Moyu
墨雨
“Ink Rain”
His Story
A boy of Baoyu’s outer study. The novel gives him one thing: in the schoolroom brawl of Chapter 9 he snatches up a door-bar and charges in with the others, and that is the last of him. His name, ink rain, is of a piece with the rest of the set — Tealeaf, sweeping the red, hoeing the herbs — names taken from a study desk and hung on children.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Frowning straight out at us, both fists closed round a wooden shaft held across the body, in a green-grey jacket and a long red sash. Two cats are washed in grey behind him and a third sits pale at his feet. The stance is combative; the sheet is full of cats.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 墨雨 in the top left, the wetter of the two characters brushed with the ink pooling — the name written in the substance it names.
Connections
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — his master.
- Mingyan 茗烟 — the chief page whose Chapter 9 fight he joins.
- Saohong 扫红, Chuyao 锄药 — the boys who come through the door with him.
Others of the same kind · page / boy servant Mingyan 茗烟 · Chuyao 锄药 · Saohong 扫红 · Saohua 扫花 · Yinquan 引泉 · Tiaoyun 挑云 · Banhe 伴鹤 · Shuangrui 双瑞 · Shuangshou 双寿 · Li Gui 李贵 · Wang Rong 王荣 · Zhang Ruojin 张若锦 · Zhao Yihua 赵亦华 · Qian Qi 钱启 and 5 more
Named on these pages Mingyan 茗烟 · Chuyao 锄药 · Saohong 扫红
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
