Chapter 226: Washing Ceremony

Disclaimer: 

1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests. 

2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author. 

3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.

---

As was their tradition, Liu Shu’s eldest son was named by Liu Gao shi. She chose the name Liu Shenhao. Nowadays, the family wasn’t a simple village family, so she took a long time to ponder it. Liu Shu had also participated and offered his opinion on the name selection. Old Man Liu tilted his head and looked at the three words Liu Gao shi had written. After puffing on his pipe for a while, he said, “It looks…. A bit difficult to write?” He was illiterate, but he could still tell that there were many strokes in the characters. 

Liu Gao shi rolled her eyes at him, “There is good reason for these two characters. The “Shen” here means “jade”. Think about it, how precious is jade? That means that this child is our Liu family’s precious treasure…”

Old Man Liu nodded, “That’s great!” 

Liu Gao shi was rather proud of the name she had chosen. She said to Liu Changgeng and Liu Shu, “All the children born in this generation can use this “Shen” character in their names.”

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

“Gzaktbv.” Nkw Ubydttldt yde Nkw Fbw zywtble.&dcpr;

Tl pbk oyp ps cwpu pbl oyp awddkdt lhlauoblal. Gqvla alrsavkdt vbl tsse dlop, hkpkvsap oswze elqkdkvlzu cl easrrkdt cu vs nsdtayvwzyvl vblx. Mbld vblal oyp vbl oypbkdt nlalxsdu vs ralryal qsa obld vbl cycu oyp vball eyup sze. Gde yqvla vbyv, vblal oyp vbl qwzz xsdvb nlalxsdu.

Ebld pbl pyo Fldgk awd kd qasx swvpkel, pbl nyzzle, “Fldgk, ts vs uswa pkpvla’p bswpl yde pll kq vblu’hl alvwadle. Rq vblu byhl, pbyal vbl dlop okvb vblx.”

Nkw Fld oyp rwggzle, “R’hl yzalyeu tsdl shla, cwv vblu byhld’v alvwadle ulv… Rv’p alyzzu pvaydtl. Mblu pyke vbyv vblu oswze sdzu vyjl y qlo eyup, cwv kv’p clld byzq y xsdvb yde vblu byhld’v ulv alvwadle. Ebyv’p tskdt sd?”

Tl pbk yzps qswde kv pvaydtl obld pbl blyae. Waktbvldle, pbl ypjle, “Pke psxlvbkdt byrrld?”

Hbsw pbk vbld nyxl cu vs ypj ycswv vbl xlyz yde Tl pbk bye vs bwaau sqq vs elyz okvb kv.&dcpr;

Ohlausdl kd vbl qyxkzu oyp hlau cwpu clnywpl sq vblka dlolpv yaakhyz. Mblka cwpkdlpp ynwxld bye clld olzz elhlzsrle vblpl rypv qlo ulyap. Bdzkjl vbl yhlaytl cwpkdlppxld obs oswze fwpv rspv y pkxrzl “Xodla’p qyxkzu byp bye y fsuswp lhldv, okzz cl nzspkdt vbl pvsal qsa y qlo eyup”, vbl qyxkzu oswze satydkpl nlzlcayvsau lhldvp yv vbl pvsal obld vbl qyxkzu bye nywpl qsa fsu, rasxsvkdt vblka pvsal’p rsrwzyakvu okvb vblka nwpvsxlap. 

Xq nswapl, fwpv zkjl obld Nkw Dw’la tsv xyaakle, lhlausdl kd vbl qyxkzu yde psxl sq vblka qakldep bye vs blzr yp olzz.&dcpr;

The Liu family had a few stores. They had indeed pasted notices, but instead of the conventional one, theirs read, “Owner’s family has a joyous event – we will be celebrating for three days! Everyone who buys 10 wen of goods, will have a prize!”

Of course, this “10 wen” minimum was only for the cloth store. The minimum spend for the textile store was one tael of silver, while the handicraft stores’ was 30 wen.

Although the prizes were small; it was just a decorated hard boiled egg, it still cost a pretty penny! One egg was a wen, so 1000 eggs would be 1000 wen. And each of their stores would be giving out eggs from the second day all the way till the fourth day! How many eggs would that take?!

But after considering it carefully, they were just giving away an egg, while the textile store would be selling a tael’s worth of silks and the handicrafts store would have sold 30 wen worth of goods…..

Liu Shu was so busy, he could barely pause for breath. He needed to watch over his wife and new son, as well as manage the accounts. 

Liu Lin was also running around collecting eggs. Liu Sen was helping He shi manage the household – there was the washing ceremony to prepare for. That too, took a lot of preparation. 

Liu Changgeng was put in charge of the banquet on the day of the washing ceremony. They would definitely need to slaughter chickens and sheep! This was his parent’s first great grandson! It needed to be a feast!

For village folk, the third day washing ceremony was more important than the full month ceremony. Although the Liu family had been staying in town for such a long time, and had grown used to the townspeople’s customs, they still valued village customs. As such, they were planning big events for both the washing ceremony and the full month celebration. 

With everyone in the family so busy, although everyone was mindful of it, no one had the time to actually go over to Hanzhong city to send the message to Shi Cheng or Liu Xu’er. Very quickly, it was the day of the washing ceremony. 

Shao Rong was dressed in a pine coloured cotton jacket, and wearing a purple red, rabbit fur lined forehead band. At her side, covered in a little blanket was her sleeping newborn. 

It was very lively outside. Early in the morning, Shao Huai had brought his wife by. Now, Shao Huai was busy outside, while his wife was sitting next to the kang and joking with Shao Rong. 

Whenever someone came by, everyone in the room could hear, because He shi would call out loudly, “Senzi, quickly go and greet your sishu, sishen!”

Senzi would then loudly say, “Sishu, you should have just brought yourself! Why did you bring so many things over?!”

That made everyone in the yard laugh. Liu Changshi smiled and lightly said, “Why is this juren becoming more and more talkative?”

Liu Sen smiled. 

The two people in the room laughed as well. Shao Huai’s wife said to Shao Rong softly, “Your family treats you really well. I was looking at all the things they’ve prepared for the ceremony – they’ve only used the best. And they’ve prepared very well… Now that you’ve a son, you can just enjoy life’s blessings!”

Shao Rong covered her lips and smiled. 

Shao Huai’s wife again took out some little clothes she had made – little pants, little shirts, little shoes and hats – and started to hold them against the sleeping baby to check their fit. 

Outside. 

There were already tables laid out in the main courtyards’ rooms. In each of the side wings’ main rooms were two tables. There weren’t that many guests because the washing ceremony would only include family members. 

And in the main room in the front courtyard, there was a long table with several silver basins on top. In the middle of all that was a qilin copper incense burner.

There were all sorts of items in the silver basins. In order to prepare for this day, Liu Gao shi had specially written down a list of all the items she had previously prepared for her sons’ washing ceremonies, and handed it over for He shi to prepare. 

There were scales, locks, buckets, as well as some flowers, a little mirror, a toothbrush, a tongue scraper, some cloth, green tea, new combs etc etc.

Then there was the cloth to cover the basin as well as silver and gold ingots. Of course, most villagers couldn’t actually provide the ingots, so they would replace it with a few pieces of silver jewellery. 

They also had to prepare a copper tea basin, leeks, mugwort balls. Then they needed to dye longans, peanuts and lychees red with rouge. 

Needless to say, the kitchen was also incredibly busy. The feast had all been prepared, and naturally had to include sorghum noodles as well as minced meat noodles. These noodles would referred to as the “Washing Three Noodles”¹ The washing ceremony’s literal translation from Mandarin is “Washing Three”. This refers to the fact that the washing ceremony takes place on the third day post birth. Since there are noodles served on the day, they would be referred to as “Washing Three Noodles”. . 

In Liu Shu’s own quarters, they too had a similar qilin incense burner set up, as well as offerings to Songziniangniang and Qiongxiaoniangniang ² Deities they would worship during the washing ceremony as well as other deities. 

They had placed some millet into the incense burner, and below the burner were some paper money – these were the prepared offerings. 

Shao Huai’s wife had just checked the fit of the clothes she made when she smiled and said, “Your mother-in-law is still the best. The cloth she used is so soft. The ones that I am using are from the clothes your brother used to wear. But it still feels a bit rough against the skin.”

Shao Rong stretched a hand out to stroke it. She smiled and said, “Saozi, this is already rather excellent! This child is very blessed. We would never have been able to wear things like this before? There are even multiple sets? Just a tiny little thing – he won’t even be able to wear it in a few months.”

Shao Huai’s wife laughed. 

Song Yao came over and asked, “What? The baby is still sleeping? It’s about to begin!”

Shao Rong immediately sat straight up. She quickly nodded, “He’s still sleeping…. But he will definitely spend the entire day asleep!”

Song Yao smiled and left. Very shortly thereafter, the midwife came by along with He shi. They opened the door, and the midwife went round to check on everything. Then she went to the main room and bowed in front of the incense burner. He shi quickly placed a silver basin next to Shao Rong’s head. It was filled with an infusion made from boiling several plants. They would be using it during the ceremony. 

The midwife came back in and carried the still sleeping child outside. Then starting from Liu Gao shi, everyone started to fill the basin.

Liu Gao shi carried a little ladle in her hand. From the water basin at the side, she first scooped some water and then poured it into the infusion. Then she threw in a peanut shaped gold ingot. The midwife was stunned before smiling widely. She quickly said, “Peanuts, peanuts, many more children³ Peanuts have the auspicious meaning of vitality, longevity, wealth and honor. In Mandarin, it’s called “Hua Sheng” with “Sheng” also meaning to give birth, symbolizing the wish for many children ! Today a son, tomorrow a daughter!”

With Liu Gao shi leading the way, He shi and the rest also started to throw in either silver or gold ingots. The midwife’s face was getting more and more excited, and her voice started to become more animated. She was too thrilled for words. 

Other families would just give some copper coins at most, but this family gave gold and silver! These items would all be taken away by the midwife at the end of the ceremony – it was natural that she would be overjoyed!

Till the very end, no one bothered to give red dates, longans or such items. The last person, Song Yao, smiled and dropped in a silver ingot. Then with He shi staring at her, she filled her hands with a lot of the auspicious fruit. Song Yao knew that He shi wanted to invite more blessings, so she started to place the fruits inside one by one. The midwife smiled non stop and said, “May you quickly have multiple sons, may they become gifted scholars.”

And so on. 

After the midwife had blessed the ceremony with auspicious words, she placed the baby at the side of the kang, stirred the basin and continued to chant lucky words over it. Then she picked the baby up and started to wash him. 

When the sleeping baby suddenly felt water splash over him, he burst into tears even before he had even managed to open his eyes. This was referred to as “Sounding the basin” and it was considered very lucky if the baby cried. As she bathed the child, she kept chanting all sorts of good words like “Wash his head, become an aristocrat ⁴ This actually rhymes in mandarin ….”

After this was done, Liu Gao shi went to the incense burner and offered her respects. Then she slowly burnt the paper money under the burner to offer them to all the deities. 

After that, the midwife smiled and gave her congratulations to Liu Gao shi and He shi, while they in turn gave her a red packet as thanks. The midwife took the red packet as well as all the items in the basin back. 

It was only then that the washing ceremony was concluded. Liu Gao shi and He shi invited everyone over to the main courtyard to have a meal, while Shao Huai’s wife helped to tidy up. 

Shao Rong was cradling her wailing son and comforting him. The wet nurse, who had originally been outside, came back in to help her. 

In a short while, the entire front courtyard was bustling with life. It was considered lucky to make as much noise as possible on this day. So everyone made sure to say everything as loudly as possible. With the newborn’s ringing cries joining their voices, it was truly cacophonous. 

Shao Rong was feeling heartache for her child, so when everyone had left, she quickly passed him over to the wet nurse to feed.