绣橘

Her Story

Yingchun’s maid, and the only person in those rooms who fights. In Chapter 73 Yingchun’s wet-nurse pawns her mistress’s gold filigree phoenix hairpiece to cover gambling losses. Xiuju argues, accuses, and refuses to let it drop, while Yingchun sits with her book and declines to intervene at all; it takes Pinger’s arrival to close the matter. The chapter title names Yingchun the timid mistress. The contrast is the point of the scene.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Caught mid-turn, sleeves flung wide in one long sweep of patterned yellow, red underskirt showing beneath, chin up. Nothing behind her — the whole sheet is movement. Of Yingchun’s maids, this is the one given an argument to make, and the painting gives her the room to make it.

The Calligraphy

绣橘 at the upper left, the two-character given name alone, with no 儿 and no diminutive attached.

Connections

• Jia Yingchun 贾迎春 — her mistress, who will not defend her own property.
• Yingchun’s wet-nurse 迎春的乳母 — pawns the gold phoenix; Xiuju’s opponent through Chapter 73.
• Pinger 平儿 — arrives and settles what Xiuju could not force to a conclusion.

Others of the same kind · maid – Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun, Li Wan, Xiangyun Siqi 司棋 · Lianhua'r 莲花儿 · Shishu 侍书 · Cuimo 翠墨 · Xiaochan 小蝉 · Ruhua 入画 · Caiping 彩屏 · Cai'er 彩儿 · Suyun 素云 · Biyue 碧月 · Cuilü 翠缕 · Baoqin 抱琴 · Xiaoque 小鹊 · Xiaojixiang'r 小吉祥儿 and 5 more

Named on these pages Yuzhu'r 玉柱儿 · Yingchun Rumu 迎春乳母

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