太平知县

His Story

The magistrate of Taiping county, where Xue Pan kills a man. The official memorial quoted in Chapter 99 places the killing at an inn on the road — 行过太平 县，在李家店歇宿，与店内当槽之张三素不相认 — Xue Pan stopping the night at the Li family’s shop, and Zhang San waiting on him, a stranger. Chapter 86 is the magistrate’s chapter. The Xue family spends 几千银子 to buy him. He opens court, knows perfectly well that the clerks have softened the autopsy record, does not challenge it — 早知书吏改轻，也不驳诘 — and has the deposition signed as accidental injury. Chapter 99 reports what it cost him: he listened to a favour and lost the post. The novel never gives him a name.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Sprawled sideways in a hardwood armchair in brilliant blue, black gauze cap with its wings, a large landscape fan open across his chest and a small white wine cup raised in the other hand. He is at leisure. She paints the man off duty rather than the man on the bench, and lets the ease do the accusing.

The Calligraphy

太平知县 gives an office and a county and no name — the form in which the novel’s own court documents refer to him.

Connections

• Xue Pan 薛蟠 — the killer whose sentence he reduces to accidental injury.
• Zhang San 张三 — the young waiter dead at the Li family’s inn in his county.
• Wu Liang 吴良 — a Taiping man at the table that night, whose account is part of what is bought.
• Xue Ke 薛蝌 — the cousin who carries the family’s money to the yamen.

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