藕官
藕官 藕官 — 花园中的纸钱。她饰演年轻的男性主角，与荷官的年轻女性相对，两人对待舞台婚姻为…
藕官
“Paper Money in the Garden”
Her Story
She played the young male lead opposite Diguan’s young woman, and the two of them treated the stage marriage as real. Then Diguan died. In Chapter 58 Baoyu finds her burning paper money among the Garden’s rocks and covers for her with the servants; the account that reaches him afterwards, from Fangguan, is that she has since taken up with Ruiguan, and that a widower who remarries still keeps the first wife’s rites. At the dissolution she goes to Lin Daiyu. In Chapter 77 she is turned out and becomes a nun.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She paints the one scene the novel gives her. Kneeling, mauve robe, a brown patterned skirt spread across the ground, both hands on a thin stick angled down into a low heap of black ash flecked red, smoke curling up. The face is lifted away from the fire.
The Calligraphy
藕官 at the top right, the stage name only, its lotus-root 藕 pairing her with Diguan’s lotus-seed 菂.
Connections
- Diguan 菂官 — her stage wife, whom she mourned as a real one.
- Ruiguan 蕊官 — who took Diguan’s place, and left the household with her.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — who found her at the fire and shielded her from the servants.
Others of the same kind · actress – Pear Tree Court troupe (梨香院十二官) Fangguan 芳官 · Ruiguan 蕊官 · Kuiguan 葵官 · Douguan 豆官 · Aiguan 艾官 · Qieguan 茄官 · Lingguan 龄官 · Baoguan 宝官 · Yuguan 玉官 · Diguan 菂官
Named on these pages Xia Pozi 夏婆子 · Ruiguan 蕊官 · Diguan 菂官 · Yuanxin 圆信 · Xing Hua Shen 杏花神
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
