Reading note V · The family tree
The Jia family tree, explained
賈氏族譜
Two founding brothers, two houses, five generations — and a marriage web in which nearly every outsider who matters (Daiyu, Baochai, Xifeng) is already a cousin. The tree below is the one the novel's second chapter recites; the explanations under it are the ones readers actually need.
Five generations, one table 五代
The generations are marked by the shared character in the names — a real convention of the book, and the fastest way to place anyone: the founding dukes, then the dai generation, the wen generation, the yu generation, and the cao generation of boys who inherit the wreckage.
| Generation | Ningguo house (elder) | Rongguo house (younger) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founders | Jia Yan, Duke of Ningguo | Jia Yuan, Duke of Rongguo | Two brothers granted ducal titles for merit — the houses' names are their titles. |
| dai | Jia Daihua | Jia Daishan × Grandmother Jia | She is born a Shi of one of the four families — which is why Xiangyun calls her aunt. |
| wen | Jia Jing (a Daoist recluse; never home) | Jia She × Lady Xing; Jia Zheng × Lady Wang; (daughter) Jia Min × Lin Ruhai | Jia Zheng holds the real rank; Lady Wang is of the Wang family — Xifeng's aunt. |
| yu | Jia Zhen × Lady You | Jia Zhu × Li Wan (d. young); Jia Yuanchun, Imperial Consort; Jia Lian × Wang Xifeng; Jia Baoyu; (by Concubine Zhao) Jia Tanchun, Jia Huan | The novel's centre: two marriages, one prodigal, one jade. Xifeng runs the house on the strength of being Lady Wang's niece. |
| cao | Jia Rong × Qin Keqing | Jia Lan (Jia Zhu's posthumous son) | The register's youngest; Qiaojie belongs here too, as Wang Xifeng's daughter. |
The marriages that run the plot 聯姻
Three outside families attach to the Jias by marriage, and each attachment is a plot engine. The Wangs attach twice — Lady Wang to Jia Zheng, and her niece Wang Xifeng to Jia Lian — which is why the niece manages the whole Rongguo household: her aunt owns the husband's line and her own family owns the money sense. The Xues attach through Lady Wang's sister Lady Xue, who moves into the Jia compound with Baochai and the oaf Xue Pan; the Lins attach through Jia Zheng's sister Jia Min, whose death brings Daiyu to the house in chapter 3 with nothing but a father far away.
That is the arithmetic behind the novel's central triangle: Daiyu is the father's-side cousin (a Jia by blood), Baochai the mother's-side cousin (a Wang by blood), and the family's choice between them is also a choice between the two mothers' families. The tree is not background; it is the board the game is played on.
How to check any of this 對照
The genealogy is recited by the antique dealer Leng Zixing in chapter 2 — the novel's own guided tour of the family before you meet it. Every row above can be checked against that chapter and against the expandable tree on this site's register page, which carries the same members with their fates.
Generation attributions and the marriage web follow chapters 2–4 as recited; the reading of the triangle's kinship arithmetic is this site's.