Yinquan
引泉
“Four Boys on a Roof”
His Story
One of the boys of Baoyu’s outer study. Chapter 24 gives him his only moment: Baoyu wanders out to the study and finds Mingyan and Chuyao squabbling over a chess piece while Yinquan, Saohua, Tiaoyun and Banhe are up on the eaves digging fledgling sparrows out of a nest. That is the scene — four idle boys on a roof. His name means “leading the spring.” He speaks no line the novel keeps.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She paints him from behind, in a grey-blue robe with a rose kerchief knotted into his hair — a figure that reads as a girl. One hand lifts a tortoise clear of the shoulder. Behind him two ink waterfalls drop through cloud: she paints the name, not the boy.
The Calligraphy
Two characters, 引泉, high on the left — the study name alone, no surname and no diminutive, a name issued by a household rather than given by a family.
Connections
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — master of the outer study he loiters outside.
- Tiaoyun 挑云, Banhe 伴鹤, Saohua 扫花 — the three boys on the eaves with him in Chapter 24.
- Mingyan 茗烟 — the chief page, at the chessboard in the same scene.
Others of the same kind · page / boy servant Mingyan 茗烟 · Chuyao 锄药 · Saohong 扫红 · Saohua 扫花 · Moyu 墨雨 · 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 · Qian Qi 钱启 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
