五嫂子

Her Story

Jia Yun’s mother, a widow of the clan’s poor side. In Chapter 24 Baoyu fails to recognise the young man in front of him and Jia Lian supplies the placing: 他是后 廊上住的五嫂子的儿子芸儿 — that’s Yun, the son of Fifth Sister-in-law who lives along the back corridor. Baoyu then asks after her health. That address is her whole identity in the book: no surname of her own, no personal name, only a number belonging to a husband who is already dead. Later in the same chapter her son comes home from being refused credit by her brother, the shopkeeper Bu Shiren, and finds her sitting on the kang twisting thread. She asks where he has been all day. He lies, so as not to upset her.

In Xiang Li's Hands

She sits on grey rocks against tea-coloured paper, a purple veil over her hair, one hand lifted with the fingers pinched as if a thread ran through them. The face is lined and entirely unsmiling, looking straight out. Below her feet the brush leaves a single long spiralling flourish on empty ground. No room, no son.

The Calligraphy

五嫂子 — a number and a term of address, brushed in place of a name the novel never supplies.

Connections

• Jia Yun 贾芸 — her son, who lies to her about how his day went.
• Bu Shiren 卜世仁 — her brother, the spice-shop keeper who refuses her son credit.
• Jia Lian 贾琏 — names her to Baoyu as the woman who lives along the back corridor.
• Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — asks after her when he is told whose son Jia Yun is.

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