Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China Read Online Free PDF Page B

of something called "China."
     
    One hot summer's day in 1932 my grandmother, her sister, and my mother took the train south from Yixian, passing out of Manchuria at the town of Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall sweeps down from the mountains to the sea.  As the train chugged along the coastal plain, they could see the landscape changing: instead of the bare,  brown-yellow soil of the plains of Manchuria, here the earth was darker and the vegetation denser, almost lush compared with the northeast. Soon after it passed the Great Wall, the train turned inland, and about an hour later it stopped at a town called Changli where they disembarked at a green-roofed building which looked like a railway station in Siberia.
     
    My grandmother hired a horse-drawn cart and drove north along a bumpy, dusty road to General Xue's mansion, which lay about twenty miles away, just outside the wall of a small town called Yanheying, which had once been a major military camp frequently visited by the Manchu emperors and their court.  Hence the road had acquired the grand name of 'the Imperial Way."  It was lined with poplars, their light-green leaves shimmering in the sunlight.  Beyond them were orchards of peach trees, which flourished in the sandy soil.  But my grandmother scarcely enjoyed the scenery, as she was covered in dust and jolted badly by the rough road.  Above all, she was worrying about what would greet her at the other end.
     
    When she first saw the mansion, she was overwhelmed by its grandeur. The immense front gate was guarded by armed men, who stood stiffly at attention beside enormous statues of reclining lions.  There was a row of eight stone statues for tying up horses: four were of elephants, and four of monkeys.  These two animals were chosen for their lucky sounds: in Chinese the words 'elephant' and 'high office' have the same sound (xiang), as do 'monkey' and 'aristocracy' (hou).
     
    As the cart passed through the outer gate into an inner yard my grandmother could see only a huge blank wall facing her; then, off to one side, she saw a second gate.
     
    This was a classic Chinese structure, a concealing wall so that strangers could not see into one's property, also making it impossible for assailants to shoot or charge directly through the front gate.
     
    The moment they passed through the inner gate, a servant materialized at my grandmother's side and peremptorily took her child away.  Another servant led my grandmother up the steps of the house and showed her into the sitting room of General Xue's wife.
     
    As soon as she entered the room, my grandmother went down on her knees and kowtowed, saying, "I greet you, my mistress," as etiquette demanded.  My grandmother's sister was not allowed into the room, but had to stand outside like a servant.  This was nothing personal: the relatives of a concubine were not treated as part of the family.  After my grandmother had kowtowed for a suitable length of time, the general's wife told her she could get up, using a form of address which immediately established my grandmother's place in the hierarchy of the household as a mere sub mistress closer to a higher form of servant than to a wife.
     
    The general's wife told her to sit down.  My grandmother had to make a split-second decision.  In a traditional Chinese household, where one sits automatically reflects one's status.  General Xue's wife was sitting at the north end of the room, as befitted a person in her position.  Next to her, separated by a side table, was another chair, also facing south: this was the general's seat.  Down each side of the room was a row of chairs for people of different status.  My grandmother shuffled backwards and sat on one of the chairs nearest the door, to show humility.  The wife then asked her to come forward just a little.  She had to show some generosity.
     
    When my grandmother was seated, the wife told her that from now on her daughter would be brought up as her