Lady Wang (王夫人) is a character in the classic Chinese 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 wife of
Jia Zheng
''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 mother of
Jia Zhu (dead at the start of the novel),
Jia Yuanchun and
Jia Baoyu. She is the elder sister of
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 hence the maternal aunt to
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 be ...
and
Xue Pan
Xue Pan () is a secondary character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. He is a ne'er-do-well lout who is guilty of the killing of a man over a beautiful slave girl, Zhen Yinglian, who is renamed as Xiangling (L ...
.
She is on the surface a kind lady and 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 ...
, who delegates authority to her niece
Wang Xifeng
Wang Xifeng (, rendered Phoenix in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is one of the principal characters in the classic 18th century Chinese novel '' Dream of the Red Chamber''. She came from one of the Four Great Families, the Wang (the other three are ...
in the everyday running of the Rongguo household. However, she is prone to malicious rumors, and can act with cruelty towards maids she thinks are seducing her son. Lady Wang is one of the culprits resulting in the death of Baoyu's maid
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 ...
.
Wang, Lady
Wang, Lady
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