Chapter 3 Chapter 2 The Mystery of Chapter 81 (1)——The Mystery of the Structure of "Dream of Red Mansions"

To discuss the major differences between the eighty-first chapter of Cao Xueqin's complete book and the eighty-first chapter of Gao E's continuation, we must first clarify the text structure of Cao Xueqin's complete book.Careful red fans, you will find that in my last lecture, there is a peculiarity when I make sentences. I always say "after the eighty chapters", why don't I say "the last forty chapters"?Isn't it forty after eighty?Let me tell you about this now. Cao Xueqin's complete book does not have one hundred and twenty chapters, which is very clearly stated in the commentary of Zhi Yanzhai in the ancient book.There is a comment in front of the forty-two chapters that says "more than one-third of the current book has passed the thirty-eighth chapter".If the whole book is one hundred and twenty chapters, it can only be less than one-third when the story reaches thirty-eight chapters.One-third of Cao Xueqin's complete work should be thirty-six chapters, a total of one hundred and eight chapters.

According to the research and textual research of Mr. Zhou Ruchang, the text structure of Cao Xueqin's complete text has a 9×12 rule.That is to say, roughly every nine chapters constitutes a plot unit, and the whole book has twelve nine chapters, which add up to one hundred and eight chapters. Then, can we expand the discussion a little bit, does Cao Xueqin’s text structure really have an inherent law like 9×12?Let's first take a look at the first eighty chapters.It is displayed in many places, and its text structure is such a way of 9×12.From the first to the ninth is a unit, which is not too obvious.But from the first to the eighteenth chapter, 2918, as a big plot unit, it is too obvious.What are the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters about?It is about Concubine Yuan visiting relatives.According to my previous lectures, I personally have another point of view, that is, there are two important women who determine the fate of the Jia clan, one is Qin Keqing and the other is Jia Yuanchun.In the first chapter and the eighteenth chapter, it just shows the importance of these two women to the Jia clan.Qin Keqing died in the thirteenth chapter, so the prototype of Qin Keqing, I reported my personal experience to you in the previous lecture, and pointed out that she should be the prototype of "Prince Yizhong, old thousand years old", that is, the abolished prince of the Kangxi Dynasty, One of his daughters, who hadn't registered at the clan's mansion, hid in Cao's house—in the book, it became the Ningguo mansion.Her real identity is not an abandoned orphan from the Yangshengtang.I will not repeat what I have said.

Then, because the Jia family hid the flesh and blood of a loser in the struggle for imperial power, it finally suffered a heavy blow and laid the root cause of the great tragedy.But the Jia family walks on two legs and flies on two wings. They not only hid the flesh and blood of "Prince Yizhong, Lao Qiansui", but also sent one of their own women, Jia Yuanchun, to the palace, and won the emperor's favor. In the sixteenth chapter, we saw that not long after Qin Keqing died, Jia Yuanchun's status suddenly rose. She "just chose Fengzao Palace and was named a Xiande concubine", and the emperor allowed her to go home to visit her relatives!Therefore, the Jia family once reached the state of cooking oil with fire and blooming flowers.Qin Keqing's death and Jia Yuanchun's ascension constitute the central axis of the "Two Ninth" plot from the first back to the eighteenth chapter.

From the nineteenth chapter, another plot unit is entered.The author began to freely write about the relationship between girlfriends and girlfriends, showing Jia Baoyu's emotional life, and of course it also radiated to describe all aspects of Jia's clan.Then three nine twenty-seven, four nine thirty-six, the nineteenth back to the thirty-sixth chapter, although these two plot units are written colorfully, the context is still very clear.Especially when it was written about Baoyu and her sisters, as well as Li Wan and Jia Lan, who lived in the Grand View Garden, when it was written about Baoyu and Daiyu's love, and the delicate relationship with Baochai, Shi Xiangyun came again, innocent and innocent, Baoyu was very happy to get along with her, but there was also an ideological conflict.But in the thirty-sixth chapter, he made a confinement called "Jia Baoyu's "Enlightenment of Lixiangyuan with Discernment and Determination of Emotions".Jia Baoyu originally thought that all young women, from young ladies to girls, loved him, and the little acting girls raised in the house must love him too.Unexpectedly, in Lixiangyuan, Lingguan, Xiaodan, the best singer in the opera troupe, was extremely indifferent to him.He asked Lingguan to sing. He thought Lingguan should be very happy.He is the son of the Rongguo Mansion, not to mention his status, his appearance and demeanor are not to be chosen, even Aunt Zhao said that no matter what else Baoyu is, Baoyu is very good-looking.But Ling Guan ignored him and avoided him, saying that his voice was hoarse and he couldn't sing.What scene did he witness?Lingguan doesn't care about everyone, but he has a soft spot for Jia Qiang.So Baoyu woke up: it turns out that the feelings that people can enjoy are determined by God in the dark. You can enjoy what belongs to you, and you can't force what doesn't belong to you.The fourth plot unit of the whole book ends with Baoyu's perception of life.Then write down, although it still writes about Baoyu's boudoir friendship, but what turns to the center of the plot is the decline of Jia's mansion from prosperity.

The most obvious is that by the end of Chapter 54, Six Nine Fifty-Four, the sixth plot unit is actually the first half of the whole book—if the whole book is likened to a folding fan, then it will be half unfolded by Chapter 54. Fan, basically writes "prosperity", the so-called "prosperous to the point of unbearable".The first half of the fifty-three chapters is about Jia's ancestral hall, and the second half is about celebrating the Lantern Festival, holding a big banquet, and singing operas at home, which made Jia's mother very happy. What happens when the opera is over?How do you describe the word "reward"?I won't quote the original text, you can close your eyes and listen to the sound first, what sound is it?The servant woman poured money on the stage with a big dustpan to reward those singers.The fifty-fourth chapter pushed the excitement to the extreme.It shows that the family's prosperity and wealth have reached the extreme.But extreme joy begets sorrow.Ascend, you must fall.When the moon is full, it will lose money, and when the water is full, it will overflow.Therefore, starting from the fifty-fifth chapter, the second half of the book gradually writes about "decline and decline", and describes the various internal and external difficulties encountered by the Jia family.

By the eighty-first chapter, it should be the end of the ninth plot unit.In this plot unit, the internal strife in Jia's mansion first caused Qingwen's death, and then frequent foreign aggression, Xiangling and Yingchun also died one after another. Cao Xueqin is very particular about the text structure.Why is it said that each episode is based on nine chapters, and he uses twelve as a constant?You will understand after reading the fifth chapter carefully.The fifth chapter is Jia Baoyu's imaginary journey into the realm of emptiness.Fairy Jing Huan led him, and he went to the Bo Ming Division and peeked at the albums in the cabinet. These albums recorded the fate of the women who were originally from Jinling.So how are these albums allocated?It is written in the book that Jia Baoyu looked through "The Twelve Beauties of Jinling" and the sub-volume, sub-volume and main volume.He read all the eleven paintings and eleven judgments in the main volume. The first painting and the first judgment were Dai and Chai, so there were twelve hairpins in the main volume.The sub-volume and the sub-volume are also grouped by twelve people.Jing Huan Fairy entertained Jia Baoyu and asked the fairies to sing songs. There are twelve songs. Of course, including the beginning and the end, there are fourteen songs in total, but among them, there are twelve songs that formally chant the fate of these young women. The author clearly uses twelve as the theme throughout the book. constant.Including the Lingguan I mentioned just now, Lingguan belongs to a troupe raised in Lixiangyuan. This troupe is some young girls sent Jia Qiang to the Suzhou area to buy, how many in total?twelve.These little girls take their stage names for singing, two characters, and the last character is "official".Then it is also a group of twelve, which can be called "Twelve Officials in the Red Chamber".

The first fifty-four chapters describe the prosperity and wealth of the Jia clan reaching its peak, and the last fifty-four chapters gradually describe its decline, and finally it is the tragic ending of perishing.We should grasp the text structure of Cao Xueqin's complete work, which is the master key.Our exploration of Cao Xueqin's eighty chapters later will be easy with this master key.Now we can know that his eighty chapters are not followed by forty chapters, but twenty-eight chapters. Some people will ask questions, saying that nine is the unit, so ninety-nine and eighty-one, right?In other words, Chapter 80 should not be the end of a storyline unit, Chapter 81 should be the end of that unit.I very much agree with this idea.Is such that.So from this point of view, when you look at Gao E's eighty-one chapters, you will feel that something is wrong.Or maybe you feel comfortable reading it.Anyway, I feel very awkward.why?Because Gao E started anew after the 80th episode, he didn't care about the plot before the 80th episode.

From seventy-three to eighty-one chapters should be a plot unit, and that is a very scary plot unit.Seventy-three back to eighty-one what is the content?Without going into details, if you think about it suddenly, have you copied and inspected the Grand View Garden?Is Qingwen chasing Fangguan dead?Did You Shi say that he wanted to go to the upper room, but the bottom said you should not go, why?It is helping the Zhen family whose house was ransacked in the south of the Yangtze River to hide their belongings!This is a serious crime against the emperor, once the emperor pursues it, it will be terrible!Oops, it's scary!

However, Gao E's Chapter 81 did not follow such a plot trend. He made a big turning point, which is called "Zhan Wang Xiang Simei Fishing Fish", leisurely and leisurely!It's safe and sound, the beauties are fishing in the Grand View Garden, how can there be any plagiarism, how can there be any death?It seems that all the tragic things did not happen, and all the previous signs of disaster did not count, and the writing was ridiculous. He wrote Baoyu superstitiously, and Jia Baoyu gave advice to the ladies, saying that you should just tell your fortune by fishing.Jia Baoyu is a person who opposes feudal superstition the most. I won’t give many examples. Do you remember a conversation between him and his mother, discussing the name of a blind medicine? Baoyu said that his wife was confused by Vajra Bodhisattva.He still respects his mother, but he disapproves of the superstition of gods and Buddhas.In Gao E's writing, Jia Baoyu fishes with four beauties to tell fortunes.This is unreasonable.What's even more absurd is that when the previous plot development can be said to be a storm, the lightning is very strong, and the thunder is rolling, he reverses the plot from Chapter 73 to the next. He wrote that Jia Baoyu is not only superstitious, but also Suddenly he became a well-behaved child, and "entered the family school twice with strict words".Isn't that weird?Of course, he also said that Jia Baoyu was unwilling to study, but after the teaching of private school teacher Jia Dairu and Jia Zheng's guidance, Jia Baoyu not only read sage books, but also learned to write stereotyped essays.He wrote this stereotyped essay in a lot of space. How to solve the problem, he worked one by one.Is this still Jia Baoyu from the previous eighty episodes?Jia Baoyu opposed the career economy, which was clearly written in the first eighty chapters.He even does not hesitate to have fierce conflicts with those young women who are friendly to him in terms of value judgments and values—people love him, and he usually doesn’t hate them—those young women.He only respects Lin Daiyu, why?Because Lin Daiyu never encouraged him to be enthusiastic about official career, economics, imperial examinations, and fame when he was young, he respected Lin Daiyu deeply.However, under Gao E's pen, Jia Baoyu completely changed his appearance. He obediently went to a private school, studied stereotyped essays seriously, and never liked it until he liked it more.What's even weirder is that Lin Daiyu's taste has also changed.What does Lin Daiyu say in Gao E's writing?Lin Daiyu was very supportive of Baoyu's study of stereotyped essays, saying that "there are some that are close and reasonable, and some that are subtle and far-reaching, and they should not be completely wiped out. Besides, you want to get fame, which is also more expensive."Could this be what Lin Daiyu said?So I really don't have an innate prejudice against Gao E, but after reading his writing, I absolutely cannot accept it.This should not be the text of Chapter 81 of Cao Xueqin.

After eighty-one chapters, he wrote even more absurd.Do you remember the time when Baoyu talked about feudal morality with Sister Qiao?Scary or not?Some people say that I flipped through it hastily, but I didn't look carefully.You have to look carefully, Jia Baoyu in there is very scary.Qiaojie is Baoyu's cousin.According to Gao E's description, at this time she had grown up and was able to read and write.It is full of dross from beginning to end, promotes feudal morality, and advocates that women should stick to feudal "women's morals".Baoyu not only did not object to Qiaojie reading this book, but as an elder, he also reviewed the content of the book with her. Baoyu listed the deeds of some so-called model women in the book, one of which was called "Cao's Nose Cutting".Baoyu told Qiaojie, you have to remember "Cao's nose cut".This Cao family is a chaste woman.What is a festival woman?The feudal society required that women must be faithful to each other. After the death of their husbands, they were not allowed to remarry, and they had to observe chastity.Observing chastity from a very young age to a very old age, you can be commended and you can set up a chastity memorial archway.This is very inhumane.

We all know the "May 4th Movement" in the last century. At that time, cultural figures who passionately demanded China's reform, such as Mr. Lu Xun, opposed feudal morality, and first opened fire on feudal ethics. Mr. Lu Xun wrote a famous article. You can read it now Both are still very exciting.But this one promotes some "Jie Lie" deeds, the most appalling of which is "Cao's Nose Cutting".During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a woman in the state of Wei who was married to someone surnamed Cao, so she was named Cao.Then when her husband dies, she must keep the festival.Keep it if you keep the festival!But she wants to "make clear", how can she make clear?I cut my hair first, and after I cut my hair, "I become ugly, and maybe no man likes me, which means that I am determined not to marry."Is a haircut enough?Don't mind, this woman is very strange, she even cut off her ear with a knife, it was bloody.She said that this can reflect my loyalty to feudal morality.She said that I am a chaste woman, I am a strong woman, and I swear I will never marry again.Cutting off your ears is scary enough, are you done with that?She didn't think it would work, "I have to make it more firm that I want to keep the chastity", so she took a knife and cut off her nose.This is called "Cao's Nose Cutting".I see that someone listening to the lecture below has closed their eyes, and it is right to close their eyes.Cut off the protruding nose with a knife, and there are two big bloody holes left. No man likes you anymore, and you won't be able to marry.But if you are so disciplined, it's scary, isn't it scary?But there were such books in ancient times, and the deeds of this Cao family were recorded as a model.Then Jia Baoyu in Gao E's works was very moved, and he preached "Cao's nose cutting" to his niece and sister Qiao.I don't know how you feel when you read Gao E's words?When I read this, I was horrified, it was horrible.Is this still Jia Baoyu described by Cao Xueqin?Are such words still the thoughts and emotions embodied in Cao Xueqin's Eighty Chapters? Gao E's sequel is not to say that it is useless.In the Qing Dynasty, some people attacked Gao E more than me.For example, there is a man named Yu Rui, who was the earliest red scholar, and he completely denied Gao E's sequel.At that time, there was no information showing that the last forty chapters of the book were continued by Gao E, and Yu Rui did not know who the book was continued.But when he saw the continuation of the last forty chapters, he hated it deeply, and said: "It is said that there is nothing good in it, and all evil is contained in it."Why can Gao E's book be handed down to this day by relying on Cao Xueqin's first eighty chapters?Explain that it still has some advantages.It shows the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, and the marriage tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai. In this part, it still continues the tone of the previous eighty chapters.Although its plot design does not conform to Cao Xueqin's original intention, it should be said that this part of the text is quite decent.Some chapters and some paragraphs are still okay, and the psychological portrayal of the characters and some atmosphere rendering are not bad.However, Gao E only maintained a love tragedy, but distorted the image of Jia Baoyu, the protagonist of the novel. He diluted and obliterated some political, social and philosophical content that should be in the eighty chapters. , making it a pure love story.This is unfair to Cao Xueqin, Cao Xueqin's is not a simple love story. So according to my research, I think Cao Xueqin's 81 chapters should start from the 73rd chapter and end with the ninth unit of the book.Another plot unit starts from Chapter 82. In this plot unit starting from Chapter 73, it intensively writes about the internal and external contradictions of the Jia family, which intertwine and explode.It cannot be said that the mountain rain is about to come and the wind is full of the building, not "it is coming", but "the mountain rain has come and the wind is full of the building".It is a scene of a building that is already rattling and about to collapse.Because the silly elder sister picked up an embroidered spring bag, the Grand View Garden was copied and inspected.The inspection of the Grand View Garden was originally the business of the Rongguo Mansion itself, but Mrs. Xing's companion, Wang Shanbao's family, got involved in it, making it a mess and not looking good.After copying to Tanchun, what did Tanchun do?Tanchun was very sad and indignant. She said that today you were talking about the Zhen family in Jiangnan, weren't you?The Zhen family asked the emperor to copy it.Why did the Zhen family let the emperor copy it?The Zhen family ransacked the house first, which eventually led to the emperor's ransacking.Now we have copied it here.It can be seen that such a large family can't be killed by external killing alone. "The centipede is dead but not stiff", and the internal killing must be done first.Tanchun is a person with foresight, and he has a far-sighted view of the fate of the family.Wang Shanbao's family was ignorant, so he touched Tanchun's body and said that I also searched you.Tanchun slapped Wang Shanbao's family. This slap was not only a slap for a slave, but also a warning to the family not to start civil strife like this.However, the trend of civil strife could not be contained. In the end, Mrs. Wang expelled the girls in a rage. Some girls wanted to become monks, so they were allowed to become monks.The worst of them all was Qingwen, who died.Qingwen is an important hairpin in "The Twelve Beauties of Jinling and the Second Book".In the first eighty chapters, in the thirteenth chapter, Qin Keqing from the "Regular Book" died.The story develops to this plot unit, and people start to die again.Therefore, the misfortune of the family develops step by step and slides down step by step. Then when it comes to the seventy-eighth, seventy-ninth, and eighty chapters, some women in this family are at the point of death.Yingchun married Zhongshan wolf by mistake, wolf is going to eat people.When Xue Pan marries Xia Jingui, Xiangling will die soon.According to Cao Xueqin's writing plan for the whole tragedy, at this plot unit, someone will die again in the main book, Qin Keqing died earlier, and now Jia Yingchun is about to die.There are also dead people in the sub-volume.Xiangling is in the supplementary volume.Therefore, the 81st chapter of Cao Xueqin should be the conclusion of a great tragedy that developed along the track of the 73rd chapter, that is, after the death in the supplementary book, there will also be deaths in the main book and the supplementary book , the ones who died should be Jia Yingchun and Xiangling. Therefore, according to Cao Xueqin's text structure, I think the eighty-one chapters should be similar to this chapter: "The Zhongshan wolf devours the beautiful women, and the Hedong lion roars without luck."In the fifth chapter, Jia Yingchun is clearly pointed out that Jia Yingchun is "golden boudoir flower and willow quality" and "houmen beauty".The first time Xiangling appeared on the stage—at that time her name was Zhen Yinglian, and Xiangling was the name she got from a kidnapper who abducted her and sold her to Xue’s family—she pointed out that she was "destined but not lucky". Even if Cao Xueqin's Chapter 81 is not such a chapter, and it doesn't necessarily describe the deaths of Jia Yingchun and Xiangling as realistically as I said, it is definitely a tragic plot, and it will not be a leisurely, idle one. Yes, such a plot would not be like fishing or going to a private school.After we have basically found out the content of the eighty-one chapters, we should consider, if Cao Xueqin's is one hundred and eight chapters, how many chapters are left?Twenty-seven times left.How many plot units?Three plot units, three nine twenty seven.So in the three plot units, what tasks will Cao Xueqin complete?Of course, he will also write about the tragic love story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, and he will write that although Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai are married, they seem to be in harmony, and finally it is a tragic ending.Gao E has also written in this regard, and his writing style is still good to read, but Cao Xueqin's writing style is different from his.This part of the content will appear later, but it will never be just such content.Cao Xueqin will definitely write about the final devastating blow from the emperor caused by the hiding of Qin Keqing by the Jia clan based on the clues laid in the ambush earlier. He will write about this, maybe not directly, maybe in a separate layer Write, or write implicitly, but he doesn't shy away from it.He will write about the fierce "tiger battle" between the faction of "Prince Yizhong, Lao Qiansui", that is, the "Moon" faction, and the "Japanese" faction represented by King Zhongshun.At the same time, the fate of many characters in the first 80 chapters will be explained in the next three plot units, including such characters as Zui King Kong, Qianxue, Er Yatou, Er, and Fu Qiufang.Cao Xueqin will show rich content in his next three plot units.Cao Xueqin's work can never be simply summarized as a love novel, it is a very rich text with political and social content. In this text, Cao Xueqin has ultimate thinking and ultimate questioning, "Life is full of hard work ?” Finally sublimated to a very high spiritual realm. At this point, someone may be about to say: You said that Chapter 81 should be about the tragic ending of Jia Yingchun and Xiangling. After listening to this, I generally agree with your speculation. What about after the second round?He felt especially like Jia Yingchun. This character was very simple and clear. What else could be analyzed about her?But I, to be honest, I can’t abandon Jia Yingchun just because of this, I think Jia Yingchun has been neglected by many readers for a long time, and people’s attention is all on Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Shi Xiangyun, Wang Xifeng and other “stealing” characters In his body, he lacked attention to a life like Jia Yingchun.Cao Xueqin wrote Jia Yingchun with deep feelings, and Jia Yingchun is actually worth exploring. I carry out my research on Red Mansions based on the principles of close text reading and prototype research.Then someone will ask me, does Jia Yingchun also have a prototype?I think there is.Where is my basis?My basis is in the ancient editions, including the popular editions. I read the text carefully and found that there are many different ways of writing about who Jia Yingchun's parents were, especially who gave birth to her.The ones that you often read now should be annotated by the Dream of Red Mansions Research Institute of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. This was published by the People's Literature Publishing House in 1982, and it is now the most widely circulated reader.There are 120 chapters of this kind, and the first 80 chapters did not use Cheng Gao’s version as the base, but the ancient version. This ancient version is called Gengchen’s version in the history of red studies and in the field of red studies.Among all kinds of ancient books, the Gengchen version is relatively complete and has the most references.So how did Geng Chen introduce Jia Yingchun when Leng Zixing gave a speech on Rongguo Mansion the second time?Gengchen's black and white text wrote like this, saying that the second lady-the second lady is Jia Yingchun-"is born by the ex-wife of the father of Zhengzheng", do you understand?The book annotated by the Red School that everyone often reads now uses the Gengchen version as the original version. In the original text of the Gengchen version, he said that the second lady was born to Jia Zheng's ex-wife.Think about it, everyone, if Jia Yingchun was born to Jia Zheng's ex-wife, then Mrs. Wang would be the continuation, not the original partner.Isn't the relationship between the characters in the book all disordered?What is going on with this text phenomenon?Worth exploring.it is good!Please look forward to my next lecture.