The Story of Yuan Chun in A Dream of Red Mansions

1. According to historical records, Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin had two daughters, both of whom entered the palace with Emperor Kangxi. The two daughters of Cao Xueqin's ancestors only married the sovereign and became princesses, instead of marrying the emperor and becoming concubines. Perhaps Cao Xueqin changed her princess status into a royal concubine for the needs of literature and art, so Jia Yuanchun became a princess of the Yuan Dynasty. In the 63rd episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, all the sisters celebrated Jia Baoyu's birthday, and everyone was drinking and having fun in Justin. In the meantime, they played a game called "drawing lots", and there was a poem on each sign. The winner of this poem hinted at his later fate. Later, Tanchun drew a sign that said, "Apricot trees are planted in the clouds". So everyone made a big fuss and said, "We already have a princess in our family. Are you a princess too? " From this joke, we can know that Jia Yuanchun was not an imperial princess at first, but a princess.

As mentioned earlier, Cao Xueqin's ancestors had two daughters who became princesses, one of whom was Princess Pingjun. Princess Pingjun married Emperor Kangxi, and her qualifications were much higher than that of Jia Yuanchun. Because Cao Xueqin tells many stories about women of the same age in A Dream of Red Mansions, it is speculated that the prototype of Jia Yuanchun should be a sister of Cao Xueqin's peers.