Chunxian
春纤
“The Second Maid”
Her Story
The other maid of the Naiad’s House, behind Zijuan and Xueyan. She exists in passing mentions: the novel gives her no scene, no speech it keeps, and no end. Her name reads as spring’s fine thread — the new willow filament — and answers the snow and wild goose in Snowgoose’s. That pairing of names is close to everything the book tells us about her.
In Xiang Li's Hands
A white bird with a red beak has landed on her shoulder and she has turned her face down to it, one hand lifted, fingers curled. Grey-green jacket, a hem speckled like a flower bed, bare paper behind. The maid the novel gives no scene is given a visitor.
The Calligraphy
春纤 — given name only, two characters and no surname, brushed low at the right.
Connections
- Lin Daiyu 林黛玉 — her mistress.
- Xueyan 雪雁 — the other junior maid of the Naiad’s House, named alongside her.
- Zijuan 紫鹃 — Daiyu’s chief maid, above them both.
Others of the same kind · maid – Daiyu (Naiad's House / 瀟湘館) Zijuan 紫鹃 · Xueyan 雪雁
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
