Yinchou Jinnü

Her Story

She stands outside the mortal roster entirely. No household, no marriage, no death — she is one of four attendants of the Fairy Disenchantment 警幻仙姑 in the Land of Illusion, and the novel gives her exactly two appearances, both in Chapter 5, and both shared with the other three.

The first is the reception that goes wrong. Baoyu, asleep in Qin Keqing’s room, is brought into the Land of Illusion; the fairies hurry out to greet the honoured guest they have been told to expect, see a boy, and object. 「姐姐曾说今日今时必有绛珠妹子的生魂前来游玩，故我等久待。何故反引这浊物来污染这清净女儿之境？」 They had been waiting for the living soul of Crimson Pearl — for Daiyu. Disenchantment tells them the ancestors of the Ning and Rong houses have entrusted the boy to her, and the objection is dropped.

The second is the naming. Baoyu asks who they are: 「一名痴梦仙姑，一名钟情大士，一名引愁金女，一名度恨菩提，各各道号不一。」 After that the tea 千红一窟 and the wine 万艳同杯 are carried in by ordinary little maids, and the four are not mentioned again.

The name is the character. 引愁 is to lead sorrow in, to draw it out of a person who did not know it was there — which is precisely the office Chapter 5 performs on Baoyu, showing him the registers and the songs that contain every fate in the book. 金 carries the west and the autumn. She is grief’s usher, and she is given no other work.

In Xiang Li's Hands

The only sheet in this group with a fully painted ground: a dense mottled field of mauve and rust blossom, flecked blue, pressing right up to the figure. She turns away, head in strict profile, eyes shut, in a tall gold openwork crown. The robes are gold-yellow under heavy black contour — a literal reading of 金 in her name. One hand opens empty at shoulder height; the other, lowered, holds a single small pink flower by the stem, already almost let go. She is walking out of the picture and taking the bloom with her.

The Calligraphy

引愁金女, four characters down the left, brushed over the blossom field rather than on clear paper. Like her three companions she is given a 道号 and nothing else — no surname, no personal name, no shorter form the novel could have used. The inscription names a function, and the sheet is signed with the function.

Connections

• Jing Huan 警幻仙姑 — the Fairy Disenchantment, whose attendant she is.
• Chimeng Xiangu 痴梦仙姑 — one of the four, named in the same line of Chapter 5.
• Zhongqing Dashi 钟情大士 — one of the four.
• Duhen Puti 度恨菩提 — one of the four.
• Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — the unwanted visitor whose education in sorrow the four preside over, brought in place of the Crimson Pearl soul they had been promised.

Others of the same kind · mythic frame / immortal Kongkong Daoren 空空道人 · Jinghuan Xiangu 警幻仙姑 · Zhongqing Dashi 钟情大士 · Duhen Puti 度恨菩提 · Shenying Shizhe 神瑛侍者 · Jiangzhu Xiancao 绛珠仙草

Named on these pages Zhongqing Dashi 钟情大士 · Duhen Puti 度恨菩提

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