史鼎

His Story

He holds the title Marquis of Zhongjing 忠靖侯, and he is one of the two Shi uncles who bring up Shi Xiangyun after her parents die. He appears in the roll of titled mourners at Qin Keqing’s funeral in Chapter 14, and he appears when the Shi household is posted out of the capital to a provincial office — the move that settles Xiangyun permanently in the Jia house, since Grandmother Jia will not let her go. That is all. His function in the novel is to be somewhere else, so that his niece can stay.

In Xiang Li's Hands

He strides in wide pale-blue robes, black cap plated with gold, a small red flame at its crest. Behind him, half covered by his sleeve, his wife in dusty rose under a green-and-gold headdress. Bare paper otherwise. She has no name in the novel; here she has half the sheet.

The Calligraphy

史鼎夫妇 — “Shi Ding and wife” — is the only inscription in this group that names one person and then appends another as a relation, so that the woman standing on the paper is present in the picture but not in the words.

Connections

• Shi Xiangyun 史湘云 — his niece, left in the Jia household when his family moves to the provinces.
• Grandmother Jia 贾母 — born a Shi; the tie between the two houses runs through her.
• Shi Nai 史鼐 — the other Shi uncle, Marquis of Baoling, who shares the raising of Xiangyun.

Others of the same kind · Shi family Shi Xiangyun 史湘云

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