Xing'er
兴儿
“The Page Who Talks”
His Story
Jia Lian’s page, and the most talkative servant in the book. When his master sets You Erjie up in a house outside the walls, Xing’er is sent to wait on her, and he gives her and her sister a servant’s-eye survey of the Jia women — Xifeng, he tells them, is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the heart. When Xifeng learns of the second household, she has him brought in, and on his knees he tells her the whole of it.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Two sheets, one gesture: profile, mouth open, one palm lifted flat beside his face — mid-sentence, both times. One sets him against a storm of red and yellow flame-strokes, the other against cool grey wash with a red sash at the waist. She paints him twice and never stops him talking.
The Calligraphy
The inscription 兴儿 gives the personal name with the diminutive 儿 and no surname — the form a page is called by, not addressed by.
Connections
- Jia Lian 贾琏 — his master, whose secret he does not keep.
- Wang Xifeng 王熙凤 — gets the whole story out of him.
- You Erjie 尤二姐 — the woman he is sent to serve, and to whom he describes the household.
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
Named on these pages Xi'er 喜儿
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
