The young lord of the Jia house, born with jade in his mouth
The male lead of Dream of the Red Chamber, a noble youth born with a spirit-jade in his mouth. He loathes officialdom and the ladder of examinations, drawn instead to the world of girls, saying such heretical things as "girls are made of water" — an odd one in his age. His soulmate love with Lin Daiyu ends in tragedy through the family’s scheming. The figure of Jia Baoyu holds all of Cao Xueqin’s longing for innocence, for freedom, for a beautiful world bound to collapse.
Jia Baoyu is born with a piece of jade in his mouth, taken for the family’s hope, yet loathes the one road it prizes — study and office — wanting only to keep company with the sisters. In a world that holds "study to become an official" as the sole proper path, he is a misfit rebel; through him, Cao Xueqin wrote the gentlest and most thorough doubt of the whole set of mainstream values.
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