Leng Zixing
冷子兴
“The Genealogy Told at an Inn”
His Story
An antique dealer in the capital, married to Zhou Rui’s daughter, which is the whole of his connection to the Jia household. In Chapter 2 he meets Jia Yucun at a country inn and lays out the family for him: the two dukes, the two mansions, who married whom, which branch has decayed, and the boy born with a piece of jade in his mouth. The reader learns the shape of the book from a man who deals in old objects and talk. Later his own lawsuit sends his wife’s family to the Jias for help.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She catches him mid-sentence: one hand raised with the fingers pinched, the other holding a small green bronze ewer with a phoenix spout. Cream robe, blue sash, black cap, bare paper behind. The gesture is the portrait — a dealer explaining, with one antique to prove the trade.
The Calligraphy
冷子兴 in full, surname and a two-character personal name of the courtesy kind, the name of a man who moves among gentlemen without being one.
Connections
- Jia Yucun 贾雨村 — his drinking companion at the country inn, to whom he explains the Jias.
- Zhou Rui 周瑞 — his father-in-law, a steward of the Rong mansion.
- Zhou Rui’s wife 周瑞家的 — his mother-in-law, and his route to the household’s protection.
Others of the same kind · official / noble / royal Qin Zhong 秦钟 · Jia Yucun 贾雨村 · Bei Jing Wang 北静王 · Zhang Rugui 张如圭 · Menzi 门子 · Xiping Junwang 西平郡王 · Nan'an Taifei 南安太妃 · Zhangshiguan 长史官 · Feng Ziying 冯紫英 · Sun Shaozu 孙绍祖 · Yun Guang 云光 · Fu Shi 傅试 · Fu Qiufang 傅秋芳 · Li Yanei 李衙内 and 9 more
Named on these pages Zhou Rui jia de 周瑞家的 · Zhou Rui 周瑞 · Long Zhong Lao Seng 龙钟老僧
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
