Hua Xiren (, rendered Aroma in David Hawkes' translation and Pervading Fragrance in

Chi-chen Wang Chi-chen Wang (; 1899–2001) was a Chinese-born American literary scholar and translator. He taught as a professor at Columbia University from 1929 until his retirement in 1965. Life and career Wang was born in Huantai County, Shandong province ...

's translation), originally called Zhenzhu, is a major fictional character from the classic 18th century Chinese

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

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 for ...

''. She is the chief maid of

Jia Baoyu Jia Baoyu (, and his surname is a homophone with "false" or "fictitious") is the principal character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. Introduction The first chapter describes how one piece of stone was le ...

, the novel's protagonist. Her surname Hua means "Flower" and her given name literally means "assail people". Her given name is chosen by Baoyu and is borrowed from a line of poetry. Sold by her poor parents to the Jia family, Xiren is portrayed as highly intelligent, diligent, and thoughtful, and all of her masters —

Grandmother Jia Grandmother Jia ( zh, t=賈母, p=Jiǎ Mǔ), née Shi, so often also called Dowager Shi ( zh, s=史太君, p=Shǐ Tàijūn) or simply the Dowager, is a major character in the 18th century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. She is the daugh ...

Shi Xiangyun Shi Xiangyun () is a major fictional character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber'', one of the characters known as the Twelve Beauties. She is Jia Baoyu's younger second cousin by the Dowager, Grandmother Jia. Xi ...

, and Baoyu — are fond of her, as are most of her colleagues. In contrast to her partner

Qingwen Manchu (Manchu:, ) is a critically endangered East Asian Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchus, it was one of the official languages of the Qing dyn ...

, Xiren is often seen as an upholder of repressive feudal values (especially by

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

critics), and as such, whether she usually acts out of genuine kindness or self-interest has been a matter of intense academic debate.

Description

Baoyu's principal maid, Xiren is a few years older than her master. She was formerly

's maid: the Dowager ceded her to Baoyu owing to her extreme loyalty and diligence. In practice, as Xiren serves as Baoyu's primary caretaker, she is given higher allowances than the Dowager's own maids. Xiren is the partner of Baoyu's first adolescent sexual encounter in Chapter 5, though there is little evidence of an ongoing sexual relationship as the novel progresses. Xiren is valued for her conscientiousness by

Lady Wang Lady Wang (王夫人) is a character in the classic Chinese 18th century novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. She is the wife of Jia Zheng, and mother of Jia Zhu (dead at the start of the novel), Jia Yuanchun and Jia Baoyu. She is the elder sist ...

, Grandmother Jia, and other members of the Jia Clan. She urges Baoyu to study diligently and live up to his father's expectations, but Baoyu does not take her advice to heart and instead prefers not to enter the bureaucracy.

References

Dream of the Red Chamber characters Fictional maids {{China-stub