张道士
张道士：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。
张道士
“The Duke's Stand-in”
His Story
Abbot of the Clear Emptiness Temple, once the religious stand-in for the Duke of Rong-guo, and now old enough to speak to Jia Mu as an equal. In Chapter 29 the household comes to his temple for three days of plays. He asks to see Baoyu’s jade, carries it out to show the other Taoists, and returns with a tray of their offerings; a gold unicorn sits among them. Then he proposes a match for Baoyu — a girl of fifteen, good family, money. Jia Mu declines: a monk once said the boy must not marry young.
In Xiang Li's Hands
An old man laughing out loud, head thrown back, white hair and beard blown sideways, skin weathered brown. Red robes take most of the sheet. Over his shoulder he holds an enormous black feather fan with a jewelled boss; a second dark implement trails at his feet. Vigour, not piety.
The Calligraphy
张道士 — surname plus “Taoist,” the ordinary household way of speaking of him, which sets aside the imperial titles the novel says he holds.
Connections
- Jia Mu 贾母 — jokes with him as an old acquaintance and turns down his marriage proposal.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — whose jade he borrows and whose marriage he tries to arrange.
- Duke of Rong-guo 荣国公 — whose stand-in he was, which is the whole of his standing.
Others of the same kind · nun / monk / Taoist Miaoyu 妙玉 · Jingxu 净虚 · Zhishan 智善 · Zhineng 智能 · Zhitong 智通 · Yuanxin 圆信 · Da Liao 大了 · Sekong 色空 · Qinxiang 沁香 · Hexian 鹤仙 · Ma Daopo 马道婆 · Wang Yitie 王一贴
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
