Free Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang Page A

pregnant.
     
    In fact, the problem had been the governor's, but the diplomatic Dr. Xia treated the wife and the concubines as well.
     
    The governor was overjoyed, and wrote an even larger plaque for Dr. Xia inscribed: "The reincarnation of Kuanyin' (the Buddhist goddess of fertility and kindness).  The new plaque was carried to Dr.  Xia's house with an even larger procession than the first one.  After this, people came to see Dr.  Xia from as far away as Harbin, 400 miles to the north.  He became known as one of the 'four famous doctors' of Manchukuo.
     
    By the end of 1937, a year after they had arrived in Jinzhou, Dr.  Xia was able to move to a bigger house just outside the old north gate of the city.  It was far superior to the shack by the river.  Instead of mud, it was made of red brick.  Instead of one room, it had no fewer than three bedrooms.  Dr.  Xia was able to set up his own practice again, and used the sitting room as his surgery.
     
    The house occupied the south side of a big courtyard which was shared with two other families, but only Dr.  Xia's house had a door which opened directly into it.  The other two houses faced out onto the street and had solid walls on the courtyard side, without even a window looking onto it.  When they wanted to get into the courtyard they had to go around through a gate from the street.  The north side of the courtyard was a solid wall.  In the courtyard were cypresses and Chinese ilex trees on which the three families used to hang up clotheslines.  There were also some roses of Sharon, which were tough enough to survive the harsh winters.  During the summer my grandmother would put out her favorite annuals: white-edged morning glory, chrysanthemums, dahlias, and garden balsam.
     
    My grandmother and Dr.  Xia never had any children together.  He subscribed to a theory that a man over the age of sixty-five should not ejaculate, so as to conserve his sperm, which was considered the essence of a man.  Years later my grandmother told my mother, somewhat mysteriously, that through qigong Dr.  Xia developed a technique which enabled him to have an orgasm without ejaculating.
     
    For a man of his age he enjoyed extraordinary health.  He was never ill, and took a cold shower every day, even in temperatures of minus io F. He never touched alcohol or tobacco, in keeping with the injunctions of the quasi religious sect to which he belonged, the Zai-li-hui (Society of Reason).
     
    Although he was a doctor himself, Dr.  Xia was not keen on taking medicine, insisting that the way to good health was a sound body.  He adamantly opposed any treatment which in his opinion cured one part of the body while doing damage to another, and would not use strong medicines because of the side effects they might have.  My mother and grandmother often had to take medicines behind his back.  When they did fall ill, he would always bring in another doctor, who was a traditional Chinese doctor but also a shaman and believed that some ailments were caused by evil spirits, which had to be placated or exorcized by special religious techniques.
     
    My mother was happy.  For the first time in her life she felt warmth all around her.  No longer did she feel tension, as she had for the two years at her grandparents', and there was none of the bullying she had undergone for a whole year from Dr.  Xia's grandchildren.
     
    She was particularly excited by the festivals which came around almost every month.  There was no concept of the workweek among ordinary Chinese.  Only government offices, schools, and Japanese factories had a day off on Sunday.  For other people only festivals provided a break from the daily routine.
     
    On the twenty-third day of the twelfth moon, seven days before the Chinese New Year, the Winter Festival began.
     
    According to legend, this was the day when the Kitchen God, who had been living above the stove with his wife, in the form of their portraits,