Zhou Nai Ma
周奶妈
“Two Days' Worth of Clothes”
Her Story
Shi Xiangyun’s wet nurse, and the adult who travels with her. Xiangyun is an orphan raised by an uncle and aunt; when she is sent over to the Rong mansion in Chapter 31 it is this woman who brings her. Baochai turns to her and asks, 周妈， 你们姑娘还是那么淘气不么 — is your young lady still as much trouble as ever. Grandmother Jia asks whether the girl is staying the night or going home, and the nurse laughs: 老太太没有看见衣服都带了来，可不住两天 — you haven’t seen, we brought the clothes, so of course it’s two days. That is nearly all of her. She answers questions about someone else’s child, and she is the one who packed.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Two sheets, the same woman twice: blue headband, top-knot, a broad open-mouthed laugh, and in both a stiff rectangular fan on a handle, its face ruled with close vertical strokes like columns of writing. The first sets her against grey cloud scrolls; the second adds ink mountains, a dashed pink sun and scattered stars. Both paint her mid-sentence — the 笑道 of her one line, made into a face.
The Calligraphy
周奶妈 — a surname and a job, the whole designation of a woman the novel identifies by whose milk she gave.
Connections
- Shi Xiangyun 史湘云 — her charge, the orphan she brings to the Jia house and packs for.
- Grandmother Jia 贾母 — asks her whether Xiangyun is staying; the nurse answers for her.
- Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — greets her as 周妈 and asks after the girl’s temper.
- Cuilü 翠缕 — Xiangyun’s maid, the other person who comes with her.
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
