Lin Ruhai is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber and the father of Lin Daiyu. Both Wikidata and the Chinese Wikipedia article use Lin Ruhai as the name. Wikidata also records the variant Lin Hai and the courtesy name Ruhai, but Lin Ruhai is the form in common use in the book, so the title stays as it is.[1][2]
Origins and career
The Chinese Wikipedia article says he comes from a marquis house that has handed down its noble rank for generations, and is also a family of scholars. He rose through the examinations, placed as tanhua, and served as a grand master of the Lantai office, that is, a supervising censor of the Censorate. He was later posted out to Yangzhou as salt censor.[2]
Family and death
His wife Jia Min is a daughter of Jia Daishan of the Rongguo house and of Lady Shi, the Lady Dowager. They had a son and a daughter. The son died young, at three. When their daughter Daiyu was six, Jia Min died of illness. The Lady Dowager pitied her lonely granddaughter and brought Daiyu to the Jia house to be raised. When Daiyu was ten, Lin Ruhai fell gravely ill and died.[2]
Basic facts
- Name: Lin Ruhai, with the variant Lin Hai and the courtesy name Ruhai[1]
- Role: character of Dream of the Red Chamber, father of Lin Daiyu[1][2]
- Offices: grand master of the Lantai office, later salt censor at Yangzhou[2]
- Setting recorded on this entry: the dynasty of the novel[1]
- Appears in: Dream of the Red Chamber[1]