金钏王夫人房中大丫头 · 32
Leaf 32 of the Red Chamber · 大丫鬟 Head Maid of Lady Wang
Jinchuan 金钏
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the Maids (丫鬟) · nicknamed 大丫鬟 “Head Maid of Lady Wang”
One whisper at a sleeping mistress's bedside costs her her life; her death is how Baoyu learns that his tenderness is something other people are destroyed for.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 30
A Joke Before a Dozing Mistress
金釧戲語On a sweltering afternoon she teases Baoyu as she fans the dozing Lady Wang, hinting he has come for something on his own side of the room; her mistress wakes, boxes her ear and turns her out.
- ch. 32
Drowned in the Waste-Well
金釧投井Cast out and past defending herself, she is found drowned in the garden's waste-well. Lady Wang calls it a bad fall down the steps, buys funeral cloth and borrows a change of clothes from Baochai.
- ch. 33
The Accusation After the Well
讒父撻子Jia Huan tells his father that Baoyu tried to violate Jinchuan and drove her to the well; Jia Zheng beats his son within an inch of his death over that story and a second, unrelated one.
- ch. 43
Earth Incense by the Water
撮土為香On her birthday Baoyu rides out to a shrine by the water and burns earth-incense toward the water in her name; that night her ghost is seen in a courtyard of the house, saying thanks.
結局 The ending
She gets no more pages. Lady Wang fills her place with the younger sister Yuchuan, gives money to the family and lets the matter drop. The text grants her only a ghost that thanks someone once in the dark: her death stays the one thing everyone in the household has an opinion about except her.
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