田妈
田妈：浏览李湘艺术网站的红楼梦资料。本页正文暂为英文，完整译文待补充。
田妈
“The Crops at Sweet-rice Village”
Her Story
Like Old Mother Zhu, she exists in a single passage of Chapter 56. She is the one who came from farming, so when the Garden is contracted out the vegetable and grain plots around Sweet-rice Village are made her responsibility. The novel records the assignment and moves on. She has no dialogue and no ending.
In Xiang Li's Hands
The oldest face in this group: white hair pulled back, the wrinkles drawn individually, a half-smile. She sits with a spray of yellow grain heads across her lap. Behind her, trees and grasses outlined in gold and left uncoloured — a field turned to pure ornament.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 老田妈, surname plus the servant’s 妈 under the 老 of long service, the only form of address the book ever gives her.
Connections
- Li Wan 李纨 — mistress of Sweet-rice Village, whose ground she works.
- Jia Tanchun 贾探春 — whose Chapter 56 scheme puts the plots in her charge.
- Zhu Ma 祝妈 — named beside her in the same passage.
Others of the same kind · servant's wife / senior serving-woman Zhou Rui jia de 周瑞家的 · Lin Zhixiao jia de 林之孝家的 · Lai Da jia de 赖大家的 · Wang Shanbao jia de 王善保家的 · Wu Xindeng xifu 吴新登媳妇 · Wang'er xifu 旺儿媳妇 · Zhang Cai jia de 张材家的 · Zheng Hua jia de 郑华家的 · Wu Xing jia de 吴兴家的 · Laixi jia de 来喜家的 · Qin Xian jia de 秦显家的 · Bao Er jia de 鲍二家的 · Liu jia de 柳家的 · Shan Daniang 单大娘 and 10 more
Named on these pages Zhu Ma 祝妈
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
