Jia Baoyu - Alter Ego

Alter Ego

Interestingly, there is another Baoyu in the novel, a minor character with the surname of "Zhen" (甄), a homophone for "truth" or "real". Zhen Baoyu shares many of Jia Baoyu's characteristics, living in a wealthy clan with many attendants and cousins, although he lives in Jinling (now Nanjing) rather than in the capital.

In Rouge Inkstone's commentary, it is clear that Zhen Baoyu would have had a large part to play in the later parts of the novel, now lost. He was to send Jia Baoyu's jade back when it went missing. Zhen Baoyu, like Jia Baoyu, also becomes a monk at the end. Hence, Zhen Baoyu can be said to be a mirror of Jia Baoyu, just as the fortunes of the fictitious Jia Clan are mirrored in those of the Zhen Clan ("real" family)