Zhao'er
昭儿
“The Man Who Rode Back from the South”
His Story
Jia Lian’s page, and the household’s fastest legs. In Chapter 14, while the Ning-guo house is burying Qin Keqing and Xifeng is running both mansions at once, Zhao’er arrives alone from the south with the news that Lin Ruhai has died and that Jia Lian is taking Daiyu on to Suzhou for the burial. Xifeng questions him, has him fed, and sends him straight back with winter clothes for his master. That is his whole part.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Grey travelling coat, black hat, shoulders hunched, eyes shut — a man who has been on the road. At his feet, in the only colour on the sheet, a big yellow gourd flask and a bundle of red and blue cloth. She paints the errand rather than the news.
The Calligraphy
The inscription 昭儿 gives the personal name and the diminutive 儿 alone, the short form a household uses for a man it sends rather than summons.
Connections
- Jia Lian 贾琏 — his master, whom he leaves in the south and returns to.
- Wang Xifeng 王熙凤 — questions him and sends him back.
- Lin Daiyu 林黛玉 — the news he carries is of her father’s death.
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 · Zhang Ruojin 张若锦 · Zhao Yihua 赵亦华 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
