Stratagem Thirty 反客为主: Change from the Guest to the Host
- The Thirty-Six Stratagems, Ancient Chinese Proverbs and Military Text
As the days passed, Autumn settled into her life at the Blossom and Willow Park. The estate was extensive and consisted of single-story buildings organized around brick courtyards. The courtyards are connected by extended black tile covered corridors which allow the residents to move around while being protected from the sun, rain and snow.
Autumn shared a large room with two children, a slender cheerful girl in a bright sunshine yellow tunic called YangEr and a shy short and plump girl called LuEr. Their room was in a courtyard in the southeast corner of the estate, next to the kitchens. Two elder immortals, Grandma HongMi and Grandma Shuang, occupied the other rooms in the courtyard.
Autumn gradually grew used to her human body. There were nights when she dearly missed the darkness of her old den, warm in her own fur, sleeping next to her mama and sisters. LuEr’s soft snoring and YangEr’s cheerful chatter filled some of emptiness.
Through mealtime conversations, Autumn learned that there were other permanent residents: Master NiuLang, a cow herder who tended to the animals; Master Yuen, a musician who accompanies them in their lessons; and Lady MuDan, a beautiful woman who lived in one of the far courtyards that Autumn was never allowed to visit.
Contrary to what she initially thought, Autumn did find someone to dislike. Miss YanZi, a tall, thin and bossy girl who was fond of ordering Autumn and the other children around. She was the first one to wake up in the morning and made the kids do tai chi exercises before breakfast. She pointed out when their clothing was wrinkled or stained, when they ate too many persimmons and not enough vegetables, when the bucket of well water they brought back wasn't full enough or spilled because it was too full, when they didn't brush their teeth long enough, when their shoes were not lined up at the door, and a million other rules Autumn was convinced Miss YanZi made up to torture them. It didn’t take long for Autumn to realize that Miss YanZi modeled what they should be doing based on how Miss LeeLee, the other older teenager, behaves. Once Autumn began modeling her actions after Miss LeeLee the amount of nagging that came her way decreased.
Every day after breakfast, Autumn, YangEr and LuEr went to Lady LanLan's courtyard for lessons in reading, writing, poetry, and music. In the afternoons, they helped the grandmas with light chores such as tending the vegetable patch or preparing food for their meals.
When frost began to appear on the ground in the morning, everyone at the park began preparing for the New Year Festival which was to be hosted on the seventh day of the New Year. Autumn found her list of chores became longer and longer. Courtyards she didn't know existed needed to be aired out, fresh bedding and pots of flowering orchids placed into rooms. Strings of red lanterns were taken out of storage, dusted and hung up all over the park. Grandma HongMi had them pack boxes of delicious treats full of boiled peanuts, sesame candy, dry persimmon patties, and honey jujubes mixed with walnuts.
Every night, Autumn fell asleep, tired, but with a belly full of treats and her mind filled with stories from YangEr about her favorite guests and red envelopes she had received in the past.
One afternoon, the three of them sat in the kitchen courtyard, removing the pits from an enormous pile of jujubes. The mid-day sun was warm, and Autumn felt drowsy from the delicious rice congee they had for lunch as she tried her best to focus on the task. After half an hour, the pile of pitted jujubes in front of her was bigger than those of LuEr who worked diligently but slowly. It was almost twice the size of the pile in front of YangEr.
“I wish I was phoenix and had fire magic and could just burn all the pits away,” YangEr said, her nose wrinkled, focused on digging out a pit.
LuEr giggled but this comment piqued Autumn’s curiosity.
“Are phoenixes the only creatures who can use fire magic?” Autumn asked.
“Phoenixes or those with phoenix blood,” YangEr said.
“What kind of magic does Lady LanLan have?”
"Earth magic, of course.” Finally succeeding, YangEr tossed the pit away and stretched.
"Does everyone have some kind of magic?"
YangEr giggled at Autumn’s question. "No silly. Don’t you know anything about magic?”
"Don't be mean, YangEr,” LuEr admonished her.
“It’s okay. I don’t know anything about magic,” Autumn confessed. “Teach me. What are the different kinds of magic?”
YangEr tilted her head and sat back, not bothering to pick up another jujube. "There are five types of elemental magic in this world. Earth, Wind, Water, Fire and metal magic. The Heavenly Deities rule with wind magic. The Dragon Clan uses water magic. The Phoenix clan has fire magic and human immortals and mages can develop metal magic. The animal, plant and earth spirits and immortals have earth magic. Magic is what gives life to everything. Humans and plants and animals are born with very little magic. We need to work hard to cultivate our magical powers. The heavenly gods, dragons and phoenixes are born with a larger pool of inner magic. They are deities."
Fascinated by this, Autumn asked, "Are you or LuEr deities?"
YangEr laughed. “No. I’m only a dandelion spirit. I was born a normal dandelion plant and LuEr was a gourd plant before.”
Autumn looked over at LuEr, who looked up from the jujube she was pitting. She nodded shyly.
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“How did you guys become spirits? Do all plants become spirits?” Autumn asked.
“Any plant or animal can transform into a spirit, but few ever do so. It takes a long life of cultivating spiritual power to gain consciousness – like Grandma HongMi who was an ancient Jujube tree and Grandma Shuan who was a persimmon tree. But LuEr and I became spirits by accident.”
YangEr reached for a jujube, then seeing the curiosity in Autumn’s eyes, put her hand under her chin and continued her story.
“I was just a dandelion growing in the field when a drunk Immortal spilled some tribute wine on me. It tasted good so I absorbed it through my roots. Next thing I knew I gained this human form. It was very scary at first.”
“Scary? How?”
“Well, I didn’t have any clothes for one. A human family found me. They fed and clothed me but also made me work for them in their fields, killing all the weeds. One day, Grandma HongMi saw me on her way to the market. She helped me escape and brought me here."
“Why did the human family do that?”
“Because as a plant spirit I could work even when they didn’t feed me much. I also had power over dandelion plants.” YangEr shuddered and looked pained.
Autumn felt guilty for making her relive bad memories. She quickly changed the topic, “is Lady LanLan a spirit too?”
"Yes. She is an orchid spirit. She was collected from the base of the Fragrant Mountains and given as tribute to the emperor of China. She sat in the throne room for over a hundred years before she gained immortality. She stayed on as a gardener for another century. Then one day, she met a spirit child, like us, who was forced to work. To save her, Lady LanLan left the imperial palace and built the Blossom and Willow Park here.”
“Whao,” Autumn said, impressed. “Who was the spirit child?”
“Lady Bai,” YangEr answered. “You might get to meet her during the New Year festival, she usually visits us.”
“I like Lady Bai,” LuEr said, picking up another jujube. “She was the one who brought me here. Autumn, what kind of spirit are you?”
Before Autumn could answer, the door to the kitchen courtyard opened and two elderly women came in. Grandma Shuang, the shorter of the two, was carrying a partially made red cotton jacket with only one sleeve. She gestured for Autumn to come over so she could try it on. All the children are receiving new clothes for New Years. Autumn was getting a new winter coat.
"Girls! A little less gossip! A little more work! YangEr, why is your pile so small?" snapped Grandma HongMi. Her wrinkled, tanned face frowned at them from under salt and pepper hair that was pulled back with a maroon ribbon which matched her tunic.
YangEr looked down at the pile of pitted jujube in front of her then at the much larger pile in front of Autumn and sighed.
"Why are we pitting so many jujubes today? The party isn't for another week!"
"The dancing tropes are here," said Grandma HongMi, who had brought another basket of jujube and dumped it on the table.
"What!" YangEr stood up, spilling pits all over the floor.
"Be careful child!"
"Uncle YuTu is here already?! Why didn't you tell me!" whined YangEr.
"That lecherous rabbit is no uncle of yours!" Grandma Hongi said sternly. "You stay away from him and his dancing acrobats!"
"But Grandma HongMi! They always bring the best toys!"
Autumn, alarmed, looked over at LuEr. She relaxed as soon as she realized LuEr was silently giggling behind her sleeves.
"The Jade Rabbit is not so bad," Grandma Shuang said reassuringly to Autumn while pinning the sleeve seam. "They are here to provide entertainment for the party and would never harm one of Lady LanLan’s charges.”
"Hmph," Grandma HongMi snorted. "They are tricksters! Never accept a gift or favor from them! They will promise you the moon and then leave your bed in the dead of night."
LuEr, YangEr and Autumn stared wide-eyed at each other. But before any of them could muster up the courage to ask whose bed Grandma HongMi was talking about, she turned a bright red and snapped "I want to see all of this pitted before dinner!" before stumped out of the courtyard.
Grandma Shuang winked at the children, collected the half finish jacket from Autumn then left as well.
"I heard that Grandma HongMi was very much the beauty back in her day!" YangEr squeaked out while doubled over in half holding her stomach as a tear came out of her eye.
LuEr shook her head and pushed a pile of new jujube toward YangEr. "Stop teasing Grandma HongMi and start working!"
YangEr pushed half of her new pile toward Autumn. "Don't fuss LuEr! We will be done in no time. The two of us did all of this last year and there are three of us now!"
Autumn smiled, happy to be included in this little band of friends. For the next hour she worked rapidly, quickly getting the hang of slicing through jujubes with the small silver knife. Before long, they were done.
"Hooray!" said YangEr "I can't believe we are done so quickly! You are really good at this!"
"I think you did more than half of it," LuEr said to Autumn. “It took us a whole day last year.”
"It was easy," said Autumn. "Should I go find Grandma HongMi and see what else she needs us to do?"
"No!" said YangEr. "Since we finished early, we should get some free time! Let's go see Uncle YuTu and the acrobats!"
"No, we shouldn't sneak around the park when we have visitors,” said LuEr, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “It is not safe,"
"A-ya. You heard Grandma HongMi, the other guests haven't arrived yet. It’s just Uncle YuTu and he’s always been nice to us." Looking at LuEr's stubborn face, YangEr added, "we finished early because Autumn was here. She should decide what we do now."
Autumn was curious to meet the infamous Uncle YuTu and who knows when she would get another chance. Grandma Shuan had said he was perfectly nice.
"I want to meet the acrobats," she said, not meeting LuEr’s eyes.
"Oh, cheer up LuEr," said YangEr consolingly. "Uncle YuTu will have presents for us.” When this did not change LuEr’s frown, YangEr added, “we also stop by to say hello to Musician Yuen while we are over there."
Finally reaching a consensus, YangEr led the way out of the courtyard. Autumn thought they might use a roundabout route or even a hidden passageway like the extra exit tunnels from her den, but YangEr walked from the kitchen through the passageway to the main courtyard of the estate, unconcerned with who else might be around. The winter day was mild and the weak sunlight brought a measure of warmth to the stone courtyard.
Autumn was just starting to think no one was around when suddenly a bossy voice called out. "Children, where are you going?"
Autumn turned, scared. It was Miss YangZi. She stood beside Miss LeeLee on the other side of the courtyard, both holding brooms. They must have been sweeping behind the large willow tree in the courtyard.
"We just finished our chores and we are going to visit Uncle YuTu now," said YangEr.
Autumn marveled at YangEr’s version of sneaking around, but maybe there was a method to her madness.
"You are not supposed to wander around the park when there are outside visitors," said Miss YangZi sternly. "That rule is for our safety."
"We know. But right now, there is only Uncle YuTu and his acrobats" said YangEr. "He knows all of us already. If we don't visit him today, we wouldn't have a chance to wish him happy New Years once all the guests arrive. That would be really rude of us."
How clever, Autumn thought, by being honest and direct, YangEr has turned their sneaking around into an act of politeness. Miss YanZi was a stickler for following etiquette and rules. How will she respond?
Miss YanZi looked annoyed. She glanced toward Miss LeeLee for help.
"We need to bring tea to Uncle YuTu," said Miss LeeLee. "Maybe the girls can help us with the errand and say their New Year greetings then."
"Yay!" YangEr cheered. "I love helping with chores!"
At this, everyone broke out laughing.
