Lingguan
龄官
“The Character Written in the Dirt”
Her Story
The finest singer of the twelve, and the one who refuses. At Yuanchun’s visit in Chapter 18 she will not sing a piece outside her own line, and Yuanchun rewards her for it. In Chapter 22 Xiangyun says she looks like Daiyu, and the room goes cold. In Chapter 30 Baoyu watches a girl trace the character 蔷 over and over in the earth under the rose trellis, hundreds of times, until the rain comes. In Chapter 36 she refuses to sing for him, and he leaves understanding that each person gets only their own share of tears.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Two sheets, two temperaments. The first is all stage: green robe, red piping, a jewelled collar, one sleeve flung up behind her head, an armful of lotus on her open palm, a blue mountain painted flat behind her. The second gives up the theatre entirely — she kneels in a swirl of drawn water with red petals falling, grey cloak over pale blue, hands lifted to her chin. The second sheet is a Daiyu picture, which is exactly the resemblance the novel makes trouble over.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 龄官, the stage name only — the same two-character form the other eleven receive, with nothing to mark her out as the company’s best.
Connections
- Jia Qiang 贾蔷 — the young man she loves; he buys her a bird to amuse her and frees it when she objects.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — watches her write 蔷 in the dirt, and is refused when he asks her to sing.
- Lin Daiyu 林黛玉 — whom she resembles closely enough that Xiangyun’s remark in Chapter 22 starts a quarrel.
Others of the same kind · actress – Pear Tree Court troupe (梨香院十二官) Fangguan 芳官 · Ruiguan 蕊官 · Ouguan 藕官 · Kuiguan 葵官 · Douguan 豆官 · Aiguan 艾官 · Qieguan 茄官 · Baoguan 宝官 · Yuguan 玉官 · Diguan 菂官
Named on these pages Jia Qiang 贾蔷 · Wenguan 文官
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
