| The Wang brothers deliberate...: |
The next day, accordingly, Wang Ren and Wang De came to Mr. Yan's house and wrote scores of invitations to relatives from the various branches of the family. And all of them came, with the exception of Senior Licentiate Yan's five sons from next door. When the guests had breakfasted, they went to Mrs. Yan's bedside to witness her will, which her brothers drew up and signed. Meantime Mr. Yan put on a scholar's cap, a blue gown and red silk sash, while Concubine Zhao dressed herself in crimson and put a gold chaplet on her head. As they worshipped heaven and earth and the ancestors, Wang Ren drew on his vast erudition to write a most moving announcement of this marriage to the Yan ancestors. And having informed the ancestors, they left the shrine.
Then Wang Ren and Wang De sent for their wives, and kowtowed together to the new husband and wife. All the relatives congratulated them in order of seniority, after which the stewards, menservants and maidservants did reverence to their master and mistress. The new wife went in alone to bow before the dying mistress, calling her 「Elder Sister.」 But Mrs. Yan had already lost consciousness.
These ceremonies at an end, the guests crowded into the great hall, second hall, library and inner chambers to sit down to more than twenty tables. |
