Wang Jiren
Wang Jiren 王济仁 — El Médico de la Casa. El médico en quien realmente confía la familia, conocido en la casa como 王太医.
王济仁
“The House Doctor”
His Story
The doctor the household actually trusts, known indoors as 王太医. He is sent for whenever anyone is ill: in Chapter 42 he attends Jia Mu’s chill and the fright that has taken Qiaojie, and prescribes lightly in both cases. When an outside doctor writes Qingwen a violent prescription, Baoyu’s instinct is to call for him instead. He has no plot of his own. He is simply the man who comes when the family is frightened.
In Xiang Li's Hands
He sits in profile, grey robe, hair knotted under a blue ribbon, entirely composed. The lower half of the sheet is given to his equipment: a broad woven tray of dark red fungus, rolled bundles, a blue-latticed frame. The medicine gets more brushwork than the face.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 王济仁 — the full personal name, though the household itself calls him nothing but 王太医, so the sheet restores a name the novel mostly leaves in its title.
Connections
- Jia Mu 贾母 — his most important patient; he is called to her whenever she is unwell.
- Qiaojie 巧姐 — the child he treats for fright in Chapter 42.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — asks for him by name when he distrusts another doctor’s prescription.
Others of the same kind · doctor Zhang Youshi 张友士 · Hu Junrong 胡君荣 · Bao Taiyi 鲍太医
Named on these pages Bao Taiyi 鲍太医
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
