He San
何三
“He Knew Which Wall Was Low”
His Story
Zhou Rui’s adopted son, a gambler and loafer turned out of the household. He keeps the one thing he took with him: knowledge of the compound — which courts are empty, where the plate is kept, when the gates are unwatched. After Grandmother Jia’s death he brings robbers over the wall into the Ningguo house and shows them where to go. Bao Yong, the servant nobody had any use for, kills him in the raid.
In Xiang Li's Hands
The only drawn weapon in this group. He stands mid-stride with a curved sabre swung up past his ear, jacket open on a bare chest, black cap, red sash and a long red cloth thrown out behind him. Everything else is grey and black. The red does the shouting.
The Calligraphy
Two characters at the left give surname and birth order — He the Third — a name with no household rank attached to it at all.
Connections
- Zhou Rui 周瑞 — his adoptive father, a Rongguo steward.
- Bao Yong 包勇 — the Zhen family’s servant who kills him during the burglary.
- Zhou Rui’s wife 周瑞家的 — Lady Wang’s woman, in whose household he grew up.
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 Bao Yong 包勇
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
