The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting Read online

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Chinese Cinderella The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting

  Adeline Yen Mah’s family considered her to be bad luck because her mother died giving birth to her. They discriminated against her and made her feel unwanted all her life. After the death of her stepmother in 1990, she felt compelled to give up her career as a physician to write her life story. Her adult memoir, Falling Leaves, was published in 1997 and became an international bestseller. Then, in 1998, Adeline wrote an autobiography for children in response to the many letters she received from young people who also felt unloved and unwanted. The result, Chinese Cinderella, is the true story of Adeline’s childhood, and has become a much-loved book for children all over the world.

  As a child, Adeline loved reading and writing and whenever things were bad she would write stories in order to escape from the tyranny of her stepmother and cruelty of her siblings. Her first novel for children, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, is based on one of the exciting Second World War stories that she wrote to amuse herself and her schoolfriends. The sequel, Chinese Cinderella – The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting, is inspired by the ancient Chinese painting Along the River at Qing Ming.

  Adeline is a full-time writer and lives in California, USA, with her husband. She spends the summer months in London.

  Books by Adeline Yen Mah

  For children

  CHINESE CINDERELLA

  CHINESE CINDERELLA AND THE SECRET DRAGON SOCIETY

  For adults

  FALLING LEAVES

  A THOUSAND PIECES OF GOLD

  WATCHING THE TREE

  adelineyenmah.com

  Chinese Cinderella

  The Mystery of

  the Song Dynasty Painting

  Adeline Yen Mah

  Bestselling author of Chinese Cinderella

  PUFFIN

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  puffinbooks.com

  First published 2009

  Text copyright © Adeline Yen Mah, 2009

  Photographs copyright © The Palace Museum, Beijing, China, 2009

  (reproduced by permission of The Palace Museum, Beijing)

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN: 978-0-14-192829-6

  For my husband Bob and many thanks to my publisher Erica Wagner

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1. Woman in Black

  Chapter 2. Coma

  Chapter 3. Hospitalization

  Chapter 4. Hypnotherapy

  Chapter 5. A Real Awakening

  Chapter 6. Barbarian Orphan Boy

  Chapter 7. Painting Lessons

  Chapter 8. Jade Dog

  Chapter 9. Cricket Fight

  Chapter 10. Visit to the Capital

  Chapter 11. Along the River at Qing Ming

  Chapter 12. Mei Lan’s Confession

  Chapter 13. Prime Minister’s Son

  Chapter 14. Baba’s Birthday Party

  Chapter 15. Dragon Rock Painting

  Chapter 16. Marble Snail

  Chapter 17. Decision

  Chapter 18. Two Gifts

  Chapter 19. Flight

  Chapter 20. Is Anything Impossible?

  How to Pronounce Chinese Words

  Glossary of Chinese Words

  Author’s Note

  This book is a fantasy based on the ancient Chinese painting titled Along the River at Qing Ming. Nicknamed China’s Mona Lisa by Chinese-art lovers because of its fame, it was painted in the twelfth century by a court artist named Zhang Ze Duan. During the subsequent dynasties, it has been in the private collection of many Chinese emperors. More than twenty copies were made by various artists.

  Pu Yi, the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, abdicated his throne in 1912. Nevertheless, he lived in the Forbidden Palace until 1924. When he finally left under duress, he took Along the River at Qing Ming with him. In 1932, he went to Manchuria and was installed by the Japanese as the puppet Emperor of Manchukuo (Manchuria) in 1934.

  In 1945, the Japanese lost the Second World War and Pu Yi fled from Manchuria. He was captured by the Russians, who put him in jail and placed his painting in a vault at the Bank of China. In 1950, the Russians returned Pu Yi to Communist China for trial as a war criminal. Meanwhile, his painting was transferred to the Palace Museum in Beijing where it remains to this day. Mao Ze-dong pardoned Pu Yi in 1959. He worked as a gardener in the Beijing Botanical Gardens after his release from prison, and died eight years later during the Cultural Revolution.

  This is the second in a series of books based on the fictional character CC (initials for Chinese Cinderella). The first book was titled Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society and was set in 1940s Shanghai during the Japanese occupation.

  In that first book, twelve-year-old CC ran away from home and joined the Secret Dragon Society, headed by Grandma Wu and her son Master Wu. Under their direction, CC and three Eurasian boys named David, Marat and Sam rescued four American pilots from prison and sailed with them on the Yangzi River to Chungking.

  In this book, CC leaves the boat to buy food in the river town of Feng Jie. Pursued by a strange woman dressed in black, she escapes by climbing up a drainpipe but then falls from the roof. On awakening from a coma, CC is treated for her neurological symptoms. While under hypnosis, she recalls the life she led eight hundred years ago as a young girl in Bian Liang (now called Kaifeng), the then capital of China during the Northern Song Dynasty.

  Two other paintings are mentioned in this book: Auspicious Dragon Rock and Listening to Qin Music, both also housed at the Palace Museum in Beijing. They are attributed to Emperor Huizong, whose signature, written in cipher (First Man of All under Heaven – Tian Xia Yi Ren ), and seal mark can be seen to the left of the two paintings.

  My research was carried out at the library of the University of California in Irvine. Although CC, Zhang Mei Lan and Ah Zhao are all fictional characters, the paintings are real. So are the supporting cast of individuals – such as Tong Guan, the eunuch general, and Cai Jing, the Prime Minister – as well as the book’s historical background.

  The following two books were enormously helpful: Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China by Patricia Ebrey and Maggie Bickford and Palace Women in the Northern Sung by Priscilla Ching Chung.

  1

  Woman in Black

  CC first noticed the woman in black when she stopped at the spice booth to buy salt and soya sauce. The market was packed with people. They crowded the narrow aisles between the stalls, jostling each other and bargaining for the best value. Children raced around, playing hide-and-seek along the cramped passageways, while stallholders called out to passers-by, waving their merchandise in the air and shouting out prices.

  In all the noise and bustle, CC couldn’t be sure how long the woman had been watching her. As soon as their boat had docked in the river town of Feng Jie , Wu Nai Nai (Grandma Wu) had sent her and David on shore to pick up essential supplies. They had been told that Feng Jie was ‘safe’, but it was impossible to be sure in these dangerous times.

  CC flashed back over everything that had happened. There had been the terrible sadness of learning that Big Aunt had been killed by the Japanese on Nan Tian Island. This was followed by the Secret Dragon Society’s daring rescue of the American airmen from Bridge House, seventeen days ago. Then came the thrilling and dangerous task of dressing the Americans in German uniforms and smuggling them, in the dark of night, onto the large junk docked on the Huang Po River. Since leaving Shanghai with the airmen on board they had travelled slowly, taking great care not to draw attention to themselves and their imperilled cargo. But now they were running out of food.

  ‘Look out for one another but try not to appear as if you’re together,’ Grandma Wu had said as she handed each of them a straw basket and some money. ‘Don’t talk to anyone unless you have to, and of course don’t breathe a word about the American pilots hidden on our boat. Even though Feng Jie is ruled by our President Chiang Kai-shek, Japanese secret agents and col
laborators lurk everywhere and we’re in constant danger until we get the airmen to Chungking. Their safety depends on your silence.’

  CC paid for her purchases and packed them into the basket at her feet. As she straightened up she saw the woman in black staring intently at her. Quickly, CC moved away, but she couldn’t resist glancing back. The woman was following her, heading in the same direction. She quickened her steps and turned the corner. The woman also turned but maintained a certain distance. Now CC had no doubt: the woman was after her, for sure. But why?

  She looked around for David, but he was nowhere to be seen. Her heart quickened and she felt the first trickle of panic. Trying to behave naturally, she continued to buy the foods on Grandma Wu’s list: eggs, vegetables, sesame oil, tofu, sugar, rice, flour and fresh fruits. She glanced nervously over her shoulder, hoping against hope that the woman would be gone. But no! There she was, peering furtively from behind a stack of dried cabbage, as if not quite certain that CC was the one she was looking for. But almost sure…

  Should she make a run for it? No – better behave calmly. Was this woman a Japanese spy? Surely not. She looked so kind, almost motherly. But maybe that was only a disguise. What if she approached CC and started a conversation? Then perhaps suddenly – WHAM! A hand round the arm. Come with me! Japanese secret police! CC shuddered.

  The woman did not look Japanese, but she could be a Chinese collaborator. Did she know about the American pilots hidden on the boat, only a few hundred feet away? Grandma Wu and Master Wu had listened for news on the radio every day since they rescued the Americans, but they had heard nothing. So they assumed that nobody was searching for them.

  ‘Keep calm, CC. Behave normally,’ she muttered to herself. But the woman was inching slowly towards her. Their eyes met briefly. CC immediately looked away. She felt her heart racing and a cold sweat running down her back. How scary! What did the woman want? CC braced herself.

  All at once the woman was right in front of her, blocking the way! CC stared, paralysed with fear. Would she arrest her? How many years in jail for helping American pilots to escape from the Japanese?

  ‘Excuse me. Are you the niece of Ye Jia Ming ?’

  So the woman had recognized her. But how? There must be millions of twelve-year-old girls in China who looked like her. But the woman had said Ye Jia Ming, which was Big Aunt’s maiden name before her disastrous arranged marriage. What else did this woman know? Would CC be taken away and tortured for information about the airmen? She parted her lips to speak, but no words came. Her mouth was dry. She had only one desperate, agonizing thought: she must say nothing because, back on that boat, the Americans’ lives depended on her silence! She needed to get away from this woman as fast as possible.

  She threw her basket of groceries at the woman, and ran – brushing past a meat-vendor’s stall and knocking over a vegetable stand. ‘Stop her!’ the angry merchants yelled, but CC was too quick for them. She had no idea where she was going. She only knew she had to escape – fast! The sound of her feet mingled with the pounding of blood in her ears, blocking everything but fear. Suddenly she was hurtling down steep stone steps towards the pier, taking them two at a time. But, halfway down, she was blocked by a group of workmen carrying large boxes balanced on shoulder-poles. The woman in black would surely catch her now.

  It had started to rain and the light was fading. People were yelling and pushing behind her. She needed to get away, but how? Bodies in front, terror behind.

  Beside her was a drainpipe leading up to the roof of a building. Out of desperation, CC grabbed onto it and clambered to the top. She had a momentary sense of exhilaration as she looked down at her pursuers. Without kung fu training, they would never be able to catch her. Then, just as she felt as if she might actually get away, her feet slipped on the wet roof shingles and her body plunged into the void…

  2

  Coma

  David cried out in horror as CC fell from the rooftop, landing with a sickening thud on the dirt below. He had been watching from behind a fishmonger’s cart and had seen CC’s encounter with the woman in black.

  A crowd of people immediately gathered round CC’s inert body, including two policemen in uniform. The woman in black was saying something to them. David edged his way closer. He had no idea what to do. Could CC possibly survive such a fall? Then his heart leapt when he saw her chest moving up and down. Although her eyes remained closed, she was breathing and therefore must still be alive!

  ‘I have no idea why she ran away from me,’ the woman was saying. ‘I thought I recognized her from a photo. I just wanted to ask for news of her aunt. Nothing else.’

  ‘These are troubled times,’ one of the policeman said. ‘The girl might have been afraid of something or somebody. Who knows?’

  ‘Thank goodness we’re safe here in Feng Jie!’ someone in the crowd said.

  ‘Still, there are many pro-Japanese collaborators,’ the policeman said. ‘One cannot be too careful. Does anyone know this little girl?’

  David stepped forward. ‘Her name is CC,’ he said. ‘She’s my friend.’ To his embarrassment, he started to cry.

  The woman in black said sympathetically, ‘She should be seen by a doctor as soon as possible. I know the Medical Director of the missionary hospital here. He’s an American – Dr Richard Allen. You need to take your friend there in a rickshaw. I’ll write a note and tell him what happened. By the way, is your friend the niece of Ye Jia Ming?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ David said guardedly.

  ‘Ye Jia Ming was my classmate at middle school, and a close friend. I stayed with her once in Nan Tian, before the Japanese massacre. She had many photos of her niece throughout her house. Your friend looks just like the girl in those photos… She is her niece, isn’t she?’

  ‘I already told you I don’t know,’ David replied with a hint of irritation.

  ‘I feel so bad about her falling like that. Here’s the note for the hospital, and this is my card with my name and telephone number. Phone me and let me know how she is. I’m sorry I can’t accompany you to the hospital, but I’m late for work. Do you have money to pay the rickshaw driver?’

  ‘Yes,’ David said. ‘Please tell him the address of the hospital.’ He looked at the card and saw that the woman’s name was Jiang Fei Fei .

  The rickshaw driver seemed to take forever to wend his way through the crowded streets. David kept looking at CC’s white, unconscious face, and willed her to wake up. He hadn’t realized, until now, how much he always relied on her bravery and sense of humour in dangerous situations. When they got to the hospital, two orderlies and a nurse came running out to help. The woman in black had telephoned in advance and spoken to Dr Allen.

  David handed over the note and was told to wait while CC was taken into the examination room. He sat outside in the waiting room. People kept going in and out, but no one said anything to him. He was about to go down the corridor to look for her when a tall foreigner in a white coat rushed by with a chart in his hand. So he grabbed the man’s jacket and asked in a hoarse, anxious voice, ‘Please tell me what’s happening. Is CC going to die?’

  The man stopped and looked kindly at David.

  ‘Hello, kid! Are you with the unconscious girl?’ he asked in fluent Chinese. ‘What did you call her – CC? Did you bring CC to us?’

  ‘Yes, I’m David. Her real name is Ye Xian , but we all call her CC.’

  ‘Well, David, my name is Dr Allen. Your friend CC has twisted her foot and ruptured some ligaments in her ankle, but it’s her head we’re more worried about. She’s had quite a fall and is still unconscious. We need to admit her to the hospital and keep her under observation until she wakes up. Does she live in Feng Jie?’

  ‘No, but I can get Grandma Wu.’

  The doctor patted him on the shoulder. ‘That would be great! By all means, go and get her grandma. Be as quick as you can!’ Seeing the anxiety on David’s face, Dr Allen added in a gentler voice: ‘Try not to worry. People’s heads are my speciality. Your friend is in good hands with me.’