Chapter 9 "Jin Ping Mei" Xiao Zha and gossip about the Red Chamber Chapter 8

It is said that a "Book of Prostitution" written by an anonymous person says: "Wives are not as good as concubines, concubines are not as good as maidservants, maidservants are not as good as prostitutes, prostitutes are as good as stealing, maidservants are as good as stealing, and those who can steal are worse than those who cannot steal."These words are playful and vicious.Confucius said: "Only women and villains are difficult to raise. If they are close, they will not be inferior, and if they are far away, they will complain." In fact, if you think about it carefully, it is not just women.Therefore, they often refuse to cherish the present, only know to fantasize about the future and regret the past.The relationship between a man and a woman is even more mysterious. When you don't get it, you wish you could throw yourself on the ground and offer flowers;The harder it is to get a hold of, the more libido you have saved, and naturally the more exciting you will be.

Among the Jin Ping Mei, Ximen Qing has endless life and endless hunting.His women come from various backgrounds, including wives, concubines, maidservants, prostitutes, and stealers.Before he died, he still thought about the wife of He Qianhu, Mrs. Lan, who had not yet stolen.If it weren't for the three aphrodisiacs that ruined his life, which had been hollowed out by wine and sex, it would be a matter of time before he hooked up with Lan Shi.For with his wealth and power, either of these, it comes so easily that he is never satisfied. From this, it can be understood why when the first heroine Pan Jinlian appeared on the stage, she wrote three twists and turns to make them "really have an affair", and finally committed a serious crime to get Pan Jinlian in.And Li Ping'er returned to Ximen Qing after some twists and turns.If it weren't for this, the plot and characters would lose a lot of color.

Zhang Zhupo once made a list for the woman Ximen Qing had raped and the man Pan Jinlian had stolen.In fact, women are far less free than men in cheating. A comparison shows that Pan Jinlian, Zhang Dahu, and Wu Dalang are her "duties" to be wives and concubines. Except for Ximen Qing, she only has sex with Qintong, Wang Chao, and Chen The economy has a leg, and it can't be compared with Ximen Qing.Among them, Qin Tong and Wang Chao were just her temporary help (Ximen Qing lingered in the brothel and she was sold into Wang Po's house to marry after Ximen Qing's death), and Wang Chao was especially cut-off.It was Chen Jingji who was really serious about stealing.

This refers to the difference between the Wanli edition (Cihua edition) and the Chongzhen edition.The Chongzhen version made a lot of changes to the recitations of the Cihua edition, making the original asymmetrical recitations symmetrical and more elegant.In the twenty-eighth chapter, the book of Cihua is "Chen Jingji plays Jinlian because of shoes", and Chongzhen's book is "Chen Jingji got a golden lotus by luck". In fact, this time the two didn't have a chance to get along well, but by throwing and picking up their shoes, Pan Jinlian and Chen Jingji raised their ambiguity to the stage of mutual understanding, and the next thing to do is to take advantage of the opportunity to make good things happen.Shoes are originally a symbol of sex. In Jin Ping Mei, the image of shoes has a strong sexual connotation ("Golden Lotus" is a synonym for little feet).The dialogue between Chen Jiji and Pan Jinlian seems to be about picking up shoes, but they are actually teasing and probing each other until they reach a tacit understanding.This chapter closely follows Chapter 27 of "Grape Racks". Jinlian throws shoes, looks for them, curses, beats people, until in front of Ximen Qing, she declares that she will chop up a few pieces of Song Huilian's shoes that Qiu Ju found. Going into the latrine implies that she is always in a state of intense sexual hunger.That kind of hatred and jealousy are vividly expressed, and at the same time, the adultery between Ximen Qing and Song Huilian is implied.The plot is tight and full of tension, the dialogue is clean and neat, and there are many subtexts. It is a very exciting text.

Don't forget that Pan Jinlian's identity is Chen Jiji's mother-in-law. The crime of adultery is serious, and the crime of incest is even more serious.After this time, the author just delayed writing. Pan Jinlian and Chen Jingji always seized the opportunity to flirt, but they never got the chance to get what they wanted.Readers are put in a kind of anxiety: those who are obscene and cunning like Pan Jinlian must do everything possible to steal them.But when will all this happen?With Ximen Qing's personality, if she finds out, she will only face a heavier punishment than Qintong. How will they end up?Therefore, the tension accumulated in the delay and anticipation is constantly looking for the critical point of explosion.This critical point was finally reached after the death of Ximen Qing in Chapter 80 of "Pan Jinlian Sells Sex and Goes to the Eastern Bed".After that, the plot took a turn for the worse, and Wu Yueniang soon discovered the adultery, Chen Jingji was expelled, and Jinlian was sold to her death.They didn't enjoy it for a few days at all, and it was life and death.Because in fact, what the author really wants to write is not about stealing, but about not being able to steal.Not stealing is more exciting than stealing.

It is precisely because of this that after Ximen Qing cut her hair and gave it to a prostitute to step on the soles of her shoes, Pan Jinlian has no feelings for Ximen Qing.Although sexual hunger was the main driving force behind her adultery with Chen Jingjing, she had somewhat developed feelings for Chen Jingjing. If Jin Ping Mei's "Stealing is worse than not being able to steal" is too obscene, then Pu Songling's "Sex and soul are better than upside-down clothes" in "Liaozhai·Jiaona", Chunyu Kun in "Historical Records: Funny Biography" King Qiwei said: "Luo Ru's lapel is untied, and I have heard about Xiangze." Isn't it a deep understanding of the beauty of this "ambiguous" realm, and the pleasure brought by delay and anticipation?