He Po
何婆
“Chunyan's Mother”
Her Story
One of the old serving-women of Prospect Garden, and Chunyan’s mother. When the household contracts the grounds out to the women who already work them in Chapter 56, her family is among those given a plot. Chapter 59 is the one place she acts: Ying’er picks willow shoots by the Willow Bank to weave with, and Mother He and her sister turn on Chunyan over the damage until the girl runs to Baoyu’s rooms for shelter. The novel gives her nothing after that.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Painted from behind, turning back over her shoulder, swallowed by a grey-black robe that breaks into red and green scribbles at the hem. The face is smooth and young — nothing of the 婆 in it. The background is bare paper.
The Calligraphy
Two characters high at the upper left, 何婆 — surname plus the household’s blunt word for an old woman, which is all the novel ever calls her.
Connections
- Chunyan 春燕 — her daughter, the maid at Green Delights.
- Ying’er 莺儿 — whose willow-picking starts the quarrel in Chapter 59.
- Jia Tanchun 贾探春 — whose reorganisation of the Garden gave her family its plot.
Others of the same kind · servant's wife / senior serving-woman Zhou Rui jia de 周瑞家的 · Lin Zhixiao jia de 林之孝家的 · Lai Da jia de 赖大家的 · Wang Shanbao jia de 王善保家的 · Wu Xindeng xifu 吴新登媳妇 · Wang'er xifu 旺儿媳妇 · Zhang Cai jia de 张材家的 · Zheng Hua jia de 郑华家的 · Wu Xing jia de 吴兴家的 · Laixi jia de 来喜家的 · Qin Xian jia de 秦显家的 · Bao Er jia de 鲍二家的 · Liu jia de 柳家的 · Shan Daniang 单大娘 and 10 more
Named on these pages Chunyan 春燕 · Xiaojiu'r 小鸠儿
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
