Jin Yuanyang is a character in Dream of the Red Chamber. The Chinese Wikipedia article says her surname is Jin and her given name Yuanyang. Wikidata labels her Yuanyang, lists the further form Jin Yuanyang, and gives the English alias Jin Yuanyang, so the title uses the full name with the surname.[1][2]
Position and family
She is a household-born slave of the Jia family, one of the senior maids who serve the Lady Dowager, and the Lady Dowager's trusted right hand. Wikidata describes her as the Lady Dowager's maid. The Chinese Wikipedia article describes her with a slender waist, sloping shoulders, an oval face, glossy black hair, a high nose, and a few light freckles on her cheeks. Her parents look after the Jia house in Nanjing, her brother Jin Wenxiang is the purchasing agent of the Lady Dowager's rooms, and her sister-in-law heads the laundry there.[2][1]
Refusing Jia She
In the novel, Jia She wants to take Yuanyang as a concubine, and she flatly refuses. He insists and sends Lady Xing and Yuanyang's brother and sister-in-law to persuade and press her. She will not give way and swears that, not to speak of Baoyu, even Precious Gold, Precious Heavenly King or Precious Emperor, she will simply never marry. In chapter 46 she shows the Lady Dowager her resolve to die, saying that even if the Lady Dowager herself forced her, she would cut her throat with a knife before she obeyed. The Lady Dowager then steps in and frees her from Jia She's pursuit. Jia She says angrily that she must find him old and be in love with the young masters, and that he will submit only if she dies or never marries.[2]
Her end and the verses
In the last forty chapters written by Gao E, after the Lady Dowager dies Yuanyang hangs herself in despair, and before dying her spirit meets the departed spirit of Qin Keqing of the twelve beauties of Jinling. The Chinese Wikipedia article also says that although she is an important female figure of the novel, she has no verse in the registers, like Ping'er.[2]
Basic facts
- Name: Jin Yuanyang, with the surname Jin and given name Yuanyang[2][1]
- Role: character of Dream of the Red Chamber, senior maid of the Lady Dowager[1][2]
- Family: brother Jin Wenxiang; sister-in-law in charge of laundry in the Lady Dowager's rooms[2]
- Setting recorded on this entry: the dynasty of the novel[1]
- Appears in: Dream of the Red Chamber[1]