蕊官

Her Story

Young female lead of the twelve, given to Xue Baochai when the company is dissolved in Chapter 58. Her place in the book is an attachment: after Diguan died, Ouguan took up with her, and the explanation Baoyu is given in Chapter 58 is that this is no betrayal but a widower’s second marriage, the first wife’s rites still kept. In Chapter 59 she sends Ying’er across the Garden with rose-nitre for Fangguan. In Chapter 77 she leaves with Ouguan and is shaved.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Full profile, moving left, a black jacket with a red patterned collar band over a pale jade-green skirt that pools out behind her. Ochre sleeves hang almost to the floor. Grey plum branches fill the sheet. The most severely dressed of the actresses, and the coldest in colour.

The Calligraphy

蕊官 alone, the stage name, its 蕊 the flower’s stamen — the same botanical register as the 藕 and 豆 of her fellows.

Connections

• Ouguan 藕官 — who took up with her after Diguan’s death, and left with her at the end.
• Diguan 菂官 — the dead girl whose place she is understood to have taken.
• Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — the mistress she is given to when the troupe is broken up.

Others of the same kind · actress – Pear Tree Court troupe (梨香院十二官) Fangguan 芳官 · Ouguan 藕官 · 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 Ouguan 藕官 · Diguan 菂官 · Yuanxin 圆信

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