Shi Xiangyun [SEP] present in work
Shi Xiangyun
Shi Xiangyun () is a major fictional character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", one of the characters known as the Twelve Beauties. She is Baoyu's younger second cousin by the Dowager, Grandmother Jia. Xiangyun is the favorite grandniece of the Dowager, Baoyu's grandmother.
Orphaned since infancy, she grew up under the watchful eyes of her wealthy maternal aunt and uncle who lives in Jinling. They use her unkindly to do embroidery and needlework for the family
lost to later generations. It was mostly through Zhiyanzhai's comments that scholars learn (even if fragmentarily) about some passages and incidents in the now missing original ending. Zhiyanzhai also conclusively identified the work as Cao Xueqin's. Orthodox Redologists rely extensively on Zhiyanzhai's notes for research and scholarly conjectures, although the identity of Zhiyanzhai remains a mystery.
Redology scholar Zhou Ruchang speculated that Zhiyanzhai was a woman, the second wife and cousin of Cao Xueqin and the person on whom the character Shi Xiangyun was based. This hypothesis