张三
张三 张三 — 为酒而杀。一个年轻男人，在城外一家酒店里待席，服侍薛蟠和他的同伴们。
张三
“Killed Over the Wine”
His Story
A young man waiting tables at a tavern outside the capital, serving Xue Pan and his companions. A quarrel over the wine ends with Xue Pan striking him on the head with a wine bowl, and he dies of it. His mother brings the charge; his uncle attends the inquest; the Xue family’s money goes to work on the record, and in Chapter 86 the magistrate rewrites a killing as an accident in a scuffle. Zhang San himself is given no words at all.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Seen from behind and twisted round: bare back, robe pushed down to the waist, a cloth over one shoulder, a tray of four small dishes held out on the other hand. Mouth open, calling an order. She paints him working, mid-shout. The bowl is nowhere on the paper.
The Calligraphy
張三, surname and a number — “Zhang Three”, about the most anonymous name Chinese can give a man — brushed low at his heel, as plain as it is meant to be.
Connections
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — who kills him with a wine bowl.
- Zhang Wang-shi 张王氏 — his mother, who brings the accusation.
- Zhang Er 张二 — his uncle, present at the inquest.
Others of the same kind · outsider – townsfolk, tenants, tradespeople Liu Xianglian 柳湘莲 · Jiang Yuhan 蒋玉菡 · Liu Laolao 刘姥姥 · Wang Gou'er 王狗儿 · Liu Shi 刘氏 · Ban'er 板儿 · Qing'er 青儿 · Feng Yuan 冯渊 · Ni Er 倪二 · Bu Shiren 卜世仁 · Yinjie 银姐 · Fang Chun 方椿 · Shi Daizi 石呆子 · Yun'er 云儿 and 4 more
Named on these pages Wu Liang 吴良 · Zhang Wang-shi 张王氏 · Zhang Er 张二 · Tai Ping Zhi Xian 太平知县 · Li Er 李二
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
