Lai Er
赖二
“The Second Brother”
His Story
Chief steward of the Ning mansion, and the second man of the Lai family of bond-servants — his elder brother 赖大 runs Rong-guo. Between them the Lais hold the daily business of both great houses: hiring, provisioning, discipline, the buying and the accounting. The novel gives 赖二 the office and withholds the man. He is named, placed, and left standing offstage. What becomes of his family is told through his mother and his nephew, not through him.
In Xiang Li's Hands
A tall man in a black coat thrown open over white, blue head-cloth wound above a topknot, a turquoise toggle and orange tassel at the waist. He holds a folded red-and-blue bundle low in one hand; more folded cloth heaps at his feet. The blacks are dry and slashing. Only the face is finished, and it is looking down.
The Calligraphy
赖二 — surname and birth order, no given name at all: the household’s own shorthand for a man it counted rather than named.
Connections
- Lai Da 赖大 — his elder brother, chief steward of the Rong mansion.
- Nannie Lai 赖嬷嬷 — his mother, the honoured old retainer of the Lai house.
- Lai Shangrong 赖尚荣 — his nephew, born free and made a magistrate.
Others of the same kind · steward / manager Lai Da 赖大 · 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 · Li Shi'er 李十儿 and 8 more
Named on these pages Lai Shangrong 赖尚荣
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
