Learning:
The Journey of a Lifetime
A Cloud Chamber of the Mind

2006 Literature Notebook

Lin Dai-yu. [2, 3, 4] Young daughter of Lin Ru-hai. She received tutoring from Jai Yu-cun but now she is being brought up by the Jias of Rong-guo mansion.

Li Wan. [4] young widow (her husband was the eldest son of Jia Zheng) in Rong-guo mansion with a 5-year old son, Jia Lan. Her father was a distinquished Nanking official. She has little formal education and spends her time serving her husband's parents and bringing up her son.

Jia Yu-cun. [1, 2, 3, 4] A poor student who becomes a bureaucrat. He has just been installed as an official in Ying-tian-fu and is given the task of investigating the murder by Xue Pan.

Xue Pan. [3, 4] Son of Aunt Xue in Nanking. Xue Pan, "relying on wealth and family pull to protect him from the consequences, had taken another man's life." A playboy with few morals.

Zhen Ying-lian. [1, 4] The young girl who was kidnapped when she was young and is now being sold as a slave. She is bought by Xue Pan and becomes his servant.

Aunt Xue. [4] Xue Pan's mother.

Bao-chai. [4] Xue Pan's sister.

Jia Yu-cun has just been installed as an official in Ying-tian-fu and is given the task of investigating the murder by Xue Pan. An advisor points out that Xue Pan comes from a very influential family in Nanking and that he had better find a way to compensate the relatives of the dead man while not prosecuting Xue Pan. Yu-cun is successful in this, thus avoiding a conflict.

In the course of learning the details of the murder, it turns out that both Xue Pan and the murdered man had purchased a youg girl as a slave. Further, this girl turns out to be the kidnapped girl of Zhen Shi-yen, Ying-lian.

Xue Pan, his mother, and his sister, move from Nanking to the capital and stays with his relatives in the Rong-guo mansion. He brings Ying-lian with him.

The Rong-gue mansion is a huge complex consisting of many building within a walled enclosure. Many of the families within the complex would hardly be aware of one another's existence.

The story has the immediate advantage of a huge number of possible stories among the various family members.

I have revised my notes for the first three chapters and added this chapter. A very satisfying afternoon.