贾巧姐荒村野店 · 11
Leaf 11 of the Red Chamber · 大姐 Big Sister, her name before it was changed
Jia Qiaojie 贾巧姐
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the Main register (正冊) · nicknamed 大姐 “Big Sister, her name before it was changed”
The baby of the roll, whose fate turns on one small kindness her mother did not mean as one: the leaf that pays a debt of hospitality in a house that paid nothing else.
势败休云贵， 家亡莫论亲。 偶因济刘氏， 巧得遇恩人。
When the fortune is broken, say no more of rank; when the house is lost, say no more of kin. Only because, by chance, she succoured the family of Liu, by chance did she meet the one who saved her.
畫 A desert village and a wild country inn, with one beautiful woman there spinning thread.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 41
Trading the Buddha-Hand Toy
換佛手Quarrels with Granny Liu's grandson Ban'er over a hand of the Buddha and a whistle, and the nurses have to switch the two toys to stop the noise.
- ch. 42
Named to Put Off Bad Luck
命名Her mother asks the old woman to name the child born on the unlucky first of the fifth; Granny Liu chooses the tricky 巧 and predicts the name will hold off whatever is coming.
- ch. 113
An Unspoken Errand to Granny Liu
託村嫗On her deathbed Xifeng gives the household's remembrance to the same Granny Liu now lodging in the garden, and the old woman hears the unspoken errand for the girl.
- ch. 117
A Cousin Sold South
議賣With her mother buried and her father away, an uncle and a kinsman settle to carry the girl off and sell her south as a concubine for a good price.
結局 The ending
Her verse tells her to say no more of rank when power fails, no more of kin when the house falls: because her mother once succoured the family of Liu, she meets the benefactor. The 120-chapter text takes her to the country and marries her to their son, the painting's woman spinning at an inn.
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