Mingyan

His Story

Baoyu’s chief page and his accomplice in everything the household would rather he did not do. In Chapter 9 he starts the brawl that wrecks the clan schoolroom, throwing himself at Jin Rong 金荣 on his master’s behalf. In Chapter 23 he goes out to the bookstalls and comes back with the popular fiction and forbidden romances that Baoyu smuggles into the Garden and reads with Daiyu. The text later calls him 焙茗.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Not a page at all — a small child with double buns and a heavy fringe, wide startled eyes, in a hot orange robe, holding a fluffy white cat up against one shoulder while a black lion-dog lunges across the bottom of the sheet. Nothing of the schoolroom, nothing of the insolence.

The Calligraphy

Inscribed 茗烟, the tea-name he is given at the start of the book rather than the 焙茗 the later chapters switch to.

Connections

• Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — his master, whose errands and appetites he serves.
• Jin Rong 金荣 — the schoolfellow he attacks in Chapter 9.
• Chuyao 锄药, Saohong 扫红, Moyu 墨雨 — the other boys who pile into that fight behind him.

Others of the same kind · page / boy servant 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 · Qian Qi 钱启 and 5 more

Named on these pages Wan'er 万儿 · Chuyao 锄药 · Saohong 扫红 · Moyu 墨雨 · Yinquan 引泉 · Tiaoyun 挑云 · Banhe 伴鹤 · Shuangrui 双瑞 · Shuangshou 双寿 · Ye Ma 叶妈 · Mingyu 茗玉 · Hua Zifang 花自芳

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