Tongxi
同喜
“Half of a Matched Pair”
Her Story
One of Aunt Xue’s two maids. The other is Tonggui 同贵 — shared joy and shared rank, a set of names bought or issued together the way a house buys a pair of vases. They serve in the Xue apartments and the novel never separates them: no scene belongs to one and not the other, and neither is given an end. The pairing is the character.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Blue-grey robe scattered with pink blossom, hands held quietly in front of her, hair in two round buns. Behind her a phoenix is drawn in flat gold and blue outline, head low at her left, its eyed tail spread the full height of the sheet. A maid with no scene, framed like a consort.
The Calligraphy
同喜 — the given name only, and one half of a pair the sheet does not mention.
Connections
- Aunt Xue 薛姨妈 — her mistress.
- Tonggui 同贵 — the other of the two, named to match her.
- Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — Aunt Xue’s daughter, in the same household.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baochai (All-spice Court / 蘅蕪苑) Ying'er 莺儿 · Wenxing 文杏 · Dian'er 靛儿 · Zhen'er 臻儿 · Tonggui 同贵 · Xiaoluo 小螺 · Baochan 宝蟾 · Xiaoshe'r 小舍儿
Named on these pages Tonggui 同贵
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
