The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting (4 page)

Richard Allen sat for a while after the door closed behind CC. He looked at the wire recorder and shook his head as if he could not quite believe what he had heard. He pressed the return button and listened to his own voice talking to CC.

DR ALLEN
: ‘Now, CC – are you feeling comfortable?’

CC
: ‘Yes, thank you.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Good. Now I want you to think back to the day when you fell. Can you remember?’

CC
: ‘Yes.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘OK then. You’re running through the market and suddenly you see someone who scares you. You are running… running… and all at once you fall. What do you remember now, CC?’

(Silence for half a minute.)

CC
: ‘Why are you calling me CC? My name is Zhang Mei Lan. Zhang
is my surname and Mei Lan
(Beautiful Orchid) my given name.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘You have been overheard calling out the names of Ah Zhao and Gege quite frequently. Who are they?’

CC
: ‘Gege is my older brother. He and Ah Zhao are best friends. Ah Zhao is the greatest artist in the world. I need to read him the poem I’m writing. It’s about a marble snail he carved for me.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Is Ah Zhao a man?’

CC
: ‘He’s a seventeen-year-old boy.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Tell me about him. Start from the beginning.’

CC
, irritably: ‘I’m not here to report on Ah Zhao.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Why are you here then?’

CC
: ‘To pray.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Pray for what?’

CC
: ‘Does one always have to pray for something? Prayer is more than just a request for favours. It’s a form of communication.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Communication with whom?’

CC
: ‘With the dead.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Is Ah Zhao dead?’

CC
: ‘I don’t know… I mean, yes and no.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Explain yourself.’

CC
: ‘The things that Ah Zhao could not say to me when he was alive, he can now tell me, if he is indeed dead.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘How can he tell you if he’s dead?’

CC
: ‘He tells me through my prayers. A prayer is not just a string of words, or the sound of a murmuring voice. Communicating with the dead goes far beyond that.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘What
is
a prayer then?’

CC
: ‘A prayer is the meeting of two minds in a moment that goes beyond time. It may never have happened in real life, but it’s always happening.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘And how old are you, Mei Lan?’

CC/MEI LAN
: ‘I was born thirteen years ago, on the seventh day of the fifth moon of the Sixth Year of the reign of Emperor Zhezong (
AD
1091), the Year of the Goat.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘And what can you tell me about where you live, Mei Lan?’

CC/MEI LAN
: ‘I live with my parents and Gege (older brother) in a mansion with a sloping tiled roof in Bian Liang
, the capital city of China. Our home has three shaded courtyards as well as a garden full of beautiful rocks and rare plants.’

DR ALLEN
: ‘Tell me more about your family.’

CC
/
MEI LAN
: ‘My Baba
(father) used to be Mayor of Dongwu in Shandong Province but is now chief assistant to Commissioner Ye Di
. He is a very important and busy man.

‘Unlike other rich men, Baba has just one wife, my stepmother, whom I call Niang
(mother). Gege and I are their only children. Our real mother died giving birth to me, and Baba married Niang one year later. Niang is famous for her beauty, but, for as long as I can remember, she has been an invalid suffering from some nameless malady. She spends her time in her room applying make-up to her face, arranging her hair or staring at herself in the mirror. Her wardrobe is full of garments made of expensive fabrics, such as silk and imported wool, and her hair is always done in an elaborate style. Some of her hairdos are more than ten
cun
(about ten inches) tall, adorned with jewelled pins and tiny jade combs. Her bathroom is full of pots of powders and rouges, tweezers to remove eyebrow hairs, fine combs and tiny scissors.

‘Besides having beautiful eyes, fair skin and an alluring figure, Niang has small bound feet barely three inches long. Baba calls them his perfect golden lotuses. She takes tiny steps and she sways in a really graceful way when she walks. She has more than two hundred pairs of shoes, which she displays on a special shelf in her room. The shoes are made of silk and come in all the colours of the rainbow, with matching cloth soles. Many are embroidered with elaborate pictures of birds, flowers and leaves. She changes her shoes three or four times a day and wears shoes even when she sleeps at night.

‘Legend has it that swarms of match-makers approached her parents when Niang was a young girl. At that time, foot-binding was not as popular as it is today and Niang was one of the very few marriageable young girls who had small feet. The longer my Lao Lao
(maternal grandmother) held out, the more unbelievable the offers that came in. Nobody was good enough. It was rumoured that the Crown Prince himself had expressed interest. Unfortunately, he already had a main (big) wife but offered to take Niang into his Imperial Palace as one of his little wives or concubines. This Lao Lao refused to allow. But if Niang had married the Crown Prince she could have become the mother of a future emperor!

‘The years rolled by and suddenly Lao Lao realized that Niang was twenty-five. Most girls are married by the time they are fifteen and although Niang was still beautiful, people had stopped asking to marry her. Then one day, Lao Lao heard rumours that Baba’s wife (my birth mother) had suddenly passed away. Besides having no wife, Baba had the added advantage of not having even a single concubine. This was highly un-usual for a man in his position but would obviously make life easier for the new woman in Baba’s life, whoever she may be. Although Baba was not a Royal Prince, he came from a good family and was a Han Lin
scholar. The very next day, Lao Lao summoned the best match-maker in the capital city to arrange the match.