Zhui'er
坠儿
“The Stolen Bracelet”
Her Story
A little maid at Green Delights who runs errands and carries messages. In Chapter 27 she is in the Kingfisher Pavilion with Xiaohong, arranging the business of Jia Yun’s handkerchief, when Baochai overhears them through the lattice. In Chapter 52 Ping’er’s gold bracelet goes missing and is traced to her; Ping’er wants the thing hushed up. Qingwen, ill in bed, hears anyway, calls her in, stabs the back of her hand with a hairpin, and has her mother fetched to take her out of the house that same hour.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Three sheets. In the first she stands in a rockery holding out a small folded red paper — the errand. The second puts her on bare ground, bent forward, smiling, black over rose. The third abandons the beauty format: a laughing child in an enormous flowered hat, hands up at her face, in loose wet ink.
The Calligraphy
Two of the three sheets read 坠儿 and the third adds 小 — 小坠儿, “little Zhui’er” — the only inscription in the set that measures her by size.
Connections
- Xiaohong 小红 — fellow maid, whose messages to Jia Yun she carries in Chapter 27.
- Qingwen 晴雯 — senior maid who stabbed her hand and expelled her in Chapter 52.
- Ping’er 平儿 — owner of the stolen bracelet, who had tried to keep it quiet.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baoyu (Green Delights / 怡紅院) Qingwen 晴雯 · Xiren 袭人 · Sheyue 麝月 · Xiaohong 小红 · Qiuwen 秋纹 · Bihen 碧痕 · Tanyun 檀云 · Qixian 绮霰 · Qianxue 茜雪 · Huixiang 蕙香 · Jiahui 佳蕙 · Liang'er 良儿 · Chunyan 春燕 · Liu Wu'er 柳五儿 and 1 more
Named on these pages Liang'er 良儿 · Song Mama 宋嬷嬷 · Zhui'er de niang 坠儿的娘
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
