Tanyun

Her Story

Tanyun belongs to Green Delights and does almost nothing in it. She survives in rosters, and in one line of verse. Among the four seasonal poems Baoyu writes in Chapter 23, the summer-night one pairs her with Sheyue: 窗明麝月开宫镜，室霭檀云品御香 — two maids’ names doing double duty as the moon at the window and sandalwood smoke in the room. That couplet is the closest the novel comes to giving her an appearance.

In Xiang Li's Hands

She stands in profile, one hand raised to her chin, hair unbound and falling nearly to the hem of a mauve-brown patterned robe. Behind her the paper carries pale blue scrolling cloud-lines and small scattered yellow blossoms. The 云 of her name is given the entire background.

The Calligraphy

檀云, lower right, the given name alone, brushed down into the drawn clouds rather than above them, so the second character sits inside the thing it names.

Connections

• Sheyue 麝月 — fellow maid, paired with her in the Chapter 23 couplet.
• Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — her master, and the author of the poem that preserves her.
• Xiren 袭人 — head maid of Green Delights, above her in the room.

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 · Qixian 绮霰 · Qianxue 茜雪 · Huixiang 蕙香 · Jiahui 佳蕙 · Zhui'er 坠儿 · Liang'er 良儿 · Chunyan 春燕 · Liu Wu'er 柳五儿 and 1 more

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