The Warning Voice

by Cao Xueqin

  SNOWGOOSE maid of Dai-yu

  SUN SHAO-ZU brutal sensualist to whom Jia She insists on marrying Ying-chun

  SUNLOUD

  }

  maids of Lady Wang

  SUNSET

  SWALLOW junior maid attached to Green Delights; daughter of Parfumée’s foster-mother, Mamma He

  TAN see JIA TAN-CHUN

  TAN-CHUN see JIA TAN-CHUN

  TANGERINE maid of Ying-chun

  TEALEAF Bao-yu’s principal page

  ‘UNCLE DUMBO’ see XING DE-QUAN

  UNCLE SHE see JIA SHE

  UNCLE ZHENG see JIA ZHENG

  WANG JI-REN doctor in regular attendance on the Rong-guo Jia family

  WANG SHAN-BAO’S WIFE a meddlesome old woman; trusted servant of Lady Xing; Chess’s grandmother

  WANG XI-FENG wife of Jia Lian and niece of Lady Wang, Aunt Xue and Wang Zi-teng

  WANG XIN a member of the Wang household employed by Wang Xi-feng

  WANG ZI-TENG elder brother of Lady Wang and Aunt Xue; Inspector-General of Armies in the Nine Provinces

  WIDOW SHAN one of the senior Rong-guo stewardesses

  WU XIN-DENG Clerk of Stores at the Rong-guo mansion

  WU XING

  }

  servants of Lady Wang who were orginally

  members of her father’s household

  WU XING’S WIFE

  XI-CHUN see JIA XI-CHUN

  XI-FENG see WANG XI-FENG

  XI-LUAN see JIA XI-LUAN

  XIA BING-ZHONG eunuch Master of the Bedchamber in the Imperial Palace

  XIA JIN-GUI termagant wife of Xue Pan

  XIANG-LIAN see LIU XIANG-LIAN

  XIANG-TUN see SHI XIANG-TUN

  XING DE-QUAN Lady Xing’s good-for-nothing brother; father of Xing Xiu-yan

  XING XIU-YAN niece of Lady Xing befriended by Adamantina, later betrothed to Bao-chai’s cousin Xue Ke

  XIU-YAN see XING XIU-YAN

  XUE BAO-CHAI daughter of Aunt Xue

  XUE BAO-QIN niece of Aunt Xue and younger sister of Xue Ke

  XUE KE Xue Bao-qin’s elder brother

  XUE PAN the ‘Oaf King’, al. ‘Cousin Oaf’; son of Aunt Xue and elder brother of Bao-chai

  YELÜ HUNNI see PARFUMÉE

  YING see JIA YING-CHUN

  YING-CHUN see JIA YING-CHUN

  YOU ER-JIE elder of You-shi’s two step-sisters

  YOU SAN-JIE younger of You-shi’s two step-sisters

  YOU-SHI wife of Cousin Zhen and mother of Jia Rong

  YU LU junior steward at Ning-guo House

  YUAN-CHUN see JIA YUAN-CHUN

  YUN see SHI XIANG-YUN

  ZHANG DE-HUI manager of Xue Pan’s shop

  ZHANG HUA dissolute young gambler betrothed since infancy to You Er-jie

  ZHANGS, THE destitute family of which Zhang Hua was a member

  ZHAO GUO-JI brother of Aunt Zhao

  ZHEN see COUSIN ZHEN

  ZHENG HUA

  }

  servants of Lady Wang orginally

  members of her father’s household

  ZHENG HUA’S WIFE

  ZHENS, THE powerful Nanking family having dose ties with the Jias

  ZHOU RUI

  }

  trusted senior servants on the staff of Rong-

  guo House

  ZHOU RUI’S WIFE

  ZHU-ER’S WIFE daughter-in-law of Ying-chun’s former wet-nurse

  1. Or however many chapters this last part of the novel was divided into. Xueqin’s statement in chapter 1 and certain features of the Red Inkstone manuscripts suggest that the earliest versions may have had no chapter divisions at all.

  1. Curiously enough the text of the manuscript I call ‘Gao E’s draft’ has got ‘Skybright’ instead of ‘Sandal’ here. Gao E’s eventual preference for ‘Sandal’, which he presumably found in other texts available to him, must have been based on a misunderstanding of what was wrong in the text of his draft: Skybright’s mother. His published text – in the only editions that are available to me – besides reverting to ‘Sandal’, has also substituted ‘mother’s illness’ for ‘mother’s birthday’. I am unable to assess the significance of this without access to more of the manuscript and printed editions than are at present available to me.