Xue Baochai

Who is Xue Baochai? Xue Baochai is Jia Baoyu’s cousin on his mother’s side, the daughter of a rich family of imperial merchants who moves into the Jia family’s mansion in Chapter 4. She is calm, tactful, well read, and liked by nearly everyone. And she wears a golden locket whose inscription reads like the other half of the one on Baoyu’s jade.

The name

Traditional: 薛寶釵 · Simplified: 薛宝钗 · Pinyin: Xuē Bǎochāi

薛 Xuē, the family name, sounds just like 雪 xuě, “snow.” In Chapter 4, a clerk’s secret list of untouchable local families writes the Xues with the character for snow (The Official Protection Register).
寶 bǎo means “precious,” the same Bao as in Jia Baoyu. Daniel notes that the Chapter 8 title sets 賈寶玉 Jia Baoyu directly opposite 薛寶釵 Xue Baochai (Chapter 8 begins).
釵 chāi is a two-pronged hairpin, an old poetic word for a woman. Its left half is 金, “gold,” which starts to matter the moment her golden locket appears.

So her name means something like “Precious Hairpin.” Other names used so far:

寶姐姐 Bǎo jiějie, “Sister Bao”: Baoyu’s name for her (Ch. 7). They’re cousins, but cousins of the same generation call each other “brother” and “sister.”
“Master” (師傅 shīfu): Baoyu’s joke in Ch. 18, after she rescues his poem.

First impression

Baochai enters in Chapter 4, almost as a footnote to her brother’s crime. Xue Pan has just had a young man beaten to death over a girl, and the narrator turns from him to his sister: radiant, poised, and far better educated than he is. When their father died, she set her books aside for needlework and housekeeping to help her mother. Daniel calls her “the famous ‘third wheel’ in the Jia Baoyu – Lin Daiyu relationship” (The Murderer Heads to the Capital). But Baoyu doesn’t really look at her until Chapter 8.

The story so far

Ch. 4: The Xues move into the Pear Fragrance Court (梨香院 Lí xiāng yuàn), a quiet corner of the Jias’ Rongguo Mansion, and Baochai spends her days reading, playing chess, and sewing with the other girls → Chapter 4
Ch. 5: The household decides that easygoing Baochai outshines proud, aloof Lin Daiyu, and Daiyu quietly resents it, though Baochai, the narrator says, has no idea → The Rivalry Begins
Ch. 7: Baochai describes the “heat toxin” she was born with and a monk’s cure, the Cold Fragrance Pill (冷香丸 lěngxiāng wán), made from white flowers of all four seasons plus rain, dew, frost, and snow gathered on exact days of the old calendar → Xue Baochai’s Medicine · Why Xue Baochai Is Sick
Ch. 8: Baoyu finally takes a good look at her (no makeup, plain clothes, few words), a quiet that some call playing dumb and she calls “guarding her simplicity” → Jia Baoyu Sees Xue Baochai
Ch. 8: Baochai reads the inscription on the jade Baoyu was born with, her maid Ying’er blurts out that it matches the words on Baochai’s golden locket, and Baochai cuts her off and changes the subject → Xue Baochai Sees the Jade · The Inscriptions
Ch. 8: Baoyu notices her scent (the pill, she says, and no, he can’t taste one), and she talks him out of drinking his wine cold → Baoyu and Baochai Square Off · Much Ado About Wine
Ch. 18: When Baoyu’s elder sister Yuanchun, now an Imperial Consort, comes home for one night, Baochai writes one of the evening’s two best poems and quietly fixes Baoyu’s, swapping “green jade” for “green wax” → Green Jade and Green Wax
Ch. 19: She isn’t even in the room when Daiyu teases Baoyu that somebody has “gold” to match his jade and a “cold fragrance” → Jia Baoyu Visits Lin Daiyu
Ch. 20: When Baoyu’s half-brother Jia Huan cheats Ying’er at dice, Baochai makes her maid back down rather than embarrass him → Jia Huan Cheats at Dice
Ch. 20: Daiyu catches Baoyu coming from Baochai’s rooms, and Baochai leads him off again to greet a new arrival, Shi Xiangyun → The Big Fight

Relationships

Jia Baoyu, cousin (their mothers are sisters): Calls her “Sister Bao”; his jade and her locket make a matched pair.
Lin Daiyu, fellow young guest; no blood relation: The girl everyone compares her to; Baochai pinches her cheek and calls her “Frowner” (Ch. 8).
Aunt Xue, mother: A widow; Baochai gave up her books to help her.
Xue Pan, older brother: Spoiled and violent; the family’s trip begins with his killing.
Lady Wang, aunt (her mother’s sister): Baoyu’s mother, who welcomes the Xues in.
Ying’er, personal maid: The one who lets slip that the locket matches the jade.

What readers argue about

Is she modest, or careful? Chapter 8 offers two readings of her quiet: playing dumb or guarding her simplicity. Chapter 5 insists she has no idea Daiyu resents her. Do you believe it? → Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai

What does the locket mean? Baoyu was born with his jade, but the words on Baochai’s locket came from a scabby-headed monk. Daniel’s Chapter 8 post weighs three explanations: fate, meddling holy men, or a hoax. And why does Baochai shut Ying’er up so fast? → Xue Baochai Sees the Jade · The Inscriptions

Why is she sick? The most composed girl in the house was born with a “heat toxin,” and the only thing that settles it is a pill called cold. What is the novel hinting at under all that calm? → Why Xue Baochai Is Sick