贾琏荣国府长房的办事人 · 24
Leaf 24 of the Red Chamber · 琏二爷 Second Master Lian
Jia Lian 贾琏
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the household (当家) · nicknamed 琏二爷 “Second Master Lian”
The family's fixer: he carries a funeral south, washes his father's crimes in silver, marries a woman outside the gate, and loses her to his wife without a protest.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 16
The Coffin Brought South
送黛玉歸喪When Lin Ruhai dies he is sent south to see the funeral done and the coffin, the servants and the luggage brought back to Jinling — the one commission he fills without a stain on it.
- ch. 21
The Lock of Hair Hidden
平兒掩跡An affair with the wife of a serving man leaves a lock of hair in his coat; Ping'er hides the proof from Xifeng and lets him squirm, the book's clearest view of how his marriage actually works.
- ch. 48
The Bought Vice-Magistrate
平安州寄書His father sends him to Ping'an Prefecture to lobby a provincial official; the business succeeds and Jia She buys him a vice-magistrate's post out of it — the transaction his branch is damned for.
- ch. 65
Married in Secret Two Doors Off
偷娶二姐With Jia Zhen's and Jia Rong's help he marries You Erjie in a house in the Flowery Bough Lane, two doors from his wife, and keeps it there until a servants' quarrel tells it to the wrong ear.
結局 The ending
He outlives his wife's ascendancy: the searches and his father's conviction cost him his post, an amnesty gives it back, and the last chapters leave him running a wrecked household with Ping'er his only stay and his daughter hidden from a marriage his own kin arranged.
The book itself: what happens, how long it is, which English version to read — The story · How long it is · Which translation · The lamp-oil night · The family tree · The first expulsion