Zhui'er de niang
坠儿的娘
“At the Door of Green Delights”
Her Story
Mother of Trinket, a junior maid at Green Delights. In Chapter 52 Trinket steals Ping’er’s gold bracelet; Qingwen, ill in bed, jabs the girl’s hand with a hairpin and has her put out of the house. The mother is sent for, and when she comes she argues at the door that the dismissal is not Qingwen’s to make. Qingwen shouts her down and the girl goes. She has no other scene.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She is laughing — broadly, warmly, the only open smile in this group — with a round fan held up in both hands and a purple jacket over a tan skirt. Nothing of the scene the novel gives her. The painting declines to make her the woman at the door.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 坠儿娘, “Trinket’s mother”: a relationship where a name would go, which is the whole of what the novel grants her.
Connections
- Zhui’er 坠儿 — her daughter, the maid expelled for theft.
- Qingwen 晴雯 — who expels her daughter and outshouts her.
- Ping’er 平儿 — owner of the stolen bracelet.
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 Cai'er niang 彩儿娘
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
