Duo Hunchong
多浑虫
“The Man Who Noticed Nothing”
His Story
A cook in the Rongguo kitchens, known by an insult rather than a name: 多浑虫, Duo the muddle-headed worm, a man kept too drunk to take notice of anything. He takes no notice of his wife either. In Chapter 21, with Xifeng shut up nursing her daughter through smallpox, Jia Lian moves out and takes up with her under this roof. In Chapter 77 the same house receives Qingwen, his cousin, expelled from the Garden and dying, and Baoyu comes there to see her.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Stripped to the waist, sprawled on the floor, black robe collapsed around his hips, one arm flung overhead with a fistful of something yellow. Chest hair scratched in dry, a pale jar tipped at his side, straw sandals half off. Bare paper. She allows him no dignity.
The Calligraphy
多浑虫 stands at the top right in three characters — the surname, then an insult where the given name should be, which is the only name the novel ever supplies.
Connections
- Duo Guniang 多姑娘 — his wife, known through the household by nickname as he is.
- Jia Lian 贾琏 — who takes up with her in Chapter 21 while he is drinking.
- Qingwen 晴雯 — his cousin, carried to his house after her expulsion and dying there.
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 · Dai Liang 戴良 · Yu Lu 俞禄 · Wang Xin 王信 · Laiwang 来旺 · Jin Cai 金彩 · Jin Wenxiang 金文翔 · Jiao Da 焦大 and 8 more
Named on these pages Duo Guniang 多姑娘
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
