Sijie'r

Her Story

Jia Qiong’s daughter. 四姐儿 is not a name — it means fourth girl, a place in a birth order, brushed onto the painting exactly as the household said it. She comes with the poor relations to Grandmother Jia’s eightieth birthday in Chapter 71 and is singled out alongside Xiluan, kept in the house and covered by the old lady’s order that the two be treated properly. Nothing in the novel separates her from her cousin.

In Xiang Li's Hands

She holds a bunch of red and yellow blossom up to her face and shuts her eyes in it, hair and sleeves blown sideways, the whole sheet dappled pink and blue and green like petals crossing the air. It is the only painting in this group where the air is moving.

The Calligraphy

四姐儿, lower right — a birth-order designation rather than a name, and the inscription does not correct it.

Connections

• Jia Qiong 贾琼 — her father, of the clan’s poorer branch.
• Xiluan 喜鸾 — favoured with her at the same feast; they appear only as a pair.
• Grandmother Jia 贾母 — took to both girls and kept them in the house for the birthday.

Others of the same kind · Jia clan – collateral branches Jia Rui 贾瑞 · Jia Dairu 贾代儒 · Jia Qiong 贾琼 · Jia Chang 贾菖 · Jia Ling 贾菱 · Jia Ping 贾萍 · Jia Jun 贾菌 · Jia Yun 贾芸 · Jia Qin 贾芹 · Jia Xing 贾荇 · Xiluan 喜鸾

Named on these pages Xiluan 喜鸾

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