Chapter 6 — The Dou Family

Dou Yaocheng was unconcerned. "The bold die stuffed, the timid die starved. I am merely borrowing the tiger's might. When you retire from office, I shall stop this trade."

Dou Huancheng, however, felt the money was earned foully. "Buying southern goods and selling them north, that at least is hard-earned money. What you are doing is collusion between officials and merchants! Profiteering from the nation's calamities!"

Dou Yaocheng sneered. "So at this late hour my elder brother finds the money dirty to the touch? When you wished to buy that rare Song-dynasty edition, why did you not find it dirty then? When you wished to support the orphans of your colleague, why did you not find it dirty then..."

"You!" Dou Huancheng's lips trembled with rage.

The two brothers parted on bitter terms.

Madam Zhao's heart ached to see it, and she urged Dou Yaocheng: "Just listen to your elder brother! He serves in the Censorate, impeaching and censuring the hundred offices — he has seen much, and he would never do you harm."

Dou Yaocheng did not wish to worry his mother, yet he was unwilling to bow his head to his elder brother either, so he said offhandedly: "Look at those officials — which one of them does not scramble to curry favor? Before you even open your mouth, there are those who bring food and drink and silver, and they still fear you will not accept it. I am not like my elder brother. Every day I fail to earn silver is a day I have nothing to eat."

Madam Zhao, however, took his words to heart. She laughed, heh-heh. "You think your mother has gone soft in the head." Yet inwardly she was thinking that her elder son drew only that pittance of a salary, and yet every time he came home he brought her either ginseng and bird's nest or jewels and precious stones, and the clothes and ornaments of the eldest branch's wife and grandchildren were renewed with the seasons, year after year — plainly his days were indeed quite comfortable. Her elder son's words had reason in them, but her younger son's business was no easy trade either. Last time he went to Songjiang Prefecture, to entertain those official gentlemen he had drunk himself to the point that the very smell of wine made him queasy. Even so, the silver her younger son earned was never kept back for himself; it all went into the common purse, and all profits were divided evenly with his elder brother.

Thinking thus, she began to feel tender pity for her younger son.

There was a difference between having official rank and having none.

Otherwise, why would people the world over batter their heads bloody to become officials?

The old lady's heart tilted toward this younger son who inquired after her warmth and cold every day before her eyes.

And Dou Yaocheng, his career in office cut off, aided by capable stewards in his business, saw it grow ever larger and ever more prosperous, and by degrees his thoughts turned to pleasure.

At first it was merely summoning friends to drink and make merry; later he began to frequent the opera gardens and go riding among the pleasure quarters.

When Madam Zhao learned of it, she admonished her younger son: "You are a man of standing — how can you sit at one table drinking with the women of peddlers and runners? Better to buy a few clever little maids and hire a famous master from Zhending Prefecture to train them; raise your own troupe, and you will have both face and diversion, and at festivals and New Year you can make some liveliness."

With his mother's word, what scruples had Dou Yaocheng left?

He played the more wildly.

The rift between the two brothers deepened.

Seeing that this would not do, Madam Zhao summoned her own brother to seek his counsel.

Uncle Zhao thought it over and said: "Full brothers should keep clear accounts. Better, while you are still here, to divide the household. Let each live his own way, and there will be nothing more to quarrel over."

Madam Zhao pondered a long while, then steeled her heart: "Better than after my death, when the division of property falls short and becomes a laughingstock. The shame of splitting the family I will bear myself. After all, I am a person with one foot already in the grave." Then she called her elder son back: "...No more quarreling over such trifles!"

"Mother, these are not trifles." Dou Huancheng would not consent to dividing the family, and tried to persuade his mother. "Office is glory for a time, but letters endure a thousand years. The foundation on which a clan stands in the world does not rest wholly on the examination hall; family discipline must never be wanting. With examination success but no family discipline, if one can keep one's heart and resist the seductions of luxury, well and good; but if one cannot, then to have grown accustomed to good days and suddenly be plunged into ruin is more wretched than the common folk. With family discipline but no examination success, one conducts oneself uprightly and lives cleanly; the crooked winds dare not blow in, and blessing comes of itself. Such is my uncle's house..."

"I know, I know." Madam Zhao put him off. "It is I who wish to divide the family. I do not wish to see you two quarreling like this any longer. Especially your brother — ten years of bitter study, and it came to such an end. You are brothers; if you do not look after him, who will? But brothers are like husband and wife: day after day, year after year, grudges fester, and the best of feeling cannot withstand it. Do this as a filial act to me, and divide the family."

Dou Huancheng swore before his mother: "I will surely care well for my brother. There is no need to divide the family..."

Madam Zhao shook her head: "Hear me out. Your father left ten thousand strings of wealth, yet it is not one third of what the Dou family holds now. I mean to divide the family property into three parts — one for me, one for you, one for your brother. I will live with your brother, and when I am gone, my share will stay with your brother..."

Was this dividing the family? Or dividing the property?

Was it his mother's wish? Or his brother's?

Dou Huancheng dared not think too deeply. He nodded.

Madam Zhao invited Uncle Zhao, the magistrate of Zhending County at the time, and the two daughters-in-law's natal families to act as witnesses, and the family was divided.

Since his mother would live with his brother, Dou Huancheng gave up the great mansion in Zhending County and built a five-courtyard house of gray brick east of the county town.

From then on the Dou family was split in two.

Dou Huancheng's branch, dwelling east of the town, came to be called the "East Dou"; Dou Yaocheng's branch, dwelling west of the town, came to be called the "West Dou."

Dou Yaocheng was Dou Zhiwei's great-grandfather.

It was as Dou Huancheng had feared. Within a few years, Dou Yaocheng's wife and concubines vied for his favor and a case of manslaughter came of it, dragging in a great deal of inner-court filth. Though it was suppressed, the West Dou branch had spent its vital strength; Dou Yaocheng fell ill and died before he was forty, and his sons died one after another, leaving only Dou Zhiwei's grandfather, Dou Duo.

The "East Dou," by contrast, flourished.

Dou Huancheng had two sons and three daughters. Nine grandsons, three granddaughters, eleven grandsons by his daughters, nine granddaughters by his daughters; and of these, two sons and one son-in-law in succession passed the metropolitan examination.

He did not forget the pledge he had made before his mother, and always cared generously for Dou Yaocheng's branch.