Dream of the Red Chamber (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Chao Zhan
- First Published: 1792
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: c. 1729-1737
- Setting: Peking
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism, Family literature
- Subjects: Family or family life, Power, personal or social, Eighteenth century, Legends, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Gossip, China or Chinese people
- Locales: Peking, China
Characters Discussed
Madame Shih, called the Matriarch, the widow of Chia Tai-shan and the oldest living female ancestor of the family Chia. In her eighties, she rules with authority and grace her large families in two palace compounds. Although she shows favoritism to her grandson, she is fair in her judgments and unselfish in her actions. She sacrifices her personal wealth to aid her decadent descendants, but she herself never compromises her integrity.
Chia Cheng, her younger son. A man of strict Confucian principles, he manages to keep his integrity in spite of...
[The entire page is 2256 words long]
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