Chapter 10 Jia Baoyu Complex

A widely circulated literary classic, like a widely circulated fairy tale, often implies some of the most common and strongest complexes. Classical literary masterpieces have always been regarded as the greatest novels of the nation by the Chinese literary circle.There have been various studies, textual research, and comments on this work for hundreds of years, and even a special "Redology" appeared in China. Some people say that to a certain extent, it is the autobiography of the author Cao Xueqin, which makes sense.Because Cao Xueqin's experience is indeed quite similar to the life described in the book.

Some people say that it is a profound criticism of feudal society, and of course it makes sense.Because it depicts a picture of social relations in Chinese feudal society with extremely sharp brushstrokes.There, class strife, political strife, group strife, rule of the ethical and moral system, and various conflicts are the encyclopedia for us to understand China's feudal society. It is also said that it is the greatest love tragedy novel in China, and it is also justified.Because the protagonists Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu really performed a lingering and sympathetic love story. In short, there may be truth to the various comments that already exist.

Today, we don't want to make a comprehensive evaluation. We just want to say that there is a subconscious structure of the author implicit in it. We call this structure "Jia Baoyu complex". For the "Jia Baoyu Complex", people may not all see it so clearly. We believe that Cao Xueqin has a deep understanding of the feudal society and the family struggles, political rule, interpersonal conflicts, and the suppression of human nature in the feudal society he experienced.We also believe that Cao Xueqin used symbolic means consciously to a considerable extent, using various metaphors to criticize feudal social life.These symbolic techniques are found throughout the text, including the homophonic treatment of many names.We also believe in Cao Xueqin's attack on the oppression of human nature and love in feudal society, and believe that

Xin Cao Xueqin's indignation in this work is called critical indignation by today's people. However, in the process of doing all this consciously to a considerable extent, he revealed the "Jia Baoyu complex" in his subconscious. This complex seems to consist of three aspects: One, hating the father. Of course, this is not hatred of fathers in the general sense, but in our words, it is culturalized hatred of fathers. His father-hatred complex is related to the rule of the entire feudal society represented by his father, the rule of the monarch, patriarch, and official.Therefore, his father-hatred complex is politicized and socialized to some extent, and contains the spirit of social criticism.

But it does appear to be hating the father at the same time, and hating the father with flesh and blood. Second, Oedipus. The Oedipus complex is expressed in a relatively concealed, broad, and transformative way in the novel.It is not very prominent in the relationship between Jia Baoyu and his birth mother, Mrs. Wang, and is therefore often overlooked.However, in the relationship between Jia Baoyu and Jia's mother, there is a disguised manifestation, but it is not the most important manifestation. The most important performance is his association with many young women.It can be said that in the interactions with quite a few women around them, the other party plays the role of a little mother.

In the movie, Lin Daiyu cannot be said to be Jia Baoyu's real lover.When people today regard the love between Bao and Dai as the main line of research, it is only the external plot structure of the novel; if one deeply understands it according to the logic of real emotions, then Jia Baoyu does not have that kind of genuine love for Lin Daiyu.He and Lin Daiyu had the mental stimulation of childhood sweethearts and bickering. Rather, the relationship between Xiren and him embodies the female emotions that Jia Baoyu really needs and is attached to.For Jia Baoyu, the existence of women like Xiren is still the role of a little mother, who caresses and comforts him, and at the same time provides sexual dedication.Jia Baoyu's first or real sexual relationship in the novel is precisely the attacker and not someone else. This natural arrangement in the plot is precisely the subconscious.

When some people put Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu together as a combined image, as Jia Baoyu or Cao Xueqin's ideal lover, we would like to say that Baochai, Daiyu and Xiren might as well be trinity It is more appropriate to study together. Here, Xue Baochai is the orthodox image of a wife in terms of status.Jia Baoyu's need for her is only for her status, reputation and public opinion.Jia Baoyu's ambiguous attitude towards Xue Baochai shows that Cao Xueqin had to accept or even naturally accepted the feudal orthodox ethics. The relationship between Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu is a purely spiritual life, a companion of juvenile jokes and mutual appreciation in spirit.

Xiren, who has been taking care of him all the time, appears in Jia Baoyu's life with a more family-like, erotic, and erotic face.This is also the reason why quite a few mature men are more emotionally inclined not to Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, but to Xiren after reading it. This is actually the influence of Cao Xueqin's subconscious expression of love concepts. Three, trying to possess all lovely women. When we describe Jia Baoyu as a "feminist" who sympathizes with women, we take Jia Baoyu's statement that "women are made of water and men are made of mud" as Jia Baoyu's belief in caring for and respecting women in feudal society. "Democratic consciousness" can be downright ridiculous.Jia Baoyu's real attitude towards women is that he hopes that all the lovely girls in the world will belong to him.In this sense, he hates the oppression and bullying of girls in all other male societies.

The Grand View Garden in the book provides Jia Baoyu with a kingdom where this complex can be realized.In this kingdom of daughters, as the only man, he realized his dream of monopolizing all the lovely women. Even if Cao Xueqin's critical awareness of feudal society is reaffirmed, and the various offensive symbolic arrangements he made in his criticism of feudal society, it cannot conceal the true revelation of his subconscious. Knowing the "Jia Baoyu complex" of hating fathers, Oedipus mothers, and trying to possess all lovely women will not affect our multi-faceted evaluation of the overall value in the slightest.

We just said that the "Jia Baoyu complex" is an indispensable level of perspective, and we will discover more levels from it. It is through this that we see that the Oedipus complex is socialized and culturalized, and its expression in "Jia Baoyu" is completely "Jia Baoyu style", which is combined with the social life of the Chinese feudal society where Jia Baoyu lived. . What we will focus on is the law of Jia Baoyu's personality formation as a boy. First of all, although he is hostile to his father Jia Zheng in his heart, he is also a person who knows current affairs in action.In public, he always strives to superficially obey his father's will and satisfy his father's psychological needs to maintain his authoritative position.

This not only shows the absoluteness of the father's authority in feudal society, but also shows that Jia Baoyu was developing normally as a boy. In the process of personality, I have learned how to treat my father correctly. Of course, deep down he had become a rebel against his father.This is not only the Oedipus complex of the nature of children, but also of the social nature of that era.What he rebelled against was his father's authority and the feudal political ethics and moral culture represented by his father. As for whether a son can realize his rebellion against his father, in terms of his childhood growth environment, a necessary condition is the protection of his mother. Here we see a note to this regularity. As a mother, Mrs. Wang is naturally weak, and she is not strong enough to resist her husband Jia Zheng's domineering and harsh treatment of Jia Baoyu.If there was only this mother, Jia Baoyu would be much weaker.However, Jia Baoyu's grandmother, Jia Mu, stood behind him.It was the feudal culture that allowed Jia Mu to resist Jia Zheng's tyranny of Jia Baoyu with enough strong protection. This is a peculiar phenomenon of the feudal family. In front of his son and wife, Jia Zheng is the absolute authority; however, when facing Jia's mother, he becomes a respectful son.It is this special family environment that makes Jia Baoyu form a submissive and rebellious personality in front of his father. In traditional Chinese culture, the authority of the father is often absolute, and it is difficult for the mother to resist his tyranny over the son.The grandmother, who enjoys the highest authority in the big family, gave Jia Baoyu strong protection.Like a strong mother in a modern family, she calms her son's psychological trauma under his father's harsh rule, and develops a personality that can correctly handle the relationship with his father and at the same time dare to rebel against his father. Of course, Jia Baoyu in the movie can only be obedient and secretly rebellious to his father.If Jia Zheng, the father, had been weaker, and Jia Mu, the grandmother, had been more doting, Jia Baoyu would have shown a greater rebellious spirit against his father's tyranny. Jia Baoyu, a boy who grew up under the care of many maids, did not have the single Oedipus complex of a child who grew up in his mother's arms.The distance between him and his mother, Mrs. Wang, should be said to be adequate.Mrs. Wang is by no means overly doting on her son.Jia Baoyu did not have a deformed Oedipus complex. He grew up with a normal masculine personality in the living environment of many girls and boys of the same age. After the age of ten, Jia Baoyu has been able to get along correctly with men and women of the same age.And for men and women of different ages and generations, he has also formed a perfect ability to get along with each other correctly, Leaving aside the criticism of the feudal orthodox culture represented by his father Jia Zheng, we can say that in the history of Jia Baoyu’s personality growth, not only Jia’s mother’s protection was necessary, but his father’s sternness was also necessary.Because from grandmother Jiamu to mother Mrs. Wang and the surrounding maids and servants, they all gave Jia Baoyu too much love and support. It was a doting environment that would spoil the boy.At this time, the presence of a strict and even authoritarian father just balanced all of this. In terms of the conditions of personality development, the coexistence of the strictness of his father Jia Zheng and the doting of his grandmother is the necessary condition for the formation of Jia Baoyu's complete personality. Then, we see Jia Baoyu's special attitude towards life, which is often described by some red scholars as Jia Baoyu's rebellious spirit. Jia Baoyu refused to accept his father's orthodox education from the bottom of his heart. He showed great rebellion against his father's teaching of reading, being an official, and the righteous way of Confucius and Mencius. He showed a strong interest in the thick poems and erotic words and the profligate sounds that his father strongly denounced.He is obviously unwilling to take the so-called right path pointed out by his father. As a result, we saw a Monkey King who didn't want to go to the West to learn scriptures, but would rather stay in Huaguo Mountain. Jia Baoyu shrank in the daughter country of Daguanyuan.To a certain extent, the story of Jia Baoyu is the story of Jia Baoyu, and to a certain extent, Jia Baoyu's story is the story of avoiding his father's advice and shrinking among the women in the Grand View Garden. From a social and cultural point of view, Jia Baoyu's performance can indeed be said to be a rebellion against feudal orthodox culture; however, from the perspective of a boy's personality growth, it can also be understood as a phenomenon of "refusal to become an adult". This is a special stage of personality development. This is the adolescent's nostalgia for childhood and the fear of adulthood. When we must endow Jia Baoyu with an overly explicit anti-feudal color, it is actually just an inevitable stage of Jia Baoyu's personality growth in that feudal family to a greater extent. What we see is Jia Baoyu's influence on the entire adult social life. fear of . This "rejection of adulthood" is characteristic of adolescence, and in almost any era it appears in the nature of opposition to the orthodox mainstream culture of the time.Just as teenagers who "refuse to be adults" will indulge in their favorite pop culture and thus resist the orthodoxy that their parents want to instill in them, Jia Baoyu must also find the strong poems criticized by his father Jia Zheng as the spirit. Rely on. It is also in this sense that his anti-social, anti-orthodoxy, and anti-patriarchal tendency of "refusing to become an adult" has real social and cultural significance.When these little men and women passed the playbook secretly, it has already shown that they, like Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying, are rebels in the feudal society. A son in any age can be a rebel to the orthodoxy upheld by his father. Then, we see an interesting thing is that when Jia Baoyu indulges in the daughter country to show his rebellious spirit of a little boy who refuses to grow up, he has become a somewhat mature man to some extent.On the one hand, he is a little pet that all the girls compete to take care of, and on the other hand, he seems to be a big man who is responsible for protecting all girls. Here, we see a Jia Baoyu complex that can really be called "Jia Baoyu complex". The real "Jia Baoyu Complex" can also be said to be the "Huahuashen Complex". Almost instinctively, Jia Baoyu has a strong complex of pity and love for all the lovely women in the world, and wants to act as a protective god.Just like his nickname "Mr. Yihong", he lives in this world, and one of his great psychological impulses is to make girls happy. To Lin Daiyu, to Xiren, to Qingwen and other girls closest to him, he showed this complex of protecting flowers.However, in the plots of "throwing rats and avoiding weapons, Baoyu concealing dirty things", in the plots of "doing makeup for Ping'er" and "changing skirts for Xiangling", they more fully express the efforts to popularize love within the scope of their capabilities.Even beyond the scope of his ability, this complex is also playing a boundless role. He feels sorry for and injustices for all the lovely women who have been bullied by fate, and often grits his teeth and sighs because he is beyond the reach of the whip. This kind of "protecting the flower god complex" can be seen in many men. In a general sense, quite a few men have this kind of complex to some extent; but only a part of the men really have the typical "flower-protecting god complex" like Jia Baoyu. The general law that forms this difference is that those men who are more successful in the world of women may have a stronger complex of protectors; while men who are more unsuccessful in the world of women often lack this complex.Whether they have enough love for women or are relatively indifferent seems to be the reason for the strength of the "Flower God Complex". If we conduct more in-depth research, we will be able to have a more comprehensive understanding of the formation of the "Huahuashen complex". One, it must have originated from the initial love for the mother, but also from the initial love for other members of the opposite sex, such as girls of the same age. This love of the opposite sex, which includes the mother, is inherently exclusive, excluding the father and other males.In this sense, it is an extension of the boy's complex of trying to possess all the women he loves. At an early age, the little boy rejects his father and all male intimacy with his mother.It is possible for him to rush over, push away all the men who are close to his mother, and insert himself in it.When the male's closeness to the mother turns into a bully, his rushing action may be the first germ of the flower guardian role. Second, generally speaking, there is obviously a difference between the exclusivity of love for the opposite sex and the sense of responsibility for the protection of the opposite sex.Exclusivity is directly rooted in love, and protection is also rooted in love, but undoubtedly has other psychological contents. The young boy's love for his mother or other opposite sex is initially manifested as exclusivity, but far from any flower guardian complex. "The Flower Guardian Complex" is a mature and powerful male character. It is formed as a little boy grows into a real man.In many cases, it is formed in the imitation and learning of the father. Broadly speaking, it is the study of the whole man's role. The father's protection of his mother, the protection of other men in this world for women, and the protection of boys for girls among older children, all these made him learn the role of a man who protects women. Third, the most direct source of this role is the elder brother status of a little boy with a little sister. The little boy who lived with his sisters since childhood will have a "flower guardian complex" deeply rooted in his heart.Time and time again, they rushed over to protect their sister when she was crying, or picked her up from the ground where she fell, or trampled to death the caterpillar that threatened her, or waved her fist to teach her a lesson. Those boys who bullied his sister, all this made this little brother more and more strong to protect his sister.This kind of complex can easily be extended to all girls, becoming a "flower guardian complex" with a broad meaning. In this sense, the "flower guardian complex" is the complex of the elder brother to the younger sister. Fourth, even if there is no real sister, if a little boy lives with more girls of the same age, he will gain friendship and trust from these girls, which will also provide him with an environment similar to being an older brother.He can still form a full brother role in his studies to protect those younger sisters who need his protection. Jia Baoyu grew up in such a daughter country since he was a child. Whether the girls were younger or older than he was, he was both a younger brother and a younger brother in his dealings with them.He was taken care of by them, and because of his status as "Second Master Bao", he became a "big man" who took care of them. This is another important reason why Jia Baoyu's flower-protecting god complex was formed. From this point of view, it can be said that it is difficult for a boy who has never been an older brother or been loved, loved, and trusted by a little girl since he was a child to form a typical flower-protecting complex like Jia Baoyu. Five, in essence, the role of the older brother is that of the younger father.This is a role that is easily learned from fathers and other fatherly men.A person with a strong flower-protecting complex is often a man with a relatively complete father's psychology. Those little men who only want to be sons all their lives, sometimes it is too late to be the guardian of flowers in a timely manner. They only want to be taken care of by women, but they have no time to take care of the women's world; It is easy to play the role of flower guardian, because they always have the instinct to spread the male wings to protect the female. It was in the living environment that Jia Baoyu formed a strong "complex for protecting flowers".He has a strong love and compassion for unsatisfactory lovely women in life, especially in marriage, and he is a typical "passionate son" because of this. In real life, we can also see such a typical. They may not be as romantic and suave as Jia Baoyu, but this kind of complex always affects them, making them lament one after another for the poor and lovely women, and feel sorry for their injustice.They may often act similar to Jia Baoyu's protection of flowers to provide help for his beloved woman. Knowing the "Jia Baoyu complex", knowing the general manifestations of this complex, especially the typical manifestations of this complex, is undoubtedly the necessary wisdom for men to know themselves and women to know men.