Xia Jingui is a character in the novel Dream of the Red Chamber and the wife of Xue Pan. Wikidata's Chinese label and the Chinese Wikipedia article title are both Xia Jingui, and she is also called Jingui. It is her name in the book, so the heading stays the same. Wikidata records the setting as the dynasty of the novel.[1][2]
Background and temper
According to the Chinese Wikipedia article, her family planted osmanthus in quantity and supplied the palace, which is how she came by the name Jingui (golden osmanthus). Her father died early, and as an only child she was spoiled by her widowed mother, who treated her as a treasure. She grew up with a temper like the bandit Zhi, regarding herself as a bodhisattva and others as filth.[2]
In the Xue house
The article says that after she married into the Xue family she saw that Xue Pan doted on Xiangling and became fiercely jealous. She repeatedly pushed Xiangling about, and used her maid Baochan to come between Xiangling and Xue Pan, so that Xiangling was beaten by him. She asked who had ever smelled any fragrance in a water-chestnut flower, and changed Xiangling's name to Qiuling. Domineering and willful, she did as she pleased in the Xue house, even trading words with her mother-in-law through a window, so that the household had no peace, and she also tried to seduce Xue Ke.[2]
Ending
The article records that in the Gao E continuation Xia Jingui tries to poison Xiangling and instead poisons herself.[2]