Xiaoxia

Her Story

Caixia’s younger sister, in service at Rongguo House. The novel gives her a name, a family, and no scene of her own. She is in the household while her sister’s future is being settled in Chapter 72, and after that the book does not return to her. Everything it says about her, it says through Caixia.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Seen from behind and turning back over her shoulder, salmon robe, dark vest, a blue sash running loose off the bottom of the sheet. Behind her a pink lantern the size of a sun fills the upper half. The lantern glows; she is the silhouette in front of it.

The Calligraphy

小霞 — the diminutive, “little Xia”, which fixes her permanently as the smaller version of her sister rather than a name in her own right.

Connections

• Caixia 彩霞 — her elder sister, and the only relationship the novel gives her.
• Lady Wang 王夫人 — mistress of the rooms her sister served in, the household both girls belong to.

Others of the same kind · maid – Wang Xifeng and Lady Wang Ping'er 平儿 · Feng'er 丰儿 · Shanjie 善姐 · Caiming 彩明 · Jinchuan 金钏 · Yuchuan 玉钏 · Caiyun 彩云 · Caixia 彩霞

Named on these pages Caixia 彩霞

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