The maid closest to Jia Baoyu in 红楼梦, gentle, careful and devoted to him. Baoyu named her after a line by the poet 陆游 on the scent of flowers; in the end she marries the actor Jiang Yuhan.
She was first called 珍珠, 'pearl'. Her surname is 花, 'flower', so Baoyu named her from 花气袭人知骤暖, 'flower scent assails people, telling of sudden warmth': her full name 花袭人 echoes its first words.
usage
Outside the novel the same two characters mean 'to assail people', mostly in fixed phrases about the air: 香气袭人, 'a fragrance fills the air', and 寒气袭人, 'the cold bites'.
