Bozu Daoren
跛足道人
“The Won-Done Song”
His Story
The Taoist half of the pair. In Chapter 1 he meets Zhen Shiyin — ruined, homeless, finished — and sings the 好了歌: 世人都晓神仙好. Shiyin answers it with a commentary of his own and walks away with him. In Chapter 12 he lends Jia Rui the double-sided Mirror for the Romantic, which kills him. In Chapter 66 he takes in Liu Xianglian after You Sanjie’s suicide. Where the monk gives objects, he takes people away.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Bare to the waist, eyes shut, hair and beard streaming sideways as he strides out of a mass of grey rags, a long dark stave held level across his chest. One brown bare foot forward, a red sash whipping behind. No gourd, no fly-whisk, none of the immortal’s usual kit.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 跛足道人, a designation rather than a name: what is wrong with his feet, followed by what he is.
Connections
- The scabby-headed monk 癞头和尚 — his counterpart, always named in the same breath.
- Zhen Shiyin 甄士隐 — who hears the Won-Done Song, answers it, and follows him out of the novel.
- Liu Xianglian 柳湘莲 — who shaves his head and goes with him after You Sanjie’s death.
Named on these pages Liu Xianglian 柳湘莲 · Jia Rui 贾瑞 · Zhen Shiyin 甄士隐 · Nüwa 女娲 · Laitou Heshang 癞头和尚
Dream of the Red Chamber
Xiang Li painted all 413 characters of the novel between 1975 and 1985, the first person to complete the entire cast. See the whole collection · Chinese Empresses
