Chapter 7 Metaphors and Symbols in "The Blood-Red Rhododendron"

Among all the works, "The Blood-Red Rhododendron" is probably the most difficult one to understand.Its complexity is different from that of "A Dream in the Garden". It does not lie in the structural form, but in the mysterious meaning hidden inside, as well as a large number of extremely elusive metaphors and symbols in flashbacks. If we don't pursue the implied purpose, this novel can be said to be very simple in terms of text and plot structure.The author uses the first-person narration method, asking a young man who has just graduated from college and is serving in the military, as a bystander, to dictate a tragedy he witnessed in simple language.Except that the last two paragraphs of the novel are about the scene one year after Wang Xiong committed suicide, his dictation is mainly a simple "flashback": first talk about the ending, that is, the situation when he went to the deserted beach near Keelung to identify the corpse, and then go back and start from the beginning , in a straight-line manner, narrates how he was transferred to Taipei because of his military service, and often visited his aunt's house, where he met Wang Xiong, a 40-year-old male servant; How to "confront" Nuximei.After Lier entered middle school, she changed her attitude towards Wang Xiong and began to alienate him. Wang Xiong became silent and violent.One day, he had a conflict with Ximei. Afterwards, while no one was around, he physically abused Ximei, almost strangled her to death, and then disappeared.

The role of this young narrator in this novel is similar to that of Mrs. Qin (the teacher's wife) in "A Hand of Green", both of which narrate the story of another person in the first person.My primary identity is that of a bystander.But both of them are "participants" at the same time, but they participate in very different ways.The participation of Boss Qin is obvious. She is an important person who promotes the plot of the novel. Her existence directly affects the fate of the protagonist Zhu Qing (for example, after Zhu Qing loses her husband, if her wife does not take care of her, she is likely to die of illness, and there will be no follow-up story to tell).However, the narrator of "The Blood-Red Rhododendron" does not seem to have much to do with the development of the novel's plot; his existence has no obvious connection with Wang Xiong's fate.

So, apart from telling the story, what is his importance in the whole novel?His importance is not to promote the plot of the story, but to show the special meaning the author has given to this novel.This is not to say that this narrator has special insight and can understand the meaning of interpreting Wang Xiong's tragedy.On the contrary, although he is indeed a sympathetic bystander, he does not understand Wang Xiong's inner crux, and he is even more ignorant of the meaning of the tragedy that happened. He is not a person who likes to think deeply and analyze. Therefore, when he tells a story, except for one passage (the one describing an old soldier in Jinmen), which is quite subjective, it can be said to be quite objective, and he does not often intervene in his own opinions or judgments.His way of showing the author's will is not "explanation"; rather, from his indifferent and indifferent objective description, readers can pick up meanings that the narrator himself did not feel or realize, and hear the author's ( not the narrator's) overtones.In this way, we can use our own thinking and judgment ability to analyze and study to understand—or try to understand—the complex meaning hidden in this novel.

Before discussing the metaphors and symbols in this novel, we must first have an idea of ​​the main theme of this novel, because a large number of metaphors and symbols in the article are all used to imply the meaning of the story, which is not necessarily related to the plot development on the surface of the story. Relationship.When I talked about the theme of the battle between the soul and the flesh in the article "Bai Xianyong's Novel World", I used this novel as an example to give a brief explanation.It is now copied below for our discussion. Wang Xiong in "The Rhododendron as Red as Blood" is a male servant, obviously without much education, and has no ability to understand or reflect on his own behavior and feelings.But we can get a glimpse of the reason why the hero is so obsessed with Lier from Bai Xianyong's understated dialogue: he wants to capture the "past" in Lier.The memory of Li'er and the "little girl" whom he had betrothed in the countryside of Hunan when he was a teenager became one. His obsession with Lier today is actually his obsession with the "past".In this way, unconsciously, the phantom of the "past" dominates him—the victory of the "spirit".During this period, the "meat" also rebelled, trying to pull Wang Xiong in the opposite direction: the "fat" and "shaky" prostitute Ximei was the symbol of the "meat" in Wang Xiong's body.But the power of the "spirit" is too strong, squeezing the corner of the "flesh", the "flesh" can't lift its head at all, but wants to wait for an opportunity to retaliate.Bai Xianyong pointed out this kind of confrontation between spirit and flesh against the enemy in a few sentences:

My aunt said that Wang Xiong and Ximei must have clashed. Wang Xiong and her became rivals as soon as he came. Wang Xiong avoided her every time he saw her, but Ximei liked to tease him. Whenever she made him blush, she was very happy. But time cannot last forever, Lier must grow up.After entering middle school, the image of Lier began to no longer conform to the image of the ten-year-old "little girl" that was stuck in Wang Xiong's mind. In real life, Lier began to separate from Wang Xiong. External phenomena are used to project Wang Xiong's inner phenomena.In the end, when Lier abandoned Wang Xiong, that is to say, when the "past" abandoned Wang Xiong, his life lost its meaning and his "spirit" withered.The rest is just an empty "now", just the body, just Ximei.But how could his castrated "spirit" be willing to stop there?His final violence against Ximei and his suicide are actually his "spirit"'s final revenge on his "flesh", and his final victory.is not that right?After his death, wouldn't his soul return to Li'er's house, watering the garden every night, watering the hundreds of rhododendrons as if they were spurting blood, blooming "so presumptuously, so angry"!

We may generalize: Wang Xiong's external behavior constitutes the plot of this novel, and Wang Xiong's subconscious psychological state is the main meaning of this novel. Wang Xiong's love for Li'er is not the love between a man and a woman, but his unconscious obsession to the "past".That is to say, his infinite nostalgia and obsession with "little sister", the simple life in the past, and especially the innocent self when he was young.What he conceived and grasped with all his life force was not so much Lier's feelings, but rather the illusion of "going back to the past" that Lier's innocence could give him.In this way, protecting Lier's "Innocence" (Innocence) and making it exist forever has become the only mission and the whole meaning of Wang Xiong's life.And this kind of abstract, spiritual "protection" is represented and embodied in the novel by the protection of the physical body in real life.In this way, Wang Xiong was arranged by the author to be the servant of Lier's family, serving and accompanying Lier, and protecting her from school to school.In this way, the author asks the narrator to use a slightly humorous tone to compare the tricycle that Wang Xiong uses to send Lier to school to a "palace carriage" and to compare Wang Xiong to an "escort guard":

The tricycle that Wang Xiong rides on is often polished brightly, and the front of the car is filled with colorful fluffy balls, phoenixes with floral paper hinges, and small windmill wheels, which are decorated like palace chariots.Every time he went out to pick up Lier, Wang Xiong always tidied up his head and face, and dressed decently even in hot weather. When Lier walked into the gate from the outside, he raised his face and shook her With short hair, she was made as tall as a little princess. Wang Xiong followed behind her, carrying her schoolbag, straightened his waist, and looked serious, like Lier's escort.

It is a very naive children's game to pretend to be a car with playthings such as pompoms and flower paper.Wang Xiong's behavior that is completely unsuitable for his age reflects his psychological state of wanting to stay in an innocent childhood.With Lier, immersed in the innocence and childish atmosphere that surrounds her, Wang Xiong feels safe and happy, because he doesn't have to face the fact that he has already entered middle age, and he doesn't have to face the fact that time has already polluted him and made him unhappy. And then the fact of cleanliness.Because what he is obsessed with is actually not Lier, but Lier's innocence, the author repeatedly emphasizes Lier's innocence and ignorance, as well as her natural behavior that is not contaminated by experience, sophistication and artificial cultivation under the protection of safety. state.Let's see how the narrator introduces Lil:

My mother told me that Lier was raised by her aunt in her mouth. When she was six years old, her aunt had to feed her herself. Lier was so used to her sixth grade that she refused to tie her shoelaces by herself.But Lier's appearance is really cute and pitiful. I have never seen a child in that family who was born as snow-white and round as her: round face, round eyes, even the nose and mouth are so round Interesting; especially when she is shaking her short hair and giggling, her unique naivety of a baby girl is the most fascinating, just like a jade doll.However, her pampered and willful temper is rare among other children...

Here, the number of "baby girl's naive attitude" expresses the special meaning given to the role of Lier by the author.The author just wants to strengthen the implication that Lier is like a baby, pure and flawless.Ordinary children, by the age of ten, should have been somewhat dusty with the world—unless they are protected by unusual extremes.So Li'er was "growth with her aunt in her mouth".Later, after Wang Xiong committed suicide, the whole house was alarmed, "Only my cousin Lier, we kept it from her, and never let her know, because we were afraid that she would be afraid."She is extremely protected, and she has received another proof.

Baby Lil, of course, played innocently.For example, she straddles Wang Xiong's back, pretending to be riding a horse; or wearing a necklace and bracelet made of glass beads, holding two balls of bright red azaleas, dancing "mountain dance" on the grass in the garden.These games all have a natural and primitive flavor, revealing her childish ignorance.However, as far as Wang Xiong is concerned, because he is so focused on clinging to childish illusions, he actually learns bestiality in his forty-year-old body, letting Lier ride on his back and playing together; "Giant palm", catching red, green and green glass beads all over the ground to string necklaces.In this way, it really gives people a funny, incongruous, and even weird feeling. No wonder even the insensitive narrator finds him "clumsy and funny".This feeling of incongruity is conveyed powerfully from a vivid picture composed of the author's few words: Wang Xiong also surrounded Li'er, jumping up and down, patting his big palms non-stop.His big black face was flushed bright red, and his mouth was wide open, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.The two of them, one big and one small, one black and one white, jumped up and down, singing and dancing in the sea of ​​red flowers. On the one hand, the author implies that it is strange and wrong for adults in their forties to stagnate at the psychological age of young children; on the other hand, for the same reason, because of Wang Xiong's refusal to accept the reality, he especially sympathizes and loves him.The author's sympathy and love for Wang Xiong, who has just retired from the army and became a male servant, is not only vaguely revealed in the tone of the novel, but also conveyed by the narrator's only subjective opinion in the whole text. : When I was in Jinmen, there were a few old soldiers in the camp. They had been in the army for more than ten years, but I always felt that they still maintained a kind of innocence. The scorching sun and sea breeze on Kinmen Island are so primitive and direct.Sometimes, when I saw a group of them fighting naked in the sea, their faces covered with gray lines suddenly burst into childish smiles. It is not found on the adult face. Here, the narrator can be said to be the spokesperson of the author. Phrases such as "emotions, anger, sorrow, joy... so primitive, so direct", "the face covered with gray lines... a childish smile" were mainly aimed at Wang Xiong, while the words "Chizi's innocence" , which is the same as "baby girl naivety", which is exactly what Wang Xiong desperately wants to preserve.At the end of the same paragraph, the narrator mentions an old soldier who plays the erhu on the beach, "It reminds me that his nostalgic sorrow must be as deep and as far away as those soldiers who guarded the border in ancient times."The subjective feelings of the narrator in these few sentences seem to have nothing to do with Wang Xiong, but they are actually revealing the mystery of Wang Xiong's story.Wang Xiong himself didn't realize it, but his tragedy and his persistence are absolutely inseparable from the "sorrow of nostalgia" that is "so deep and so far away"! In the novel, the two or three chats between the narrator and Wang Xiong seem to be careless, and seem to be of little importance in the development of the plot, but in fact, they are the main key to understanding the meaning of Wang Xiong's tragedy.The dialogue is always a few sentences, but every time it involves "sorrow of nostalgia".Once, we learned that when he was a teenager in the countryside of Hunan, he was engaged to a ten-year-old "little girl" who was "white and fat", and let us get a glimpse of the reason, or part of the reason, of his obsession with Li'er. (This little girl always hid behind Wang Xiong when his mother wanted to spank her, so Wang Xiong was also a "guardian" for her.) Another time, let us know his life experience: he was originally in Hunan Farming in the countryside. When I was 18 years old, I went to the city to sell the millet one day. As soon as I left the village, I was stopped and beaten by the Japanese army.Immediately afterwards, there are a few more dialogues, which are very important, because the author vaguely hints to us why Wang Xiong later committed suicide by jumping into the sea: "Master Biao, can you see the mainland from Jinmen Island?" Wang Xiong once asked me thoughtfully.I told him that through the binoculars I could see people moving over there. "Is it that close?" He looked at me in surprise, in disbelief. "Why not?" I replied, "there are always starved corpses floating over there." "They're here to find relatives," he said. "Those people died of starvation," I said. "Master Biao, you don't know," Wang Xiong waved his hand to stop me, "We have corpses in the countryside of Hunan, people die outside, if there are relatives who are closely related at home, those dead people can run back quickly. " Obviously, when Wang Xiong was abandoned by Lier and "the past", he still refused to accept the reality and accepted Ximei, and decided to go back to his hometown to "find relatives".As I mentioned above, the narrator of this novel is not obviously involved in the development of the plot, nor is his existence obviously implicated in Wang Xiong's fate.But in this "chat", he unknowingly showed Wang Xiong a final "way out", thus secretly affecting Wang Xiong's fate. However, has our protagonist who killed his own body in pursuit of his ideal finally found his ideal?Have his loved ones been found at last?otherwise.Here, let's put aside the question of whether the soul exists or not.Let us assume for a moment that after death, the soul will really look for "closely-attached relatives".However, even if Wang Xiong's soul really flies back to his hometown, back to his hometown in the countryside of Xiangyin, Hunan, will he still find the chubby ten-year-old "little girl"?Can he still find the old lady who beat the little girl's ass with a broom?More than twenty years have passed.Time can never be turned back.Even if the old lady and the little girl are still alive in the world, they are no longer the old lady and the little girl, and they will never be able to conform to the images frozen in Wang Xiong's heart.So, he couldn't find them no matter what. In order to strengthen this hint, the author made Wang Xiong's body "washed into the crevices of the rocks by the tide, held there, and never drifted away."That is to say, the author uses the specific fact that Wang Xiong's body was caught between the rocks and failed to float to the mainland to symbolize that he cannot find his relatives, and to imply that he cannot find his ideal at all because time cannot flow backward.Since the little girl from back then could not be found, Wang Xiong's "soul" that still refused to give in, returned to the garden of Lier's house, watering the azaleas every night, painstakingly, and continued to protect Lier's "innocence" that had not been lost. .We noticed that when the narrator went to identify the corpse, Wang Xiong's corpse was already decomposed, only his palm was surprisingly not deformed.The author uses this to imply that although Wang Xiong is dead, his soul is still unyielding, and since he can't catch the little girl back, he still wants to use his "giant palms" to irrigate the azaleas! I have already mentioned that from the objective narration of this novel, we readers can pick up the mysterious meaning that the narrator himself did not realize everywhere, and hear the author's overtones.The ending of this dramatic story is a good example.The second paragraph at the end of the article describes the scene about a year after Wang Xiong committed suicide.Li'er's mother lost her health and suffered from insomnia every night since "that unlucky incident" happened at home.She whispers to the narrator: "Every night, I hear the sound of someone watering the garden." For this, our young narrator who graduated from a college, of course, has a very rational and logical explanation: "Mother said that my aunt is a very nervous woman who loves to tell nonsense all her life." However, after reading this, readers, Immediately afterwards, seeing the azaleas in full bloom in the garden, one will vaguely feel that the author has other meanings. The matter is not as simple and understandable as the narrator's explanation.In fact, the hint of "return of the soul" here has been prepared as early as the beginning of the novel.In the second paragraph of the full text, the narrator said: The death of Wang Xiong caused a commotion in my aunt's house.My aunt burned a large stack of paper money in the garden that night, squatting on the ground and muttering a lot of requiem words while burning. First, my aunt burned paper money in the garden to "requiem the soul".So the soul returns and settles down in the garden, protecting Lier's innocence.The front and back are subtly echoed.Another point worth mentioning is an ancient myth about the cuckoo: According to "Shuowen", the king of ancient Shu, Emperor Wang (Du Yu), raped his wife, died ashamed, and turned into a cuckoo.When spring comes, the cuckoo cries for blood, and its blood turns into azaleas.Bai Xianyong obviously used this allusion and incorporated its mysterious meaning into the novel, implying that Wang Xiong and Du Yu are like Du Yu, who returned from the soul because of the persistence of "love".Also, according to Cihai, the cuckoo (bird) "sings shrilly and can make travelers return to thinking, so it is also called thinking back and urging return".This also secretly coincides with Wang Xiong's "sorrow of nostalgia". The author's "overtones" rise and fall one after another, circling and trembling throughout the novel, waiting to be listened to and appreciated by those who know the sound.The list goes on and on.After Lier was admitted to middle school, she prepared to go to school on the first day. She put on a neat scout uniform and was full of air. "In an instant, she seemed to have grown up a lot, and she looked like a middle school student."Wang Xiong pushed the tricycle out and saw her at first glance, "like being taken aback, he stared blankly at Li'er, speechless for a long while."He had to wait until Li'er gave a "thumping push" before he moved, which shows how dazed he was.Here, what the narrator meant was that Lier's appearance was different from usual, which surprised Wang Xiong.However, careful readers will feel that Wang Xiong's so-called "shocked" reaction is not caused by such a trivial matter as Lier's dress is different from usual, which can be stimulated.At the first reading, it is not easy for us to understand, but after the third reading, we will understand that the reason why Wang Xiong was taken aback was that he suddenly found that Lier had grown up, and suddenly she could no longer fit the ideal that was frozen in his heart. The image of "Little Sister".Sure enough, it wasn't long before she actually started to get rid of him.As Li'er grows up every day, the distance between the two also increases.The author uses the fact that Li'er refuses to take a tricycle to go to school to insinuate that she no longer needs a "palace carriage"; she has begun to reach out to the mundane world and refuses to accept Wang Xiong's spiritual protection. The fact that Li'er began to stretch out into the secular world is evidence hidden in the plot of the novel.Before entering middle school, she was 100% true and 100% pure.Her heart is like a piece of pure jade ("just like a jade doll"), without any dirt from the world, and her emotions are completely natural.She showed nature, not humanity.Her feelings for Wang Xiong are not mixed with the slightest secular values, and the two are completely equal playmates.However, after entering middle school, she began to "grow up", like all able-bodied children.She began to accept the values ​​of the world, and she looked down on Wang Xiong because he was just a servant. She pointed at him and said "You are a dog" when practicing English.Because of Wang Xiong's ugly appearance ("like a gorilla"), he was afraid of being laughed at, so he refused his protection. After Lier left Wang Xiong, Wang Xiong became extremely silent, wandering alone in the garden, completely retreating into himself.He is slovenly, "with stubble all over his face, his hair has not been shaved even if it has grown an inch, and the whole head is standing upright, like a hedgehog."The upside-down head of the hair is called a "hedgehog", which is very vivid by appealing to the vision.But the author also deliberately uses the image of "hedgehog" to allude to Wang Xiong's psychological state.Hedgehogs are extremely solitary animals.Extremely introverted animal.It is a vegetarian and does not invade other animals, but when it is seriously threatened, it will risk its life to retaliate against the threat in self-defense.In such a seemingly unremarkable image, the author hints at Wang Xiong's absolute loneliness at the time, and vaguely foreshadows Wang Xiong's counterattack against Ximei's threat. However, the primary image of this novel is the big garden of my aunt's house.We noticed that most of the storyline developed in this spacious garden.At the beginning, the author explained to us through the narrator that my uncle was in a big business during his lifetime and left a large fortune when he died.So we don't feel surprised why the aunt, mother and daughter can afford to live in such a "large garden house of more than 300 pings" in the crowded Taipei City.Let's see what this big garden looks like: The garden of my aunt’s house is very spacious, and the newly planted plants and flowers are neatly arranged. In the middle is a lush green Korean lawn, but the surrounding flower beds are full of bright red rhododendrons, many of which have begun to bud. ...that bunch of banana trees... The description here, and the descriptions several times after this, let us see a beautiful green, spotless, and full of spring vigor on earth, and most of the story actually happened in the spring when the rhododendrons are blooming. It is worth noting that , that is to say, the author always let childish laughter and pure joy permeate this spring garden, this paradise on earth.In this way, when the narrator entered the garden for the first time, "I heard! Lier's series of crisp and slippery laughter".Li'er rode Wang Xiong as a horse, "screaming with joy".On the green and velvety grass, Lier danced barefoot, and Wang Xiong jumped and danced together, singing and dancing in the sea of ​​red flowers.At the end of the novel, the narrator comes to the garden after hearing the aunt's "nonsense" and finds that the rhododendrons are blooming strangely.At this time, Li'er was playing hide-and-seek with a group of girls in the garden. "The sharp and clear laughter of the girls was rippling in the clear spring sky." This large garden is, in essence, comparable to the Grand View Garden.The same color is bright, the same neat and beautiful, and most importantly, it also gives people the impression that it symbolizes eternal childishness and innocence, and is a spiritual world that is not polluted by the secular world or the flesh (that is, even the aunt walking in the garden, She is also a widow like Li Wan).Such a world is what Wang Xiong desperately wants to grasp and fix as permanent.However, Ximei, the "fat" and "twitching" daughter, hangs around in the garden from time to time and becomes a threat to this innocent world. That's why he "confronts" her and regards her as a "dead enemy". After being "guarded" by him, he became silent and lonely, but he still refused to give up the mission of survival in his heart. Every day, he bowed his head and bent over in the garden, "cracking... irrigating the rhododendrons he planted by himself", Stubbornly maintain the original appearance of this "paradise on earth" and prevent it from withering and deteriorating.But when one day, Ximei didn't even give him the water to water the azaleas, seriously threatening the continuation of the "spring of life" symbolized by the azaleas, Wang Xiong couldn't stand it anymore.Just as Mrs. Wang ransacked the Grand View Garden because she hated the multicolored sachet embroidered with pornographic pictures carried by the silly elder sister, and drove out the "sinner" who threatened the virgin and innocent, Wang Xiong hated this fleshy sinner in the garden who threatened the spiritual world. In addition, carry out extermination.So he strangled Ximei and "choked her body into bruises, and her neck was covered with fingernail marks." However, Ximei is not dead after all; "meat" cannot be destroyed after all.This is the irony of the novel.Because time flows forward forever, no one can keep a complete innocence forever; no one can keep a baby-like white heart for a long time, free from the pollution of worldly atmosphere and worldly values.The Grand View Garden will eventually collapse, and the spiritual world cannot last forever.Even the "soul" of Wang Xiong, who was freed from the shackles of the body, could not change this cruel fact, because although he (it) temporarily drove Ximei out of the garden (she fled back to Yilan in fright), she was still alive and could come back again at any time. Come back; even though he (it) waters every day and night and painstakingly makes the rhododendrons in the garden "bloom so presumptuously and so angry".But the "blooming" of flowers is just the prelude to "withering". Once spring is over and the seasons change, no matter how hard you try to water it, it will be in vain.The storyteller, when he first saw the garden, the rhododendrons were only in bud.Li'er's innocence and innocence still had a future, but today, two or three years later, the flowers that "all burst into bloom" can only be expected to wither.Just like the sharp and clear laughter of the girls in the garden, "a moment of tightness like a moment", when it is so tight that it will burst. In this way, we drill into the outer shell of the plot structure of this novel, and appreciate the core hidden in it-the theme of the opposition between soul and body.However, there is one thing about the metaphors and symbols that express this theme in the text, which is particularly confusing.I bring this up for discussion. First of all, we noticed that there are many "sexual" symbols in this novel.These sexual symbols, of course, are often accompanied by Ximei, who represents "fleshness".In the world of Bai Xianyong's novels, the humid and hot summer night often alludes to the saturated state of carnal desire.Although most of the gardens described by the narrator relate to the spring day and the laughter of innocent girls, there is a section that describes the scene of summer night.The character who appeared at this time, as one can imagine, is the trembling Ximei.She "shaked her wet long hair", "put the grilled fish into her mouth", and "lay down".In the garden, a "big yellow moon" had just climbed over the wall, and the "fat plantain leaves" were shining brightly.Faced with such an irresistible threat of "flesh", Wang Xiong, who embraced his "spirit" and rejected "flesh", of course had no choice but to "suddenly stand up without turning his head...and walk into the house".We also noticed that Ximei, who was lying on the armchair, was shaking a large thin fan, "slapping her thighs to drive away mosquitoes."This surprised us: there were mosquitoes in this garden!It's not perfect, it's not heaven on earth! (However, as a human being, not a fairy, who can be without blemishes! Who can not be stained by the reality of the flesh?) Having said that, it is understandable that the sexual symbols in this novel are used in Ximei, but what is confusing is that when the author strengthens the hint of Wang Xiong's attachment to the "spirit", sometimes he also uses vague sexual images to describe it. characterization.For example, when the narrator of the novel saw Wang Xiong for the first time, Wang Xiong "crawled on the lawn with his hands and feet, learning how to behave like a beast, while Lier was straddling his back... her legs... kept kicking".This kind of description can remind people of sexual behavior, but it presents a complete childlike innocence without the slightest flesh.Another example is that after Wang Xiong was abandoned by Lier, he kept silent every day, bowed his head and bowed, "holding a long bamboo pole water ladle in his hand, slamming it again and again, very slowly, very attentively irrigating his own hands. Those rhododendrons planted".Wang Xiong concentrates on the meaning of watering the rhododendrons. Of course, it is Wang Xiong who refuses to let the flowers fade away. He wants to seize the spring and keep the spiritual world forever.However, his way of watering, using "a long bamboo pole and water ladle", pouring it regularly into the flowers "one after another", may also remind people of sexual intercourse.In addition, the author uses the word "blood" to describe Rhododendron, although it means "Rhododendron weeping blood", but from another perspective, the word "blood" is closely related to the body, and Rhododendron, in this novel, , mainly symbolizes the spring of life and symbolizes "spirituality".Also, in the end Wang Xiong's violence against Ximei was intended to destroy the "meat" in order to obtain the "spirit".But the way he used violence seemed to give up his "spirit" in order to gain his "flesh". However, this seemingly contradictory and confusing metaphor of the intercourse between the soul and the flesh is subtly implying the extremely ambiguous and complicated relationship between the soul and the flesh.The author obviously loves the spirit and hates the flesh; he obviously thinks that the flesh body without the "spirit" is like the corpse of Wang Xiong who has escaped from the soul.Ordinary people, with the increase of age, the physicality increases and the spirituality decreases. "Flesh" and "spirit" seem to restrain each other. Once the "flesh" matures and develops, it will tend to annihilate the "spirit" (for example, the love between men and women, once it passes the peak of physical body union, it will turn from the spiritual stage of seeking mutual confirmation of the soul to the spiritual stage. share or share the physical phase of real life).However, the sad thing is that since we are born as "human beings" instead of gods, our "spirit" must be parasitic and attached to the flesh.First of all, without the physical intercourse of a man and a woman, life would not arise at all.Our soul can never exist independently beyond the body. If we want to exist independently, we must destroy our body like Wang Xiong, become a fairy or a ghost (or nothing), and lose our "human" identity.Therefore, on the one hand, the spirit and the flesh repel each other, but on the other hand, they are entangled together and cannot be separated. Freud believed that human beings have two fundamentally contradictory instincts: one is the sexual instinct, which is the survival instinct to continue the physical life; the other is the death instinct, which is deeper in the subconscious, which is to destroy the physical life self-destructive instinct.Thinking about it carefully, Freud’s set of principles is actually what we call the battle between the soul and the flesh.If the spirit wants to break free from the flesh, man has to destroy himself; if the flesh wants to continue to survive, man must satisfy his sexual desires and keep multiplying. Therefore, although "The Blood-Red Rhododendron" uses simple text and an objective and realistic structure, the author uses metaphors and symbols cleverly to express the mysterious and intricate dilemma (dilemma) inherent in human beings. naked before us.