Cuilü
翠缕
“The Yin and the Yang”
Her Story
Shi Xiangyun’s maid, who comes with her from the Shi house. Chapter 31 is hers: walking the Garden with her mistress she argues yin and yang all the way down — sky and earth, then trees, then flies and mosquitoes, then the two of them — and refuses to let the point go. In the same chapter she picks up the gold unicorn Baoyu has lost, which the chapter title makes a portent.
In Xiang Li's Hands
A wide grey-brown robe swallows her from shoulder to floor; a green underdress and yellow collar show at the throat, hands folded loosely at the waist, head tipped. No unicorn, no argument, no Garden. Of her one famous scene the sheet keeps nothing but the tilt of the head.
The Calligraphy
翠缕 — the given name alone, stacked in the upper right, in a loose running hand.
Connections
- Shi Xiangyun 史湘云 — her mistress, and her opponent in the yin-yang argument.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — owner of the gold unicorn she finds in Chapter 31.
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 · Baoqin 抱琴 · Xiaoque 小鹊 · Xiaojixiang'r 小吉祥儿 and 5 more
Named on these pages Shi Xiangyun 史湘云 · Zhou Nai Ma 周奶妈
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
