beauties
of Jinling
12
One of the titles considered for the Hong Lou Meng, “The 12 Beauties of Jinling” refers to twelve principal female characters in the novel. In an early dream sequence, the male protaganist Baoyu is shown poetic records of the twelve in question via a registry, with their fates foreshadowed in riddle form.
12
beauties
of Jinling
One of the titles considered for the Hong Lou Meng, “The 12 Beauties of Jinling” refers to twelve principal female characters in the novel. In an early dream sequence, the male protaganist Baoyu is shown poetic records of the twelve in question via a registry, with their fates foreshadowed in riddle form.
CULTURAL NOTE
In the introduction to Dream of Red Mansions (one of the many English renderings of Hong Lou Meng), the narrator writes self-effacingly of his own failings, while introducing the women whom he was fortunate to know in affectionate and almost reverential terms. One of the great classic works of Chinese literature, the Hong Lou Meng enjoys huge cultural status and at various times in history has formed the subject of an almost feverish obsession – the study of the book even garnering its own term 紅學 (hóng xué, or ‘Red-ology’).
林黛玉
Lín Dàiyù
Lin Daiyu
A jade belt hangs in the forest
玉帶林中掛
The first image encountered in the register shows two dead trees with a jade belt hanging from them. The jade (玉) already hints at the character of Lin Daiyu (林黛玉), and the corresponding verse makes the reference clear still: two trees together (木+木) create her surname (林). The belt is a punning reference to Lin’s name: belt (dai 帶) is a homonym for the 黛 (dai) of her name. This macabre image portends the tragic end of Lin Daiyu in the story.
薛宝钗
Xuē Bǎochāi
Xue Baochai
A gold hairpin is buried in snow
金簪雪裏埋
The same image and verse that represented Lin Daiyu (above) also shows another character, Xue Baochai 薛寶釵, who, with her healthy practicality and conventional charm, serves as a perfect foil to the sensitive and fragile Daiyu; in the mythology of the tale, the two together form the ideal woman. Her name means ‘precious hairpin’ and the motif of gold follows her throughout the story. The snow here (雪 xue) is a homonym for her surname.
賈元春
Jiǎ Yuánchūn
Jia Yuanchun
A pomegranate blossom illuminates the imperial palace
榴花開處照宮闈
Yuanchun is the older sister of Baoyu. The reference to the imperial palace in the poem is a straightforward one: after serving in the palace as a lady-in-waiting, she becomes an Imperial Concubine: a position of great honour which nonetheless becomes stifling for her. Yuanchun’s illustration in the register shows an archery bow with a citrus hanging from it. In David Hawkes’ view, the bow is a simple pun for the palace (弓 “bow” = 宫 “palace”), while the citrus (櫞 yuan) represents the Yuan (元) of her name.
賈探春
Jiǎ Tànchūn
Jia Yuanchun
Borne by the wind a thousand miles away
千里東風一夢遙
Jia Tanchun (賈探春) is represented in the register by the image of two people flying a kite, along with a crying woman in a boat. The motif of a kite follows Tanchun throughout the story. The reference in the verse above to being “blown 1000 miles away” riffs on the kite theme as well as the weeping woman in the boat; the intelligent and talented Tanchun is fated to marry an official in a distant province far from home.
史湘雲
Shǐ Xiāngyún
Shi Xiangyun
The Xiang river flows away;
the Chu clouds have flown
湘江水逝楚雲飛
The painting that represents Shi Xiangyun (史湘云) is of drifting clouds and flowing water. The poem further elaborates: these are the waters of the Xiang river (湘, the same character as in Xiangyun’s name). Continuing the geographical theme, the “Chu clouds” pick up the 云(雲) (clouds) character of her name (the Xiang river flows through the Chu region). Xiangyun’s fate is to lose her husband after a happy but brief marriage and remain a chaste widow to the end of her days.
妙玉
Miào Yù
Miao Yu
Alas though fine as gold or jade,
she sinks at last into the mire
可憐金玉質,終陷淖泥中
Miaoyu (妙玉) means something like ‘wonderful jade’ and the image that accompanies her poem in the register is a fine piece of jade dropped in the mud. Miaoyu (her name is rendered ‘Adamantina’ in the David Hawkes translation) is a nun who is obsessed with purity; she meets a cruelly ironic end when captured by bandits and forced to live in a brothel.
賈迎春
Jiǎ Yíngchūn
Jia Yingchun
Her husband is the wolf of Zhongshan
子係中山狼
Jia Yingchun (賈迎春) has as her image a wolf carrying off a beautiful maiden, and the Wolf of Zhong Shan alluded to in the verse is from a fable in which a Mohist scholar saves a wolf from hunters only to become the beast’s next meal. In the story, the good-hearted Yingchun is married off to an abusive and ungrateful man. This wolfish husband has the surname 孫 (sun) and there is graphical wordplay in this poem as the first two characters 子and 係 meaning “the master is” or “you are” can be combined to form his surname.
賈惜春
Jiǎ Xīchūn
Jia Xichun
Pity this child of a wealthy noble house / Sleeping alone beside Buddha’s alter lamp
可憐繡戶侯門女,獨臥青燈古佛傍!
Jia Xichun (賈惜春) has as her image in the register a fairly direct depiction of her life: a woman sits alone in an old temple reading a sutra. There is little left to interpretation here. In the story Xichun indeed decides to turn her back on worldly affairs and enters a Buddhist order.
王熙鳳
Wáng Xīfèng
Wang XiFeng
The phoenix appears at the end of an age
風鳥偏從末世來
Wang Xifeng is one of the most memorable characters in the novel, whose iron-fisted control over the household is matched by her wit, charm and manipulative ways. Her name means phoenix, and her accompanying image in the register is of a phoenix perched on an iceberg, probably alluding to the hard times she faced after the fall of the family. It may be that in the author’s original scheme for the ending of the book some catastrophe was to befall her in the snow.
賈巧姐
Jiǎ Qiǎojiě
Jia Qiaojie
Meeting a kind person by a happy chance
巧得遇恩人
Jie Qiaojie (賈巧姐) is the daughter of Wang Xifeng (Phoenix). The ‘happy chance’ in the verse above plays on the ‘fortuitous’ (巧) character of her given name. Qiaojie’s image in the registry is a straightforward one: a girl sits spinning in a country cottage. Thanks to the fortuitous help of Granny Liu, Xichun eventually marries a farmer’s son and lives a simple bucolic life thereafter. This storyline echoes that of her mythological namesake, the Weaving Maiden of Chinese astrology, who marries the Herdboy across the Milky Way.
李紈
Lǐ Wán
Li Wan
The plum-tree bore her fruit after the rest,
Yet, when all’s done, her Orchid was the best.
桃李春風結子完,到頭誰似一盆蘭?
Li Wan (李紈) has as her image a healthy-looking orchid in a pot, while a lady in full court dress stands by. The plum tree refers to Liwan herself, picking up the plum (李) in her name. The orchid refers to her son Jia Lan (賈蘭) who eventually passes the civil service exams to become a high official (thus entitling Li Wan to the full court dress of the picture).
秦可卿
Qín Kěqīng
Qin Keqing
Love was her sea, her sky; in such excess
Love, meeting with its like, breeds wantonness.
情天情海幻情深,情既相逢必主淫
Qin Keqing (秦可卿) is quite a mysterious character in the novel. It is with her that Baoyu has his first sexual encounter. This happens in the ordinary time of the main story, but also in a parallel world of fantasy. Fast asleep in the real world, Baoyu finds himself in the celestial realm where a fairy-like being called both “two-in-one” and “Keqing”, is understood to be the perfect combination of Baochai and Daiyu and thus the ideal divine for Baoyu’s sexual initiation. This is purportedly to cure him of his lustful inclinations. Predictably, it seems to have the opposite effect.
Sources and Further Reading
出版者:智揚去版社
出版日期:中華民國八十三年
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