Chinese Literature

李纨凤冠霞帔 · 12

Leaf 12 of the Red Chamber · 稻香老农 Old Farmer of Paddy Fragrance

Li Wan 李纨

In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the Main register (正冊) · nicknamed 稻香老农 “Old Farmer of Paddy Fragrance”

Jia Zhu's widow, living in a cottage of thatch and paddy-smell out of the household's way: her verse grants her everything, far too late to be anything at all.

Origin
Daughter of a Jinling book-keeping officer; widow of Jia Zhu and mother of Jia Lan
Given
A young widow's portion in a rich house: no accounts, no authority, one son and one garden
Won
President and judge of the poetry club by consent, the sister nobody quarrels with
判詞 The register verse

桃李春风结子完， 到头谁似一盆兰？ 如冰水好空相妒， 枉与他人作笑谈。

Peach and plum in the spring wind: once the fruit is set, they are done. In the end, who is like one pot of orchids? Water fair and cold as ice — envied for nothing, and only a laughing tale for other folk.

畫 A flourishing pot of orchids, and beside it a beautiful woman in a phoenix cap and rosy cape.

The great deeds 大事記

  1. ch. 37

    Presiding Over the Poetry Club

    主社

    Takes the club's chair under the name Old Farmer of Paddy Fragrance, sets the first subject and awards the opening round, and does not deign to write herself.

  2. ch. 55

    Ruling the Household in Proxy

    兼理

    Set over the household with Tanchun and Baochai while Xifeng keeps her bed, she wields the least of the three and gives the household the least trouble of the three.

  3. ch. 63

    Drawing the Old Plum Stick

    梅籤

    Draws the old plum at the birthday draw — bamboo fence, thatched hut, pleased with herself in the frost — and the stick goes round as her portrait.

結局 The ending

Her verse puns her name into the peaches and plums that bear fruit and are done with, and asks who at the end can match one pot of orchids — her son. The 120-chapter text grants it: he rises and the rosy cape comes to her, and the tune beside the verse calls it a tale for other people's laughter.

In the same register & chapters 同冊

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