Guai Zi
拐子
“Sold Twice”
His Story
The trafficker who took Zhen Yinglian, and the hinge the whole novel turns on. He raised her from about five to twelve or thirteen in order to sell her, and beat her into calling him her father: 他是被拐子打怕了的，万不敢说，只说拐子系他亲爹. In Chapter 4 the whole of it is laid out to Jia Yucun by his doorman, who had been the little novice at the Gourd Temple and who had the man as a tenant in his own house. He sold the girl to Feng Yuan, took the silver, then quietly sold her again to the Xue family — 这拐子便又悄悄的卖与薛家 — meaning to pocket both payments and get out of the province. On the day it came apart he was drunk. Xue Pan’s men beat Feng Yuan to death over the dispute. Everything after this is consequence.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Khaki robe, soft pointed cap, a narrow sly face with a moustache. One hand is up with the fingers pinched in the money gesture; the other holds out a shallow celadon dish heaped with small white knobs that read as silver. A purple cloth is thrown over a blue glazed jar behind him. There is no child anywhere on the paper. She paints the transaction and omits the goods — which is exactly how he saw it.
The Calligraphy
拐子 is not a name but a trade, and it is the only word the novel ever uses for him; the sheet also carries a dated artist’s signature, 甲子年 李湘画, which most in this collection do not.
Connections
- Xiangling 香菱 — Zhen Yinglian, the child he raised to sell.
- Feng Yuan 冯渊 — the first buyer, who meant to keep her as his only wife and was beaten to death.
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — the second buyer, who took her north.
- Menzi 门子 — the doorman, once his landlord, who tells Jia Yucun the whole story.
- Jia Yucun 贾雨村 — the magistrate who hears the case and returns the girl to nobody.
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
