Liang'er
良儿
“Remembered Only for the Theft”
Her Story
Liang’er never appears. She exists in a single remark. In Chapter 52, when Ping’er’s gold bracelet is found to have been stolen, Ping’er observes that Baoyu’s rooms have had this trouble before: Liang’er stole jade, and it had barely been left off being talked about after two years, and now here is one stealing gold. That is the whole of her. She was dismissed before the story we are reading gets to her.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She stoops, head down, eyes lowered, hair falling loose and dragging a grey wash out behind her. Pink robe dotted with white, a purple patterned vest, a green sash. Both hands are inside the sleeves — nothing in them, nothing to be seen. Bare paper.
The Calligraphy
良儿, upper right, the given name with the diminutive 儿 that marks a junior servant, which is the only form the novel ever uses for her.
Connections
- Ping’er 平儿 — whose Chapter 52 remark is the character’s only appearance in the book.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — master of the rooms she was dismissed from.
- Zhui’er 坠儿 — the later thief she is invoked as the precedent for.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baoyu (Green Delights / 怡紅院) Qingwen 晴雯 · Xiren 袭人 · Sheyue 麝月 · Xiaohong 小红 · Qiuwen 秋纹 · Bihen 碧痕 · Tanyun 檀云 · Qixian 绮霰 · Qianxue 茜雪 · Huixiang 蕙香 · Jiahui 佳蕙 · Zhui'er 坠儿 · Chunyan 春燕 · Liu Wu'er 柳五儿 and 1 more
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
