龄官梨香院女旦 · 34
Leaf 34 of the Red Chamber · 小旦 Young Actress of the Troupe
Lingguan 龄官
In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (c. 1791) · in the Maids (丫鬟) · nicknamed 小旦 “Young Actress of the Troupe”
She refuses to sing on command even for an imperial consort, then spends a rainy afternoon tracing another man's name in the ground where no one is meant to see.
The great deeds 大事記
- ch. 18
Choosing Her Own Piece
自擇其戲At the Consort's reception the manager orders her two more pieces; she answers that they were not meant for this occasion and dares not sing them, and is left to choose her own — and rewarded for it.
- ch. 30
One Character Drawn in the Mud
齡官畫薔Unseen over the wall, Baoyu watches a girl lie full-length in the rain, tracing one character — 蔷 — over and over in the mud with a hairpin until her clothes are soaked through.
- ch. 36
The Aria She Would Not Sing
齡官拒唱Baoyu asks for the aria he most wants to hear and she refuses flatly, saying it is not for such as he; then Jia Qiang arrives with a caged bird to amuse her, and she quarrels with him about the cage.
結局 The ending
She is ill, she loves Jia Qiang — the character she keeps tracing in the mud — and then the novel stops telling. Lingguan goes out of the 120-chapter text without a line of farewell when the troupe is broken up; of all the actresses her end is left most completely open.
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