THE SACHET

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Shi Yu Illustrations by Haolun Zhang

THE SACHET

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Shi Yu Illustrations by Haolun Zhang

When I was in downtown Hangzhou the other day, I thought it couldn't hurt to swing by the Lingyin Temple while I was there. So I was thinking about wearing the red cheongsam (close- fitting woman's dress with a high neck and slit skirt), and was going to bring it with me, but an elder member of the family talked me out of it:“ it is disrespectful to pray to the Buddha wearing a boldly enchanting red cheongsam; you are going to look like a tease who wants to find herself some trouble.”

So I went wearing a robe. You never go wrong with a loose robe when you are going to a place where the Buddha rests. It was raining outside, and seemed like it has always been raining since the Han Dynasty (221-206 BC), when princesses had to marry foreign lords in order to make peace.

I wore a censer-shaped pendant made of Hotan (an area in Xinjiang province) jade, and a sachet also made of Hotan jade. This sachet, which originated from the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912), was what set me thinking about the red cheongsam: I could hang it at the slit of my dress as a decorative ornament, or I could knot it on the lowest button of the dress.

This robe had been tailored specially so that thesachet hung just right so that I could touch it when I looked down. Once upon a time, there was a man who fell desperately in love with a lady. He was eager to find out how the lady felt for him, yet the lady, wholly engrossed with her own feelings, wouldn't answer him. She just looked down, touching the sachet. She thought about her family, her father and her brother, who were all in trouble. She was not sure whether or not this man standing right in front of her was the one. Thinking about this, sorrows from deep inside came to the surface, and she started to cry suddenly, leaving the clueless man wondering what the matter really was.

Later, without being formally informed whether the girl would marry him, the man still received a sachet as her farewell gift. He put it on his desk. Every time he looked at this sachet it reminded him of the gesture of her delicate hand, the smoothness of her skin, and all of her beauty.

The man grew old, but the sachet still hung peacefully on his desk, and eventually he forgot the meaning of this sachet. After he died, this sachet failed to attract his son or grandson's attention. Like a lost ghost, it had been wandering around ever since, and finally, it became mine.

Now, I go to the Lingyin Temple to pray to the Buddha, wearing this sachet.

Kallen Guo

senior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author, authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.

郭丹

資深影視人、名媛、暢銷書作家。代表作包括最佳外語小說獎獲得作品《別愛蘇黎世》等。

香囊探

日間在杭州市內，順便去拜拜靈隱寺。本來帶了裹身紅旗袍，但有長輩說不妥：穿著妖妖嬈嬈的紅旗袍去拜佛，總是不敬，仿佛自找雷劈的狐貍精。

還是穿道袍，寬寬大大不出錯。窗外在下雨——解憂公主時代的雨，一直下到了現今。

我戴了和田玉香爐形狀的吊墜，還有個清代和田玉香囊襟掛 —— 掛在裙側，做衣服墜角，或者在最末一個扣子上綰個繯——為了這個我才想穿旗袍。

道袍是改良的，扣子太靠上，可是即便如此，低頭不語的時候，撫弄香囊也剛剛好。古時候某男子急吼吼詢問女子心意，女子總不能言，低頭滿懷心事地撫弄香囊；想著家族父兄，事事不能如愿，眼前不知是不是良人，忽然悲從中來，好好地就哭起來，使得男子莫名其妙沒個頭緒。

后來女子家里允嫁了，再或者拒絕了，香囊還是作為信物或者訣別之物送了過來，放在男子的案頭，男子看到香囊就想起女孩子的纖纖素手和低頭頸后粉白的一撇。

后來男子老了，他案頭還掛著這個香囊，他忘記這個香囊的來由。男子死后子孫來收拾遺物，孝或者不孝，這都不是什么大物件兒，

兜兜轉最后落到了我手里。

如今我戴著它，依舊去靈隱寺上香。