In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Mingyan and Baoming are the same person.

In the book "A Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Baoyu's most effective boy and boy are named Baoming. It is generally believed that roasted tea means tea smoke. However, the early version of "A Dream of Red Mansions" did not explain the name change. ?

Cheng Ben and later Tongxing Ben explain in the twenty-fourth chapter: I saw Mingyan picking out the little bird there. Jia Yun was behind him, stamped her foot and said, "Mingyan, the little monkey is naughty again."

Mingyan turned around and saw Jia Yun, so she smiled and said, "Why bother, Mr. Second, to fool us?" Such a jump." Yin laughed again and said: "My name is no longer Mingyan. Our second master Bao thought the word "yan" was not good, so he changed his name to "Baoming".

Extended information:

Baoming, this name first appeared in the 9th chapter of the novel. It was originally called Mingyan, and it was not until the 24th chapter that it was changed to Baoming. However, after the 34th chapter, it suddenly changed to Mingyan in the 39th chapter.

The 24th chapter of the novel writes that there are five servants around Baoyu. One is baking tea, the second is drawing springs, the third is sweeping flowers, the fourth is lifting clouds, and the fifth is accompanying cranes. Later, the names of several boys disappeared, and only Baoming remained.

The names of these five young men are very elegant, including Ming, Quan, Hua, Yun, and Crane. The names of these five people include roast, lead, sweep, pick, and companion, which are all verbs.

The maids written in "A Dream of Red Mansions" are named after chess, calligraphy and painting. It can be seen that the maids described in "A Dream of Red Mansions" have springs, flowers, clouds and cranes, and cannot lack tea. The word "Bao" cannot be omitted in the tea ceremony. If Bao and Ming are combined into the same name, it will harmonize with the names of the first four servants.

Although Mingyan has its origins, there is no special description or rendering of the word "cigarette" in "A Dream of Red Mansions". Therefore, Cao Xueqin changed Mingyan to Baoming after some consideration.

Baidu Encyclopedia—Baoming