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Characters in novels, opera, games and other works, including portrayals of historical figures.
People
Li Shishi is a character in Water Margin whom Wikidata describes as a courtesan of Bianjing, and who is also recorded under the form Li Xingshou. The figure is based on the historical Li Shishi. This entry rests on Wikidata alone, so only a few facts can be confirmed.
People
Jin Yuanyang is the senior maid of the Lady Dowager in Dream of the Red Chamber, a household-born slave of the Jia family and the Lady Dowager's trusted right hand. Her brother Jin Wenxiang is the purchasing agent of the Lady Dowager's rooms. When Jia She wants to take her as a concubine she swears she would die before yielding, and she is freed from his pursuit only when the Lady Dowager steps in. In the last forty chapters she hangs herself in despair after the Lady Dowager's death.
People
Zixu Shangren is a fictional Daoist in Romance of the Three Kingdoms who lives on Jinping Mountain in Yi Province and can foretell people's fates. When Liu Bei attacked Yi Province, Liu Gui and others consulted him on the way, and he wrote eight lines hinting at Pang Tong's death and Zhuge Liang's pacification of Yi.[^wikidata][^zhwiki]
People
Duobao Daoren (Daoist of Many Treasures) is a senior disciple of the Heavenly Teacher Tongtian in Investiture of the Gods, listed with Jinling Shengmu, Wudang Shengmu and Guiling Shengmu. Tongtian gives him four swords to set up the Zhuxian formation, but Taishang Laojun sweeps him away with a wind-and-fire cushion. His disciple is Huoling Shengmu.
People
Si Xingfang is a character in the novel Water Margin, a subordinate of Fang Tianding, the crown prince of the rebel Fang La, and one of the four marshals of the southern realm with the title General Who Protects the State. He holds Hangzhou with Deng Yuanjue, Shi Bao and Li Tianrun, kills Lei Heng of Liangshan at Deqing, and is later defeated by Lu Junyi and Huyan Zhuo and drowns while pursuing across a stream.
People
Zhang Jie is a fictional character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, an official of Cao Wei who holds the post of attendant gentleman of the yellow gate. When Sima Yan pressed Emperor Yuan of Wei, Cao Huan, to abdicate, he denounced Sima Yan as a usurper and was beaten to death by Sima Yan's soldiers. Wikidata records his death in 266.
People
Zhang Shao is a character in Investiture of the Gods who sets up the Red Sand formation, one of the Ten Heavenly Lords of Golden Turtle Island. King Wu of Zhou goes in to break it himself and suffers for a hundred days inside before the Southern Pole Immortal rescues him. The Immortal fans away the red sand with the five-fire seven-bird fan, and the White Crane Boy gives Zhang Shao the fatal blow.
People
Li Chunxiang is a fictional character in chapter 57 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the concubine of the attendant gentleman Huang Kui, who is secretly involved with Huang Kui's brother-in-law Miao Ze. At Miao Ze's urging she draws out Huang Kui's plan to kill Cao Cao and tells Miao Ze, who informs Cao Cao, and Huang Kui and Ma Teng are killed. Cao Cao despises Miao Ze for it and has him and Li Chunxiang executed together.
People
Gao Qiu is a fictional character in Water Margin, holding the rank of grand marshal in the Northern Song. He is also recorded under the forms Grand Marshal Gao and Commander Gao of the Palace Guard. The figure is based on the historical Gao Qiu. This entry rests on Wikidata alone, so only a few facts can be confirmed.
People
Puxian Zhenren is a character of Investiture of the Gods, a disciple of the Primordial Heavenly Worthy and one of the twelve immortals of Kunlun, with his own cave on Mount Jiugong and the disciple Mu Zha. In the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation he subdues Lingya Xian, who reverts to a white elephant and becomes his mount. He later turns to the West and becomes the bodhisattva Puxian.
People
Zhong Jin is a fictional character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms who does not appear in the standard histories. He is the younger brother of Zhong Yao, governor of Chang'an, and a commander under Cao Cao in the novel. When Ma Chao attacks Chang'an, he guards the west gate and is cut down by Pang De when he runs to put out a fire at night.
People
Dǒumǔ, also written Doumu, is a Daoist goddess and the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper. Daoist scriptures make her Lady Ziguang, consort of King Zhouyu in the Longhan age, who bears nine sons from golden lotus buds. She is also merged with Marichi and the Queen Mother of the West. Investiture of the Gods calls her Holy Mother Jinling, teacher of Grand Preceptor Wen, and makes her the spirit of the dipper mother of the Kan palace.
People
Lady You is the wife of Jia Zhen and the legal mother of Jia Rong in Dream of the Red Chamber, the mistress who runs the Ningguo house, described as a gourd with its mouth sawn off. When her daughter-in-law Qin Keqing died she fell ill and Jia Zhen asked Wang Xifeng of the Rong house to manage the household. She tried hard to stop the marriage of You Erjie but failed. The sources give no personal name.
People
Jieyin Daoren is a character of Investiture of the Gods and, with Zhunti Daoren, a head of the Western teaching, whose role is to lead immortals of the Chan and Jie teachings who have a bond with the West to the West. He is sixteen chi tall and wears his hair in a topknot, and his treasures are the sarira, the green-lotus banner, a whisk and the pouch of heaven and earth. In the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation he gathers into the pouch all who share that bond.
People
Wang Jin is the arms instructor of the eight-hundred-thousand imperial guards at Dongjing in the novel Water Margin, skilled in all eighteen weapons and above all in the staff. Having offended the grand commandant Gao Qiu, he flees by night with his mother, teaches and takes Shi Jin as a pupil at the Shi estate, then goes on to Yan'an, after which he does not appear in the book. The Chinese Wikipedia article says a historical person of this name also existed.
People
Cihang Daoren is a character of Investiture of the Gods, corresponding to the Daoist goddess Cihang Zhenren. The novel makes her a disciple of the Primordial Heavenly Worthy, one of the twelve immortals of Kunlun with her own cave on Mount Putuo, who later joins the Western Buddhist teaching. The cited article notes that the novel merges her with the Buddhist Guanyin.
People
Lin Hongyu is a maid of the Rongguo house in Dream of the Red Chamber. Because her name clashed with those of Daiyu and Baoyu, she came to be called Xiaohong or Hong'er. She is the daughter of Lin Zhixiao, the second steward of the Rong house, begins with rough tasks in Yihong Court, and is later taken by Wang Xifeng to run errands. She and Jia Yun like each other, and the commentary hints that she may play an important part in the lost chapters after the eightieth.
People
Juliusun is a mythological figure of Investiture of the Gods and one of the twelve immortals of Kunlun under the Primordial Heavenly Worthy. He lives in the Feiyun cave on Mount Jialong and has Tu Xingsun as his disciple. With his talisman that turns the ground to steel and his immortal-binding rope he breaks Zhao Jiang's formation in the ten-formation battle, and he later becomes the Buddha Juliusun.
People
Su Yuanjing is a grand commandant of the court in the novel Water Margin, who fits a prophecy of the Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens. Honest, loyal and upright, he strongly favors amnesty for Liangshan. The court sends edicts three times, and only the third, carried by him, succeeds. The Liangshan heroes also rely on his protection whenever they fall into danger.
People
Ning Sui is a fictional character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Shu Han general serving as Jiang Wei's deputy. In the Wei conquest of Shu, the Wei general Zhuge Xu holds the Yinping bridgehead to cut off Jiang Wei's retreat, and Ning Sui proposes striking what the enemy must rescue: Jiang Wei should feign an attack on Yongzhou to draw Zhuge Xu back.
People
Sun Shaozu is the husband of Jia Yingchun in Dream of the Red Chamber, nicknamed the Wolf of Zhongshan. He is from Datong prefecture in Shanxi, descended from army officers, and was once a protege of the Ning and Rong houses. Coarse and vile, he loves women, gambling and drink, and he abuses Yingchun until she dies. After the Jia family's property is seized, he writes to Jia Zheng demanding money that Jia She owed him.
People
Li Wan, courtesy name Gongcai, is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber and one of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling in the main register. She is the wife of Jia Zhu, the eldest son of Jia Zheng. Widowed young, she raised her posthumous son Jia Lan, was kind and did not interfere much, was called the Great Bodhisattva, and served as head of the Begonia Poetry Club under the name Daoxiang Laonong.
People
Queen Consort Jiang is the first queen of King Zhou of Shang in Investiture of the Gods and the earlier tale of King Wu's Attack on Zhou. She is the daughter of Jiang Huanchu, Lord of the Eastern Marches, and the mother of the crown princes Yin Jiao and Yin Hong. Framed by Daji, she is demoted and put into the cold palace, is restored, and then dies at Daji's hands, afterwards becoming the Taiyin star. The sources give no personal name.
People
Jia Xichun is the youngest of the four Jia sisters in Dream of the Red Chamber, the youngest daughter of Jia Jing of the Ningguo house and a full sister of Jia Zhen, raised in the Rongguo house at the side of the Lady Dowager. Aloof and cold in temper, she represents the Buddhist idea of emptiness in the book, and by her fate verse she becomes a nun after the Jia house is raided.
People
Ge Ding is a fictional character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, from Donglai commandery in Qing province, a fellow townsman and subordinate officer of Taishi Ci. Sent by Taishi Ci into Hefei to set a fire, he was found out by Zhang Liao, captured by Li Dian, and beheaded in front of Zhang Liao's horse.
People
Jia Yuanchun is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber, a daughter of Jia Zheng and Lady Wang and the elder full sister of Jia Baoyu, named Yuanchun because she was born on the first day of the first month. After being chosen for the palace she is made Virtuous Consort, and the Jia house builds the Grand View Garden for her visit home. The last forty chapters have her die in the palace, with contradictory statements about her age.
People
Jia Yingchun is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber, a daughter of Jia She of the Rongguo house by a concubine, half-sister of Jia Lian, and a resident of Ziling Isle in the Grand View Garden. Gentle and kind but timid, she was married off by Jia She to settle a debt to the 'wolf of Zhongshan', Sun Shaozu, and died after ill-treatment.
People
Jia Fu is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber, the eldest son of Jia Daihua of the Ningguo house and the elder brother of Jia Jing, who the book says died young. He is mentioned in chapter 2 as the eldest of the senior branch of the Ning house.
People
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun, also called the Great Emperor of Green Splendor of the Eastern Pole, is a Daoist deity who lives in the Miaoyan palace of the Qinghua Changle realm and delivers suffering souls. He is pictured riding a nine-headed lion with a willow branch and purifying water, and appears in Journey to the West.
People
Lu Junyi is the deputy leader of the Liangshan marsh band in Water Margin, second only to Song Jiang, nicknamed the Jade Qilin. A rich man and master of spear and staff in Daming prefecture, he is lured up Liangshan by Wu Yong's scheme, and after the amnesty fights the Liao, Tian Hu, Wang Qing and Fang La, rising to pacification commissioner of Luzhou, and is poisoned with mercury by treacherous ministers.
People
Jia Qiaojie is one of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling in Dream of the Red Chamber, the daughter of Wang Xifeng and Jia Lian. Born on the seventh of the seventh month, the Qiqiao festival, she was named Qiaojie by Granny Liu. In the first eighty chapters she is a sickly child, and after the Jia house falls she is in danger and is rescued by Granny Liu.
People
The Black Bear Spirit, also called the Black Wind Demon, is a monster in Journey to the West who lives in a cave on Black Wind Mountain and wields a black-tasseled spear. He steals Tang Sanzang's brocade cassock and clashes with Sun Wukong, and is finally subdued by Sun Wukong and the bodhisattva Guanyin, who takes him on as a guardian of the mountain.
People
Lu Zhishen is one of the 108 heroes of Liangshan in Water Margin. Born Lu Da in Weizhou, he was an officer in a garrison office until he killed the butcher Zheng Tu and became a monk under the name Zhishen, known as the Flowery Monk. He saved Lin Chong at Wild Boar Forest, joined Liangshan, opposed accepting amnesty, and died in a temple at Hangzhou after the campaign against Fang La.
People
People
Li Ping'er is one of the main characters of the Ming novel Jin Ping Mei and a tragic figure in it. She is the sixth wife of Ximen Qing. She was first a concubine of Liang Zhongshu, then married Hua Zixu and Jiang Zhushan, and after joining Ximen Qing's household bore a son. She died soon after the child was frightened to death.
People
The Nine-Headed Pheasant Spirit (Jiutou Zhiji Jing) is one of the three demons of the Xuanyuan Mound sent by Nuwa to Zhaoge in Investiture of the Gods. She is a pheasant with nine heads that cultivated itself into a spirit. She enters the palace as Daji's sister Hu Ximei and helps bring about Bi Gan's death. After the Shang fall, Nuwa hands the three over to Jiang Ziya, and she is beheaded.
People
Ruhua is the senior maid of Jia Xichun in Dream of the Red Chamber. When the Grand View Garden was searched, items that Jia Zhen had given to her brother were found hidden by her. Xichun, afraid of being implicated, drove her away despite her pleas, and the book never mentions her fate again.
People
Xia Jingui is the wife of Xue Pan in Dream of the Red Chamber, named for her family's osmanthus groves that supplied the palace. Spoiled by her widowed mother, she was overbearing, and after marrying into the Xue house she grew jealous of Xiangling, set her against Xue Pan and kept the household in uproar. In the Gao E continuation she tries to poison Xiangling and poisons herself instead.
People
The Sun Star Lord is the Daoist god of the sun, named Yuyi, in charge of the sun and also called the Sun Emperor or Lord Sun. Folk belief often blends him with Mahavairocana and the Sunlight Bodhisattva, and in Fujian and Taiwan he is worshipped on the nineteenth of the third month, a date some link to remembrance of the Chongzhen emperor.
People
Qiao Lie is a character in the novel Water Margin, a native of Jingyuan in Shaanxi. His religious name is Daoqing, so he is also called Qiao Daoqing, and he is known as the Illusion Demon Lord. He commands illusory arts that call wind and rain, serves the rebel Tian Hu, and is subdued by Gongsun Sheng.
People
Qiu Ben is a fictional character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms who serves as Deng Ai's army supervisor in Wei's campaign to destroy Shu Han. At Mianzhu he advises Deng Ai to write to Zhuge Zhan urging surrender, and when that is refused, to win by a surprise force instead.
People
Tang Sanzang, also called Tang Seng, is a main character of Journey to the West and the master of Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng, Sha Wujing and the White Dragon Horse. His prototype is the Tang monk Xuanzang. In the novel he is kind, merciful and firm of will, though sometimes pedantic, and after the pilgrimage is made the Buddha of Sandalwood Merit.
People
The Queen Mother of the West is a goddess of Chinese mythology and folk belief and a female immortal of Daoism, who dwells at the Jade Pool on Mount Kunlun, paired with the King Father of the East. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas she is a leopard-tailed, tiger-toothed deity of plague, in the Story of King Mu she exchanges songs with King Mu of Zhou at the Jade Pool, and by the Inner Biography of Emperor Wu of Han she is a woman of unmatched beauty who keeps the peaches and the elixir of immortality.
People
Princess Longji is a character in Investiture of the Gods, the daughter of the Hao Heaven Lord and the Golden Mother of the Jade Pool, who was banished to the Qingluan Douque on Phoenix Mountain after a lapse at the Peach Banquet. She helps the Zhou camp defeat Luo Xuan, marries Hong Jin, is struck down in the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation and killed, and is made the Red Phoenix Star.
People
Qiongxiao Niangniang is one of the three immortal ladies of Sanxian Island in Investiture of the Gods, a sister of Zhao Gongming, and a member of the Three Xiao Ladies with Yunxiao and Bixiao. Wikidata records her as a deity of Chinese mythology in charge of childbirth, who died in battle at the hands of Baihe Tongzi.
People
Yunxiao Niangniang is one of the three immortal ladies of Sanxian Island in Investiture of the Gods and a sister of Zhao Gongming, who with Bixiao and Qiongxiao is known as the Three Xiao Ladies. She helps her brother in the war, sets up the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation, and is defeated by Taishang Laojun and Yuanshi Tianzun, after which she is enthroned as a goddess.
People
Lingguan is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the twelve girl actresses in the Jia family's private Kunqu troupe, and the one given the most space among those twelve. She is the best singer, headstrong, and close to Jia Qiang, and the scene of her writing the character for Qiang is a classic episode of the novel.
People
Bixiao Niangniang is one of the three immortal ladies of Sanxian Island in Investiture of the Gods, a sister of Zhao Gongming, and a member of the Three Xiao Ladies with Yunxiao and Qiongxiao. Wikidata records her as a deity who died in battle; in the book the three sisters are defeated and then made gods.
People
Ma Daopo is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber, the godmother to whom Jia Baoyu is nominally entrusted, and a woman who follows money. At Concubine Zhao's urging she uses sorcery to harm Baoyu and Wang Xifeng, who are saved by a monk and a Daoist, and in chapter 81 she is caught and handed to the authorities.
People
Shunfeng'er, or With-the-Wind Ear, is a divine general of folk belief and fiction who can hear distant sounds. Paired with Qianliyan, he serves as a guardian of the sea goddess Mazu and is also called the Water Essence General. His origin is told in several ways, one making him Gao Jue, a general of King Zhou of Shang.