山子野
山子野 山子野 —— 画园子的人。当贾家必须为元春回家省亲建造一个足够华丽的园子时，他们聘用了一位雅号为山子野的老专家，…
山子野
“The Man Who Drew the Garden”
His Story
When the Jias must build a garden fit for Yuanchun’s visit home, they hire an old expert styled 山子野, and Chapter 16 credits him in a single clause: 全亏一个老明公 号山子野者，一一筹画起造 — it was entirely thanks to him that the whole thing was planned and raised. Then he leaves the book. Every poem, quarrel and death that follows in Prospect Garden happens inside a ground plan drawn by a man the novel mentions once.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Seen from behind. Grey robe, a gold winged cap, the face turned away and half dissolved into wet ink, so we never quite get it. His hands hold a sheet of white paper across his knee. Blue and ochre washes stand in for the ground he is about to organise.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 山子野, which is a sobriquet rather than a name — the novel itself says 号山子野 — so the man is filed under what he does with rocks.
Connections
- Jia Yuanchun 贾元春 — the imperial visit for which the garden is commissioned.
- Jia Zheng 贾政 — tours and tests the finished grounds in Chapter 17.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — names the sites of the garden this man laid out.
Others of the same kind · fortune-teller / diviner Liu Tiezui 刘铁嘴 · Mao Banxian 毛半仙
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
