Wang Xifeng

Who is Wang Xifeng? Wang Xifeng (王熙鳳) is the young wife of Jia Lian and the real manager of the Jia household in Dream of the Red Chamber. She’s not yet twenty, funny, beautiful and sharp-tongued. She’s also the one person in the family who knows how to get things done, and she isn’t above taking a bribe or setting a deadly trap to do it.

The name

王熙鳳 / 王熙凤 / Wáng Xīfèng / ㄨㄤˊ ㄒㄧㄈㄥˋ

王 (wáng), her family surname, means “king.” She’s a Wang by birth, the niece of Baoyu’s mother, Lady Wang.
熙 (xī) means bright, radiant or prosperous.
鳳 (fèng) is the phoenix.

Put together, 熙鳳 is something like “radiant phoenix” or “auspicious phoenix.” Like so many names in this book, it may also hide a pun. 熙鳳 sounds just like 稀瘋, “rarely mad,” which would be an ironic name for a woman with her temper (Wang Xifeng Enters).

One more detail matters. When Daiyu’s mother described her years ago, she said this girl had been raised from childhood as if she were a boy, and given a boy’s scholarly name. “Xifeng” is that name.

David Hawkes calls her Wang Xifeng. The yangs call her Wang Hsi-feng.

Other names so far:

Sister Feng (鳳姐, Fèngjiě), the name the narrator and most of the family use.
“Fiery Phoenix” (鳳辣子), Grandmother Jia’s nickname for her in Ch. 3. 辣子 is a hot pepper, the household’s word for a “spicy piece” (潑辣貨). My English doesn’t quite catch how playful the original is.
Sister Lian (璉二嫂子), what Baoyu’s sisters call her, after her husband, Jia Lian (Ch. 3).
Fengge (鳳哥), her childhood name, which Zhou Rui’s wife uses with Granny Liu (Ch. 6).
“Second Young Mistress” (二奶奶), her title in the household (Ch. 6).
“Aunt”, what Jia Rong and Qin Keqing call her, though the family tie is four generations back (Ch. 6, 11).

First impression

Xifeng has the best entrance in the book. On Lin Daiyu’s first day in the mansion, the whole family is sitting in solemn silence when laughter rings out from the back courtyard: “I’m late!” Daiyu wonders who would dare be so loud. In sweeps a young woman glittering with gold, pearls and phoenix hairpins, and the narrator tells us her laugh arrived before she even opened her lips (Wang Xifeng Enters).

Then she goes to work. She praises Daiyu’s beauty, dabs at her eyes over Daiyu’s dead mother, and switches to smiles the instant Grandmother Jia asks her to stop. She orders rooms made ready on the spot, and she’s already set aside silk for Daiyu’s new clothes before Lady Wang can even ask. I read the tears as feigned sympathy. I also notice that her compliment, that Daiyu looks like a “real” granddaughter rather than one from a daughter’s side, quietly reminds everyone that Daiyu is an outsider (Tacit Communication).

The story so far

Ch. 3: She makes her laughing entrance on Daiyu’s first day, weeps on cue, and has everything ready before Lady Wang can ask → Wang Xifeng Enters · Tacit Communication
Ch. 6: Granny Liu, a poor country relative, learns that Xifeng, not Lady Wang, now runs the household; Xifeng keeps her waiting, tells her the family is “a hollow shell,” and sends her home with twenty taels of silver → The True Head Of Household · The Power Broker · Granny Liu’s Triumph
Ch. 6: Jia Rong begs to borrow a glass screen; she threatens his skin if he scratches it, calls him back, then blushes and sends him away until after dinner → A Favor For Jia Rong
Ch. 7: A servant arrives at midday to find Xifeng’s baby daughter asleep, Jia Lian laughing behind a closed door, and Ping’er sent out for water → Wang Xifeng’s Nap
Ch. 7: She insists on meeting Qin Zhong, then, on the ride home, hears a drunken servant shout the family’s secrets and orders Baoyu never to repeat a word → Jia Baoyu’s First Love · The Drunken Rant
Ch. 11: She sits with her ailing friend Qin Keqing and fights back tears; minutes later Jia Rui ambushes her in the garden, and she privately vows that he’ll find out what she’s capable of → Qin Keqing’s Death Bed · Melancholy In Paradise · Jia Rui Takes His Chance
Ch. 12: She sets two traps for Jia Rui, a freezing night locked in a passageway and a fake rendezvous that ends in blackmail and a bucket of filth; when he falls ill, she sends crumbs of ginseng and tells Lady Wang she sent two ounces → Wang Xifeng Punishes Jia Rui · Wang Xifeng’s Second Trap · Jia Rui and the Mirror
Ch. 13: Qin Keqing appears to her in a dream, calls her a hero among women [OK to quote?], and warns her to prepare for the family’s decline; days later Jia Zhen begs her to run the funeral and hands her the Ningguo Mansion’s token → Qin Keqing’s Warning · Wang Xifeng Begins Managing The Ningguo Mansion · Wang Xifeng Takes Charge
Ch. 14: She takes roll at a quarter past five every morning, gives every servant one job, and has a woman who came late beaten twenty strokes and docked a month’s pay → Wang Xifeng In Power · Wang Xifeng The Administrator · Wang Xifeng Gets Aggressive
Ch. 14: When word comes that Daiyu’s father has died, she spends the night packing furs for Jia Lian and warns his servant to keep him away from “shameless women” → Lin Daiyu’s Father Dies
Ch. 15: At a convent, a nun asks her to break up an engagement for a rich family; she says she doesn’t need the money, then names her price: three thousand taels → The Bribe · Staying One More Day
Ch. 16: The engaged couple both take their own lives, the families lose everything, and Xifeng keeps the silver; the narrator says she only grows bolder → The Tragedy
Ch. 16: Jia Lian comes home, and she greets him with a speech about how helpless and clumsy she is, while Ping’er quietly hides her private interest money from him → Wang Xifeng Plays Herself Down · Ping’er and Wang Xifeng · Wang Xifeng Teases Jia Lian
Ch. 20: She sweeps the raging Nanny Li away from the sick Xiren with a joke and a promise of hot food and wine → Hua Xiren and Nanny Li Fight (free)
Ch. 20: She overhears Concubine Zhao berating her son Jia Huan, puts the concubine in her place, gives the boy some cash, and sends him off to play → Jia Huan Cheats at Dice

Relationships

Jia Lian, her husband: Charming, idle, and always looking at other women. She runs the house he should be running.
Ping’er, her chief maid: Her right hand, and also Jia Lian’s concubine. Ping’er knows Xifeng’s secrets, including the money.
Lady Wang, her aunt: Xifeng’s father’s sister, and Baoyu’s mother. She handed Xifeng the household.
Grandmother Jia, grandmother-in-law: Adores her jokes, and gave her the “Fiery Phoenix” nickname.
Qin Keqing, friend: Her closest friend in either mansion.
Jia Baoyu, cousin twice over: Her husband’s cousin and her own aunt’s son. She mothers him, scolds him, and keeps him in her carriage when the family is out.
Lin Daiyu, cousin by marriage: Xifeng welcomed her with tears and a reminder that she’s an outsider.
Xue Baochai, cousin: Baochai’s mother is also Xifeng’s aunt, so the two are first cousins through the Wang family.
Hua Xiren, Baoyu’s maid: Xifeng rescued her from Nanny Li. They also run their corners of the house in surprisingly similar ways.
Jia Rong, “nephew”: Begs favors from her, and helps her spring her second trap.
Jia Rui, distant relative by marriage: Lusted after her. It didn’t end well.
Granny Liu, poor relation: Came begging and left with twenty taels.

What readers argue about

Villain or victim? Xifeng is easy to hate. She’s smarmy toward Daiyu, she’s cruel to servants, and she lies to her own aunt. But look at her marriage. In Ch. 7, a servant walks in at midday, shortly after Xifeng has had a baby, and Jia Lian is laughing behind a closed door. He neglects his family, leaves the work to the women, and already has Ping’er. I argue that Xifeng “clearly cannot control her husband,” and that her hard edge makes more sense once you see how powerless she is at home (Wang Xifeng The Victim). She isn’t a simple villain. She’s got a side that is very human, and that invites compassion (The Other Side of Wang Xifeng).

Who killed Jia Rui? Xifeng set the traps, sent him ginseng crumbs, and swore in Ch. 11 that he’d learn what she was capable of. But Jia Rui walked back into the second trap on his own, and in the end it was a magic mirror that finished him. Is she a murderer, or did his own lust do the work? I put the question to you in Who Killed Jia Rui? and Is Wang Xifeng Innocent?.

Can a corrupt woman fight corruption? In Ch. 13 she lists the five things wrong with the Ningguo staff: too many people coming and going, nobody with clear duties, waste, unfair workloads and arrogant servants. She fixes all five. Then, two chapters later, she takes three thousand taels to bend the law, telling the nun she has never believed in all that talk about hell or retribution [OK to quote?]. She’s the only person in the family who solves problems step by step while everyone else escapes into women, wine or poetry. She’s also on the take. How do you judge someone like that? (The Bribe · Family Corruption)

What’s going on with Jia Rong? In Ch. 6 she calls Jia Rong back, says nothing, blushes, and sends him off until after dinner. In Ch. 7, the drunken servant Jiao Da shouts that one of the family’s wives has been carrying on with a younger brother-in-law. In my notes on that scene, I think he likely means Xifeng, and that there’s circumstantial evidence the man is Jia Rong (The Drunken Rant). The novel never says so outright. What do you think?

Essays and posts about Wang Xifeng

Start here: The Other Side of Wang Xifeng · Who Really Runs The House? (free): set side by side with Xiren as the two women who run the household
Chapter 3: Wang Xifeng and Lin Daiyu: why the really interesting rivalry is Xifeng and Daiyu, not Daiyu and Baochai
Chapter 6: Why Wang Xifeng Is Powerful · Wang Xifeng The Godfather · Wang Xifeng The Godfather: Part Two
Chapter 7: Wang Xifeng The Victim
Chapters 11–12: Is Wang Xifeng Innocent? · Who Killed Jia Rui?
Chapter 13: Why Wang Xifeng
Chapter 15: Does Wang Xifeng Really Care?
Chapter 16: Wang Xifeng’s Strategy (podcast) · More On Wang Xifeng’s Frustration · Wang Xifeng and Ping’er