Original Text
Dou Xu, styled Xiaohui, was a man from Jiaozhou. One day, as he was taking his noontime nap, he saw a man in coarse cloth garments standing before his bed, hesitating and looking at him with a fearful, uneasy expression, as if he had something to say. Dou Xu asked what the matter was, and the man replied, "The master invites you." Dou Xu inquired, "Who is this master?" The man answered, "He is nearby." Dou Xu followed him out the door. After winding through some buildings, they were led to a place where pavilions and towers rose one upon another, with rooms adjoining rooms. As they twisted and turned through the passages, Dou Xu felt that with its myriad doors and countless chambers, this was no mortal realm. He also saw palace maids and female officials coming and going in great numbers, all asking the man in coarse cloth, "Has Master Dou arrived?" The man gave an affirmative reply. Presently, a high-ranking official came out to greet him, bowing with great reverence. After ascending the main hall, Dou Xu spoke, saying, "We have never had any dealings, nor have I ever visited you before. To be so graciously received fills me with confusion." The official said, "Our king, because your family is pure in lineage and virtuous through generations, admires your character and greatly wishes to meet you." Dou Xu, even more startled, asked, "Who is this king?" The official replied, "Wait a little while, and you will know naturally." Soon, two female officials arrived, guiding Dou Xu forward with banners on either side. After passing through many palace gates, he saw a king on the grand hall, who, upon seeing Dou Xu enter, descended the steps to welcome him, using the rites of host and guest. After the formalities, they took their seats, and a lavish feast was laid out. Dou Xu looked up and saw a horizontal tablet hanging in the hall, inscribed with the words "Cassia Palace." He felt ill at ease and knew not what to say. The king said, "That you and I can be close neighbors shows a deep bond of fate. You should drink heartily and not harbor doubts or fears." Dou Xu repeatedly assented.
After several rounds of wine, below the hall they began to play sheng and flute music, without using drums or gongs, the tones refined and delicate. After a brief pause, the great king suddenly looked at his ministers on left and right and said, "I shall propose an upper couplet, and ask you to match it: 'A talented man ascends the cassia palace.'" Those seated were pondering when Dou Xu replied, "A noble gentleman loves the lotus flower." The king was greatly delighted and said, "How remarkable! The lotus flower is my daughter's childhood name; how fitting it is! Could this not be a predestined bond? Convey my words to the princess—she must come forth and meet this gentleman." After some time, the tinkling sound of jade pendants drew near, and the rich fragrance of orchids and musk filled the air; the princess had arrived. She was about sixteen or seventeen, of exquisite beauty, matchless among mortals. The king ordered the princess to bow to Dou Xu, saying, "This is my daughter, Lotus." After performing the courtesy, the princess withdrew. Dou Xu's heart swayed with agitation; he sat in a daze, lost in thought. The king raised his cup to urge him to drink, but he did not even notice. The king seemed to perceive Dou Xu's thoughts and said, "My daughter is quite a match for you, yet I am ashamed that we are not of the same kind—what is to be done?" Dou Xu's mind was troubled, as if drunk or entranced, and he heard nothing. The man seated beside him stepped on his foot and said, "Do you not see the king urging you to drink? Do you not hear the king speaking to you?" Dou Xu, bewildered and deeply ashamed, rose from his seat and said, "I have been honored with your hospitality, and unknowingly drank to excess, losing all propriety. I beg your forgiveness. Now the day is late, and Your Majesty is weary; I must take my leave." The king stood and said, "Having met you, my heart is truly pleased. Why must you depart so hastily? Since you do not wish to stay, I dare not force you. If you still think of this place, I shall naturally invite you again." He then ordered a eunuch to escort him out. On the road, the eunuch said to Dou Xu, "Just now the king spoke of the princess being a match for you, as if he wished to arrange a marriage. Why did you remain silent?" Dou Xu stamped his feet in regret, and with every step he took, he lamented anew, until he returned home. Suddenly Dou Xu awoke; the setting sun's glow was fading into dusk. He sat in the dim light, reflecting on all that had passed, every detail vivid before him. After supper, he extinguished the lamp and lay down to sleep, hoping to revisit the old dream, but the dream was elusive and vanished, leaving only regret and sighs.
One evening, Dou Xu was sleeping in the same bed with a friend when suddenly he saw the eunuch who had come before, bearing the king's command to summon Dou Xu to the palace. Overjoyed, Dou Xu followed him. After paying homage to the king, the king raised him up and seated him beside himself, saying, "I know that since your departure, you have cherished fond memories of this place. Now I presume to offer my daughter's hand to you, hoping you will not disdain it too greatly." Dou Xu immediately bowed in gratitude. The king ordered his scholar-ministers to accompany Dou Xu at a feast. As the banquet drew to a close, a palace maid announced, "The princess has finished her toilet." Soon, dozens of maids escorted the princess forth. Her head was veiled with red brocade, and she moved with light, graceful steps as if treading on rippling water. The maids led her to a carpet, where she and Dou Xu bowed to each other in marriage. Then they were escorted to their bridal chamber, which was warm, fragrant, and exquisitely arranged. Dou Xu said, "With you before me, one knows only joy and forgets life and death. Yet I fear this meeting may be but a dream." The princess covered her mouth with a smile and replied, "Here I am with you, plain and true—how could it be a dream?" The next morning, as soon as they rose, Dou Xu amused himself by painting her eyebrows and applying powder, then measured her waist with a sash and her foot with his fingers. The princess laughed and asked, "Have you gone mad?" Dou Xu said, "I have been deceived by dreams many times, so I must remember carefully. If this too is a dream, it will still suffice to keep my thoughts ever with you."
The two were still jesting and laughing when a palace maid ran in and said, "A monster has entered the palace gate; the king has fled to a side hall, and calamity is imminent!" Dou Xu was greatly startled and hurried to see the king. The king took Dou Xu's hand and said tearfully, "You do not despise us, and we deeply wish to remain forever close to you. But unexpectedly, disaster has descended from heaven; the fate of our kingdom is near its end—what can be done?" Dou Xu asked in alarm why he spoke thus. The king handed Dou Xu a memorial from his desk. The memorial read: "Your subject Hei Yi, Grand Secretary of the Hanxiang Hall, reports on an extraordinary portent and begs for an early relocation of the capital to preserve the nation's destiny. According to the report of the Yellow Gate officials: from the sixth day of the fifth month, a giant python a thousand fathoms long has coiled outside the palace, devouring over thirteen thousand eight hundred subjects and officials, and wherever it passes, palaces are reduced to ruins. Your subject bravely went to investigate and indeed saw this demon serpent: its head like a mountain, its eyes like rivers and seas; when it raises its head, it can swallow whole halls and pavilions; when it stretches its body, it can crush towers and walls. This is truly a dire omen unseen in a thousand years, a calamity unencountered in ten thousand ages! The nation's fate hangs by a thread! We beg Your Majesty to take the imperial household and flee swiftly to a land of peace." After reading the memorial, Dou Xu's face turned ashen. Immediately, a palace maid ran in and reported, "The monster has arrived!" The entire hall was filled with wailing, and the sky seemed dark with misery. The king, in his haste, knew not what to do, but looked at Dou Xu with tearful eyes and said, "I entrust my daughter to you, sir!" Dou Xu, gasping for breath, ran back to his quarters. The princess was weeping bitterly with her attendants, and when she saw Dou Xu enter, she tugged at his robe and said, "How will you, my lord, settle me?" Dou Xu, overwhelmed with grief, took her wrist and said thoughtfully, "I am poor and humble; I regret I cannot keep you in a golden house. I have a few thatched cottages—shall we take refuge there together for a time?" The princess, with tears in her eyes, said, "In this crisis, how can I choose? Please take me quickly!" Dou Xu then helped the princess out of the quarters, and soon they arrived at his home. The princess said, "This is a very safe dwelling, far better than mine! But since I have come with you, on whom shall my parents rely? Please build another house, and all the people of the kingdom will follow." Dou Xu found this difficult. The princess wailed loudly, saying, "If you cannot help in times of trouble, what use are you?" Dou Xu tried to comfort and soothe her. Entering the room, the princess lay prostrate on the bed, weeping sorrowfully, beyond consolation. As Dou Xu was racking his brains, at a loss for a plan, he suddenly awoke and realized it was all a dream. Yet in his ears still echoed the princess's continuous sobbing. Listening closely, it was not the sound of a human voice, but two or three bees buzzing and flying about on his pillow. Dou Xu cried out, "How strange!"
A friend asked what this meant, and Dou Xu recounted the events of his dream, leaving the friend greatly astonished. They rose together to look at the bees, which clung to his robe and sleeves, refusing to be driven away. The friend urged Dou Xu to build a hive for them, and Dou Xu followed the advice, supervising craftsmen to construct it. No sooner had two walls been raised than swarms of bees flew in from beyond the wall, coming in an endless, unbroken stream. Before the roof was even closed, the bees filled the comb, which grew larger than a peck measure. Dou Xu traced the bees' origin to an old vegetable garden belonging to a neighbor, an elderly man. In that garden there had been a hive of bees for over thirty years, thriving and multiplying greatly. Someone told the old man of Dou Xu's story, and he went to inspect, finding the hive utterly silent. When he opened one side of the hive, he saw a snake coiled within, over ten feet long, and he caught and killed it. Only then did Dou Xu realize that the "giant serpent" of his dream referred to this snake. After the bees came to Dou Xu's home, they multiplied even more vigorously, and no other strange occurrences took place.
Commentary
This piece, together with the later "The Girl in Green," both write of bees. However, "The Lotus Princess" depicts the collective, the hive; while "The Girl in Green" portrays the individual, a maiden transformed from a bee.
Within the literary genres of China, there exist so-called object-chanting poems, object-chanting lyrics, and object-chanting rhapsodies, which depict the external form and characteristics of objects; naturally, fine works of this kind also carry deeper sentiments and emotional resonance, yet their defining trait is the celebration of the object itself. Certain pieces within Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio can be regarded as using the form of fiction to chant about objects—a creation unique to Pu Songling, representing his own brand of object-chanting fiction. For instance, in this tale, descriptions such as "pavilions stacked upon towers, with ten thousand rafters interlinked; winding along, one felt a thousand gates and ten thousand doors, utterly unlike the mortal world; and one saw palace maids and female officials coming and going in great numbers," "after several rounds of wine, music arose below, with no beating of gongs or drums, the sounds ethereal and delicate," and "a giant python a thousand zhang long coiled outside the palace, devouring over thirteen thousand eight hundred subjects within and without, reducing all palaces it passed to ruins," all serve to depict the beehive from many angles.
This chapter is clearly an imitation of Li Gongzuo's "The Governor of Nanke" from the Tang Dynasty. However, while "The Governor of Nanke" uses dreams to depict the illusory nature of wealth and honor, conveying profound allegorical meaning, this chapter appears rather superficial, thus it can only be called a Pu Songling-style object-eulogizing tale.