Ying'er
莺儿
“The Hands That Plait”
Her Story
Baochai’s maid. Her full name is 黄金莺, shortened by her mistress to Oriole. In Chapter 8 it is she who says out loud that the eight characters on Baochai’s golden locket and the eight on Baoyu’s jade look like a matched pair — the remark the whole gold-and-jade match rests on. Chapter 35 puts her in its title, 黄金莺巧结梅花络: she plaits the plum-blossom net for the jade while Baochai chooses the colours. In Chapter 59 she picks willow shoots by the bank to weave with, and a quarrel starts.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She sits on the ground under a willow, teal robe with cloud roundels, maroon skirt running off to the left, one bare foot showing. Her raised hand has pulled a willow withe down to her. Lotus behind. The sheet takes Chapter 59, not the famous knotted net.
The Calligraphy
The sheet gives 莺儿, the household’s short form, not the full 黄金莺 the novel produces in Chapter 35.
Connections
- Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — her mistress, who cut her name down to two characters.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — whose jade she nets, and whose locket-match she names aloud.
- Chunyan 春燕 — the 燕 to her 莺 in the Chapter 59 title.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baochai (All-spice Court / 蘅蕪苑) Wenxing 文杏 · Dian'er 靛儿 · Zhen'er 臻儿 · Tongxi 同喜 · Tonggui 同贵 · Xiaoluo 小螺 · Baochan 宝蟾 · Xiaoshe'r 小舍儿
Named on these pages Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 · Chunyan 春燕 · Wenxing 文杏 · He Po 何婆 · Ye Ma 叶妈
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
