Xia Bingzhong
夏秉忠
“The Decree at the Gate”
His Story
A palace eunuch of the six halls. In Chapter 16 he arrives at the Rong mansion with a summons: Jia Zheng is to present himself at court at once, and no reason is given. The house waits in fright until word comes back that Yuanchun has been raised to Imperial Concubine — the news that lifts the family and builds the Garden. He carries it in and the novel gives him nothing more.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Vermilion robe, black cap, a whisk with a gilt handle across the arm, its horsehair a white sweep of dry brush. The face is young, smooth and pleased. Behind him an imperial dragon coils through cloud in bare uncoloured outline — the one background here that is not empty paper.
The Calligraphy
The sheet is inscribed 夏守忠, the form the early manuscripts print, rather than the 夏秉忠 of the common edition — a choice of text as much as of name.
Connections
- Jia Zheng 贾政 — summoned to court by the decree he brings.
- Jia Yuanchun 贾元春 — whose elevation the summons turns out to announce.
Others of the same kind · eunuch / palace Dai Quan 戴权
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
