Dream of the Red Chamber

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Zhou Rui's Wife

What's in a name

Daniel Evensen's avatar
Daniel Evensen
Sep 23, 2025
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Zhou Rui's Wife

As you’ve probably notice, I’ve been referring to “Zhou Rui’s wife” a lot lately.

The Chinese term is 周瑞家的, which literally means “the one belonging to Zhou Rui’s family.” You can also think of it as “Zhou Rui’s woman.”

This kind of title was pretty common in China in those days, and still exists today. However, there’s more to this title than meets the eye.

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