62 pages • 2 hours read
Cao XueqinDream of the Red Chamber, Volume 1
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1760A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Xi-feng attempts to occupy herself now that her husband Jia Lian has left with Dai-yu on her journey home to see her father. She spends her time talking to her maid Patience late into the night. On one particular night, she struggles to sleep after Patience has finally nodded off. Suddenly, the figure of Qin-shi floats into the room. She has come to say goodbye to Xi-feng, as they were close friends. She asks Xi-feng if she might convey her last wish to her friend, and Xi-feng agrees. Qin-shi’s spirit then offers a brief speech about preparing the family for hardship so that their honor may be preserved. She says, “Honor and disgrace follow each other in unending cycle. No human power can arrest that cycle and hold it permanently” (256). She asks Xi-feng to suggest buying the land around the burial ground of the family. She proposes an investment in the clan school so that if they ever become impoverished, they will still own the land for farming and burials. They will also have the school for studying. In securing the land, the family can maintain its honor and nobility. The conversation ends with four sounds of a gong, the symbol of death. Xi-feng wakes with a start to find that Qin-shi is dead.
Funeral arrangements are made by Qin-shi’s father-in-law Cousin Zhen, who spends large sums of money for a 49-day mourning period with monks and prayers. He worries about his son Jia Rong’s station, which isn’t suitable for such an elaborate funeral. However, a eunuch with connections in the inner palace offers Jia Rong a position in the fifth regiment of the Imperial Guard. Cousin Zhen pays 1,000 silver for the position and secures Jia Rong’s station.
You-shi isn’t able to attend the funeral arrangements because of a bout of intestinal illness that she sometimes struggles with, and Cousin Zhen worries about entertaining people at their home without a woman in charge. Bao-yu suggests Xi-feng take over the role, and she agrees. As Xi-feng takes on her new position, she makes a list of five things that need to change in the household: Things are always getting lost; nobody takes responsibility for jobs because of a confusing division of labor; the expenditures are often lavish and unaccounted for; hardships are unfairly distributed; and servants are either poorly treated with no room for advancement or have unfair advantage despite poor behavior. She plans to see these changes put into action.
Chapter 14 Summary
Xi-feng takes on the duties of You-shi as the head of the household of the Ning-guo mansion. She is strict in her methods, and everyone agrees that she will be more unforgiving than their typical mistress. As a result, they should expect long days and early mornings. Xi-feng begins by reassigning everyone to new tasks, holding them responsible for each object in their respective areas. She asks that each morning she be brought tallies of expenses to track in her ledger. As such, she solves the problems of losing things, unnecessary expenditures, and the unfair rankings of the servants, as well as assigning jobs to specific groups of servants so no task could be avoided. She also takes on disciplinary actions against servants no matter their rank, and she has one female maid beaten with bamboo in the courtyard when she is late for morning roll call. For her hard work, “every member of the clan was loud in her praises” (283).
During Xi-feng’s duties, a servant named Shiner returns to report back on the status of Jia Lian’s journey with Dai-yu. He reports that Dai-yu’s father has died, and that Jia Lian is bringing the man to his final resting place in Soochow. Afterward, he and Dai-yu would return, likely in late spring. Xi-feng prepares winter furs for Jia Lian and sends Shiner back with messages for her husband to take care of himself and avoid drinking, gambling, and “bad women” (281).
Finally, the day of the wake and the funeral procession comes. Xi-feng gets up early and weeps before the shrine holding Qin-shi’s body. As is custom, papers are burnt to begin the parade. The Prince of Beijing is present at this parade; he hopes to pay respects to the Duke of Ning-guo because of an ancestral connection. After Cousin Zhen kotows the prince and thanks him for coming to Qin-shi’s funeral, the Prince asks to meet Bao-yo, “the boy who was born with a stone in his mouth” (286). Bao-yu is thrilled to meet the Prince, who he heard is an “unconventional” (284) man, and rushes up to his carriage to meet him.
Chapter 15 Summary
Jia Zheng and Bao-yu greet the Prince in his carriage. The Prince is pleased to meet Bao-yu and compliments his attractive appearance. He reads the inscription on the jade necklace and asks if the prophecy is true. Jia Zheng admits they have never tested it, and the Prince returns the necklace to Bao-yu’s neck with his own hands. Bao-yu responds promptly to the Prince’s questions about his studies and his life at home. The Prince suggests that Bao-yu get away from the house to further his education in the palace, where he can talk with prominent scholars and writers. Bao-yu and the other members of the family are pleased at the offer.
The rest of the funeral procession continues out into the countryside, where Qin-shi will be buried at the Temple of the Iron Threshold. Bao-yu rides in Xi-feng’s carriage, and Qin Zhong joins them during a brief break to stretch their legs. They come to a small farm, where the farmers serve tea, and Bao-yu feels attracted to a pretty farm girl named Ertie. Finally, Xi-feng, Bao-yu, and Qin Zhong stay on at the Water-moon Priory, a nunnery with better lodging than the rustic quarters at the family’s burial site. At the nunnery, the Prioress Euergesia pressures Xi-feng to use her power to do a favor for a friend who is struggling with a marriage proposal. Xi-feng agrees, for the cost of 3,000 taels, because Euergesia suggests that Xi-feng will be considered ill-equipped to do the job if she doesn’t agree.
Meanwhile, Qin Zhong finds himself among Sapientia, a little girl who “had been a regular visitor at the Rong-guo mansion ever since she was a little girl [...] She had fallen in love with Qin Zhong [...] and Qin Zhong, captivated by her developing charms, had responded by loving her back” (296). At first, Qin Zhong denies his affections in front of Bao-yu, but later he comes upon Sapientia in the kitchen and takes her to bed. Bao-yu finds them, and Qin Zhong’s secret is revealed. The trio stay at the nunnery another day, and they finally return once Xi-feng sends a letter completing her task and Qin Zhong makes promises of love to Sapientia. The only person from the household left at the grave is Jewel, who refuses to go back to the house. Jewel is a devoted maid who acted in the role of unmarried daughter for the childless Qin-shi.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Indebtedness, and its relationship to reputation, is clear in these chapters, in which Xi-feng matures into her new role as mistress of the house and begins to understand with more nuance the power she wields. Xi-feng is brutal in the way she conducts business in the house, and as such, her family members deeply respect her, while the servants deeply fear her. Her own power moves her, and she gains confidence in her ability to grapple with difficult situations and enforce the law of the house: “Xi-feng might be forgiven for contemplating her achievement with a certain amount of satisfaction” (274). This “satisfaction” becomes more complicated, however, when the Prioress Euergesia uses Xi-feng’s idea of her own power against her, to convince Xi-feng to do her bidding.
Xi-feng at first refuses to complete a small task to help a friend of the Prioress, saying she and Lady Wang “[don’t] touch this kind of thing” (297). But when Euergesia suggests that her friend will think Xi-feng doesn’t have the power to get the job done, Xi-feng becomes riled and agrees to the task, just to demonstrate her philosophy: “If I decide I want to do something, I do it” (298). Ironically, Xi-feng didn’t wanted to do this favor; instead, her idea of herself as someone who has the power to do as she pleases forces her to undertake the task in order to prove herself and maintain her reputation.
The jade also returns as an object of significance in this chapter. Bao-yu is marked as special by his reputation as “the boy who was born with a stone in his mouth” (286). As such, he is called to meet the Prince of Beijing, who offers him access to the palace to help further his education. The Prince recognizes that Bao-yu has a divinely chosen fate and is a unique child because of the presence of the jade. This moment solidifies both Bao-yu’s central role in the novel as well as his connection to cosmic events and fated encounters.
Finally, the illusion of earthly life is discussed by the spirit of Qin-shi early in Chapter 13, as she comes to Xi-feng with concerns about the family’s spending and their lack of humility. Qin-shi seems more aware than any of the other family members: “Honor and disgrace follow each other in unending cycle. No human power can arrest that cycle and hold it permanently” (256). Qin-shi chastises the family for acting as if it will always be in power, despite its lack of control over cosmic influences and fate. She expresses to Xi-feng a certainty that life is about cycles, and their time of “disgrace” will eventually come. This “disgrace” has been foreshadowed since the beginning of the novel, and Xi-feng is frightened by her friend’s suggestion. Qin-shi asks Xi-feng not to resist the idea of this disgrace, as it is inevitable. Instead, she asks Xi-feng to enact a plan that will help the family members maintain their honor during hard times by focusing their money and attention on the family burial site. In doing so, the family can respect its ancestors and protect the Jia clan school. Studying, respect for the dead, and farming are righteous behaviors—behaviors that many younger members of the family, including Bao-yu, are less concerned with than love and games. This visit by Qin-shi only furthers the idea that the family must take a more spiritual path, or risk losing honor, as the gift of wealth is only an illusion and has no lasting value.
