Ah Shung and Yu Lang always enjoyed the evening of the twenty-third of the Twelfth Moon when the Kitchen God flew away to spend seven days in the Heavenly Kingdom. The Old Old One herself entered the kitchen as evening came on. She set out with her own hands the steamed cakes and the wine and the other things that were to honor the messenger of heaven. Lao Lao's oldest son took the picture of the Kitchen God from its tiny palace over the stove. Then Grandmother Ling smeared the mouth of the picture with a sweet, sticky sirup.
"He will lick his lips," she said to the children. "He will taste the sweet sirup and surely he will remember only good things about us when he makes his report to the Emperor of the Sky."
A little sedan chair made of bamboo and paper was waiting to receive the picture of the Kitchen God. The whole Ling family followed as this was carried into the Courtyard of Politeness, where honored guests were received. There a bonfire had been made, and it crackled as the flames licked the edges of the dry straw.
Everyone bowed low as the picture of the Kitchen God in its paper chair was put on the center of the fire. As the gray smoke floated upward on the frosty air, the Lings were sure that the Kitchen God was mounting to the sky. They burned a paper horse for him to ride upon, and they poured cups of tea and wine on the ashes so that he should not be thirsty during his journey.
Ah Shung and his boy cousins were allowed to set off the red firecrackers which so please the gods. With glowing sticks of incense they lighted one after another. The popping filled the children with delight, for to them the sound of firecrackers always meant fun and feasting. For the Lings every important holiday began with the noise of bursting firecrackers. They believed that good spirits loved their din, but that bad spirits were frightened. Thus, the more firecrackers you set off, the safer you were.
In Grandmother Ling's apartment that evening the family feasted on the steamed cakes which had been made in honor of the Kitchen God's going away. Candied fruit and melon seeds were passed round, and the room was filled with chatter and laughter. The Old Old One seemed to have quite forgotten the unseemly behavior of Ah Shung and Yu Lang. As the children munched their sugared fruit they hoped very much that the Kitchen God, too, had forgotten their fault.
VI
GUARDIANS OF THE GATE
CHANG is pasting the gods on the gate," Ah Shung called to his sister, Yu Lang, as he peeped around the spirit wall that shielded the Moon Gate in the Court of Politeness.
It was the day just before the New Year, the merriest of all the holidays in the Chinese calendar. In the Ling courtyards people were going and coming, everyone bent on some important errand. Ah Shung ran through the Moon Gate and into the entrance court. Yu Lang followed, but she went more slowly because of her poor little bound feet. Behind the two children came their old nurse, Wang Lai. She was as eager as they to see what was going on at the red gate that led in from the city.
"How splendid the gate looks!" Yu Lang exclaimed. The great entrance gleamed in the winter sunlight. It looked glossier and redder than ever for it had lately been given a new coat of a special red varnish called lacquer. Over the gate, facing the world outside, was a long sign made of peach wood, also lacquered red. Upon it were some raised golden symbols which were the Chinese word pictures for "Good Luck to This Household."
"We are ready for the New Year," Old Chang, the gatekeeper, said, wagging his gray head and admiring the gate. The Chinese have always loved red. To them it is the color of joy and good luck. Over every door that opened upon the entrance court were red papers with lucky words cut out of them. Even the gates to the stables and the jinrikisha sheds had New Year trimmings of red. This first day of the First Moon was thought to be the very best day for luck in the whole year.
Old Chang was pressing flat a gaily colored picture which he had just pasted on one of the red doors of the gate. This picture showed an ancient warrior with a frowning black face. On the other half of the gate there was already pasted the likeness of another warrior whose face was white. With their eyes staring, and with their bows and arrows in hand, surely these gods of the gate were fierce enough to frighten any bad spirits that might come their way. Ah Shung and Yu Lang, Old Chang and Wang Lai, and, indeed, every man, woman, and child inside the Ling walls firmly believed that these gods kept bad spirits away from the gate.
When the boy and his sister went again to the family court they met their grandmother and Huang Ying coming back from the kitchen. The Old Mistress had been visiting the cooks to be sure that the New Year cakes and the meat dumplings, the New Year porridge, and all the other good things were ready for the feasting that would begin on the morrow and last through the month.
"Bring tea, Huang Ying," the old woman said to her maid. "Ah Shung will help me into my room. Let there be tea bowls for three."
While the two children sipped the hot tea from thin blue-and-white bowls they told their grandmother of their visit to Chang and the red gate.
"It is well," the Old Old One said, nodding her head when they spoke of the gate gods. "When our red gate is shut tight we shall seal its cracks with paper. Then nothing can come in to spoil our New Year luck."
"Who are those fierce men on the gate-pictures, Lao Lao?" Yu Lang asked between sips of tea and bites of steamed cakes.
"Perhaps they are Shen Shu and Yu Lu," the old woman explained. "I will tell you the story about them.
"As I heard my grandmother say," she began, "in the very earliest times there was a mountain in the Eastern Ocean upon which there grew a great peach tree. It was not at all like the peach trees in our Garden of Sweet Smells. Its trunk was larger around than the walls of our city. Its branches grew so long that it would take Wong, the jinrikisha man, many years to trot along the edge of the shadow they made on the earth.
"Now some of the lowest branches of this tree grew toward the northeast. They leaned toward each other, forming an arch, and through this there flew in and out of the world all the spirits of the air and the earth and the water.
"Two good spirits, whose names were Shen Shu and Yu Lu, were chosen by the Emperor of Heaven to stand guard over this gate that led in and out of the world. Ai, they were clever, those gate guards, Shen Shu and Yu Lu. They could tell at a glance which spirits were good and which spirits were bad.
"As soon as the gate guards saw a bad spirit they tied it up tight and threw it to the tigers. The Emperor who then sat upon the Dragon Throne of our Flowery Kingdom heard of these clever gate guards. He thought he should like them to protect his own palace doors. So he called for the court artists.
"'Take tablets of lucky peach wood,' he commanded. 'Paint upon them the likenesses of the guardians of the gates on the Eastern Mountain. Give them bows and arrows and spears. Then hang them upon the gates where the spirits can see them. Shen Shu and Yu Lu know bad spirits from good spirits. They will allow only the good spirits to come into my palace.'"
"Are those men that Chang, the gatekeeper, has pasted on our doors really Shen Shu and Yu Lu, Lao Lao?" Ah Shung asked, his black eyes shining bright with wonder at his grandmother's tale.
"O-yo, Little Bear, that I do not know," the old woman replied. "There are other guardians of the gate and another tale about them. Perhaps these are the ones that are protecting our sky-wells. Long, long ago there was in our land an Emperor whose name was Shih Ming. One day he fell ill. He could not sleep at night because bad spirits disturbed him. They threw tiles down from the roof. They hurled bricks at his door. They hooted and howled. All the night through they made such a clatter and din that Shih Ming could not rest.
"In the morning the Emperor was ill indeed. Doctors from the four corners of the empire gathered around him. The minsters of the court were called together.
"'This True Dragon is near death,' the doctors declared. 'His blood runs too hot. His mind is troubled with strange ideas. He hears nothing by day, but at night