贾探春秋爽斋 · 5
Leaf 5 of the Red Chamber · 蕉下客 Guest Beneath the Plantains
Jia Tanchun 贾探春
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the Main register (正冊) · nicknamed 蕉下客 “Guest Beneath the Plantains”
The concubine-born daughter with a manager's hand on the tiller: she sees the house going under, patches what she can reach, and is carried off before the patch holds.
才自精明志自高， 生于末世运偏消。 清明涕送江边望， 千里东风一梦遥。
Quick of wit and high of purpose, born in the house's last age with her luck running the other way. At Clear and Bright, tears at the river, watching — a thousand li of east wind, one dream far off.
畫 Two people letting off a kite; a great sea, one big ship, and in it a girl hiding her face as she cries.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 37
The Card Founding the Poetry Club
偶結海棠社Writes the card founding the poetry club, names herself Guest Beneath the Plantains for the trees at her window, and sets the sisters their first subject.
- ch. 55
The Books Taken Up
理家Given the books while Xifeng is laid up, her first act is to refuse extra mourning money for the concubine Zhao's dead brother, holding to the old precedent.
- ch. 56
Letting the Garden Women Farm
除弊Lets the garden women farm the bamboo groves and fields on a surplus quota, so the estate earns from what it used to waste — the one reform with a head on it.
- ch. 70
The Phoenix Kite Let Go
風箏Her phoenix kite goes up over the garden and the sisters slip their own strings to shed bad luck; the kite is lost in the distance and none of them likes it.
- ch. 74
The Lantern at the Dawn Search
抄檢Meets the dawn search of the daughters' rooms with a lantern, a slap for the old woman who groped at her clothes, and the warning that great houses kill themselves first.
結局 The ending
Her verse puts tears at the river bank at Qingming and a thousand li of east wind, one far dream. In the 120-chapter text she is betrothed to the son of a southern commander and goes away over the water, so that the kite let go in ch. 70 is the last thing she does inside the garden.
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