Yuchuan
玉钏
“The Sister Who Stayed”
Her Story
Jinchuan’s younger sister, who goes on serving in the room her sister was expelled from. Chapter 35 gives her the scene: she is sent to carry lotus-leaf soup to Baoyu, recovering from his father’s beating, and she takes the errand in cold silence until he coaxes her into tasting it herself. That is the novel’s account of her mourning — no weeping scene, only a girl who will not speak to the boy who cost her a sister.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She lifts a small pale spoon toward her mouth, eyes down, a red lacquer food box carried at her hip. Mauve jacket, blue-flowered robe, cream skirt, bare paper behind. Xiang Li paints the exact instant of Chapter 35 — the taste, not the grief.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 玉钏儿 with the familiar 儿, the same form her dead sister’s sheet receives, so the two names still read as a pair.
Connections
- Jinchuan 金钏 — her elder sister, dismissed by Lady Wang and drowned in the well.
- Lady Wang 王夫人 — the mistress she continues to serve.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — the recipient of the Chapter 35 soup, and the cause of her sister’s disgrace.
Others of the same kind · maid – Wang Xifeng and Lady Wang Ping'er 平儿 · Feng'er 丰儿 · Shanjie 善姐 · Caiming 彩明 · Jinchuan 金钏 · Caiyun 彩云 · Caixia 彩霞 · Xiaoxia 小霞
Named on these pages Jinchuan 金钏
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
