Chia Ching
Chia Tai-hua's son; father of Chia Chen and Hsi-chun. He gives up his noble title and devotes the rest of his life to studying religion and taking elixirs every day, hoping to become an immortal.
Chia Chen
Chia Ching's son; Madame Yu's husband. His son Chia Jung is married to Chin Ko-ching. Chia Chen is a dissipated person and has an illicit relationship with his daughter-in-law.
Hsi-chun (Compassion Spring)
Chia Cling's daughter. She is on good terms with the nun Miao-yu and is planning on becoming a nun herself.
Chia Jung
Chia Chen's son. His father buys him a position as an officer of the fifth rank in the Imperial Guard. Chia Jung is also a dissolute person, dallying with beautiful girls whenever he can.
Chin Ko-ching
Chia Jung's wife; she comes from a poor scholar's family. Her brother Chin Chung is a good friend of Pao-yu.
Lady Dowager (the Matriarch)
Daughter of Marquis Shih of Chinling; wife of Chia Tai-shan, who has been dead for many years. She has two sons, Chia Sheh and Chia Cheng, and a daughter, Chia Min. She is so attached to her grandsons and granddaughters that she makes them study in the Jung Mansion so that she can be near them.
Chia Sheh
Son of Lady Dowager. After the death of his father, he inherits the title of Duke of Jungkuo. He is a lecher who fancies beautiful girls and bullies weaklings. He is arrested, but is released because of the Emperor's amnesty.
Lady Hsing
Chia Sheh's wife. Her dissatisfaction and jealousy cause her to urge Lady Wang to declare that a search be made throughout the Grand View Garden.
Chia Lien
Chia Sheh's son; Wang Hsi-feng 's husband. Like others, he too is dissolute and secretly marries Second Sister Yu so that she can be his concubine.
Wang Hsi-feng (Phoenix)
Chia Lien's wife; Lady Wang's niece. She is pretty, clever, and competent; she is also talkative, greedy, and cunning. She runs the Chia household affairs expertly, but sometimes uses her power and position to bully the weak. She dies a tragic death.
Chiao-chieh
Pretty daughter of Chia Lien and Wang Hsi-feng .
Chia Cheng
Younger son of Lady Dowager. Upon the death of his father, the Emperor gives him the rank of Assistant Secretary; then he rises to the rank of Under Secretary in the Board of Works. He is strict with his son, Pao-yu, hoping that Pao-yu will enhance the family reputation.
Ying-chun (Welcome Spring)
Chia Sheh's daughter by a concubine. She is a lenient, weak girl and finally marries the villain Sun Shaotsu.
Lady Chao
Chia Cheng's concubine. Her son, Chia Huan, hates Pao-yu and plots with his mother to kill Pao-yu.
Chia Chu
Lady Wang's elder son. He passes the district examination at fourteen, marries before he is twenty, and has a son, Chia Lan, but suddenly falls ill and dies, leaving a widow, Li Wan.
Li Wan
Wife of Chia Cheng's late son Chia Chu. Her son Chia Lan finally passes the official examination, along with Pao-yu. She takes no interest in the outside world, content to wait on her elders and look after her son.
Yuan-chun
Chia Cheng's daughter. Her name is symbolic of the fact that she was born on the first day of the year. While she is still a young woman, she is chosen as the Imperial concubine, and the Grand View Garden is built for the purpose of her first royal visit home.
Chia Pao-yu
Chia Cheng's son; he came into the world with a piece of clear, brilliantly colored jade in his mouth. He is strongly attached to the girls in Grand View Garden. He isn't interested in honors, advancement, or an official reputation. The feudal marriage system prevents him from marrying Lin Tai-yu, the girl whom he loves most. In the end, he goes away with a monk.
Hsueh Pao-chai (Precious Virtue)
Aunt Hsueh's daughter, Chia Pao-yu's wife. She is a filial daughter and a faithful wife, a model of the feudal, ethical norm.
Tan-chun (Quest Spring)
Chia Cheng's daughter by the concubine Lady Chao. She is a competent, but rebellious girl. She organizes a poetry club for the girls in Grand View Garden.
Lin Ju-hai
Lady Dowager's son-in-law; Lin Tai-yu's father.
Lin Tai-yu (Black Jade)
Lin Ju-hai's daughter, Lady Dowager's granddaughter. Upon her mother's death, Tai-yu comes to live with the Chia family. She is a delicate and outstandingly intellectual girl, although a bit sentimental. She loves Chia Pao-yu very much, but her delicate health and sharp tongue keep her from being in favor with Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. She dies for her ideal of love.
Chia Tai-ju
Principal of the Chia family clan school; Chia Jui's grandfather.
Chia Jui
Chia Tai-ju's grandson. He is an amorous person but meets his match when he tries to flirt with Wang Hsi-feng . He dies because of one of Hsi-feng 's cunning tricks.
Shih Hsiang-yun (River Mist)
Lady Dowager's granddaughter; Pao-yu's cousin. She comes often to see Lady Dowager and stays with the girls of the Chia family. She is pretty and talented.
Aunt Hsueh
Hsueh Pao-chai's mother, from the Wang family. She has one son, Hsueh Pan, a good-for-nothing who kills two persons. He is arrested for the second murder but is pardoned by an amnesty.
Hsia Chin-kuei
Daughter of a royal merchant; Hsueh Pan's wife. She is pretty but treacherous—a shrew. She mistreats Hsueh Pan's concubine Hsiang-ling badly and, at one point, plots to poison her, but poisons herself by mistake.
Hsiang-ling
Chen Shih-yin's daughter, Ying-lien (Lotus). She is kidnapped, then seized by Hsueh Pan as his concubine; she marries him and dies in childbirth.
Pao-chan
Hsueh Pan's concubine. She plots with Hsia Chin-kuei to win Hsueh Ko's hand.
Hsueh Ko
Hsueh Pan's cousin—a kind, honest, and helpful person. He finally marries Hsiu-yen, the daughter of Lady Hsing's brother and sister-in-law.
