Qian Huai
钱槐
“The Page with Money”
His Story
Aunt Zhao’s nephew, assigned to Jia Huan and sent with him to school. His parents keep accounts at the storehouse, which in a servant means money and standing, and he uses both: he wants the maid Caixia, and asks for her twice. Her family will not refuse Aunt Zhao’s kin to their faces, and Caixia will not have him. The novel is blunt about him in a way it rarely is about pages.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Pale spring green and yellow — the only colour like it among these servants, who are otherwise in black and grey. He stands in profile, bent forward, hands clasped at his mouth, brooding rather than serving. The palette gives him a standing the pose does not.
The Calligraphy
The inscription 钱槐 gives surname and personal name in full, the mark of a servant with a family behind him rather than a boy known by one syllable.
Connections
- Jia Huan 贾环 — the young master he is assigned to.
- Aunt Zhao 赵姨娘 — his aunt, and the source of his standing in the house.
- Caixia 彩霞 — the maid he asks for twice and does not get.
Others of the same kind · page / boy servant Mingyan 茗烟 · Chuyao 锄药 · Saohong 扫红 · Saohua 扫花 · Moyu 墨雨 · 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 and 5 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
