Lady Wang (王夫人) is a character in the classic Chinese 18th century novel ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' or ''The Story of the Stone'' is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and it ...

''. She is the wife of

Jia Zheng ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' or ''The Story of the Stone'' is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and its ...

, and mother of Jia Zhu (dead at the start of the novel), Jia Yuanchun and

Jia Baoyu Jia Baoyu () is the principal character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel '' Dream of the Red Chamber''. Introduction The first chapter describes how one piece of stone was left over from when the Wall of Heaven was repaired by the ...

. She is the elder sister of Aunt Xue and hence the maternal aunt to

Xue Baochai Xue Baochai (, and her surname is a homophone with "Snow", rendered Precious Virtue in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is one of the principal characters in the classic 18th century Chinese novel '' Dream of the Red Chamber''. Described as extremel ...

and Xue Pan. She is on the surface a kind lady and a devout

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, who delegates authority to her niece

Wang Xifeng Wang Xifeng (, rendered Phoenix in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is one of the principal characters in the classic 18th-century Chinese language, Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. She came from one of the Four Great Families, the Wangs ...

in the everyday running of the Rongguo household. However, she is prone to malicious rumors, and can act with cruelty towards maids she thinks are seducing her son. Lady Wang is one of the culprits resulting in the death of Baoyu's maid

Qingwen Manchu ( ) is a critically endangered language, endangered Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchu people, Manchus, it was one of the official language ...

. When the character Jia Xichun shaves her head to join a nunnery, Lady Wang reluctantly consents, expressing her disapproval: "It would look very bad for a girl from a family such as ours to enter a nunnery. That is really unthinkable."

References

Wang, Lady Wang, Lady {{novel-char-stub