臻儿
臻儿：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。
臻儿
“Caltrop's Own Maid”
Her Story
Xiangling’s little maid, named in the roll of the Xue household’s girls and nowhere else. The one fact worth keeping is the one her listing carries: Xiangling — stolen as a child, sold, renamed, taken as Xue Pan’s concubine — had a maid of her own. Rank inside the house went on subdividing all the way down.
In Xiang Li's Hands
Seen from behind, head bowed, both hands lifted to hold a small green sprig near her face, which is turned so far away that only the chin shows. Red jacket printed with white leaves, a long tail of loose hair, bare paper. The one sheet in this group that withholds the face.
The Calligraphy
臻儿 — the given name alone, brushed at the upper left, on the side she has turned away from.
Connections
- Xiangling 香菱 — her mistress, herself a bought and renamed girl.
- Xue Pan 薛蟠 — head of the Xue household, who took Xiangling.
- Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — under whose roof at All-spice Court both of them lived.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baochai (All-spice Court / 蘅蕪苑) Ying'er 莺儿 · Wenxing 文杏 · Dian'er 靛儿 · Tongxi 同喜 · Tonggui 同贵 · Xiaoluo 小螺 · Baochan 宝蟾 · Xiaoshe'r 小舍儿
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
