Characters

It’s hard to keep track of all the characters in Dream of the Red Chamber.

Wikipedia estimates that there are about 400 characters in all, 40 of which are “main” characters. Of course, it’s not easy to distinguish between a “main” character and a “minor” character, especially when they’re first introduced to the reader.

Cao Xueqin was a master of slowly introducing characters to his reader. However, it can still be really hard to keep everybody straight.

Below are pages for all characters in the book, including a brief description of their personality. I’ll put in relevant links to important parts of the book that we’ve already covered.

It won’t be easy, but I’ll try to keep this page updated as we go along. By the end, this should be a resource that exceeds Wikipedia’s Dream of the Red Chamber page in completeness and accuracy.

Also — I will include both Pinyin romanization and Chinese characters in the names below. This is because there are a few characters that share the same romanization but have different names.

This page and all character pages below will remain free for all researchers, students, and anybody else with unusually geeky literary interests like me.


Kong Kong | 空空道人

The Ethereal Sage | 渺渺真人

The Goddess Nüwa | 女媧氏

The Vast Master | 茫茫大士

Zhen Shiyin | 甄士隱