Cheng Rixing
程日兴
“The Painter of Beauties”
His Story
One of the 清客 who keep Jia Zheng company in his outer study — men of some education and no income, housed and fed for their conversation. His trade is painting. In Chapter 42, when the family is working out how Xichun is to paint the Garden, Baoyu names him: 程日兴的美人是绝技, his beauties are unmatched. Later, when the Xue family is trying to buy Xue Pan clear of a manslaughter charge, he is among the men who come and go with news.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Mouth wide open mid-laugh, cap shoved back, one hand raising a pale lotus-shaped cup. The robe is one sea-green damask in long wet strokes, a blue sash spilling to the floor. She gives the painter of beauties no brush and no picture — only the drink and the laugh.
The Calligraphy
程日兴 down the left edge, the full three-character name with no title and no 先生: the register in which a house lists its hangers-on rather than addresses them.
Connections
- Jia Zheng 贾政 — master of the study that keeps him.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — names him in Chapter 42 as the best hand at painting beauties.
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — whose manslaughter case he is later drawn into.
Others of the same kind · literary gentleman (清客) / hanger-on Zhan Guang 詹光 · Shan Pinren 单聘仁 · Hu Silai 胡斯来 · Wang Ertiao 王尔调 · Ji Haogu 嵇好古 · Zhan Ziliang 詹子亮
Named on these pages Hu Silai 胡斯来 · Wang Ertiao 王尔调 · Ji Haogu 嵇好古 · Zhan Ziliang 詹子亮
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
