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Jia
Xichun
An
Ho, 1993, watercolor on silk mounted on rice paper using traditional
Chinese technique, 54" x 88"
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youngest of Dream of the Red Chamber hero Baoyu's female
cousins, Xichun (Cherish Spring) is the fourth of the quartet
of "Springs." She was born into the Ning branch of the Jia family.
Because her mother died when she was still a child, Xichun was
taken by Baoyu's mother Lady Wang to the Rong Mansion and was
brought up there in the company of her older cousins. In spite
of her tender age, however, she reveals a definite preference
for the religious order early in the novel. This detached view
of life manifests itself most clearly when the Jia fortune begins
to show signs of decline and a search of her apartment discovers
that one of her maids have smuggled goods into the Prospect Garden
against house rules. Xichun immediately dismisses the maid and
renounces all her ties to her paternal family. Not much of a poet,
she appears to be a rather skillful painter and was entrusted
by the Matriarch with the task of making a painting of the garden.
In the sequel, she becomes like Miaoyu an "unshaved nun" after
Miaoyu is kidnapped. |
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