Ventriloquism

A woman in her mid-twenties came to our village, carrying a medicine bag on her arm and offering medical treatment. Someone went to her to have an illness treated. The woman could not make up a prescription herself: she had to wait till nightfall and take counsel with spirits.

In the evening she swept her cubbyhole of a room clean and closed herself inside. A hushed crowd gathered around the window and the door, straining to eavesdrop. They exchanged whispers, but no one dared cough. Sound and movement were stilled both inside and out. When night came they suddenly heard the sound of a curtain being drawn. Inside the room the woman said “Is that you, Ninth Mistress?”

“It is me,” answered another woman’s voice.

“Did Winter-Plum come with you?”

A voice that seemed to belong to a maid answered: “Here I am.”

The three women chattered ceaselessly about odds and ends. Before long the crowd heard curtain hooks sliding again. The woman’s voice said “Sixth Mistress has come.”

Stray voices said, “Has Spring-Plum come with the young master in her arms?”

“You naughty little boy,” came a woman’s voice. “Bawling and refusing to sleep. You had to come with your mother. It feels like you weigh three thousand catties. Carrying you is enough to tire a person to death!”

They soon heard the woman’s words of greeting, Ninth Mistress’ questions about health, Sixth Mistress’ formalities, the maids’ sympathetic remarks, the happy laughter of the child – all blended into a cacophony of voices.

Then they heard the woman laugh: “The little master certainly is a funloving kid: he came all this way holding a kitty-cat.”

Gradually the voices came few and far between. Again there was the sound of the curtain being drawn, and the whole room rang with voices saying: “Why have you come so late, Fourth Mistress?”

A dainty voice answered: “The way here was more than three hundred miles long. Mother-in-law and I have been hurrying along all this time and we’ve only gotten here now. She’s such a slow walker.”

Then each of them made some perfunctory remarks about the weather by way of salutation. The room rang with mingled sounds of scraping chairs and cries for more chairs. This went on for the duration of a meal. Then the crowd heard the woman ask about her patient’s illness. Ninth Mistress said ginseng was indicated; Sixth-Mistress, yellow vetch; and Fourth Mistress, atractylis. This was discussed for a while. Then Ninth Mistress was heard calling for brush and ink stone. Soon came the crinkling of paper, the tinkling of the ink brush cap being pulled off and thrown on the table, and the grating of an ink-stick being rubbed on a slab. Then there was the click of the ink brush being dropped on the desk, and the tiny sounds of herbs being measured out and wrapped.

Soon the woman pushed aside the curtain at the entrance of the room and told her patient to come and get the medicine and prescription. She turned back into the room. The farewells of the three mistresses and the three maids, the burbling of the child, and the mewing of the cat all rang out at once. Ninth Mistress’ voice was clear and piercing; Sixth Mistress’ halting and flat; and Fourth Mistress’ coy and appealing. These, along with the voices of the three maids, each had its own clearly distinguishable intonation. The amazed crowd thought these were truly spirit visitors. But the prescription was tried without much effect. This was what is known as ventriloquism, employed to sell medical art, but amazing nonetheless!

Wang Xinyi once said he was passing through a marketplace in the capital when he heard a song accompanied by a string instrument. Onlookers were packed together as densely as a wall. He moved closer for a look and saw a young man performing an aria in rich voice. He had no instrument. Instead, he pressed a finger against his cheek as he sang, producing a twanging sound just like one made by a string instrument. He too was an adept in the skill of ventriloquism that has been handed down from long ago.