Zhang Wang-shi
张王氏
“The Charge She Brought”
Her Story
Zhang San’s mother. Her son dies in a tavern quarrel with Xue Pan, and it is she who brings the accusation that opens the case. The Xue family’s silver reaches the yamen; in Chapter 86 the magistrate rewrites the record as an accidental death and the sentence is reduced. She is named only as 张王氏 — married into the Zhangs, born a Wang, no personal name recorded anywhere. The novel gives her a lawsuit and nothing else.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She is flung backward across the paper, arms out, pink robes streaked red, a black sash whipping around her, eyes shut. A snarling tiger — the only carefully finished thing on the sheet — crouches out of her skirts. Nothing in her story explains it.
The Calligraphy
张王氏 is not a name but a formula — husband’s surname, father’s surname, 氏 for “née” — precisely the form a widow’s name would take on a court deposition.
Connections
- Zhang San 张三 — her son, killed with a wine bowl.
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — the man she accuses.
- Zhang Er 张二 — her son’s uncle, present at the inquest.
Others of the same kind · outsider – townsfolk, tenants, tradespeople Liu Xianglian 柳湘莲 · Jiang Yuhan 蒋玉菡 · Liu Laolao 刘姥姥 · Wang Gou'er 王狗儿 · Liu Shi 刘氏 · Ban'er 板儿 · Qing'er 青儿 · Feng Yuan 冯渊 · Ni Er 倪二 · Bu Shiren 卜世仁 · Yinjie 银姐 · Fang Chun 方椿 · Shi Daizi 石呆子 · Yun'er 云儿 and 4 more
Named on these pages Zhang San 张三 · Zhang Er 张二
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
