Jin Xiang Hou Gao Ming
锦乡侯诰命
“Her Husband's Rank, Wearing a Face”
Her Story
A 诰命 is a woman who holds a title by imperial patent, granted through her husband’s office. She is addressed by his rank for the rest of her life. This one is the titled lady of the Marquis of Jinxiang, and the novel never gives her a surname, a personal name or a line of speech.
Her house is one of the families in the Jia orbit. In Chapter 13 the Jinxiang offering stands before Qin Keqing’s coffin alongside those of the Marquis of Chuanning and the Earl of Shoushan. In Chapter 55 Lady Wang is out at a banquet at the Jinxiang mansion on the very morning Tanchun takes over the household and is tested over the burial money for Zhao Guoji — the invitation is what empties the room and lets the quarrel happen.
The lady herself is visible once. At Grandmother Jia’s eightieth birthday in Chapter 71 the seating is set out exactly: the two upper tables for the Dowager Consort of Nan’an and the Princess of Beijing, then the titled ladies of the various ducal and marquisal houses by precedence, and at the lower left table, as 陪客 — companion guests, there to fill the rank and keep the conversation going — the titled ladies of the Marquis of Jinxiang and the Earl of Linchang. Grandmother Jia sits opposite. That is the whole of her: a place setting, on the correct side, at the correct height.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She stands three-quarters on, chin lifted, faintly amused. Hair piled and banded with jewels, jade drops at the ears, a pale blue robe under a great dark mantle laid down in wet black strokes. In one hand a round fan patterned with overlapping yellow petals; against her chest something small and black, painted so loosely it could be a lapdog or a fur muff. A jade pendant on a red tassel hangs at her hip. Behind her, blots that suggest a screen; otherwise bare paper. No table, no other guests. Xiang Li takes a woman the novel only ever shows seated in a row and stands her up alone.
The Calligraphy
锦乡侯诰命, five characters down the left edge, above the seal: her husband’s peerage first, her own rank last, and nothing of her own in between. It is the only name the novel has for her, and it is not a name.
Connections
- 贾母 Jia Mu — whose eightieth birthday is the occasion that seats her.
- 临昌伯诰命 — the other titled lady at her table, of the same ranking function.
- 王夫人 Wang Furen — away at a banquet in her house on the morning of Chapter 55.
- 南安太妃 · 北静王妃 — the two women seated above her.
- 秦可卿 Qin Keqing — before whose coffin her household’s offering is laid out in Chapter 13.
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
