Zhu Ma
祝妈
“The Woman Who Knows Bamboo”
Her Story
She belongs entirely to Chapter 56. When Tanchun reorganises the Garden so that its produce is farmed by the women who already tend it, Old Mother Zhu is named as the one who understands bamboo, and the groves go to her. She has no scene of her own and no later fate in the book. What the novel gives her is a trade.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Green over green, and in her raised right hand a cut bamboo branch, its leaves brushed wet and dark across the top of the sheet. The face is lowered and shut. She is identified here by the thing she was given to grow.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 老祝妈 — surname, the servant’s 妈, and the 老 the painting keeps and the roster drops; no personal name anywhere.
Connections
- Jia Tanchun 贾探春 — author of the contracting scheme that names her.
- Tian Ma 田妈 — named in the same passage, given the crops at Sweet-rice Village.
- Ye Ma 叶妈 — named in the same passage, given the flowers and fragrant herbs.
Others of the same kind · servant's wife / senior serving-woman Zhou Rui jia de 周瑞家的 · Lin Zhixiao jia de 林之孝家的 · Lai Da jia de 赖大家的 · Wang Shanbao jia de 王善保家的 · Wu Xindeng xifu 吴新登媳妇 · Wang'er xifu 旺儿媳妇 · Zhang Cai jia de 张材家的 · Zheng Hua jia de 郑华家的 · Wu Xing jia de 吴兴家的 · Laixi jia de 来喜家的 · Qin Xian jia de 秦显家的 · Bao Er jia de 鲍二家的 · Liu jia de 柳家的 · Shan Daniang 单大娘 and 10 more
Named on these pages Tian Ma 田妈
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
