On the fifth day of the fifth month, the Duanwu Festival, Chen Caozhi rose early and opened his door to find the two maids, Xiao Chan and Qingzhi, already waiting outside. Without allowing him a word, they pulled him down to the ground-floor bathroom to bathe him, saying that the old mistress had ordered it: since today was Duanwu, he must bathe in Orchid Bath to cleanse away impurities and ward off evil.
There were four tubs in the bathroom, two large and two small. One of the large tubs was already half full of hot water, with tiny orchid petals and leaves floating on its surface. Steam rose from it, filling the room with fragrance.
Xiao Chan reached in to test the water. "It's still hot. We'll have to let it cool a little. Qingzhi, undo the young master's topknot first."
"Ladies," Chen Caozhi said, "I usually bathe myself. Why today-"
Qingzhi raised her hands to loosen his topknot as she replied, "It's Duanwu today. Children must all bathe in Orchid Bath first thing in the morning. Then they'll be free of illness and misfortune, and won't get boils either."
Chen Caozhi had nothing to say to that. He was not yet fifteen and, like eight-year-old Zongzhi, could only be counted as a child. He had no choice but to let Xiao Chan and Qingzhi do as they pleased.
Once they had tested the water and found it suitable, the two pretty maids began undoing Chen Caozhi's clothes and belt together. Chen Caozhi was not bashful, but Xiao Chan and Qingzhi's cheeks flushed crimson. Their young master had grown up; he was taller than either of them now-
"Ladies," Chen Caozhi said, "you'd better let me do it myself. Otherwise, your faces will start dripping blood."
"Ah!" Both maids let go at once and touched their cheeks. They were burning hot.
Amid the two maids' flustered shyness, Chen Caozhi stripped naked, stepped into the tub, and slowly lowered himself, watching the water strewn with orchid petals and leaves rise around him.
Xiao Chan and Qingzhi exchanged a look and burst out laughing. "Young Master Caozhi has made fools of us both. How embarrassing!"
The two pretty maids steeled themselves together, went over, and pressed Chen Caozhi down in the tub. They combed his hair and washed his body, scrubbing him red all over, while giggles filled the bathroom.
Yinggu brought Zongzhi and Run'er to the bathroom as well, to bathe in Orchid Bath and ward off evil. Two small screens separated the three tubs. Run'er giggled and splashed water at Qingzhi, happily making mischief.
After their baths, the uncle and his niece and nephew changed into clean, finely made clothes of delicate kudzu cloth. Mother Chen Lady Li came in, rolled up his left sleeve, and wound a strand of five-colored silk around his arm. "This is a Duanwu Cord, also called a Long-Life Thread. It can keep blades and warfare far away, ward off ghosts and beasts, dispel pestilence, and bless my child with freedom from illness and misfortune and a life of a hundred years." She also fastened a little brocade pouch containing realgar and other aromatic substances to his belt.
Zongzhi and Run'er's five-colored Long-Life Threads were not tied around their arms, but hung around their necks, weighted with small jade pendants. Each then received loving words of blessing from their grandmother.
Once Chen Caozhi's hair had dried a little, Xiao Chan combed it into a topknot, fitted a small black-lacquered fine-gauze cap over it, and secured its cords. She stepped back two paces and looked him up and down, grinning. "Qingzhi, doesn't Young Master Caozhi look just like the lines in 'The Banks of the Qi' from Mao Poetry-'A gracious gentleman, as if cut and filed, as if carved and polished'?"
Qingzhi took up the verse. "'A gracious gentleman, like gold and tin, like a jade tablet and a jade disc-'"
It was said that the maids of Zheng Xuan, the great Eastern Han scholar, all knew poetry. Once, a maid had been punished by being made to kneel in the courtyard. Another maid passing by teasingly asked, "Why are you there in the mire?" The kneeling maid replied, "I went to plead my case, only to meet his anger." Both question and answer were original lines from the Book of Songs. With such a deep family tradition of learning, even the maids possessed such refinement.
Xiao Chan and Qingzhi had served Ding Youwei for years. After they came to Chen Family Cove, they heard Chen Caozhi and his nephew reciting poetry every day without fail. Through familiarity, fine lines from the Book of Songs now sprang readily from their lips too; they would not let Zheng Kangcheng's maids monopolize the honors of such elegance.
Two days after Duanwu, Lai Fu went to Qiantang County town to bring the two tenant households to Chen Family Cove. He was also to call on County Magistrate Feng and ask whether there had been any progress with the household registration.
Near noon that day, a Daoist in a black robe arrived at Chen Family Cove and asked to see Chen Xian, Clan Chief. Calling himself an attendant of Ge Hong of Chuyang Terrace on Precious Stone Mountain, he invited the young man from Chen Family Cove who had visited the other day without finding him there to return, when he had time, for a meeting at Chuyang Terrace's Daoist retreat.
Chen Xian knew Ge Hong's reputation. The Ge Clan belonged to the Jiangnan gentry. His grandfather had served as Minister of Personnel in Eastern Wu, his father had risen to Administrator of Shaoling, and Ge Hong himself had been ennobled as a Marquis Within the Passes. But Ge Hong was devoted to the Dao and had no interest in official advancement. Wang Dao had invited him to serve as an Advisory Army Officer and as a Regular Mounted Attendant, but he had declined both appointments. He had gone to Mount Luofu in Lingnan to build a hut and refine elixirs, and was a founding master of the Daoist Golden Elixir School.
Chen Xian had also heard that Ge Hong had recently retired to seclusion near Mingsheng Lake, but had never met him and had not dared visit for fear of being turned away. Ge Hong was reputed to be exceedingly haughty; he had ignored even Lu Shi of Wu Commandery, who had made a special journey to see him. Yet now he had expressly sent an attendant to invite someone from Chen Family Cove to his retreat for a conversation. Chen Xian was both astonished and delighted. He guessed it must be Chen Caozhi, and sent someone to ask. Sure enough, it was.
Chen Caozhi was also eager to meet the celebrated Baopuzi. He immediately took Lai Zhen and Lai De with him and followed the attendant on foot to Ge Ridge on the northern shore of West Lake.
The mountain path wound deep into secluded woods, and the Daoist retreat was tranquil. His hair and beard entirely white, Ge Hong watched Chen Caozhi walk up from the foot of the mountain step by step and thought, So he really is only a youth-"Somewhere upon this very mountain, deep in the clouds, his whereabouts unknown." Hmm, this boy is no common sort. Though the Qiantang Chen Clan is not gentry, it passes down poetry and learning through the generations. He is a hundred times better than those gentry sons who powder their faces, perfume themselves, and indulge in boastful talk.
Ge Hong's family had fallen into decline during his childhood. Too poor to afford young servants, he had carried his own book satchel in search of learning, borrowing books and copying them out. Having tasted much of the warmth and coldness of human relations, he understood worldly affairs deeply. He placed little importance on the distinction between gentry and commoners, caring only whether someone was refined or vulgar. Vulgar visitors were invariably refused.
Chen Caozhi looked at the old Daoist beneath an ancient pine, his hair and beard white as snow and his back perfectly straight. So this is Ge Hong, he thought. He must be seventy or eighty by now, yet he can still climb mountains to gather medicinal herbs. He truly inspires respect. Ge Hong was not an impractical Daoist who pursued nothing but the elusive dream of immortality. He valued tangible results, and that was the purpose of his elixir refining and medicine making. Ten years earlier, when pestilence had spread through Lingnan, Ge Hong had practiced medicine to aid the world, saving countless lives. People called him Immortal Elder Ge.
While still a dozen paces away, Chen Caozhi bowed deeply and said respectfully, "I am Chen Caozhi. Forgive this youngster for disturbing your quiet cultivation, Immortal Elder."
Ge Hong's voice rang like a great bell. "What brings someone so young to visit this old Daoist? Do you seek immortality too?"
"Some hear the Dao earlier and others later," Chen Caozhi replied. "What has that to do with being old or young? Take the art of go: a child with his hair still hanging loose can defeat a white-haired old man. Why is that?"
Ge Hong laughed heartily. "Young man, you speak boldly. You wish to discuss mysteries and debate the Dao with this old Daoist?"
"That is precisely what I hoped to ask your guidance on, Immortal Elder," Chen Caozhi said.
"This old Daoist will pose you a challenge," Ge Hong said. "If you can answer it, I shall invite you inside to sit. Otherwise, go back where you came from."
"Please pose your question, Immortal Elder," Chen Caozhi said.
Ge Hong's long, snow-white eyebrows stirred slightly as he recited, "My life rests with me, not Heaven; refine the returning elixir into gold, and live a hundred million years-what does this mean?"
Chen Caozhi considered briefly, then answered in a clear, ringing voice, "Confucianism holds that fate is ordained by Heaven, whereas Daoism holds that by refining qi and taking elixirs, one can change one's fate and even master it. Longevity and immortality are not insubstantial, elusive things beyond pursuit."
Ge Hong's two lines were not particularly abstruse, and with his knowledge from two lifetimes, Chen Caozhi naturally answered fluently. To Ge Hong, however, the youth's reply was already enough to astonish him. He asked another question. "Then in your view, which is superior and which inferior in their discourse on fate, Confucianism or Daoism?"
Chen Caozhi smiled. "Immortal Elder, that is the second challenge. Surely we should go inside and sit down before discussing it."
Ge Hong roared with laughter, stepped forward, and took Chen Caozhi's hand. Side by side, they entered the retreat.
The Chuyang Terrace retreat was quite simple. There was only one Hall of the Three Pure Ones, enshrining the Primordial Heavenly King, the Jade Dawn Dao Lord, and Lord Lao. The other few rooms served as an elixir chamber, a study, a bedroom, and quarters for the attendants and Daoist boys. In a small courtyard stood several plum trees Ge Hong had planted himself.
Still holding Chen Caozhi's hand, Ge Hong led him to the study and sat down. Seeing the shelves on all four walls filled with scrolls, Chen Caozhi could not keep delight from his face. He asked Ge Hong's permission to borrow books to copy at home, promising to return them within five days.
Ge Hong had been poor as a child and had likewise sought books everywhere to copy by hand. Seeing this studious youth pleased him greatly. "Very well. One scroll at a time. Return it before borrowing another."
A Daoist boy served bitter tea, and the old man and the youth began questioning and debating. Chen Caozhi knew little of the Daoist classics; only in the Dao De Jing could he be said to have a fairly thorough grasp of the text's meaning. He had never even heard of such works as the Scripture of the Great Clarity Nine Cauldrons' Elixir, the Scripture of the White Tiger's Seven Transformations, or the Scripture of the Five Talismans of Cavern Mystery. But he had insight and a quick mind, and by using chemical knowledge from later ages to understand Ge Hong's golden elixir arts, he repeatedly managed to scratch just where Ge Hong itched. After all, living in seclusion without an understanding friend was lonely, and having no one to whom he could pour out the learning in his breast was lonelier still. Thus the snow-haired Immortal Elder was immensely pleased, his appetite for conversation keen. Before they knew it, dusk had come and the sky was growing dark.
Chen Caozhi rose in alarm. "Ah, I have benefited greatly from hearing your lofty discourse, Immortal Elder. But it is late, and I must hurry home."
Still reluctant to part, Ge Hong said, "Have that sturdy servant of yours go back with a message. Stay here at the retreat and return tomorrow, rather than hurrying along the road in the dark."
"My mother will be waiting at the gate, hoping for my return," Chen Caozhi said. "I must take my leave now."
Ge Hong did not press him further. He urged Chen Caozhi to visit whenever he had time, granting him free use of the retreat's books, then ordered the burly Great Han who seemed to be deaf to escort Chen Caozhi and his servants part of the way.
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