Feicui
翡翠
“A Name on the Roster”
Her Story
A maid in Grandmother Jia’s apartments, named in the same jewel set as Hupo. She is one of the figures the novel keeps as furniture: listed among the matriarch’s maids, present where the matriarch is present. No scene belongs to her and she is given no line worth quoting. She exists in the book as a name on a roster — which is what the rank of maid in that household amounts to for most of the women in it.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Two sheets; in both she is carrying something folded for someone else. In the first she stands under heavy hanging willow in turquoise and pink. In the second, beside a tall bronze vessel washed pale jade-green — the emerald of her name given entirely to the object, while she wears lavender.
The Calligraphy
翡翠, the two characters of the given name, at the left on one sheet and the right on the other, with nothing added to them.
Connections
- Grandmother Jia 贾母 — her mistress; her whole place in the novel is inside these rooms.
- Hupo 琥珀 — fellow maid, paired with her by the jewel-names of the matriarch’s apartments.
- Yuanyang 鸳鸯 — head maid of the same household, the one of this set the novel gives a story to.
Others of the same kind · maid – Grandmother Jia's apartments Yuanyang 鸳鸯 · Hupo 琥珀 · Boli 玻璃 · Zhenzhu 珍珠 · Yingwu 鹦鹉 · Yingge 鹦哥 · Cailuan 彩鸾 · Xiuluan 绣鸾 · Xiufeng 绣凤 · Wenguan 文官
Named on these pages Hupo 琥珀
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
