Jia Xichun

Jia Xichun ( zh, t=賈惜春, p=Jiǎ Xīchūn, rendered Compassion Spring in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is a primary character in the 18th century Chinese 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 ...

''. Her father is Jia Jing, a son of Jia Daihua. She is the sister of Jia Zhen, ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' head of the Ningguo House, and Baoyu's

third cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

. When she was little, her mother died, and Lady Wang brought her to live in the Rongguo Mansion. A devout

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, she is religious since a small child and also a gifted painter. When Granny Liu visits the Prospect Garden, the Dowager commissions her to make a painting of the Garden for the guest. In Gao E's continuation, after the fall of the house of Jia, Xichun becomes a Buddhist nun in place of Miaoyu. Xichun is the second youngest of Jinling Twelve Beauties. Xichun's name translates to "cherish spring". She is the youngest of the quartet of "Springs", depicted as a young teenager or pre-teen for most of the book. Dream of the Red Chamber characters Fictional characters from Jiangsu Fictional Buddhist nuns Fictional nobility {{novel-char-stub