New Here? This is Chapter 22 of Dream of the Red Chamber, China's greatest novel, translated into modern English one scene at a time. Start with the Start Here guide, or meet the family on the Characters page.
Last chapter ended with Wang Xifeng telling her husband not to leave, because she had something else to talk to him about. He had good reason to be nervous.
Previously: Ping’er found a lock of another woman’s hair in Jia Lian’s pillowcase and hid it from her mistress. (See The Lock of Hair.)
What Xifeng wants to talk about is a birthday. Xue Baochai is turning fifteen, and nobody in this house throws a party without first checking what they did for Lin Daiyu. Then Grandmother Jia decides to pay for it herself, and Xifeng tells her to her face exactly what she thinks of the amount.
Who’s here: Wang Xifeng · Jia Lian · Xue Baochai · Shi Xiangyun · Grandmother Jia (All the characters)
Two Translators Disagree. Xifeng says fifteen is an important age for a girl. David Hawkes calls it “a sort of coming-of-age.” The Yangs say she has “reached marriageable age.” Mine, and why, is below.
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