Episode 44 Rereading Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, Chapter 21 part 1/2

Chapter 21’s quotidian garden affairs prompt a discussion of desire, identity, naming, and boundaries. Passive aggressive feuding between Baoyu and Xiren is displaced onto Baoyu’s interaction with other maids in the household; fed up with all these flagrantly fragrant designations, Baoyu on a whim re-renames a younger maid “Number 4.” His discontent is further expressed in impromptu Daoist, in particular Zhuangzian, poetic rumination, which we outline and begin to discuss.
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