Character in the novel 红楼梦: the wife of 贾琏, who runs the Jia household with sharp wit and a ruthless hand. Her name now describes a capable, domineering woman.
Grandmother Jia tells the newly arrived 林黛玉 to call her 凤辣子, since in the south a hothead like her is a 辣子, 'hot pepper'. The most quoted line about her is 机关算尽太聪明，反算了卿卿性命, 'too clever in her schemes, she schemed away her own life'.
memory
Her fate-verse hides a character riddle: 一从二令三人木 ends with 人 and 木, which together make 休, as in 休妻 'to cast off a wife', read as her husband finally divorcing her.
