Hua Xiren

Who is Hua Xiren? Hua Xiren (花襲人) is Jia Baoyu’s chief maid in Dream of the Red Chamber: a girl sold into the Jia household as a child, handed to Baoyu by his grandmother, and the one servant who dares to scold him. She is also his first lover. Readers still argue over whether her devotion is pure loyalty or quiet strategy.

The name

花襲人 / 花袭人 / Huā Xírén

花 (huā), her family surname, means “flower.”
襲 (xí) means to attack or assail. Daniel points out that it carries exactly that meaning in the war epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
人 (rén) means “person” or “people.”

The name was Baoyu’s idea. She started out as one of Grandmother Jia’s maids, called Ruizhu (蕊珠, roughly “pistil pearl”). When Grandmother Jia gave her to Baoyu, he remembered that her surname was Hua and thought of an old line of poetry, “the fragrance of flowers assails men” (花氣襲人). He talked his grandmother into renaming her. So “Xiren” is the scent that sweeps right over you. Daniel traces the line to the poet Lu You (陸游) and notes the swap: her old name was passive, natural beauty, while the new one is active, almost aggressive (Chapter 3).

If you’ve read another translation, you may know her first name as Zhenzhu (珍珠), “Pearl.” That’s the name in the early manuscripts. The 1792 printed edition translated here calls her Ruizhu.

Other names so far: Ruizhu, her name before Ch. 3 (Zhenzhu, “Pearl,” in the manuscripts); “Big Sister Hua” (花大姐姐), Baoyu’s affectionate name for her in Ch. 19; and plain “sister” (姐姐), which is what Baoyu calls her, since she’s about two years older than he is (Ch. 6).

First impression

Xiren’s first scene is a small kindness. On Lin Daiyu’s first night in the mansion, Baoyu has thrown his jade on the floor because his new cousin doesn’t have one, and Daiyu is crying about it in bed. Xiren, already undressed for the night, slips in to comfort her: “If you worry this much over every one of his outbursts, you’ll never have peace”. Daniel notes that the visit “says something about Xiren’s character” (Chapter 3). The narrator adds a quick sketch: whoever Xiren serves gets her whole heart, but Baoyu’s quirks keep her scolding him, and when he won’t listen, she feels low.

The story so far

Ch. 3: Grandmother Jia’s maid Ruizhu becomes Baoyu’s chief maid and gets her new name → Chapter 3
Ch. 6: Fresh from a dream in which a goddess taught him about sex, Baoyu insists on trying it with Xiren, who knows Grandmother Jia gave her to him and sees no way to refuse; Daniel calls it “an extremely troubling passage” in which “Baoyu takes full advantage of his power” → Jia Baoyu’s First Sexual Encounter
Ch. 8: She fakes sleep to tease a tipsy Baoyu, then, when he smashes a teacup and demands that his old nanny be thrown out, takes the blame for the cup and dares him to dismiss the whole staff → Jia Baoyu Says Too Much
Ch. 9: She packs his school things and sends him off with warnings about his studies, his health and his warm clothes → Jia Baoyu Gets Ready for School
Ch. 19: Home with her family for New Year’s tea, she’s horrified when Baoyu turns up uninvited, then fusses over him with her own cushion, foot warmer and teacup → Xiren’s House
Ch. 19: She tells Baoyu her family means to buy her back, lets him despair, and then names three conditions for staying: no more talk of dying, at least pretend to like his books, and no more playing with the girls’ rouge → Servitude · Xiren’s Loyalty
Ch. 19: The next morning she wakes with a fever, and the doctor calls it a mild cold → Xiren Gets Sick
Ch. 20: Still sick in bed, she’s berated by Nanny Li, who lost money that day and sneers that Xiren is a maid bought for a few taels of silver, until Wang Xifeng sweeps the old woman away → Hua Xiren and Nanny Li Fight (free)
Ch. 20: Baoyu stays home to nurse her and, while she sleeps, ends up combing another maid’s hair → Baoyu With Another Girl

Coming next (Ch. 21): Baoyu spends a morning in his cousins’ rooms, and Xiren is not pleased.

Relationships

Jia Baoyu, her young master: She serves him, scolds him, and was his first lover.
Grandmother Jia, former mistress: Admired her gentle nature and gave her to Baoyu.
Nanny Li, Baoyu’s old wet nurse: Says she trained Xiren as a little girl. Now she can’t stand her.
Hua Zifang and their mother, brother and mother: Sold her when the family was starving. Now they want to buy her back.
Lin Daiyu, Baoyu’s cousin: Xiren comforted her on her first night.
Wang Xifeng, Baoyu’s cousin’s wife: Runs the household, and rescues Xiren from Nanny Li.
Shi Xiangyun, former mistress: Xiren served a “Miss Shi” for a couple of years.

What readers argue about

Devoted or calculating? The novel says Xiren gives her whole heart to whoever she serves. But in Ch. 19, after she scares Baoyu with the news that her family is buying her back, the narrator lets us in on a secret: she has already told her mother and brother she’d rather die than go home. The scare was a test, staged so she could lay down her conditions. Even her stomachache excuse about the cream is a fib to keep the peace. Daniel’s verdict: “It’s clear that Hua Xiren is testing Jia Baoyu’s loyalty to her.” But what does she actually feel? He puts that to readers in How Does Hua Xiren Really Feel?.

Did she have a choice? In Ch. 6 the narrator says Xiren could see no way out. Yet afterward she serves Baoyu more devotedly than ever. Is this a love story or a story about power? Daniel calls the passage “extremely troubling” and digs into it in Jia Baoyu The Sexual Deviant.

Maid, mother, or conscience? She packs his schoolbooks and talks back when he misbehaves. Daniel argues that in Ch. 9 “Hua Xiren is playing the role of Jia Baoyu’s mother,” and that it says a lot about the family life Baoyu really has (Hua Xiren’s Role). After her sharp retort in Ch. 8, he turns the question over to readers: how are we supposed to read it (Hua Xiren’s Defiance)?

Essays and posts about Hua Xiren

Start here: How Does Hua Xiren Really Feel? · Hua Xiren’s Role
Chapter 6: Jia Baoyu The Sexual Deviant
Chapter 8: Hua Xiren’s Defiance
Chapter 19: Why Jia Baoyu Visited Hua Xiren · Why Hua Xiren Was Sick (podcast)
Chapter 20: Why The Fight
Coming soon: The Servant Who Runs the House: Xiren and literature’s great servants