Dai Liang
戴良
“Large Measure”
His Story
Head of the granary, named in the household’s rank of managers alongside 吴新登 of the treasury. He gets no scene and no line — only the name, which reads aloud as 大量, “large measure”: the man who decides how much grain comes back out of the store. The Jias’ books are staffed with jokes like this one. The satire is not hidden; the name is the character, and the name is enough.
In Xiang Li's Hands
The surprise of this group. His robe hangs open from throat to sash and the chest and belly are bare, sun-darkened against pale grey silk, the cap shoved back. One hand lifts a red-ruled ledger; the other covers his mouth. Alone among these stewards he has been given a body, and it is a working man’s.
The Calligraphy
戴良 — two characters, dark and dry at the upper right, with the pun inside them left for the reader to hear unassisted.
Connections
- Wu Xindeng 吴新登 — head of the treasury, named beside him in the same rank.
- Lai Da 赖大 — chief steward, above him in the Rong mansion’s order.
Others of the same kind · steward / manager Lai Da 赖大 · Lai Er 赖二 · Lai Sheng 赖升 · Lai Shangrong 赖尚荣 · Lai Mama 赖嬷嬷 · Lin Zhixiao 林之孝 · Zhou Rui 周瑞 · Yu Lu 俞禄 · Wang Xin 王信 · Laiwang 来旺 · Jin Cai 金彩 · Jin Wenxiang 金文翔 · Jiao Da 焦大 · Li Shi'er 李十儿 and 8 more
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
