Feng Su
封肃
“Custom, By Name”
His Story
Zhen Shiyin’s father-in-law, a farmer in Daru Prefecture 大如州. When the fire drives his daughter and son-in-law to him in Chapter 1, he takes charge of the money from their land, buys them poor ground and a bad house with part of it, keeps the rest, and tells the neighbours his son-in-law is idle. In Chapter 2 he is pulled out of his house at night by the new prefect’s runners and comes home shaking; the prefect is Jia Yucun, and what he wants is the maid Jiaoxing. His name sounds like 风俗 — custom, the way things are done.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Two sheets. In the first he hurries stooped in black, eyes sliding sideways, a vase and a table sketched behind him in pale green — the property. In the second he sits on a rock with a staff, white-bearded, and could pass for a hermit. She paints both, and chooses neither.
The Calligraphy
封肃 stands at the upper left of both sheets, surname and given name bare, in a blunter and more upright hand than the young women’s sheets receive.
Connections
- Zhen Shiyin 甄士隐 — his son-in-law, whose ruin he profits from.
- Feng Shi 封氏 — his daughter, who returns to his house and stays there.
- Jia Yucun 贾雨村 — the new prefect whose runners fetch him out of bed in Chapter 2.
Others of the same kind · Zhen family (Nanjing) Zhen Baoyu 甄宝玉 · Zhen Shiyin 甄士隐 · Feng Shi 封氏 · Huo Qi 霍启 · Jiaoxing 娇杏 · Zhen Yingjia 甄应嘉
Named on these pages Zhen Shiyin 甄士隐 · Feng Shi 封氏
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
