magistrate!”
That night, Shangguan Lü, wife of the local blacksmith Shangguan Fulu, presented a bolt of white cloth to a matchmaker called Big Mouth Yuan with a request that she approach the Yu family with a marriage proposal on behalf of her only son, Shangguan Shouxi.
“Elder sister-in-law,” Big Mouth said to Mother’s aunt as she tapped her feet with a rush fan, “if the Manchu dynasty hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t dare cross your threshold, even if someone shoved a drill up my backside. But we now live in the Republic of China, and girls with bound feet are out of favor. The sons of well-to-do families have taken up new ways of thinking. They wear uniforms, they smoke cigarettes, and they chase after girls educated in foreign schools, girls with big feet, who can run and jump and chat and laugh and giggle when a boy puts his arm around her. I’m afraid your niece is a fallen phoenix, which is worse than a common chicken. The Shangguan family is willing to overlook that, and I think it’s time to burn the incense. Shangguan Shouxi is a good-looking, well-mannered boy, and the family owns both a donkey and a mule. Running their own blacksmith shop doesn’t make them rich, but they’re not badly off. Xuan’er could do worse than a family like that.”
“Have I raised a proper young lady just so she can marry the son of a blacksmith?”
“Haven’t you heard that the wife of the Xuantong emperor was sent up to the city of Harbin to polish shoes? Life is unpredictable, elder sister-in-law.”
“Tell the Shangguans to come see me in person.”
On the following morning, Mother peeked through a crack in the door to get her first glimpse of the robust woman who was to be her mother-in-law, Shangguan Lü. She also watched as her aunt and Shangguan Lü argued over the betrothal gifts until they were both red in the face. “Go home and talk it over,” Mother’s aunt said. “Either the mule or two acres of arable land. Raising the girl for seventeen years has to be worth something.”
“All right,” Shangguan Lü said. “You win. The mule is yours, and we’ll take your wooden-wheeled wagon.”
With a clap of the hands, the deal between the two women was struck. “Xuan’er,” Mother’s aunt called to her. “Come out and meet your mother-in-law.”
3
Three years into her marriage to Shangguan Shouxi, Xuan’er remained childless. Her mother-in-law railed at the family hen, “All you do is eat, and we still haven’t seen a single egg.” Her meaning was clear.
The weather that spring could not have been better, and business at the blacksmith shop reaped the benefits, selling new scythes and repairing broken ones for a steady stream of peasants. The furnace was in the middle of the yard, under a sheet of oil cloth to keep out the sun. The pleasant smell of burning coal hung over the yard, and dark red tongues of flame crackled in the sunlight. Shangguan Fulu handled the tongs, his son, Shouxi, worked the bellows. Shangguan Lü, wearing a tattered robe cinched at the waist by an oilcloth apron spotted with black marks from burning sparks, and an old straw hat on her head, handled the hammer. With sweat and soot streaking her face, the only way anyone could tell she was a woman was by the two protuberances on her chest. The clang of hammer on hot steel resounded from morning to night. As a rule, the family ate only two meals a day; Xuan’er was responsible for preparing the meals and tending the family livestock, pigs included, chores that kept her hopping all day long. And still her mother-in-law found fault, keeping an eye on her even as she hammered the red-hot steel, and muttering nonstop. When she ran out of complaints about her daughter-in-law, she’d turn her attention to her son, and from there to her husband. They were all used to being harangued by the head of the household and the best blacksmith in the family. Xuan’er both hated and feared her mother-in-law, but she admired her as
That night, Shangguan Lü, wife of the local blacksmith Shangguan Fulu, presented a bolt of white cloth to a matchmaker called Big Mouth Yuan with a request that she approach the Yu family with a marriage proposal on behalf of her only son, Shangguan Shouxi.
“Elder sister-in-law,” Big Mouth said to Mother’s aunt as she tapped her feet with a rush fan, “if the Manchu dynasty hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t dare cross your threshold, even if someone shoved a drill up my backside. But we now live in the Republic of China, and girls with bound feet are out of favor. The sons of well-to-do families have taken up new ways of thinking. They wear uniforms, they smoke cigarettes, and they chase after girls educated in foreign schools, girls with big feet, who can run and jump and chat and laugh and giggle when a boy puts his arm around her. I’m afraid your niece is a fallen phoenix, which is worse than a common chicken. The Shangguan family is willing to overlook that, and I think it’s time to burn the incense. Shangguan Shouxi is a good-looking, well-mannered boy, and the family owns both a donkey and a mule. Running their own blacksmith shop doesn’t make them rich, but they’re not badly off. Xuan’er could do worse than a family like that.”
“Have I raised a proper young lady just so she can marry the son of a blacksmith?”
“Haven’t you heard that the wife of the Xuantong emperor was sent up to the city of Harbin to polish shoes? Life is unpredictable, elder sister-in-law.”
“Tell the Shangguans to come see me in person.”
On the following morning, Mother peeked through a crack in the door to get her first glimpse of the robust woman who was to be her mother-in-law, Shangguan Lü. She also watched as her aunt and Shangguan Lü argued over the betrothal gifts until they were both red in the face. “Go home and talk it over,” Mother’s aunt said. “Either the mule or two acres of arable land. Raising the girl for seventeen years has to be worth something.”
“All right,” Shangguan Lü said. “You win. The mule is yours, and we’ll take your wooden-wheeled wagon.”
With a clap of the hands, the deal between the two women was struck. “Xuan’er,” Mother’s aunt called to her. “Come out and meet your mother-in-law.”
3
Three years into her marriage to Shangguan Shouxi, Xuan’er remained childless. Her mother-in-law railed at the family hen, “All you do is eat, and we still haven’t seen a single egg.” Her meaning was clear.
The weather that spring could not have been better, and business at the blacksmith shop reaped the benefits, selling new scythes and repairing broken ones for a steady stream of peasants. The furnace was in the middle of the yard, under a sheet of oil cloth to keep out the sun. The pleasant smell of burning coal hung over the yard, and dark red tongues of flame crackled in the sunlight. Shangguan Fulu handled the tongs, his son, Shouxi, worked the bellows. Shangguan Lü, wearing a tattered robe cinched at the waist by an oilcloth apron spotted with black marks from burning sparks, and an old straw hat on her head, handled the hammer. With sweat and soot streaking her face, the only way anyone could tell she was a woman was by the two protuberances on her chest. The clang of hammer on hot steel resounded from morning to night. As a rule, the family ate only two meals a day; Xuan’er was responsible for preparing the meals and tending the family livestock, pigs included, chores that kept her hopping all day long. And still her mother-in-law found fault, keeping an eye on her even as she hammered the red-hot steel, and muttering nonstop. When she ran out of complaints about her daughter-in-law, she’d turn her attention to her son, and from there to her husband. They were all used to being harangued by the head of the household and the best blacksmith in the family. Xuan’er both hated and feared her mother-in-law, but she admired her as
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