knowledge Lin Hongyu is a character in the Qing novel Dream of the Red Chamber. Wikidata records her birth name as Lin Hongyu and lists the English alias Lin Hongyu, and the Chinese Wikipedia article also takes Lin Hongyu as her name, with Xiaohong and Hong'er as later forms, so the heading is changed to her full name. She is a maid of the Rongguo house, set in the dynasty of the novel, and recorded as female.[1][2]
Position and the change of name
The Chinese Wikipedia article says she is seventeen when she first appears, "clean and pretty", and that her family have been servants of the Rongguo house for generations. Her father is Lin Zhixiao, the second steward of the Rong house. When the Grand View Garden was finished she was assigned to Yihong Court. Later Yuanchun ordered Baoyu, Daiyu, Baochai and others to move into the garden, and Baoyu took up residence in Yihong Court. Because her name clashed with those of Daiyu and Baoyu, Hongyu came to be called Xiaohong or Hong'er. In Yihong Court her place is low. She carries water, waters flowers, feeds birds and lights stoves, and has no standing to wait on Baoyu directly. Once, when no maid was in the room, she went in to pour Baoyu tea and Qiuwen spat at her face and scolded her as unworthy of passing tea and water. Disappointed in her prospects, she sees through the world and sighs that a thousand-mile awning must come down and every banquet must end.[2]
With Wang Xifeng
The article says that on the Festival of Grain in Ear, when Wang Xifeng toured the garden without her own maid, she had Hongyu run an errand. She liked how capable Hongyu was and how crisply she spoke, and nearly took her as a goddaughter, which was prevented only because Hongyu's mother was already Xifeng's goddaughter and the generations did not fit. Later she asked Baoyu to give Hongyu to her. But Xiaohong was not given much responsibility there either, and appears only three more times in the first eighty chapters.[2]
With Jia Yun
The article says that Hongyu and Jia Yun, from a collateral branch of the Jia clan, like each other, and their story is summed up as the foolish girl who loses a handkerchief and brings on longing. Jia Yun, keeping an appointment with Baoyu, waited in the outer study and met Hongyu, and asked her to pass on a message. The next day she could not find her handkerchief and dreamed Jia Yun had picked it up. Later, when Baoyu was bewitched and Jia Yun kept watch with servants day and night, Hongyu saw that her lost handkerchief seemed to be in his hands. When the little maid Zhuier led Jia Yun to Yihong Court, Hongyu asked Zhuier to help look for the handkerchief. Jia Yun said he had found one, but gave Zhuier his own handkerchief to pass to Hongyu. She took it and falsely said it was hers, and gave Zhuier another to pass to Jia Yun in thanks.[2]
The lost manuscript and the last forty chapters
The article says that, according to the commentary of Zhiyan Zhai, the lost chapters after the eightieth contain episodes such as the confiscation and the Temple of the Prison God, in which Hongyu is active and an important positive character, directly helping Baoyu. The scholar Song Qi guesses that during the confiscation she served Xifeng faithfully, and that when Xifeng and Baoyu were briefly held in the temple she and Jia Yun brought food and clothing in their hour of need. Shen Zhijun guesses that she reached outlaws such as Ni Er through Jia Yun to try to save them, and died for being drawn into Baoyu's trouble. As to her love with Jia Yun, Song Qi thinks they would marry, while Shen Zhijun thinks it may end in tragedy like that of Baoyu and Daiyu. These are all conjecture. In the Cheng Jia edition compiled by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E, in the last forty chapters, Xiaohong serves Wang Xifeng until her death, appears little, and in chapter 88 has a flirtatious exchange with Jia Yun.[2]
Assessments
The article says opinions on Xiaohong are polarized among characters, commentators and researchers. In the book Qingwen, Qiuwen and Bihen of Yihong Court push her aside and sneer at her wish to climb higher, while Wang Xifeng likes her crisp speech and quick work. Zhiyan Zhai calls her a sly and wicked maid, while Jihu Sou, who saw the draft of the Prison God Temple, defends her. Some see the Xiaohong of the first eighty chapters as an opportunist who flatters and schemes to climb, while some scholars admire her and Jia Yun for their ambition and effort.[2]