The Invisible Red String
With the exception of the slight rustling of dried stalks where the rice had once grown in the spring, the silence was as oppressive as the lump Ju-Lin felt in her throat. She gazed at the parched rice paddies and wondered when she had last seen a raindrop. The severe drought had dried all the crops and spread despair across the land like wildfire. Now, it had suddenly taken on an even more ominous meaning, for Ju-Lin had felt her world come to a crashing halt with her father's words moments earlier.
"Ju-Lin," her father had said that evening, "the time I dread has come. There is so little food left that even the crickets have failed to chirp. Our family will surely die from hunger if I do not take this wretched step. I can only beg your forgiveness for needing to sell you, my only daughter, in exchange for food, but alas, there is no hope left!"
Ju-Lin sobbed with her parents, who were miserable at the thought of her being a slave in some wealthy household. She knew she would be the one to go, as she was the oldest and the only girl, for custom dictated that sons remain at home to carry on the family name and honor. She could only pray that she wouldn't have to leave soon.
As luck would have it, though, a kind, old matchmaker happened to stop by their farm that very night. Now, this matchmaker, or moi-yun as she was called, was very well known in her business. She had the knack of bringing people together from different villages so that both the couple and their respective parents always felt completely satisfied with the match.
The moi-yun was returning from a wedding, when she stopped at Ju-Lin's home to rest and became aware of the family's dire situation. The old woman knew she would not be able to persuade the parents to lose face by selling a son, so she offered to pay a handsome sum for Ju-Lin.
"I'm getting too old to do this work without help," said the matchmaker. "I will make sure that your daughter is provided with food and shelter as long as she performs her duties well as my assistant."
Her parents sighed with relief.
"Ju-Lin," admonished her mother the next morning as she helped her daughter pack her few things, "make sure you do as the moi-yun says, for you belong to her now."
"Yes, Mother, I will. Do not worry."
Trying hard not to shed tears, Ju-Lin bowed in farewell to her parents. Then she picked up the moi-yun's belongings along with her own and respectfully followed the old woman out the door. After many days of travel, they reached a more bountiful countryside, untouched by drought, where the moi-yun lived in a house grander than any Ju-Lin had ever seen before.
"Ju-Lin," explained the moi-yun the next day, "I am not as young as I used to be. That is why you are here. First, when I am at home, you must help me with the cooking and cleaning around the house. When I am traveling, you must accompany me to help carry my things. In return, you shall have enough to eat and a small allowance each month. Is that understood?"
"Yes, most honorable Mistress. I am so very grateful. I will do my best to help you in any way I can."
Faithfully, Ju-Lin kept her promise. After finishing her chores, she often had time to observe the moi-yun as she dealt with her many clients. Ju-Lin listened closely and admired how the old woman was able to choose the right people for each other every time. Finally she had to ask:
"What is the secret of your amazing success, Mistress?"
"There is no magic to this, Ju-Lin," she said. "Helping people make the right choice in a partner is my passion in life. As the story goes, even at birth, that old matchmaker, God in heaven, ties an invisible red string around the foot of a boy and a girl destined to spend their lives together as husband and wife. No matter the distance or the circumstances, nothing can break this string. With each passing year, the string becomes shorter and shorter until fate has its way, and the two are finally united. I consider myself merely a facilitator, a means of shortening that string to help the two meet."
The moi-yun paused to sip the hot tea Ju-Lin served her before continuing.
"Of course, I've also learned to keep very careful records. You see, my father was a wonderful poet and a scholar who raised me in a most unconventional way. He never remarried after my mother died giving birth to me. I was his only child. Disregarding the customs of our time to educate only the sons, he taught me how to read and write.
"When I was a child, my father even dismissed our women servants when they insisted my feet be bound like all the other gently bred girls. He couldn't bear the agony I would have to suffer, having all my little toe bones broken and then deforming my feet for the sake of beauty. So when he died, leaving me this big house and little else to support myself, I decided to use my education to earn a living.
"I plan to teach you to do the same, if you are willing to learn. In addition, you will need to listen to people, not with your ears, but with your heart. To do this, you must first have the desire and persistence in you. That is the only way you will find that invisible red string."
So Ju-Lin learned to read and write under the matchmaker's guidance, and she helped the old woman keep records. Just as meticulously as the matchmaker, Ju-Lin learned to keep files on clients who came to the moi-yun for advice. In neat calligraphy, she took down all the important points they stressed and filed them away for future reference in the tiny drawers of an old apothecary cabinet. She took down the names, ages, personal likes and dislikes, as well as the qualities each was looking for in a spouse. Learning all this was the easy part.
Then she learned to listen with her heart to the clients' real needs, those that were expressed in the light of the eyes, the tone of the voice, the gestures of the body and hands. She discussed what she observed with the moi-yun, and the moi-yun was pleased with Ju-Lin's keen perception of people and knew that she would someday become a good matchmaker herself.
One bright spring morning Ju-Lin flung open the windows to let in the fragrance of the blooming orange trees and watched in awe as a long procession approached the gated entrance of the moi-yun's house. Seated in a large, carved wooden sedan chair, held aloft by four brawny servants, was a wealthy matron robed in delicately embroidered silk brocade. The moment she stepped down on her tiny, bound feet encased in dainty matching silk slippers, she winced as if suffering from painful bunions. She introduced herself as Madam Yuen from a distant western province.
When the moi-yun offered her a chair, the matron thanked her and gratefully sank into it. Waving away any offer of refreshment, the matron wasted no time in getting to the point of her visit.
"I'm at my wit's end!" Madam Yuen panted, fanning herself. "I will never see a single grandchild at this rate if my son continues to be so impossible! He has refused to marry any of the hundreds of eligible girls in five neighboring provinces! You are my last resort now, because your reputation has preceded you, even to my province. I have traveled far and I will not leave until you have found a wife for my stubborn son!"
"Ju-Lin," interrupted the moi-yun at this point, "come here and take careful notes. My eyes are not as good as they used to be. Now, let's see how we can help you, madam."
Ju-Lin first bowed to the matron. Then, dipping her brush in the ink, the girl wrote quickly as the woman reeled off the list of necessary qualifications her future daughter-in-law must possess.
"This girl my son wants cannot be found anywhere!" said the matron, whacking her fan in exasperation. "He wants a wife who knows how to read and write, much like your Ju-Lin here. He wants a wife who is educated and who loves to go on long, scholarly walks with him. He doesn't want a wife who has tiny, bound feet or who walks in the proper mincing manner appropriate for women of our station. He probably thinks your girl here with her long peasant feet has more beauty than any one of those eligible young girls I have chosen. So, what is a mother to do?"
"H'm," murmured the moi-yun. "These qualifications are going to be hard to meet. I will see if I can find the right candidate." She went over to her drawers and made a show of rummaging through the files.
Suddenly, she tapped her head with her forefinger and said, "Ju-Lin, you will have to accompany this lady back to her house and see if you can help persuade that young man to change his mind about meeting all of his requirements. Speak for me and tell him that no such girl can be found. I have records here of lovely farm girls who do not have bound feet, but they cannot read nor write. I know of many eligible, well-to-do girls, but they have no book learning and they all have tiny, bound feet. Tell him, my advice is to look closely at those around him. Tell him in person that the one he seeks may be right before his eyes and that he must know enough to follow his heart. Then wait for his answer."
"Well, I can hardly pay you for that information," said the disgruntled matron in a huff. "Your assistant will have to tell him that to his face, but I doubt he will listen to your advice. He hasn't at all to mine. He has already looked high and low among the girls around him. I know for a fact that he has found no one suitable. But if she can persuade him to be less finicky, you will have my undying gratitude. I will personally tell all my friends and relations what a splendid matchmaker you are. I will come back with your apprentice here and look over your eligible choices then. All I really want is for my son to be happy."
The next day, Ju-Lin began the journey alone with the matron, for the moi-yun insisted she was too old to travel the distance this time. Ju-Lin was to go in the matchmaker's place to relay the blunt fact that, in spite of the moi-yun's vast resources, the son's requirements for a wife could not be met.
On the way, Ju-Lin entertained the matron with stories of her mistress's success in bringing couples together. Madam Yuen smiled when she heard how the moi-yun had joined two unlikely people who shared a love for cooking noodles. She laughed when she heard about her pairing a couple who shared a passion for singing Chinese operas. Then, Madam Yuen sighed till tears ran down her cheeks when she heard of how the moi-yun's father had refused to marry again because he could not find another kindred spirit and thus poured all his learning and wisdom into his daughter. She wept even harder when she heard Ju-Lin's own story of how the moi-yun had saved her family from starvation. Not only that, but upon stepping down from the sedan chair, Madam Yuen was even more surprised at how much shorter the journey home had seemed.
Commanding her servants to whisk Ju-Lin away for much-needed freshening up, the matron herself went to prepare her son for the meeting. The handsome young man had just returned home from a walk and was reading in his library.
"My son, I told you your expectations were unreasonable! Now you will have to listen to the words of the most respected moi-yun of all five provinces. She couldn't come in person, but you will hear from her assistant. You should pay close attention, for I have gone through a lot of trouble to find the perfect wife for you. Now I must go rest my weary bones a moment, but I shall be back shortly."
Her son didn't have to wait long before Ju-Lin was brought to the door of the library. She was wearing a lovely embroidered silk robe the moi-yun had given her as a parting gift. As she entered the library, she gasped at the magnificent scrolls of poems written on silk hanging on the walls. Admiring the wisdom and beauty of the words, she stopped to read some of them aloud.
"Ah!" said the young man as he emerged from behind his writing desk. "You can read the words of poets and scholars. That was one of my requirements, and I see that you walk gracefully and freely, too, without the unnatural mincing gait of someone with bound feet. Not only that, you are lovely! How is it that my mother has found you and yet she still complains about my impossible expectations?"
"You are mistaken, Master Yuen," interrupted Ju-Lin. "I am only the matchmaker's assistant."
"Never mind who you are. You can be anything you want to be, but you are the one."
"But you don't understand. I was sent by the moi-yun to tell you in person to look closely at those around you. She said that the one you seek may be right before your eyes and that you must know when to follow your heart."
Suddenly, becoming aware of the meaning of the words herself, Ju-Lin flushed in warm embarrassment as his face lit up.
"You are very close, and if I follow my heart now, it says that I have just found the one person I would be honored to share my life with for the rest of my days… if you will have me."
"Y-y-yes, I will!" said Ju-Lin, gasping in surprise at her own words.
Returning at that very moment to introduce Ju-Lin to her son, Madam Yuen was astounded to hear his proposal and her acceptance. Still unsure of the girl's worthiness with her long, peasant-sized feet, she almost started to protest, but upon seeing her son's smile, she suddenly realized that the moi-yun had known all along whom she was sending to her son. She smiled and wished the two much happiness as she wobbled off in a delighted frenzy to prepare for the upcoming wedding.
By Quen Law
"Ju-Lin," her father had said that evening, "the time I dread has come. There is so little food left that even the crickets have failed to chirp. Our family will surely die from hunger if I do not take this wretched step. I can only beg your forgiveness for needing to sell you, my only daughter, in exchange for food, but alas, there is no hope left!"
Ju-Lin sobbed with her parents, who were miserable at the thought of her being a slave in some wealthy household. She knew she would be the one to go, as she was the oldest and the only girl, for custom dictated that sons remain at home to carry on the family name and honor. She could only pray that she wouldn't have to leave soon.
As luck would have it, though, a kind, old matchmaker happened to stop by their farm that very night. Now, this matchmaker, or moi-yun as she was called, was very well known in her business. She had the knack of bringing people together from different villages so that both the couple and their respective parents always felt completely satisfied with the match.
The moi-yun was returning from a wedding, when she stopped at Ju-Lin's home to rest and became aware of the family's dire situation. The old woman knew she would not be able to persuade the parents to lose face by selling a son, so she offered to pay a handsome sum for Ju-Lin.
"I'm getting too old to do this work without help," said the matchmaker. "I will make sure that your daughter is provided with food and shelter as long as she performs her duties well as my assistant."
Her parents sighed with relief.
"Ju-Lin," admonished her mother the next morning as she helped her daughter pack her few things, "make sure you do as the moi-yun says, for you belong to her now."
"Yes, Mother, I will. Do not worry."
Trying hard not to shed tears, Ju-Lin bowed in farewell to her parents. Then she picked up the moi-yun's belongings along with her own and respectfully followed the old woman out the door. After many days of travel, they reached a more bountiful countryside, untouched by drought, where the moi-yun lived in a house grander than any Ju-Lin had ever seen before.
"Ju-Lin," explained the moi-yun the next day, "I am not as young as I used to be. That is why you are here. First, when I am at home, you must help me with the cooking and cleaning around the house. When I am traveling, you must accompany me to help carry my things. In return, you shall have enough to eat and a small allowance each month. Is that understood?"
"Yes, most honorable Mistress. I am so very grateful. I will do my best to help you in any way I can."
Faithfully, Ju-Lin kept her promise. After finishing her chores, she often had time to observe the moi-yun as she dealt with her many clients. Ju-Lin listened closely and admired how the old woman was able to choose the right people for each other every time. Finally she had to ask:
"What is the secret of your amazing success, Mistress?"
"There is no magic to this, Ju-Lin," she said. "Helping people make the right choice in a partner is my passion in life. As the story goes, even at birth, that old matchmaker, God in heaven, ties an invisible red string around the foot of a boy and a girl destined to spend their lives together as husband and wife. No matter the distance or the circumstances, nothing can break this string. With each passing year, the string becomes shorter and shorter until fate has its way, and the two are finally united. I consider myself merely a facilitator, a means of shortening that string to help the two meet."
The moi-yun paused to sip the hot tea Ju-Lin served her before continuing.
"Of course, I've also learned to keep very careful records. You see, my father was a wonderful poet and a scholar who raised me in a most unconventional way. He never remarried after my mother died giving birth to me. I was his only child. Disregarding the customs of our time to educate only the sons, he taught me how to read and write.
"When I was a child, my father even dismissed our women servants when they insisted my feet be bound like all the other gently bred girls. He couldn't bear the agony I would have to suffer, having all my little toe bones broken and then deforming my feet for the sake of beauty. So when he died, leaving me this big house and little else to support myself, I decided to use my education to earn a living.
"I plan to teach you to do the same, if you are willing to learn. In addition, you will need to listen to people, not with your ears, but with your heart. To do this, you must first have the desire and persistence in you. That is the only way you will find that invisible red string."
So Ju-Lin learned to read and write under the matchmaker's guidance, and she helped the old woman keep records. Just as meticulously as the matchmaker, Ju-Lin learned to keep files on clients who came to the moi-yun for advice. In neat calligraphy, she took down all the important points they stressed and filed them away for future reference in the tiny drawers of an old apothecary cabinet. She took down the names, ages, personal likes and dislikes, as well as the qualities each was looking for in a spouse. Learning all this was the easy part.
Then she learned to listen with her heart to the clients' real needs, those that were expressed in the light of the eyes, the tone of the voice, the gestures of the body and hands. She discussed what she observed with the moi-yun, and the moi-yun was pleased with Ju-Lin's keen perception of people and knew that she would someday become a good matchmaker herself.
One bright spring morning Ju-Lin flung open the windows to let in the fragrance of the blooming orange trees and watched in awe as a long procession approached the gated entrance of the moi-yun's house. Seated in a large, carved wooden sedan chair, held aloft by four brawny servants, was a wealthy matron robed in delicately embroidered silk brocade. The moment she stepped down on her tiny, bound feet encased in dainty matching silk slippers, she winced as if suffering from painful bunions. She introduced herself as Madam Yuen from a distant western province.
When the moi-yun offered her a chair, the matron thanked her and gratefully sank into it. Waving away any offer of refreshment, the matron wasted no time in getting to the point of her visit.
"I'm at my wit's end!" Madam Yuen panted, fanning herself. "I will never see a single grandchild at this rate if my son continues to be so impossible! He has refused to marry any of the hundreds of eligible girls in five neighboring provinces! You are my last resort now, because your reputation has preceded you, even to my province. I have traveled far and I will not leave until you have found a wife for my stubborn son!"
"Ju-Lin," interrupted the moi-yun at this point, "come here and take careful notes. My eyes are not as good as they used to be. Now, let's see how we can help you, madam."
Ju-Lin first bowed to the matron. Then, dipping her brush in the ink, the girl wrote quickly as the woman reeled off the list of necessary qualifications her future daughter-in-law must possess.
"This girl my son wants cannot be found anywhere!" said the matron, whacking her fan in exasperation. "He wants a wife who knows how to read and write, much like your Ju-Lin here. He wants a wife who is educated and who loves to go on long, scholarly walks with him. He doesn't want a wife who has tiny, bound feet or who walks in the proper mincing manner appropriate for women of our station. He probably thinks your girl here with her long peasant feet has more beauty than any one of those eligible young girls I have chosen. So, what is a mother to do?"
"H'm," murmured the moi-yun. "These qualifications are going to be hard to meet. I will see if I can find the right candidate." She went over to her drawers and made a show of rummaging through the files.
Suddenly, she tapped her head with her forefinger and said, "Ju-Lin, you will have to accompany this lady back to her house and see if you can help persuade that young man to change his mind about meeting all of his requirements. Speak for me and tell him that no such girl can be found. I have records here of lovely farm girls who do not have bound feet, but they cannot read nor write. I know of many eligible, well-to-do girls, but they have no book learning and they all have tiny, bound feet. Tell him, my advice is to look closely at those around him. Tell him in person that the one he seeks may be right before his eyes and that he must know enough to follow his heart. Then wait for his answer."
"Well, I can hardly pay you for that information," said the disgruntled matron in a huff. "Your assistant will have to tell him that to his face, but I doubt he will listen to your advice. He hasn't at all to mine. He has already looked high and low among the girls around him. I know for a fact that he has found no one suitable. But if she can persuade him to be less finicky, you will have my undying gratitude. I will personally tell all my friends and relations what a splendid matchmaker you are. I will come back with your apprentice here and look over your eligible choices then. All I really want is for my son to be happy."
The next day, Ju-Lin began the journey alone with the matron, for the moi-yun insisted she was too old to travel the distance this time. Ju-Lin was to go in the matchmaker's place to relay the blunt fact that, in spite of the moi-yun's vast resources, the son's requirements for a wife could not be met.
On the way, Ju-Lin entertained the matron with stories of her mistress's success in bringing couples together. Madam Yuen smiled when she heard how the moi-yun had joined two unlikely people who shared a love for cooking noodles. She laughed when she heard about her pairing a couple who shared a passion for singing Chinese operas. Then, Madam Yuen sighed till tears ran down her cheeks when she heard of how the moi-yun's father had refused to marry again because he could not find another kindred spirit and thus poured all his learning and wisdom into his daughter. She wept even harder when she heard Ju-Lin's own story of how the moi-yun had saved her family from starvation. Not only that, but upon stepping down from the sedan chair, Madam Yuen was even more surprised at how much shorter the journey home had seemed.
Commanding her servants to whisk Ju-Lin away for much-needed freshening up, the matron herself went to prepare her son for the meeting. The handsome young man had just returned home from a walk and was reading in his library.
"My son, I told you your expectations were unreasonable! Now you will have to listen to the words of the most respected moi-yun of all five provinces. She couldn't come in person, but you will hear from her assistant. You should pay close attention, for I have gone through a lot of trouble to find the perfect wife for you. Now I must go rest my weary bones a moment, but I shall be back shortly."
Her son didn't have to wait long before Ju-Lin was brought to the door of the library. She was wearing a lovely embroidered silk robe the moi-yun had given her as a parting gift. As she entered the library, she gasped at the magnificent scrolls of poems written on silk hanging on the walls. Admiring the wisdom and beauty of the words, she stopped to read some of them aloud.
"Ah!" said the young man as he emerged from behind his writing desk. "You can read the words of poets and scholars. That was one of my requirements, and I see that you walk gracefully and freely, too, without the unnatural mincing gait of someone with bound feet. Not only that, you are lovely! How is it that my mother has found you and yet she still complains about my impossible expectations?"
"You are mistaken, Master Yuen," interrupted Ju-Lin. "I am only the matchmaker's assistant."
"Never mind who you are. You can be anything you want to be, but you are the one."
"But you don't understand. I was sent by the moi-yun to tell you in person to look closely at those around you. She said that the one you seek may be right before your eyes and that you must know when to follow your heart."
Suddenly, becoming aware of the meaning of the words herself, Ju-Lin flushed in warm embarrassment as his face lit up.
"You are very close, and if I follow my heart now, it says that I have just found the one person I would be honored to share my life with for the rest of my days… if you will have me."
"Y-y-yes, I will!" said Ju-Lin, gasping in surprise at her own words.
Returning at that very moment to introduce Ju-Lin to her son, Madam Yuen was astounded to hear his proposal and her acceptance. Still unsure of the girl's worthiness with her long, peasant-sized feet, she almost started to protest, but upon seeing her son's smile, she suddenly realized that the moi-yun had known all along whom she was sending to her son. She smiled and wished the two much happiness as she wobbled off in a delighted frenzy to prepare for the upcoming wedding.
By Quen Law
Labels: story
posted by Ann at 4:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home