Through the previous lectures, I have conducted a detailed exploration of the life prototypes of the two characters whose personal destiny and politics are most closely connected among the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling - Qin Keqing and Jia Yuanchun. A friend who is a fan of Red Mansions asked me: What you said generally makes sense, but according to your analysis, there are so many political factors hidden in the text of "A Dream of Red Mansions". Can it be concluded that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is a political novel? What's the conclusion? I told him that my opinion is: there is politics in "A Dream of Red Mansions", and Cao Xueqin has political leanings. However, Cao Xueqin finally transcended politics and wrote "A Dream of Red Mansions" into a wonderful book that transcends politics. For example, in the first chapter, the author uses Taoist Kong Kong's experience of reviewing "The Story of the Stone" and clearly points out: "Although there are some words in this book that accuse rape, accuse sycophants, belittle evil and punish evil, they are not intended to hurt the times and curse the world." The main purpose is to talk about love" and "not to interfere with the current situation." The impact of "treacherous and evil evil" on Cao Xueqin and his family was profound. Cao Xueqin's feelings in difficult times were rich and intense. When he wrote this book, he was tortured by these factors in his heart. Regarding these, we should Understood. However, Cao Xueqin used great artistic power to sublimate his ideals from pain. He did not write "A Dream of Red Mansions" as a book expressing political opinions, but expressed his views on Jia Baoyu and many women in the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling. The affirmation of the dignity of human personality declares that individual life has the sacred right to pursue poetic existence. This is very remarkable, especially in the social environment of the feudal dynasty two hundred years ago.
In my opinion, the design and shaping of the character Miaoyu in the main volume of The Twelve Hairpins of Jinling particularly highlight Cao Xueqin’s transcendence of politics. If the political color of Qin Keqing and Jia Yuanchun is too strong, then the political color of Miaoyu is very light. Politics is mainly a matter of power. The so-called political tendency is your inner view of which kind of power you like and who you like to hold power. To transcend politics is to no longer be interested in the distribution of power. It means that no matter which political force you belong to, as a powerful person, you cannot use your power to overwhelm others. Such an idea is of course a level higher than supporting someone’s political views and opposing someone’s. The character Miaoyu reflects Cao Xueqin's sublimation from political consciousness to concern for independent personality in society, which is worthy of our exploration.
In the fifth chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", Cao Xueqin designed such a plot: Jia Baoyu traveled in the illusion of Taixu and saw the album of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling, which contains the main volume, the supplementary volume and the supplementary volume. There are twelve characters in each volume. There are eleven paintings and eleven poems in the main album. Now everyone knows that the first painting and the first poem are about two women. From now on, every painting and poem will foreshadow "Dream of Red Mansions". "The fate of a female character in ". Among the twelve women, their rankings are Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai tied for first, Jia Yuanchun third, Jia Tanchun fourth, Shi Xiangyun fifth, Miaoyu sixth, Jia Yingchun seventh, and Jia Xichun eighth. , the ninth Wang Xifeng, the tenth Qiaojie, the eleventh is Li Wan, and the twelfth is Qin Keqing. At a quick glance, this ranking may not seem surprising, but have you thought about it carefully? If you think about it a little more, you will have questions.
Later I read "A Dream of Red Mansions". After reading it carefully, I found that the order of the main volume of the Twelve Hairpins in Jinling was a bit strange. As we all know, there are twelve women included in the official book of Jinling Twelve Hairpins. Eleven of these twelve women are either women from the four major families of Jia Wang Shi and Xue Xue written in the fourth chapter, or they are married to Among the four major families, there is only one woman who becomes a daughter-in-law, and the other two are not. Who are these two? It's Miaoyu. This is a bit strange. If you recall now, are the other eleven in the official list of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling all from the four major families? Among them, Yuan, Ying, Tan, and Xi are the four women of the Jia family; then there are three very important women, one is Lin Daiyu, and the other two are Baochai and Xiangyun. Although Lin Daiyu’s surname is Lin, who gave birth to her? Born to Jia Min, Jia Min is the daughter of Jia Mu, so she also has the blood of the Jia family; Xue Baochai is a descendant of the Xue family of the four major families; Shi Xiangyun is a descendant of the Shi family of the four major families. Therefore, they are all women from the four major families.
As for Wang Xifeng, her status is even more special. She is not only a daughter of the Wang family, one of the four major families, but also married to the Jia family of the four major families. Then her daughter Qiao Jie is both a daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law. The blood of the Jia family and the blood of the Wang family, it goes without saying that both mother and daughter are within a certain category. Although Li Wan's surname is Li and she is not the daughter of the four major families, she married into the Jia family of the four major families and became a daughter-in-law, and she also gave birth to a child for the Jia family, right? A lot has been explored about Qin Keqing before. She later lived in Ningguo Mansion as Jia Rong's wife, so she was also one of the wives of the four major families. So after all the calculations, in the official list of the twelve beauties of Jinling, the only woman who did not have the blood of the four major families and was not married into the four major families as a daughter-in-law was Miaoyu.
At first I thought it didn’t matter, but then when I thought about it, I felt a little strange: Why did Cao Xueqin have such an artistic conception? I have also discussed with some friends, and some said that there may not be enough other female characters in the book, and they may not be qualified to be included in the main volume of The Twelve Hairpins of Jinling.
Because everyone knows that Cao Xueqin still had a sense of hierarchy in the design of the main volume, supplementary volume, and supplementary volume of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling. Those who could be included in the main volume were, simply put, according to the standards of the time, they were the descendants of the master. , a girl like Qingwen, no matter how beautiful, smart, and worthy of recognition, cannot be included in the official list. Is it because the master’s generation doesn’t have enough roles in this area? There are not enough people, so we have to pull them together, so after much deliberation, we reluctantly find a wonderful jade to put in it? So if you think about it carefully, is this the case? Apparently not. Girl, we will rule it out now, because we know his artistic conception framework - how do you evaluate Cao Xueqin, we will not discuss it now - he just has the concept of upper, middle and lower levels. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", he wrote that when Jia Baoyu went to Taixu Fantasy Realm to peek at the pages of the album, the first one he took out was not the main volume, but a supplementary volume. After taking out the supplementary volume, he started flipping through it. After he flipped through it, Have you read all the supplementary volumes and written them all out by Cao Xueqin? No, I only wrote two pages, introducing two paintings, and each painting was accompanied by a poem called Judgment. Of course, readers later guessed it, one was about Qingwen, and the other was about Xiren. So who are the other ten people in this album? We don't know for sure, so we need to discuss it. Maybe after the eighty chapter, the author will give a clear explanation, but based on the two written down, we can infer that the other ten must also be at the level of the big girl. Then he wrote that Jia Baoyu was bored in the gourd, but he couldn't understand it and was not interested, so he didn't continue to read the supplement, but took out another one to flip through. This is the supplement. In the supplementary volume, we found that Cao Xueqin’s conception was like this. He only introduced one painting and one poem, which meant that he only revealed one person in the supplementary volume. We later guessed that this person was, It’s Xiangling. Although Xiang Ling was from a good background, after she was abducted and trafficked, her status in Xue Pan's family was relatively low, lower than that of people like Xue Baochai, so Cao Xueqin placed her in the supplementary list for such people. However, Xiangling later became Xue Pan's concubine, and she was slightly higher than the eldest girl, so she was not in the secondary book. It is estimated that those in the same book as her should be women like minor masters. So we will not discuss women with identities like Xiangling, or women with identities like Qingwen and Xiren. We will just scan it now. In the novel, those who are serious mistresses are qualified to enter Jinling. Do you still have the official list of Twelve Hairpins? Obviously, there is at least one person who is said to be indisputable, and she is Xue Baoqin. Think about it, everyone, does this character have a lot of drama, is the author meticulous in her writing, and is she praised a lot through the mouths of other characters? So, this is a very important role. However, Cao Xueqin made final adjustments, that is, thinking about who should be included in the official list of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling. Which twelve women should I regard as my most important group? After much deliberation, he finally gave up Xue Baoqin and arranged for Miaoyu. Xue Baoqin is a daughter of the Xue family, one of the four major families. Normally, if Xue Baoqin is included, wouldn't the list of twelve beauties be in order? Neat and perfect, they are all women from the four major families in Jinling, or people who have been married to the Jia family as wives. But he would rather be untidy. He chose Miaoyu and gave up Xue Baoqin. why is that? I think it's worth looking into.
Xue Baoqin is Aunt Xue's niece. She is an extremely beautiful and intelligent woman. She became an active member of the Grand View Garden because she visited Jia's family. Although she is also a member of the four major families, she was not included in the official list of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling. However, Miaoyu, who has no blood or marriage relationship with the four major families, was not only included in the official list, but was also ranked in the "Dream of Red Mansions" Before one of the main protagonists, Wang Xifeng, known as the hero of makeup. Why did Cao Xueqin arrange this? Could it be that Xue Baoqin doesn't have many roles? Or some other reason?
We can compare the length of descriptions of Miaoyu and Xue Baoqin in the book. There is a gap in this length. Miaoyu only officially appeared twice in the first eighty chapters. Think about it, does Miaoyu make many frontal appearances? There are only two times, one is the 41st chapter, when we are drinking tea in the Cuicui Temple. At this time, Miaoyu officially appears. This is the main story of Miaoyu in the first 80 chapters of the book, and it is a scene centered on her. play. After that, she almost always appeared in the dark. She made her official appearance again relatively late, in the 76th chapter, in a couplet of poems between Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun in the Aojing Pavilion. This time the focus was on the two women Lin and Shi. At the end of the couplet, suddenly, A person came out, it was Miaoyu. Finally, Miaoyu led the two of them into the Cuicui Temple, and wrote a large chapter of their unfinished poems in one breath, and then completed the poem. This is Miaoyu's second appearance.
In the first eighty chapters, Miaoyu made direct appearances twice. Of course, there are many other hidden writings. For example, when the Grand View Garden was built, the servants at home reported to Mrs. Wang and asked whether they could invite such a woman. This was a secret writing; there was another very important secret writing, It was Jia Baoyu's birthday, and Shouyi Hongqunfang held a night banquet. The next morning, when everyone woke up, Jia Baoyu found a post under the inkstone, which was a post from Miaoyu wishing him a birthday, and then from there Introduce some plots, so that Miaoyu appears secretly again.
There are also some plots that are relatively vague. For example, when it snows, everyone is happy to enjoy the snow, remembering that the plum blossoms are in full bloom in the Congcui Temple, and the red plums are very beautiful.
Li Wan said, I hate Miaoyu's behavior, and I don't want to send people to ask for it myself, but her red plums are very good, we should ask for some red plum flowers to reward, and then punish Jia Baoyu to come forward and beg for red plums. plum. Later, Xue Baoqin also came. Miaoyu first gave them a red plum with a very strange and beautiful shape, and later gave Xue Baoqin red plums. At the same time, she also gave red plums to every lady, including Li Wan, who probably hated her. I also gave her red plums. You have to make more careful calculations. For example, when Jia Yuanchun was visiting for a wedding, she wrote about her arrival here and there. Finally, she said that she suddenly saw the Shanhuan Buddhist Temple, so she washed her hands separately - because entering the Buddhist temple must be very pious - and then burned incense and worshiped the Buddha. There was also a plaque inscribed on it, which was another implicit inscription of Miaoyu, but it was all very vague. In fact, if we carefully look at Miaoyu's words in the first eighty chapters of "Dream of Red Mansions", if we make accurate statistics, she appears openly twice and secretly, including what I just mentioned, it is only four or five times. Although she is very important, she does not appear very often. According to her role, she is not necessarily included in the official list of Twelve Hairpins. According to the general thinking, this conclusion should be drawn: Unless there are not enough people, she is still considered one. But in fact, I pointed out that Xue Baoqin is very qualified, her identity is qualified, and she matches the other eleven women, right?
Has Xue Baoqin appeared many times? There are a lot of them, and they all appear frontally. How many times has Xue Baoqin appeared in front of others? We can do the math. The first is Chapter 49, which describes her, Li Wan’s two cousins, Li Wen and Li Qi, and Mrs. Wendu said, "It's like a handful of four green onions" - the four of them went to Jia's house together. Jia's mother liked it very much, so she stayed with them all. And Jia Mu especially likes Xue Baoqin. Because Li Wen and Li Qi were relatives of Li Wan, they naturally lived in Daoxiang Village; because Xing Xiuyan was a relative of the Xing family, they lived in the same place where Mrs. . What kind of treatment does Xue Baoqin get? Xue Baoqin was treated by Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu at the beginning, that is, she was kept by Jia Mu, who liked her to this extent. Moreover, Xue Baoqin was radiant as soon as she came out. Jia Mu liked it so much that she gave her a very luxurious cloak. As I mentioned before, you still remember, it was a cloak made of the hair on the head of a wild duck, which hid so much For many years, even Baoyu was not given. Lin Daiyu did not take it out after she came. When she saw Xue Baoqin, she immediately asked her to take it out and let her wear it. The book even wrote that after they settled in the mansion, they held a banquet and Jia Baoqin held a banquet. The mother asked Xue Baoqin, Baoyu and Daiyu to sit with her. Because Xue Baoqin was with her at this time, Xue Baochai went to another table and sat with Yingchun; and it was specifically written in the book that these ladies were playing At that time, Jia Mu also sent someone to tell Xue Baoqin that she could not wrong her, so Xue Baochai was a little jealous. Xue Baochai is said to be a person who is said to be the most generous person in the book, but in that specific scene, she also said a sour word, and she is no less narrow-minded than Lin Daiyu at ordinary times. This is how Cao Xueqin writes about Xue Baoqin, who has an extraordinary bearing as soon as she appears.
In Chapter 50, the author writes that in Luxue'an (in some ancient books, the word "an" is "Guang", not the simplified word "Guang" in "Guangzhou" now. The pronunciation of "Guang" in the traditional Chinese character category is "cover", which means pavilions surrounded by mountains and rivers. Writing "Lu Xue Guang" should be closer to Cao Xueqin's original writing.) These ladies began to join poems, and the most prominent role in the joint poems was Who? There are several, the most important of which are Shi Xiangyun and Xue Baoqin. Because the joint poem is to compare each other's ability and see whether your thinking is quick and easy. When someone says the previous sentence, you can immediately continue the next sentence. Whether the subsequent sentence conforms to the rhythm of the poem, whether the meaning is appropriate, and graceful and vivid. At this time, the author specifically wrote about how several people fought against Shi Xiangyun. In the end, only one person was left to fight with Shi Xiangyun, and that was Xue Baoqin. Her poetic talent and skills are unparalleled by those of Lin and Xue - the Xue I am talking about now refers to her cousin Xue Baochai - and even surpassed Shi Xiangyun. She is such a lovely and intelligent woman. She wrote "Red Plum Blossom Poems" and went to Congcui Temple to ask for plum blossoms. She also created the most beautiful scene in the novel, where a very pretty figure suddenly appeared on the snowy hillside. It was Xue Baoqin; after she appeared, another girl came out. Her girl Xiaoluo stood sideways behind her, holding a bottle with red plums in it. Think about it, there were no movies or TVs at that time, but Cao Xueqin’s artistic thinking is simply amazing. This is film and television thinking! In the book, Jia Mu said, why is this person so beautiful? Some people said that this is too similar to a painting in your house - Jia Mu has a very precious painting by Qiu Shizhou, a great painter of the Ming Dynasty, hanging in her house. The painting is called "Double Beauty Picture". What did Jia Mu say next? Jia Mu said that the person in the painting was not as good as the person we see now. Jia Mu and others are all characters in Cao Xueqin's works. When a writer writes novels, although he has life basis and life materials, after he writes, the character will be controlled by his pen, right? He will control Jia Mu in his novel. To praise Xue Baoqin like this, I have never seen Jia Mu praise Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai so much. No female Jia Mu has ever praised them like this. Moreover, the plot he wrote next is even more intriguing.
Jia Mu later asked about Aunt Xue, what was she asking? Ask Xue Baoqin carefully about his age and family situation. Think about it, what does it mean to like her so much?
Jia Mu was moved by this idea, and the book clearly stated that Aunt Xue was also a smart person and understood what Jia Mu meant. She seemed to want to find out and betroth Baoyu to Baoyu. But Jia Mu didn't say it clearly, so Aunt Xue told Jia Mu hesitantly, to the effect that Xue Baoqin had already promised to someone else, to Mei Hanlin's family. As soon as Jia Mu heard that she was already married to someone else - in feudal society, if a woman had already been married to someone else, she was considered legally and morally fixed. If you want to destroy it or break it up, it would be both illegal and against the law. Morality - I won’t go any further. The author wrote about Xue Baoqin to such an extent that he was almost recognized by Jia Mu as a person who could marry Baoyu.
The author is not stingy with Xue Baoqin’s writing, but to what extent is he generous? The 49th chapter writes about her like this, the 50th chapter writes about her like this, the 51st chapter also writes about her, and in this 51st chapter, she is simply mentioned as "Xue Xiaomei's new nostalgic poems". Of course, Xue Xiaomei’s ten nostalgic poems are still the biggest problem in the study of red studies. Many people have made guesses about these ten nostalgic poems: because she wrote lantern riddle poems, first you have to guess the type of this poem. What is it? Secondly, because we all know that the poems in "A Dream of Red Mansions" have deep meanings, so what kind of deep meanings do these ten poems express? If every poem hints at the fate of one chai, then why are there less than twelve? There are many lawsuits, and we can discuss it when we have the opportunity in the future. What I want to emphasize now is that the author really loves the character Xue Baoqin.
In the fifty-second chapter, it was even more surprising. Xue Baoqin is really amazing. Not only can she write poems herself, but she has followed her father to many places. Not only has she traveled to most of China, but she has also traveled abroad. She also mastered the Chinese poems of Zhenzhen Kingdom women, and she also recited the Chinese poems of Zhenzhen Kingdom women to everyone. This poem appeared completely in the text of "A Dream of Red Mansions". Do you think the role of Xue Baoqin is great? Her vision is beyond the reach of Lin, Xue, Shi and other talented women.
What is more important is Chapter 53. What should I write in Chapter 53? It's the end of the year again, and the new year is about to begin. At this time, it's time to worship ancestors and ancestral halls. Some commentators of "A Dream of Red Mansions" have pointed out that Cao Xueqin's writing is very strange. It is said to be inconsistent with the social customs of the time. Because the Jia family held sacrifices in the ancestral hall, people with foreign surnames were not allowed to enter the ancestral hall, and there was no need to enter the ancestral hall. However, Cao Xueqin wrote that one person went to observe the Jia Mansion's sacrifice, do you remember? Who went in to watch, and which character did the author choose? The choice was Xue Baoqin. This is very strange. Some friends said that maybe it was because it was written in the book that because Jia Mu liked Xue Baoqin, she forced Mrs. Wang to recognize her as her goddaughter, so she was considered a member of the Jia family and could worship at the ancestral hall together. But I feel that this explanation is not enough to explain the problem. For example, Jia Yucun did not have a foreign surname. When he talked to Leng Zixing for the second time, he claimed to be of the same family as the Rongguofu clan. Later he ran to the capital and became very close to Jia She and Jia Zheng, but Ning and Rongfu offered sacrifices. There was no need for him to participate or watch the ancestral hall. I think that if the author did not have a special emotion or special evaluation of Xue Baoqin, if he did not have a very special care for this character in his overall concept, he would not write like this. Because the entire narrative language of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is basically an objective narrative, that is, a third-person narrative. Occasionally, a little first-person language is inserted into it, which is basically a third-person narrative. It is not necessary to use Xue Baoqin to see how the Jia family performs sacrifices, but the author Just write it like this. Once the life materials are included in the works of art, the artist himself, the writer himself has his creative freedom. The reason why he uses freedom in this way must have a driving force in his heart. You can imagine how important Xue Baoqin is in Cao Xueqin's mind.
What do I mean when I say so much? That is to say, the role of Xue Baoqin is no small matter. It can be seen that she still has a role after the 80th chapter. She is a through-line character, but after Cao Xueqin adjusted her again and again, she was not included in the main book of Jinling Twelve Hairpins. She was the real mistress of one of the four major families, and she had so many dramas, but Cao Xueqin didn't make any arrangements after much thought. Who has been arranged? Miaoyu.
So it is also very interesting to study Miaoyu from this perspective. In the first eighty episodes, Miaoyu only appeared twice in front of others. How many times did Xue Baoqin appear? I just said this, do the math, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, at least six or seven times, right? However, after much deliberation, Cao Xueqin chose a young actor to be included in the main roster.
Some celebrity friends discussed with me and said that Xue Baoqin was not included in the book, maybe because she did not have a bad fate. She was very happy. Her fate was different from that of other women in the book. Jia Baoyu had a bad fate in the illusion of Taixu. I flipped through the pages of the album in the office, and of course the women who were not desperate were not included in the album. We will discuss the specific fate of Xue Baoqin later. We only emphasize one point here, that is, she belongs to the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue. When talking about the official amulet in the fourth chapter, it is clearly stated that this is The four families are all connected by relatives, and when one suffers, they all suffer, and when they suffer, they all prosper, and they support and protect them, and they all take care of them. Eighty times later, the Jia family fell into decline, and it was so miserable that "the family was dead and everyone ran away." If one person suffered a loss and everyone suffered, the Xue family would definitely suffer as well. How could Xue Baoqin be alone? I think she was miserable in the end, Cao Xueqin just didn't include her in the official list.
Cao Xueqin divided the brochure of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling into several groups. Each group had twelve people. How to divide them? He uses his brain, which is a very important job for him. Because when writing a novel, you need to make an outline. Even if it’s too late to determine the chapter of each chapter, you should have a consideration of what you plan to write in each chapter. You should also make a character list and list the characters I want to write about. This book is mainly for boudoirs and women, so he conceived of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling. In this way, these women are presented in groups: the most important one is the main volume, followed by the supplementary volume. , and then another supplementary volume. According to the research of some red scholars, the last chapter is the love list. There are nine groups of gold hairpins in the love list, and one woman is one hundred and eight women. This is the author's idea. So in the ancient book "The Story of the Stone", you will find that the evolution of the title is introduced in the first chapter. The earliest book was called "The Story of the Stone" because its artistic conception was a leftover stone used by Nuwa to mend the sky. Abandoned on the Qinggeng Peak of Dahuang Mountain, it turned into a psychic jade and traveled around the human world. It was originally very big, but later, through the magic of immortal monks, it became bigger or smaller, and finally shrunk to the size of a fan pendant. It can fall into the world at the same time as a life, because it can hold the baby in its mouth; the baby in the novel is Jia Baoyu, holding a psychic jade in his mouth, who was born in a gentle and wealthy hometown, and has gone through the joys and sorrows of the world. , and finally the stone returned to Dahuang Mountain and to the foot of Qinggeng Peak; there, it returned to its original shape. It was a large stone with words written on it, telling the story of its descent to earth. So this book is "The Story of the Stone", the earliest book was named "The Story of the Stone".
The book also said that Taoist Kong Kong - this is a character imagined by the author in the book, a somewhat unrealistic character - after reading it, he felt that it could be copied and circulated, so he will It was renamed "The Record of the Love Monk" because after the 80th chapter in the book, it was written that Jia Baoyu became a monk. Being a monk means becoming a monk, and a monk is a monk. He is also a love-mad and passionate person, so it is called "The Record of the Love Monk". So in the ancient version of "The Story of the Stone", many versions do not have a title like "A Dream of Red Mansions". Only the Jiaxu version has a sentence saying that a man named Wu Yufeng called this book "A Dream of Red Mansions". What's going on? , we will study it later. It is specially mentioned here that there is another person named Donglu Kongmeixi. Donglu is a place name, indicating the hometown of Confucius. The name Kongmeixi means that he is a descendant of Confucius. He also called this book "Feng Yue Bao" "Jian". We know from Zhi Yanzhai's comments that Cao Xueqin once wrote a novel called "Feng Yue Bao Jian" when he was a boy. So it is obvious that the current "Dream of Red Mansions" uses some plots from his early novels, especially Jia Rui's The story, in that story, there was such a thing called Fengyue Baojian. You all still remember, it is like a mirror. When you hold it, you will see what will happen when you look at it from the front, and what will happen when you look at it from the back. This story is obviously picked out from his old work "Feng Yue Bao Jian" and integrated into the overall story of "Dream of Red Mansions". Of course, it seems inappropriate to use the name "Feng Yue Bao Jian" to summarize "A Dream of Red Mansions" now. Zhi Yanzhai explained, because when Cao Xueqin wrote "Feng Yue Bao Jian", he might still be relatively young. His younger brother, named Tangcun, wrote a preface to him. Unfortunately, Tangcun later passed away, so in order to commemorate Tangcun, Zhi Yanzhai felt that the name "Fengyue Baojian" could still be retained. As for Cao Xueqin himself, in the first chapter he wrote, he emphasized that Cao Xueqin reviewed it for ten years in Mourning Hongxuan, added and deleted five times, compiled it into a catalog, and divided it into chapters. What is the title? Cao Xueqin himself was quite fond of naming this book "The Twelve Hairpins of Jinling". Of course, in the end, his collaborator Zhi Yanzhai persuaded him that the book should still be called "The Story of the Stone", so when she copied and re-reviewed the book in the Jiaxu year, Zhi Yanzhai restored the original title to "The Story of the Stone". "The Story of Stone". Some people don’t understand. Some people don’t understand this passage after reading it in the ancient version. They complain that Cao Xueqin is also true. We all call his book "Dream of Red Mansions" now, but his brother is better. He didn’t even call it "The Story of the Stone". It's called "The Twelve Hairpins of Jinling". Therefore, some people doubt whether these words were written by Cao Xueqin himself? I think this is exactly what he wrote. This shows that when an author is imagining a novel, he uses his brain very much when considering the configuration of characters. In order to determine the female characters in this novel, Cao Xueqin worked hard. Who should be in the main book, who should be in the secondary book, who should be in the secondary book, and who should be in the fourth, fifth to ninth deputy books. He went back and forth to adjust, It is not formed in one go. He spent a lot of time thinking about which characters were included in the main album and how to sort them.
In the process of naming the novel "A Dream of Red Mansions", the author Cao Xueqin once preferred the name "Twelve Hairpins of Jinling". This shows how much the author cherishes the twelve selected women. It was by no means done rashly, but was determined after some thought. Although Xue Baoqin was almost perfect, Cao Xueqin ultimately chose Miaoyu instead of Xue Baoqin in the main volume. Why did Cao Xueqin arrange this? What exactly did he want to explain through Miaoyu?
So now we notice that Miaoyu is not only on the official list, but also ranked very high, she is ranked sixth.
Do you think Miaoyu is special? Do you remember now the order of the main volume of the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling in "A Dream of Red Mansions"? The ranking is very interesting. The first and second places are tied, regardless of ranking, and they are Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. In this illusionary world, the main volume of The Twelve Beauties of Jinling actually has only eleven pictures and eleven poems. Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai are combined into one picture and one poem. In the twelve poems of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai are also combined. together. Therefore, he used his brains when ranking the authors. He felt that it was difficult to distinguish between the two, so he ranked them side by side. These are the first two. The third is Jia Yuanchun, because he thinks Jia Yuanchun is very important. She is the oldest among the daughters of the Jia family and later has the highest status. And as you know from the previous chapters, she is an important woman who affects the fate of the entire Jia family, so Jia Yuanchun Ranked third. But underneath, you can see how hard he is thinking. Normally, after Jia Yuanchun arranges the arrangements, the next ones should be welcoming the spring, exploring the spring, and appreciating the spring, right? "You should sigh"! But he doesn't line up like this. Did you notice? Who is he ranked fourth? Jia Tanchun. Therefore, the character Jia Tanchun is also remarkable, which shows that she is a very important role in the author's mind. "After the three springs are gone, all the flowers will be gone, and everyone must find their own way." Tanchun's fate is the most special, and we will explore it in the future. She neither died nor became a monk, but married far away. And this distant marriage is not an ordinary distant marriage, so it is a very important one. As for the role, after much deliberation, he ranked Tanchun fourth. The person in the fifth row is Shi Xiangyun. It is said that Shi Xiangyun is aggrieved enough to be ranked fifth. Shi Xiangyun, you think what a lovely woman this is, right? A very important role, but after much deliberation he ranked her fifth. So who should be sixth? When I was watching "A Dream of Red Mansions", I felt that Wang Xifeng should be ranked sixth. Wang Xifeng cannot be ranked further back, right? If you look at it from various angles, this is a rosy hero. She has too many roles. You can’t even count how many times she has appeared. After all, we still have to fight. You will say that I am not accurate. What else is there? Ignored. She has so many dramas that she can fill several cars with what she has said, right? We arrived before anyone else, and everyone was so impressed. But for this person, Cao Xueqin did not place her in the front row in the main list. After the fifth and sixth rows, it was Miaoyu, not her. Miaoyu was like a broken mountain among the twelve hairpins, and the other hairpins were Split in half. Why did Cao Xueqin conceive this way? Isn’t it worth exploring? After Miaoyu are Yingchun and Xichun, then Wang Xifeng, and Wang Xifeng's daughter Qiaojie. Some people say that Qiaojie seems to be ranked among the Twelve Hairpins, which is a bit far-fetched, because Qiaojie was very young in the first 80 episodes and had no role, but I think it makes sense for her to be included, because he wants to show such a Jinling As for the fate of women from aristocratic families, the others are basically of the same generation (Qin Keqing’s actual seniority issue has been discussed before and will not be discussed here), so with this Qiaojie, the lineup can be made a little more three-dimensional; and Qiaojie The final fate is very special, and it is related to the story of Grandma Liu, which reflects a very important aspect of Cao Xueqin's thinking, so it makes sense to have Sister Qiao in the main volume. Then came Li Wan, and finally Qin Keqing. So look at this Miaoyu, she is not a woman with the blood of the four major families, nor is she married into the four major families as a daughter-in-law. She has less role in the book than Xue Baoqin, but Cao Xueqin can never give up this role. , he cherished this woman, so he must list her among the twelve beauties of Jinling, and rank her sixth.
So, can we find some clues from the book to decipher Cao Xueqin’s creative psychology and reveal some of the mysteries of his setting up this character? Please listen to the breakdown next time.