Zhang Ruojin
张若锦
“Three Characters and No Line”
His Story
Another of the six escorting Baoyu to the family school in Chapter 9. His name appears in that list beside Li Gui, Wang Rong, Zhao Yihua and Qian Qi, and the novel does not return to him. He has a three-character personal name where most servants in the book get one syllable and a diminutive — which is, apart from the list itself, the only thing the text gives him.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Bent forward at the waist, grey robe, soft grey cap, a full black beard, both hands out to steady a lattice-panelled sedan chair that fills the lower right of the sheet. She paints the escort as labour: the man is caught in the middle of lifting something.
The Calligraphy
张若锦 runs down the top right corner in three characters, with a date and the artist’s own signature brushed beneath — a fuller inscription than most sheets in this collection carry.
Connections
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — the boy he escorts to school in Chapter 9.
- Li Gui 李贵 — head of the escort, named first.
- Zhao Yihua 赵亦华 — named immediately after him on the same list.
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 · Zhao Yihua 赵亦华 · Qian Qi 钱启 and 5 more
Named on these pages Zhao Yihua 赵亦华
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
