Chapter 71 The exceedingly beautiful woman
According to the records of the History of Han Dynasty, Li Yannian, the courtier of Emperor Wu of Han, once sang a song in the banquet of the Emperor. The lody was very touching. The lyrics were “There’s a beauty in the north, who is incomparable and unworldly. With first glance, she overthrows the cities. With another glance, she overthrows the countries. Even so, no one wants to lose the chance to get the beauty!”
After hearing this, Emperor Wu of Han sighed, “Good song! Good lyrics! But is there such a beauty in the world?” Then Princess Pingyang, the elder sister of Emperor Wu of Han, smiled and said, “My Majesty, you don’t have to be sad. The beauty is right here. As far as I know, Li Yannian’s younger sister is such a beauty!”
So, Emperor Wu of Han summoned Li Yannian’s younger sister imdiately. After a few monts, a young woman who had been carefully dressed up by Princess Pingyang and Li Yannian ca from the end of the hall. She wore white satin clothes with long black hair, bared her fair feet and prostrated before the Emperor. Emperor Wu of Han was drunk and only thought that the woman floated here like a fairy, so he asked her to raise her head.
The woman raised her head slowly, and drew the attention of all people in the hall. The n with the dish dropped his food on the table. The n who drank the wine poured it on the collar. The n who were using their fingers to pick their nose secretly with their sleeve over his face stopped. The musicians on both sides of the hall also stopped their actions. There was just the ending sound of music left in the suddenly quiet hall.
There were many voluptuous beauties with delicate faces and features in Emperor Wu of Han’s Imperial Harem. But there was not such a beauty like her, whose bone was like the jade, skin was as fair as snow and eyes were as limpid as the water in autumn. Her appearance was excellent, but it didn’t imdiately exceed that of beauties of the whole Imperial Harem. The most amazing thing was that her skin was softer and fairer than the bright moon in the sky. She was really shinning and beautiful. When Emperor Wu of Han saw her, he thought she was a fairy and imdiately conferred the title of Madam Li on her. Then Madam Li was favored by the Emperor. For 16 years, her appearance remained the sa, and the Emperor was always in favor of her.
It was said that as long as she didn’t serve the Emperor, she always used a kind of fulvous powder on her face to remain the youth. Therefore, her face had no blemish for many years, and it was fairer than the young girls’ skin. Later, when she was critically ill, she called Li Xiangguo, her favorite niece, to her bed and told her the prescription, saying that this kind of powder was called “Yingying Powder”, which was recorded on a piece of silk dropped from the ancient books that she occasionally read when she was young. She also said that applying this kind of powder all the year round could beautify and moisturize the skin, and remove the dullness and spots on the skin.
Xiangguo went ho and took the dicines according to the prescription. After grinding them into the powder, she put the powder on her face, took a look into the mirror and scread. She thought, “Who is the yellow-faced woman in the mirror? Can this powder really make beautiful? Does my aunt lie to ?” Xiangguo reluctantly applied it for half a month. Even when she was eating, sleeping and embroidering, she applied it. Other unmarried girls who didn’t know the reason laughed that she was prematurely senile and she had beco a yellow-faced woman before she got married. Xiangguo was so angry that she went back to wash her face. Then she took a look into the mirror but found that her skin had not changed at all and still had spots. She imdiately felt that her aunt must be muddle-headed before she died and talked nonsense! Therefore, Xiangguo put the prescription aside and didn’t use it anymore.
A few years later, one of Madam Li’s brother raped the won who were in the Imperial Harem and was severely reprimanded by Emperor Wu of Han. Another brother of her was bolder. He colluded with Pri Minister Liu Qumao and Huns to plot to claim Madam Li’s son Liu Bo as crown prince. After the incident, all the relatives of Madam Li were punished. The Li’s Mansion where Xiangguo lived was also confiscated and sealed. The prescription recorded on the handkerchief was originally sandwiched in Xiangguo’s casket, but it was blown to the ground by the wind during the transportation. The eunuch who was carrying things didn’t care about the handkerchief. He stepped on it and kept up with the carrying team in front. The other eunuchs who were behind him also stepped on it and went after the people in front.
When the crowd dispersed, a shabby old Taoist priest stooped forward to pick it up, tapped the dust on it and put it into his arms. He laughed, “Yingying Powder, Yingying Powder. Since people don’t know you are a treasure, and make the pearl covered with dust and the jade fallen into the mud, I’ll treasure you!”
He Danggui was told this story by Bai Yangbai in the previous life. According to Bai Yangbai, the old Taoist priest was the grand-grand-grand master of his grand-master, and the prescription of “Yingying Powder” had been passed on to him.
Bai Yangbai was more than 20 years older than He Danggui, but he looked like her younger brother. He went to the table with a smile, wrote down a prescription and handed it generously to He Danggui. Then Bai Yangbai grinned and told her that although the prescription of the dicated bath for agerasia was his top secret which could only be passed on to his wife and daughters, he could make an exception to tell He Danggui, an outsider, the prescription of Yingying Powder. Then he added that if she wanted more prescriptions, she had to follow his family na.
He Danggui perplexedly frowned and answered that it was not difficult to regard him as an adoptive father, but her family na and given na were recorded in the family tree of Luo’s Family. It was uneasy to change. In addition, the na “Bai Danggui” sounded really strange.
Bai Yangbai shook his fingers wisely and told her that she didn’t need to change the na on the family tree. She could just go to the second house on the left side of the Household Registration Departnt of the governnt, and then add a word “Bai” before her original na, changing her na to “Bai Hedanggui”, which could be understood as “Baihe and Danggui” (lily and angelica) and also as a harmonious marriage lasting a hundred years. It sounded very nice! Bai Yangbai persuaded, “Don’t hesitate any longer. I would keep my promise. If you don’t believe , we can exchange the register and the prescription of the dicated bath at the sa ti. Besides, I would also give you a bottle of perfu, a hairpin to poke the acupoints and a massage, all of which are used for agerasia.”
He Danggui listened to him in shock and later rembered the job duties of “the second house on the left side of the Household Registration Departnt”. Then she suddenly felt angry and refused. Now her na was “Zhu Hedanggui”. If she added another word in it, it would beco “Zhu Baihedanggui”!
She picked up the prescription and studied it carefully. Most of the dicinal materials were regular dicinal materials to take care of skin and keep white, such as Baiji (rhizoma bletillae), Baizhu (bighead atractylodes rhizo), Baizhi (radix angelica) and so on. Looking up in a few dical books causally, soone could find a large pile of similar prescriptions. Therefore, He Danggui didn’t find any rarity or particularity in it.
Looking further, He Danggui beca more confused. “Duzhong (eucommia ulmoides)? Isn’t it for nourishing the liver and kidney, strengthening the muscles and bones and stabilizing the fetus? It is the first ti that I have heard it could be applied externally!”
“Shiwei (pyrrosia lingua)? Shizhu (dianthus chinensis)? These are used to cure pneumonia and for diuresis, and Shizhu also could cure dysnorrhea...”
“Chuanbai (phellodendri)? Chuangu (jobstears seed)? Chuanxiong (ligusticum wallichii)?”
He Danggui was so angry that she trembled and threw the prescription on the disgusting and smiling face. Then she shouted, “You play tricks on ! Isn’t this the family tree of Luo’s Family? Baiji, Baizhu and Baizhi are the nas of my cousins; Duzhong is my grandfather; Shiwei and Shizhu are my nephews; Chuanbai and Chuangu are my uncles; Chuanxiong is my mother! Bah! Madam Li’s Yingying Powder? Bai Yangbai, you are a liar!”
“I am wronged! How can I know the nas of your family mbers?” Bai Yangbai covered his face and pretended to cry, “Luo’s Family is powerful in Yangzhou City, but I haven’t heard of it in our Daning Prefecture! Your families na themselves at will, grab a handful of dicinal materials at random and pick up the nas with dicinal materials which they catch. And your families even write them into the family tree! If you use my Yingying Powder, it’s easy to know whether it is true or not. I’m the descendant of Daguon Sect of Wuyi Mountain. It is well known that the Daguon Sect has a long history of thousands of years. This prescription is really passed on by my grand-grand… master of my grand-master! Why would I lie to a girl?” After that, he handed back the prescription to He Danggui.
He Danggui pouted her mouth and pointed, “Uncle Bai, you just said the ‘grand’ four tis more than before.”
Bai Yangbai stared at her, “Girl, you are too rigorous to an old man, and I also heard it from my master. Didn’t I tell you? My master was a stutterer.”
Therefore, He Danggui began to use the “Yingying Powder” with a skeptical attitude and an exploration spirit of seeking knowledge and evidence, combining with the secret dicated bath for agerasia prepared by Bai Yangbai every 10 days. As a result, her skin beca better day by day.
At the very start, she still thought the prescription of Yingying Powder was fake while the dicated bath for agerasia was really good. She used Yingying Powder on her face before bed every day. But when she got up in the morning, washed face and looked in the mirror, she couldn’t see any obvious improvent on her facial skin. However, when she finished the dicated bath at Bai Yangbai’s ho every ti, her skin was fair beyond snow and extrely soft as if people could squeeze out water from it. The effects were better and better. Therefore, she still insisted on using Yingying Powder, but her main purpose was to prove that Bai Yangbai was an old liar. Then she could cheat his real prescriptions by threatening him.
But Bai Yangbai was a cunning man. In the previous life, He Danggui was so naive compared to him. She begged a prescription for more than 4 years and failed, but only was amused by him many tis.
The fifth year, He Danggui was pregnant with Zhu Quan’s child. Bai Yangbai told her that the pregnant won couldn’t take the dicated bath, so she didn’t need to co to him from then on. He Danggui asked him whether the pregnant won could use Yingying Powder. Bai Yangbai said Yingying Powder was okay for her. Therefore, she stopped taking the dicated bath and only use Yingying Powder for nearly a year. This ti, she could see the real effects that her facial skin was more delicate and the stretch marks on her lower abdon also disappeared.
Yingying Powder couldn’t show its effect before because it was surpassed by the dicated bath and He Danggui didn’t trust Bai Yangbai, so she thought Yingying Powder was fake. In all fairness, Yingying Powder was better than other expensive secrets for beauty in the Imperial Palace. The people who used it over the years would really maintain the youth like Madam Li who had maintained youth for 16 years.
Most won were greedy. No matter how beautiful they were, they weren’t satisfied. He Danggui kept thinking about the dicated bath for agerasia after she gave birth to her daughter, so she ca to Bai Yangbai’s ho. Knocking on the door for a long ti, He Danggui didn’t get response, so she pushed the door open, looked around the big yard but found no one here. According to the thickness of dust on the table and the density of spider webs on the roof beam, she guessed that no one lived here for about a year. She thought, “Oddly enough! When the old liar road around before, there were maids and servants living here. Did he move house but didn’t tell ?”
He Danggui searched the pharmacy, study room and bathroom but didn’t find any prescription or dicinal material, so she left with disappointnt. Later, she tried to contact Bai Yangbai by special ways many tis, but just received one letter from him. She couldn’t wait to open it, but only found a piece of blank paper and an air-dried mulberry leaf in it. She couldn’t figure out what he ant. Was it a secret letter with mystery? Was he afraid that the precious prescription for agerasia was exposed to other people?
After roasting that piece of paper and dipping it in the dicinal liquid, He Danggui finally believed that it was really blank. At once, she went to Bai Yangbai’s house and smashed things with anger, which made herself dusty in the end. As she was ready to go, she suddenly felt soone peeping at her through the crack on the corner gate. She imdiately turned around and had an eye contact with a pair of bright eyes, but they disappeared in an instant. He Danggui was shocked and bewildered, so she gave a loud shout and kicked the door open, only finding that it was an empty abandoned room with nobody.
Then until Consort Zhou and Luo’s Family jointly ended her life, He Danggui hadn’t seen Bai Yangbai anymore.
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