Chapter 17 2. The road in front of us has no latitude and longitude——Xia Jingui
The names of Xia Jingui and his maid, Baochan, are obviously taken from the allusion of "Chan Gong Zhe Gui".However, Xue Pan, an ignorant and incompetent overlord, has nothing to do with the number one scholar in the examination. Why did he take such an elegant name with one wife and one concubine?
There is only one explanation, which is to use "toad palace to fold osmanthus" as a metaphor for Chang'e in Guanghan Palace-Xia Jingui named osmanthus "Chang'e flower" because she forbids people to say "gui", which can be used as proof.
Let’s look at the author’s introduction to Xia Jingui——
It turns out that Miss Xia's family is seventeen years old this year, and she is quite handsome and can read a few words.If you talk about the latitude and longitude of the hills and valleys in your heart, you are quite in the footsteps of Xifeng.There is only one disadvantage. My father passed away early when I was young, and I have no siblings. The widowed mother alone guards this daughter. She pampers and spoils her. She is nothing more than a treasure. Every move of the daughter is followed by the mother, so it is too spoiled. He actually turned into a bandit planter.Love yourself like a bodhisattva, see others as filthy as dung; outside you have the posture of flowers and willows, but inside you have the nature of wind and thunder.At home, he often gets angry with the maids, scolds and beats them lightly.When I left the court today, I thought I wanted to be the head of the family. She was shy and gentle when she was a daughter. She needed to show her prestige in order to be able to overwhelm others; The cooking stove is so cooked that it will not be able to set up its own banner in the future; seeing Xiangling, a concubine with both talent and appearance, is in the room, which adds to the meaning of "Song Taizu destroyed the Southern Tang Dynasty", "how can others be allowed to lie on the side of the couch?" sleep" heart.Because there are many sweet-scented osmanthus in his house, his nickname is Jingui.When he was at home, he was not allowed to say the word Jingui, and anyone who accidentally misunderstood the word would be severely punished.Because he thought that the word osmanthus was unstoppable, he had to change it to another name. Because he thought that osmanthus had a saying of Guanghan Chang'e, he changed osmanthus to Chang'e flower, which also implied his identity.
This is a fairly complete biography of Xia Jingui, which vividly depicts the image of a wealthy lady with both talent and appearance but bad character.
In the eyes of today's people, one might think that a shrew like Xia Jingui is far from worthy of being compared to Chang'e, which is flattering her.However, in Cao Xueqin's works, he often says the opposite, "making a big deal out of a molehill", borrowing things to describe others, and taking the edge of the sword.For example, using Chang'e as a metaphor for Xia Jingui is not to describe how beautiful and noble she is, but to highlight the coldness and loneliness of her ending.
There is a famous line in the ancient poems: "Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, and the blue sea and blue sky will be heart-warming every night." Anyone who talks about Chang'e must have a deserted meaning.
Since Xia Jingui has the word "gold" in her name, she naturally belongs to the "Golden Widow" faction.Her future must be that after Xue Pan served his sentence, he would stay alone in the empty room, like Chang'e in the moon, sad every night.
The head of the twelve beauties is Xiang Ling, who is also the only person named in the sub-book. The judgment said: "Since the birth of a lonely tree in the two places, it has caused the soul of Xiang to return to his hometown."
"Lonely trees grow in two places" is the word for osmanthus; "Xianghun" is a pun, referring to the unjust soul of Xiangling.The fate of Xiangling's tragic death because of Jingui's jealousy has long been doomed.The two are born and restrained each other, and they are a pair of gold and jade.
Although Xia Jingui is an unbearable person, she has a strong foundation, and her status in the Xue family is much higher than that of Xiangling, so I guess she is ranked second in the second book of twelve beauties, second only to Xiangling.The fates of the two are closely linked. To calculate Jingui's future, you have to look for it from Xiangling's trail.
In addition to the verdict, there are many hints of Xiangling's misfortune, and they are often related to Jingui.
For example, in the big play on Baoyu's birthday, when Xiangling was fighting grass with all the maids, she once said: "I have a husband and wife Hui." As a result, she was ostracized by the little girls, and even the pomegranate skirt was polluted.But Baoyu found it just at this time, and said, "You have a husband and wife Hui, but I have a juniper water chestnut here."
When it came to "Shouyi Hongqunfang Opening Night Banquet", Xiangling took advantage of the name of the flower and planted a double flower, inscribing a poem: "The flower on the branch of Lianli is blooming."
The meaning of this poem is very good on the surface, but if it is connected with the original poem, it is not so. The next line of the poem is "the flowers are jealous and the wind and rain will destroy each other", which means that the flowers are blooming just right. Life is not long.This "jealousy" person is naturally Xia Jingui.
Therefore, the last sentence of Xiangling's three poems chanting the moon is: "Won Chang'e should ask, why not reunite forever!"
Chang'e here is also a pun, referring to both the moon and Jingui—then Jingui refers to Chang'e herself, and Xiangling asks her: Why break the reunion of husband and wife?I was asking her again: Why do you not allow yourself to be reunited?
Jingui's actions are of course to blame, even if the future is bleak, she is not worthy of sympathy. However, she is also a good-looking daughter of a good family. If her husband is up to date, she may not be able to live a good life.However, she happened to meet Xue Pan, which can be considered unlucky. No wonder, like Xiang Ling, who was bullied to death by her, she couldn't escape the call of Bo Mingsi.
Just as Zhiyanzhai commented: "How can there be osmanthus in summer? How can there be snow in the season of osmanthus? The three things are originally related to wind and horse, and if they are all made to do, they will not match in the end. Most of the things that fail are like this. I can't understand my ears." It can be seen that Xue Xia's marriage is the beginning of "lucky luck without gold".
It turned out that the mystery of unlucky fate had already been hidden in the name. It was destined in the previous life, but the person involved couldn't know it by himself.
In the thirty-eighth chapter of "Lin Xiaoxiang's Poem on Winning the Chrysanthemum, Xue Baochai's Satire and Crab Ode", Baochai wrote a crab poem:
The article wrote: "After reading it, everyone said that this is the swan song of eating crabs. These small topics are considered great talents if they have a general meaning, but they are too poisonous to satirize the world."——For this sentence, many red scholars have speculated What is this poem satirizing and who is it alluding to?And some people suspect that this poem is satirizing Jia Huan because one of Baoyu's crab kites was taken by Jia Huan.It is also said that it satirizes Jia Yucun and other officialdom villains who seek sophistication.
However, Jia Huan and Baochai have nothing to do with each other, and they can't be demoted if they work hard; It shouldn't be poetry or satire.Therefore, the irony in Baochai's poems will not be any cynical subject, but only the people who are closest to him but at odds with him.Speaking broadly, it generally refers to all the people and things in the book who "raise a rock to shoot oneself in the foot", and in detail, it refers specifically to her sister-in-law Xia Jingui.
The first word in the poem is "Gui", which has already pointed out the person. It can be seen that the main purpose of this poem is not to chant crabs, but to say "Gui".
If it is far-fetched to say that this is just a coincidence, it needs to be verified one by one by the following verses and plots.
The name of Jingui appeared in the book for the first time, and it was relayed by Xiangling and Baoyu. Let’s see the original text:
Baoyu said, "Why are you so busy with serious business?" Xiangling said, "It's about your brother marrying his sister-in-law, so it's important." Baoyu said, "Exactly. Which family are you talking about? I only heard the noise for half a year. Today I talk about the Zhang family's good, tomorrow I want the Li family's, and later I talk about the Wang family's. He doesn't know what crimes these people's daughters have committed, so let them talk about it." Xiangling said: "This Now that it's settled, you don't need to move to another house." Baoyu hurriedly asked, "Whose family is settled?" Xiangling said, "Because when your brother went out for business last time, he stopped by a relative's house on the way. This relative was originally He is an old relative, and he is also a registered merchant in the Ministry of Households with us, and he is also one of the largest families. As I said the day before yesterday, both of your two houses also know it. In the city of Chang'an, everyone from the prince to the businessman calls him The family is the 'Osmanthus Xia family'." Baoyu asked with a smile: "Why is it also called the 'Osmanthus Xia family'?" Xiangling said: "His family name is Xia, and he is very rich. Needless to say, the rest of the land only covers dozens of hectares. The land only grows sweet-scented osmanthus, and all the sweet-scented osmanthus bureaus in and outside the city of Chang'an belong to his family, and even the bonsai displayed in the palace is also a tribute from his family, hence the nickname. Now the grandfather is gone, only the grandmother brings I live with a daughter of my own, and I don't have brothers, but it's a pity that he has lost all his family." Baoyu hurriedly said, "Let's not care about his succession, but how is this girl? Why do you guys like it? "Xiangling laughed and said: "One is fate, and the other is 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Back then, the whole family was in contact with each other, and they have been together since childhood. Talking about relatives being aunts and brothers and sisters, there is no suspicion. Although I have been away for a few years, when my son came to his house, Grandma Xia had no son, and when she saw your elder brother in such a state, she cried and laughed at the same time, which was even better than seeing her son. Let his brother and sister meet each other, but who knows that this girl has grown like a flower, and she can read and write at home, so your brother focused on it at that time. Even a group of old court men in the pawnshop disturbed her for three or four days. They stayed for a few more days, and finally let them go home. As soon as your brother came in, he begged our grandma to ask for a marriage proposal. Our grandma had also met this girl before, and she was in the same family, so she complied. I discussed it with my concubine, Miss Feng, and sent someone to discuss it. It’s just that the wedding day is too urgent, so we are in a hurry. I wish I could come here sooner and add another poet.”
Here it is pointed out that Xia's family is in Chang'an, and it was already early autumn when Xiangling and Baoyu said this. On the day Xue Pan married Jingui, it would most likely be the Double Ninth Festival, so he said, "Chang'an is looking forward to the Double Ninth Festival". , so it is "saliva mouth".
And in this passage, after Xia Jingui's name appeared, Geng Chen originally had two lines of criticism:
"How can there be osmanthus in summer? How can there be snow in the sweet-scented osmanthus season? The three things are originally a matter of wind and horse, and if they are all combined, they will not match in the end. Most of the things about luck and failure are like this, and those involved are puzzled."
This is to say that this marriage has no reason at all, and even the order of the seasons is all chaotic, so how can it be a good relationship?
Therefore, the neck couplet in Baochai's poem says, "the road in front of you has no latitude and longitude, and the spring and autumn are empty, black and yellow in your belly."
Jingui's surname is Xia, and "snow" is in winter, but winter and summer are not mentioned in the poem, but spring and autumn are mentioned, which is quite ingenious.These two sentences, in addition to saying that the spring and autumn are disorderly, also correspond to what was said in the later biography of Xia Jingui: "If you talk about the longitude and latitude of Qiuhe in your heart, you will follow in the footsteps of Xifeng." The word "longitude and latitude" overlaps; It has the posture of flowers and willows on the outside, and the nature of wind and thunder on the inside", which corresponds to the language of "Pili".
No wonder everyone was amazed when they saw this, and Baoyu even praised: "It's a joy to write! My poems should also be burned."
The twelve beauties must be registered with brother Shi when they are included in the book.Therefore, when Baochai wrote the crab song, he asked Baoyu to praise it; and when Xiangling talked about Xia Jingui, he also asked Baoyu to praise it.
That's not to mention, when Baoyu met Xia Jingui later, "the description of his demeanor is not strange, he is usually a person with flowers and tender willows, who is on the same level as all the sisters, how can he have such a temperament, it is extremely strange, so his heart I am wondering." This is a further "registration" clearly, and Baoyu later went to Taoist Wang to seek "a prescription for jealous women", which is even more violent. Ginger" has the same purpose, they are all looking for the method of mutual restraint of things; at the same time, the book says:
"When Jingui saw her husband's banner gradually falling, and her mother-in-law was kind, she gradually tried her hand at it. At first, she only tried to coerce Xue Pan, but later she played a role in coquettishness. She will reach Aunt Xue, and then Xue Baochai. Baochai After a long period of observation of his unruly intentions, every time he adapts to the situation, he secretly uses words to suppress his ambitions. Jin Gui knows that he cannot be violated, and every time he wants to find a gap, but there is no gap to take advantage of, he has to follow his intentions."
This is also the way of chrysanthemum and ginger to overcome rigidity with softness.Therefore, these two sentences can also be said to be Baochai's description of his neither humble nor overbearing attitude towards Xia Jingui.
And the last sentence "What's the benefit of falling into the cauldron today, and the fragrance of millet and millet left in Yuepu", corresponds to the plot that will not be seen in the following text.Come to think of it, with Xue Pan's troubles and Xia Jingui's perverse actions, the couple could not have any good results, then Xue Pan will inevitably be punished and "fall into the cauldron" to apologize; while Jingui stays alone in the vacant room, like Chang'e in the moon palace, to be lonely Forever.
In addition, these two sentences also correspond to Xiangling and Xia Jingui's theory of flower fragrance: "Not only water chestnut flowers, but also lotus leaf lotus pods have a delicate fragrance. But his fragrance is not comparable to that of flowers. If it is quiet day and night, or early morning In the middle of the night, after a closer look, the fragrance smells better than flowers. Even water chestnuts, chicken heads, reed leaves, and reed roots get wind and dew, and the fragrance is refreshing."
From this point of view, every sentence in Baochai's Crab Chant has fallen to the real point. If it is not referring to Xia Jingui, what should be the explanation?