Wu Liang

His Story

One of Xue Pan’s drinking companions, present at the tavern where Xue Pan kills Zhang San with a wine bowl. The Xue family spends heavily to have the death recorded as an accident rather than a murder, and Wu Liang’s account of the evening is part of what is bought. In Chapter 86 the magistrate takes the bribe and rewrites the file; the sentence comes down. Wu Liang exists in the novel only as testimony with a price.

In Xiang Li's Hands

He holds a small gold object in both cupped hands at his chest — an ingot, or a cup — and looks sideways out of the sheet, eyes narrowed, thin moustache, a creased sly face. Mint-green robe, fur collar, patterned skirt. Whatever it is, it is held like money.

The Calligraphy

吴良 in full, surname and given name, 良 meaning “good” — a name the entry does nothing to earn.

Connections

• Xue Pan 薛蟠 — his drinking companion, whose killing he helps recast as an accident.
• Zhang San 张三 — the young man dead at the tavern.
• Xue Ke 薛蝌 — the cousin who carries the family’s silver to the yamen.

Others of the same kind · outsider – townsfolk, tenants, tradespeople Liu Xianglian 柳湘莲 · Jiang Yuhan 蒋玉菡 · Liu Laolao 刘姥姥 · Wang Gou'er 王狗儿 · Liu Shi 刘氏 · Ban'er 板儿 · Qing'er 青儿 · Feng Yuan 冯渊 · Ni Er 倪二 · Bu Shiren 卜世仁 · Yinjie 银姐 · Fang Chun 方椿 · Shi Daizi 石呆子 · Yun'er 云儿 and 4 more

Named on these pages Tai Ping Zhi Xian 太平知县 · Li Er 李二

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