智善

Her Story

A young nun of Water Moon Priory and a disciple of the abbess Jingxu. That is what the novel gives — a name in the same breath as her sister novice Zhineng, in the 智 generation of the house. She has no scene of her own, no speech and no end. She stands in the priory that takes three thousand taels of Wang Xifeng’s money and two lives, and the book never turns to look at her.

In Xiang Li's Hands

Seated on a black cushion, palms together at her breast, eyes lowered under a grey hood. Black habit, a hem patterned in blue and dull red. Behind her hangs an ochre temple curtain drawn with lotus and cloud roundels — the fullest background in this group, given to the one character with no story in it.

The Calligraphy

Two characters, 智善 — the religious name alone, the 智 shared with her sister novice marking her as belonging to a generation of the house rather than to a family.

Connections

• Jingxu 净虚 — the abbess of Water Moon Priory, her teacher.
• Zhineng 智能 — the other young nun of the house, of the same 智 generation.

Others of the same kind · nun / monk / Taoist Miaoyu 妙玉 · Jingxu 净虚 · 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 · Zhang Daoshi 张道士 · Wang Yitie 王一贴

Named on these pages Jingxu 净虚

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