Where the Mask Ends (嫁金钗) Family Tree & Relationships

Quick answer: Where the Mask Ends (嫁金钗) revolves around four households. The Wei family (魏家) of the Cheng'an earl's house (承安伯府) is where Wei Rao was born and where Jun Dai was raised in her place. The Lu family (陆家) of the Duke of Ying's house (英国公府) is the household Wei Rao marries into as a substitute bride. The Zhou family (周家) is her mother's side, headed by her grandmother, Lady Shou'an. The Liu imperial family (刘氏) sits in the palace, where Wei Rao's birth mother is now a consort, which makes the emperor her stepfather. Below is each household, member by member, with the actor who plays them.

How the four houses connect

The central link is Wei Rao (魏娆), played by Tian Xiwei (田曦薇), who also plays her double, Jun Dai:

• Her father's side is the Wei earl's house. Her birth father is 魏瑾 (Wei Jin), second son of the Wei matriarch.
• Her mother's side is the Zhou family. Her birth mother is 周芙 (Zhou Fu), daughter of the Zhou matriarch.
• Her mother is now in the palace as an imperial consort, so the emperor is Wei Rao's stepfather and the fourth prince is her half-brother.
• Her husband's family is the Lu household, heirs to the Duke of Ying.
• Her adoptive family is the poor household that raised her as A-Chou (阿丑).

That spread of connections is why the reveal matters so much. A woman everyone treated as a night-soil collector turns out to be tied to an earl's house, a matriarch with a title of her own and the emperor's harem.

The Wei family: 承安伯府, the Cheng'an earl's house

Character	Chinese	Relationship	Actor
Old Madam Wei	魏老夫人	Matriarch; Wei Rao's paternal grandmother	Yang Qing (杨青)
Wei Jiu	魏咎	Eldest son; the current Earl of Cheng'an	Li Shuai (李帅)
Guo Yufeng	郭虞凤	Wei Jiu's wife; mother of Wei Shu and Wei Chan	Wang Yinan (王一楠)
Wei Heng'e	魏恒娥	Eldest daughter; twin sister of Wei Jin; secretly Jun Dai's mother	Chen Zihan (陈紫函)
Wei Jin	魏瑾	Second son; Wei Rao's birth father	Jin Jia (金珈)
Wei Shu	魏姝	Guo Yufeng's eldest daughter; later Princess Duan, then crown princess	Chen Yihan (陈意涵)
Wei Chan	魏婵	Guo Yufeng's younger daughter	Su Xiaotong (苏晓彤)
Wei Rao / A-Chou	魏娆 / 阿丑	The real daughter, swapped at birth	Tian Xiwei (田曦薇)
Jun Dai	君黛	The impostor raised in her place; Wei Heng'e's illegitimate daughter	Tian Xiwei (田曦薇)

This table holds the show's central secret. Jun Dai is not a stranger: she is Wei Rao's cousin. HK01 reports that Wei Heng'e, the twin sister of Wei Rao's father, had an illegitimate daughter she needed to hide. Together with her sister-in-law Guo Yufeng, she had the newborn Wei Rao taken out of the house and abandoned, and put her own child in the cradle. Sources split on which woman was the driving force: Chinese Wikipedia names Wei Heng'e as the chief culprit (元凶) of the swap and the substitute marriage, while HK01 calls Guo Yufeng the mastermind and traces her motive to Wei Jin, Wei Rao's father, having broken off an engagement with her. The two "daughters" played by one actress share a grandmother. Guo Yufeng hangs herself in episode 17, after the swap is exposed.

Her eldest daughter, Wei Shu, carries the family's grudge into the palace. She marries Prince Duan, becomes crown princess when he is named heir, and HK01 describes her as a more dangerous villain than Jun Dai. One of the late episodes on TVmao's episode list is titled 魏姝输了, "Wei Shu loses."

The maids Bi Tao (碧桃), Chi Lan (迟兰) and Ge Jin (葛巾) also belong to this household.

The Lu family: 英国公府, the Duke of Ying's house

Character	Chinese	Relationship	Actor
The Old Duke	老国公	Lu Zhuo's grandfather	Jiang Kai (蒋恺)
Old Duchess	英国公老夫人	Lu Zhuo's grandmother	Kong Lin (孔琳)
He Wanniang	贺婉娘	Lu Zhuo's mother	Cui Yi (崔奕)
Lu Zhuo	陆濯 (字 守城)	The heir (世子); Wei Rao's husband	Yan An (闫桉)
Zhuo Chengjun	卓成君	Wife of the second branch	Chen Sisi (陈思斯)
Ren Yuzhen	任玉蓁	Wife of the third branch	Dai Jiaoqian (戴娇倩)
Kong Yingshu	孔瑛书	Wife of the fourth branch	Zeng Yixuan (曾一萱)
Lu Ya, Lu Cong	陆涯, 陆淙	Sons of the second branch; Lu Zhuo's cousins	Gao Maotong, Hu Chunyang
Lu Ze, Lu Che	陆泽, 陆澈	Sons of the third branch; Lu Zhuo's cousins	Li Kaiwen, Yang Zean
Lu Changning	陆长宁	Daughter of the second branch	Zheng Jiahui (郑佳慧)
Lu Changhui	陆长慧	Daughter of the third branch	Su Qi (苏棋)
He Weiyu	贺微雨	Lu Zhuo's cousin on his mother's side	Xiao Lu (肖露)

The Lu house is a large multi-branch household: one ducal line plus the families of three younger sons, all under one roof and all with a stake in who inherits. Lu Zhuo is the heir, so a wife of doubtful origin is a weakness every other branch can use. That is the source of most of the household intrigue in the first half. Lu Zhuo's courtesy name, 守城 (Shǒuchéng), means "defender of the city," an apt name for a man whose story ends at a frontier war.

His personal attendants are Jie De (戒得) and Liang Cai (良才), Bi Tao's sworn elder brother.

The Zhou family: Wei Rao's mother's side

Character	Chinese	Relationship	Actor
Lady Shou'an	寿安君, 周家老夫人	Matriarch; Wei Rao's maternal grandmother; the emperor's former wet nurse	Tien Niu (恬妞)
Zhou Fu	周芙	Her daughter; Wei Rao's birth mother	Mao Linlin (毛林林)

The Zhou matriarch holds a title of her own, 寿安君, earned as the emperor's former wet nurse. That is a family connection to the throne in its own right, long before her daughter enters the palace. A jūn title for a woman goes back to the Han dynasty (our time-period guide covers this). After the divorce, Sina's recaps say it is through this grandmother that Wei Rao agrees to let Lu Zhuo's proposal come, a formal, family-led match after a first marriage arranged in a hurry.

The palace: the Liu imperial family

Character	Chinese	Relationship	Actor
The Emperor	元嘉帝	The Yuanjia Emperor	Huang Haibing (黄海冰)
Empress Dowager	太后 (韩氏)	The emperor's mother; from the Han clan	Dai Chunrong (戴春荣)
The Empress	皇后	The Empress Dowager's niece	Chen Yisha (陈依莎)
Consort Li	周芙, 丽婕妤 → 丽昭仪	Wei Rao's birth mother	Mao Linlin (毛林林)
Consort Zheng	郑婕妤	Mother of Prince Duan	Dong Weijia (董维嘉)
Lady Wang	王娙娥	Mother of Prince Fu	Yang Jianyan (杨简言)
Prince Jing, Liu Guang	景王 刘光	The empress's adopted son	Xia Te (夏特)
Prince Duan, Liu Shou	端王 刘狩	Later crown prince; Wei Shu's husband	Zheng Hao (郑好)
Prince Fu, Liu Ding	福王 刘鼎	Son of Lady Wang	Zhou Boyu (周博宇)
Liu Shuo	刘朔	The fourth prince; son of Consort Li, so Wei Rao's half-brother	Zhou Lijie (周历杰)
Grand Princess	长公主	The emperor's elder sister	Zhang Yameng (张雅萌)
Prince Rong	戎王	The emperor's younger brother	Shen Tai (沈泰)

The palace's most dangerous branch is the Han (韩) clan, the Empress Dowager's family. Her niece is the empress, and her nephew Han Liao (韩辽), heir to the Marquis of Xiting (西亭侯世子, played by Dai Gaozheng 代高政), is also a cousin of Prince Rong. He is the last villain of the series (see the ending explained).

Zhou Fu's place in this table is the twist that changes everything for Wei Rao. Her birth mother is a ranking consort with a son of her own by the emperor.

A-Chou's adoptive family

Character	Chinese	Relationship	Actor
Madam Qiao	乔氏	A-Chou's adoptive mother	Zhang Shuyan (张舒妍)
Runsheng	润生	Her adoptive younger brother	He Yuxiao (何羽霄)
Hong Xian	红线	Her younger sister	Jin Tianruyi (金天如意)

This is the family that raised the real heiress with nothing. It is the reason Wei Rao is still a different person from her cousins even after her name is restored.

Friends, rivals and suitors

Character	Chinese	Who they are	Actor
Qi Zhongkai	戚仲恺	Second son of the Marquis of Pingxi; Lu Zhuo's closest friend, later Wei Rao's suitor	Liu Xiaobei (刘小北)
Xie Hualou	谢画楼	Granddaughter of the Grand Tutor (太傅)	Yang Yutong (杨雨潼)
Huo Jue	霍玦	Eldest son of the Huo family	Li Youchuan (李佑川)
A-Man	阿蛮	Wei Rao's maid at the Zhuyu estate (祝余山庄)	Yin Wenxuan (尹文萱)

Two families, one swapped child

Draw the tree on paper and the plot's central crime is easy to see. A child born to the Wei house, with a Zhou grandmother and a mother who would rise in the palace, was sent out of it. Her aunt's hidden daughter was put in her place. Chinese has had a phrase for that kind of switch since a Han-dynasty folk poem, later borrowed by the Thirty-Six Stratagems: 李代桃僵 (lǐ dài táo jiāng), "the plum tree dies in place of the peach." It means one thing sacrificed so another can survive, and in this story that describes both women.

When the truth finally comes out, the other idiom applies: 水落石出 (shuǐ luò shí chū), "when the water falls, the stones appear." Once the water goes down, what was always on the riverbed can be seen.

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More on Where the Mask Ends: Characters: Who Wei Rao, Jun Dai and Lu Zhuo Really Are · Ending Explained · What Dynasty Is It Set In? · Novel vs Drama

Tian Xiwei's other big family tree: Pursuit of Jade Family Tree & Relationship Chart. Idioms: 李代桃僵 · 水落石出.