Xia San
Xia San 夏三 — El Hermano Adoptivo. La familia Xia — cultivadores de osmanto, ricos, con una hija — acogió como hijo adoptivo a un muchacho.
夏三
“The Adopted Brother”
His Story
The Xia family — osmanthus growers, rich, with one daughter — took in a boy as an adopted son. He is Xia Jingui’s brother in name only. Once she has married into the Xue house and begun wrecking it from inside, he comes and goes as family, carries on with her, and helps her draw money and goods out of the Xues. He is one of the reasons the Xue family’s ruin arrives from within the house rather than from outside it.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Caught mid-reach: he leans forward, one hand out and cupped, the other clutched at his chest, eyes wide and fixed straight out of the paper. Pale green robe, heavy black boots, a dark patterned panel dragging behind. Nothing else on the sheet. The whole character is in the two hands.
The Calligraphy
夏三 — surname and birth number, “Xia the Third” — is the name of a hanger-on rather than a son, and it is the only one he gets.
Connections
- Xia Jingui 夏金桂 — his adoptive sister, Xue Pan’s wife.
- Xia Nainai 夏奶奶 — the mother whose household took him in.
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — whose house he helps empty.
Others of the same kind · official / noble / royal Qin Zhong 秦钟 · Jia Yucun 贾雨村 · Bei Jing Wang 北静王 · Leng Zixing 冷子兴 · Zhang Rugui 张如圭 · Menzi 门子 · Xiping Junwang 西平郡王 · Nan'an Taifei 南安太妃 · Zhangshiguan 长史官 · Feng Ziying 冯紫英 · Sun Shaozu 孙绍祖 · Yun Guang 云光 · Fu Shi 傅试 · Fu Qiufang 傅秋芳 and 9 more
Named on these pages Xia Nainai 夏奶奶
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
