Zhang Xiaojie
张小姐
“The Match That Was Refused”
Her Story
Chapter 84. Wang Ertiao, one of Jia Zheng’s hangers-on, proposes her for Baoyu: daughter of the Zhang who was circuit intendant of Nanshao, complete in virtue, looks and accomplishment, not yet spoken for, no brothers, a fortune. Zhan Guang adds that the Zhangs are old connections of the Xing side.
Then Lady Xing reports what she has actually heard. One girl, greatly indulged, able to read a little, unfit for company and kept in her room. And her father will not marry her out — he wants a son-in-law to move in and run the house. Grandmother Jia cuts her off before the sentence is finished: 这断使不得. Lady Xing adds that the family is too mean anyway. Xifeng turns the talk to the gold locket, and the girl is dropped.
She never appears, never speaks, and is never given a name.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Turned away and looking back over her shoulder, arms folded into her sleeves — a rust-red robe flecked like stone over white and pale pink, gold fringe at the hem, a turquoise flower and a gold pin in her hair, one long braid down her back. Behind her a whole plum tree in silver-grey blossom fills the sheet. The girl the novel says is kept indoors is given no interior at all.
The Calligraphy
张小姐 — surname plus 小姐, low on the right in three characters, precisely the form in which she is proposed and refused across a room she is not in.
Connections
- Wang Ertiao 王尔调 — the client who proposes the match to Jia Zheng.
- Zhan Guang 詹光 — seconds him, and supplies the Xing connection.
- Jia Zheng 贾政 — takes the proposal indoors.
- Xing Furen 邢夫人 — knows the family, and sinks it.
- Jia Mu 贾母 — refuses outright: her Baoyu will not go and manage another house.
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
