Incurably crabby In his epic novel The Dream of the Red Chamber, Qing author Cao Xueqin (d. 1763) puts these words into the mouth of Lin Daiyu: "Pincers swelled with jade-white tender flesh, a shell replete with lumps of fragrant red," to describe the crab's full but tender white meat and the aromatic eggs which fill its bulging shell.
清初大文豪曹雪芹在《紅樓夢》書中透過林黛玉描述蟹螯肉嫩豐滿就像白玉，飽鼓鼓的蟹殼裡一塊塊蟹黃香味撲鼻。