Chaodou'r
炒豆儿
“Fried Bean”
Her Story
A little maid of the Ning-guo house. Her whole appearance is one moment in Chapter 75: she brings the basin for You-shi 尤氏 to wash, holds it standing, and is told to kneel — which she does. The novel spends a line on it and moves on, but the line is doing work. A house where a child has to be told is a house whose discipline has gone slack. Her name means a fried bean.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She is standing. Both hands take the weight of a wide bronze-gold basin, head bowed over it, eyes nearly shut, in a pale green jacket and a dark patterned skirt. The sheet gives her the basin and withholds the kneeling — it paints the half second before the correction.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 炒豆儿 with the diminutive 儿 intact, a kitchen nickname rather than a name, set down full-size in the corner.
Connections
- You-shi 尤氏 — her mistress, washing while she holds the basin.
- Yindie 银蝶 — the senior maid in the room when she is corrected.
Others of the same kind · maid – Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun, Li Wan, Xiangyun Siqi 司棋 · Xiuju 绣橘 · Lianhua'r 莲花儿 · Shishu 侍书 · Cuimo 翠墨 · Xiaochan 小蝉 · Ruhua 入画 · Caiping 彩屏 · Cai'er 彩儿 · Suyun 素云 · Biyue 碧月 · Cuilü 翠缕 · Baoqin 抱琴 · Xiaoque 小鹊 and 5 more
Named on these pages Yindie 银蝶
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
