, while masters and servants alike are so used to lording it in luxury that not one of them thinks ahead.
416
They squander money every day and are quite incapable of economizing.
417
Outwardly they may look as grand as ever, but their purses are nearly empty.
418
That's not their worst trouble, though.
419
Who would've thought that each new generation of this noble and scholarly clan is inferior to the last?
420
A family so cultured and versed in etiquette knows the importance of a good upbringing?