Xiangling (, rendered Caltrop in David Hawkes's translation) is a character in the 18th century novel ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known fo ...

''. She is the primary maid of the Xue household. Originally named Zhen Yinglian (), she is the lost daughter of Zhen Shiyin (甄士隱), the country gentleman in Chapter 1. Kidnapped as a young girl on the streets and sold to the Xue family under the name Xiangling (Lotus). Also an unofficial "

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

" to Xue Pan, she is greatly abused by him and later his wife, the cruel Xia Jingui. Xiangling is a kind girl who is much loved by

Aunt Xue ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...

and

Xue Baochai Xue Baochai (, and her surname is a homophone with "Snow", rendered Precious Virtue in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is one of the principal characters in the classic 18th century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. Described as extremely b ...

. When Pan leaves on a business trip and Jingui tries to kill Xiangling, Baochai takes her to the Garden to live with her. There, Xiangling is taught to write verses (

Shi (poetry) ''Shi'' and ''shih''Based on the Wade-Giles system formerly used by Taiwan and English-speaking countries. are romanizations of the character /, the Chinese word for all poetry generally and across all languages. In Western analysis of the st ...

). In the Cheng-Gao version, Xiangling eventually died in childbirth.

Media

*Xiangling is portrayed by Song Yi in the 2010 television series version '' The Dream of Red Mansions''.

References

Dream of the Red Chamber characters Fictional characters from Jiangsu Fictional victims of domestic abuse Fictional characters with amnesia Fictional maids {{novel-char-stub