Chapter 10 The deep and ambiguous meaning of "Lonely Love Flower" and the author's expressive skills

This short story can be said to be the author's commentary on the fate of mankind in a metaphorical way, and a discussion on the root of human evil.The content and purpose of the novel are dark, mysterious, and confusing, and we cannot analyze it reasonably with our knowledge and rationality.In this novel, the author uses the underworld (or underground society) in the real world as a symbol to allude to the darkest and most terrifying corner of human nature.In other words, the author uses the hell on earth to insinuate the hell on people's hearts. Many of us may have never seen or come into contact with the low society in our life, but we all know that the "underworld" does exist.Likewise, many of us, throughout our lives, may never be fully aware of our dark, sinful side, and it is likely that the malignity has never fully flared up.However, the author obviously believes that under the cover of all rational cultivation and conscious control, there is indeed a dark and gloomy abyss of sin hidden in the depths of the human heart, and when this "sin" happens unfortunately, it is an absolutely irresistible magic power , dragging people down, sucking people into this dark abyss where there is no light.

The author adopts the first-person narration method. The narrator is a middle-aged restaurant girl who used to accompany customers in Shanghai Wanchunlou, but now works as a "manager" in Taipei Mayflower, taking care of the young wine girls, hence the nickname, Called "Commander-in-Chief".She is obviously a homosexual. When she was in Shanghai, she lived with a girl named Wu Bao who was also a prostitute in Wanchun Building and was younger than herself. Before he died, he kept saying to the narrator: "I want to turn into a ghost to find him!" More than ten years later, in Mayflower, Taipei, the narrator met Juanjuan, another wine girl, who sang Taiwanese ditties and talked with Wubao. It was the same with singing in the past, "it's also that kind of sad look."The faces of the two are similar, "both have such a downcast misfortune".

The "commander-in-chief" brought Juanjuan back to live with her home. Later, she spent her life savings and sold a pair of jade bracelets (relics of Wubao) she had left behind to buy an apartment on Jinhua Street. "Get married", Juanjuan is from the countryside of Su'ao.Her mother was a hopeless lunatic, and her husband put an iron chain around her neck and locked her in a pigsty.When Juanjuan was young, one day she accidentally found out that this lunatic was her mother, so she took a bowl of vegetables and rice, climbed into the pigsty and handed it to her.Unexpectedly, as soon as the skin touched, the lunatic screamed, reached out his claws to catch Juanjuan, and bit her throat fiercely.Since then, Juanjuan has a finger-thick, bright red scar like an earthworm across the lower end of her throat.

Juanjuan's thin body not only accommodates the insanity inherited from her mother, but also imprints the crime of incest imposed on her by her father.Truly is laden with iniquity.After living together with the "Commander-in-Chief" for about a year, Juanjuan was entangled by a "black den master" Ke Laoxiong who was addicted to morphine, so "as if his soul had been taken away by him", she let him abuse without resistance .But on the night of the Hungry Ghost Festival, Juanjuan suddenly used a black iron iron to hammer Ke Laoxiong's head, knocking off his celestial spirit cover, spilling gray brains like tofu residue all over the ground.

After killing Ke Laoxiong, Juanjuan went completely insane and was imprisoned in a lunatic asylum by the sea in Hsinchu.At the end of the novel, the "commander in chief" is accompanied by Lin Sanlang, and they go to Hsinchu to see Juanjuan.Lin Sanlang is an old musician of Mayflower. He was quite famous during the Japanese occupation. He could write songs himself. This bleak song was written by him. The two met Juanjuan.She's in handcuffs because she's become biting.She no longer recognized anyone, and the "Commander-in-Chief" called her a few times before she smiled. "The smile did not have the bleakness it used to have, but instead carried a hint of insanity and childishness."After sitting for a while without saying anything, the two walked out of the madhouse.On an autumn evening with the sea breeze blowing, along the long and lonely yellow mud road, the "commander in chief" supported Lin Sanlang, who was almost blind, and walked back step by step.

In such a short story that seems to win with a sensational and bizarre plot, the author's basic views and general comments on the fate of mankind are hidden.We can say that Bai Xianyong is a 100% fatalist.His various "superstition" concepts are completely in line with traditional Chinese social thought, but they surprise modern people who pay attention to scientific rationality.Bai Xianyong is simply not a person in our world today.He is the "past", the elf of traditional Chinese culture that he thought was doomed to decline. Let's see how he weaves the concept of "fate" into the plot.

The narrator of the novel meets Lu Genrong and Lu Jiu, an old customer from Shanghai, one day after Mayflower became a drinking girl. As soon as he saw me, he stamped his feet, as if regretting something: "Ah Liu, why did you end up in this kind of place again?" I smiled at him and replied: "Master Jiu, that's everyone's fate, right?" The narrator recalls that when he was in Shanghai, Wu Bao was abused by Hua San, and on his snow-white arm was a row of scorched bubbles the size of copper coins, which Hua San had branded with his pipe.But as soon as the narrator persuaded her to get rid of Hua San, Wu Bao sneered and said:

"This is fate, sister." Later, Juanjuan was entangled by Ke Laoxiong and abused by him, resulting in "seven tuberculosis and five injuries" all over her body.When the narrator dissuaded her, Juanjuan smiled sadly and said helplessly: "It can't be helped, Commander-in-Chief—" The thoughts of the characters in the novel, of course, are not necessarily the thoughts of the author himself.However, repeating the same tune over and over again like this is like repeating one of the theme melodies in a symphony, which is obviously related to the "theme", not just "realism".

In addition, the author uses the narrator's point of view to repeatedly emphasize Juanjuan's "unfortunate appearance" and her misery at the mercy of her fate: she sings with a "miserable" expression, as if "appealing grievances".She, who has no capacity for alcohol, was poured back and forth by Japanese hookers, but "didn't refuse" and "didn't even say a word", and "a smile on her triangular face was actually more desolate than crying".Her "slender waist swayed from side to side so that it would break at any moment"; the setting sun in the sky "dye her pale triangular face as if it was splashed with blood".Ke Laoxiong's thick red and black arms "clamped tightly" Juanjuan's slender waist and "twisted it into two pieces". "I don't know what happened to Juanjuan's hit to attract these demons."The narrator feels that "this look is really ominous", "I have criticized Juanjuan's birth date several times, and they all say that she has committed a serious crime."

Bai Xianyong seems to think that a person's "fate" has a lot to do with the blood inheritance of his ancestors.Juanjuan inherited her mother's madness in her body, so when she was born, or even conceived, her tragic fate was already doomed. The red scar on her throat bitten by her mother is the result of "sin". symbol.The narrator strokes her neck, "feeling that earthworm-like red scar is slippery and wriggling."In this way, the author uses the creep of "scars of evil" to indicate that the "sin" in Juanjuan will be fully erupted.On the innate "sin" from her mother, the sin of incest was added later, and Juanjuan's murderous fate has been completely forged.There are two points worth noting: 1. Her incest was with her own father.The author once again implies that "evil" comes from the will of parents and ancestors.2. This crime of incest was imposed on her by force, and it was definitely not a choice of her free will.So her congenital sins and her later sins are all "unjust" sins, which are completely beyond the control of her own ability.The author hints in this way that the fate of people is all determined by God.All man-made resistance and struggle cannot reverse the track of changing the destiny.

The "evil" in the author's mind is absolutely inseparable from the body and lust.Human beings have both spirituality and animal nature; the inability of human beings to survive without "flesh" is obviously the author's greatest regret.In the author's mind, the body and lust are the "evils" imposed on human beings by the heavens. Because of this "evils", human beings cannot become "immortals".Ever since Pangu opened up the world and human beings came into being, this "evil" has been passed down from generation to generation and cannot be eradicated for thousands of years.Just as Juanjuan is singing, as if she is complaining about her grievances, "I don't know who she is singing to", the author of the novel, as if representing the whole human being, is complaining to the vast sky: what is my crime, I must suffer such a punishment from heaven! In the novel, Hua San and Ke Laoxiong are the symbols of the animal part of human beings.It is also the symbol of human "injustice" in the author's mind.These two people, it can be said to be the same person, are both big villains in the underworld, both addicted to drugs, sadistic, lewd, violent, dirty, and brutal.They were not men at all, but beasts.Let's see how the author adds the image of "beast" to Ke Laoxiong: Ke Laoxiong took off his shirt, his thick red and black arms were bare, and two clumps of black hairs were exposed under his diaphragm. His trouser belt was also undone, and half of the zipper on his trousers fell off. He has a small crew cut, a huge head with the back of his head shaved clean, but on the balance there are bunches of bristle-like bristle-like hair.Gills are seen on the back of his head, two jaw bones, like the gills of a carp, stretched out, a pair of pig eyes, the eyeballs are swollen and bloodshot, the thick black lips are turned up, and a mouthful of golden teeth is shining .Sweat all over my head, sweat all over my body, before I approached him, I already smelled a fishy body odor. Ke Laoxiong has a "fish" smell and a "fox" smell. His two teeth are bone-like "carp" gills, his upside-down hard hair is like "pig" bristles, and he also has a pair of bloodshot "pigs". Eye.The author obviously thinks that among all the animals, the pig can best represent the dirty flesh, that is, the "sin" of human beings, which is probably why the author put Juanjuan's mother, the source of Juanjuan's "sin", in the pigpen inside. Ke Laoxiong not only looks like a beast, but also behaves like a beast: "screaming in a dirty manner", "sniffed Juanjuan's neck with a pointed nose, and put one hand on her rubbed her palms on her chest", "stretched out her tongue and licked her armpit a few times", "grabbed her hand and touched her belly". Poor Juanjuan was "clamped tightly" by such a beast.Although she was "struggling desperately" in panic, and her thin waist "twisted into two pieces", how could she escape? (Just like us human beings, there is the possibility of escaping the "meat"). After a moment of panic passed, Juanjuan "as if her soul had been taken away by him", allowing Ke Laoxiong to abuse and violence, and no longer struggled to resist. (Obviously, animal nature or fleshy nature, on the one hand, makes people hate and hate, but on the other hand, it also has seductive charm, which makes people lose their minds, sink deeper and deeper, and finally cannot extricate themselves.) Juanjuan gradually became addicted to morphine. The implication is that bestiality paralyzes the spiritual.It also implies that from birth to growth, human beings are gradually anesthetized by flesh, and finally completely lose their sharpness and spirituality. However, how can a person who is born as the "spirit of all things" be willing to die spiritually?How can you accept such "injustice"?Therefore, Juanjuan always complained about her grievances, humming some sad crying tunes, "the voice is hollow, like a widow crying for mourning."But she is obviously a "masochist" patient, and she continues to bear Ke Laoxiong's lewd laughter and scolding, physical abuse, and "moans like a sick cat".However, when we thought that she was hopeless and had fallen beyond her control, she suddenly "screamed like a mad wild cat" and hammered Ke Laoxiong's head with a black iron iron, Knocked off his celestial spirit cover, spilling his brains all over the floor. Juanjuan's murder of Ke Laoxiong can be said to be her revenge for her "injustice".This "injustice", of course, is, on the one hand, the insanity originating from the mother and the incest originating from the father indicated in the plot;It is worth noting that the way Juanjuan killed Ke Laoxiong was by knocking off his spiritual cover.It is definitely not accidental that the author used the word "Tianlinggai" instead of "head".I have already said that in the author's mind, the bestiality or fleshy nature of human beings is the "evil" passed down to us by our ancestors.The role of Ke Laoxiong is a symbol of animal nature.So to kill Ke Laoxiong is to annihilate the animal nature, and the annihilation of the animal flesh will hopefully regain the natural spirituality.In this way, Juanjuan hammered Ke Laoxiong's "Tianling" "cover" with "a pinch of hard hair like a bristle", because if the "cover" covered with animal hair was not knocked off first, there would be no Hope to achieve "Heavenly Spirit". And Juanjuan, after killing Ke Laoxiong, did seem to have achieved the "spirit of heaven": when the commander-in-chief and Lin Sanlang went to see her in the Hsinchu Asylum, they thought it was "very strange, but her smile was not as bleak as before. Meaning, but with a hint of insanity and childishness."The sins on Juanjuan seem to have been purified by knocking off Ke Laoxiong's spiritual cover.She seemed to have suddenly regained her long-lost "innocence" and returned to the cleanliness of a baby.But, of course, she was "completely mad."After all, she couldn't escape the "sin" inherited from her mother.But who can escape the "evil" inherited from the primitive ancestors of human beings?Since people are bound by the body, the soul will never be free and liberated.No wonder Juanjuan, although she seemed to have knocked off the lid of the sky, she still had to wear handcuffs in the end!In addition, Juanjuan's madness also implies that if a person wants to destroy the flesh and embrace the spirituality alone, he must become a loser in the real world. In this way, this novel, deduced from the author's exploration of "destiny", is a story similar to the confrontation between soul and body in "The Blood-Red Rhododendron".In fact, there are many similarities between the two novels, one of which is the narrative point of view of the novels. Both essays are written in the first person.Moreover, the first-person narrator is a relatively minor character in the story.The author cherishes observing the protagonists of the novel with their eyes and narrating the story with their tone.Compared with the narrator "Master Biao" of "The Blood-Red Rhododendron", the narrator "Commander-in-Chief" in "The Bloody Rhododendron" is much more involved in the action of the plot.Moreover, when narrating the story, many of my own feelings were entangled, and many subjective opinions were mixed up, far from being as objective and calm as "Master Biao".This is because the "commander in chief" is different from the "young master" and has a very close relationship with the protagonist of the novel. The "Commander-in-Chief" obviously had a homosexual relationship with Wubao at first, and later with Juanjuan.The author doesn't say it explicitly in the novel, but gives hints everywhere.She belongs to the "masculine" type of lesbianism; this can also be guessed from the fact that she is called "Commander-in-Chief".She "was born among men" and "used to fight with them".She hates men; the same sentence, if "swearing out of a man's mouth, the dirtier it is".She said: "I know, when a man gets into bed, he can do all sorts of nasty things." When mentioning the wine girls in Mayflower, she said, "That's Xiaocha" and "those girls", as if she didn't Feminine. But of course, the most obvious evidence is the fact that she lived with Wubao and Juanjuan successively.And she helped them to go to bed, "clutched five treasures into her arms" and "kissed her twice", put her arms around Juanjuan's shoulders, stroked her neck, took off her bra, combed her hair, and other intimate actions of skin contact.And here is what she narrates: Once upon a time, Wu Bao and I made a wish: when we save enough money, we will buy a house and live together, and we will become a family. as well as: Wubao died early, and our wish never came true. After wandering for half a lifetime, it was only when I met Juanjuan that I thought of starting a family again. Although the author gives explicit hints in many ways, this homosexual love relationship is only used by the author as the background of the novel, and has no necessary connection with the main theme of the novel.In other words, this homosexual love relationship has nothing to do with the human injustice and sin in the author's mind.Moreover, if you really want to talk about it, their unusual love relationship contains more emotions than the flesh, so it stands opposite the animal nature of Hua San and Ke Laoxiong, forming the author's more positive side of life . The role of "Commander-in-Chief" and her homosexuality, in addition to narrating the story and providing the background of the novel, also have a very special role, that is, as an intermediary, making Wubao and Juanjuan appear Characters who have nothing to do with each other and have never met each other are pulled together very mysteriously and subtly.As a result, these two miserable women became one and two, two and one, confusing and difficult to tell right from wrong. When the "Commander-in-Chief" saw Juanjuan singing a song as if complaining of injustice, she suddenly remembered that in Shanghai before, Wubao had the same sad expression when singing. We used to go on business trips together, and we always liked to play together. When I went to Meng Lijun, Five Treasures sang Su Yingxue. She also loved to knit her brows into a pile like that, singing a second reed, as if she had sung all her grievances. This Beijing opera tells the story of Meng Lijun disguised as a man and winning the number one scholar.She was admitted to the first prize, and after a bizarre accident, she married Su Yingxue, the daughter of her former nurse, and finally the two daughters married Huangfu Shaohua (another grandson of the prince).Bai Xianyong introduced this Beijing opera into the novel.On the one hand, it is an allusion to the homosexual love relationship of the characters in the novel. On the other hand, I think the author really deliberately took the literal meaning of the word "rebirth". This involves another "superstition" of Bai Xianyong that surprises modern people.He seems to really believe in reincarnation.The theory of karma.He seemed to really imply that Juanjuan is the five treasures.Wubao's soul was reincarnated and became Juanjuan. In "The Blood-Red Rhododendron", the author also hinted that Wang Xiong returned with his soul after his death.So the two novels have another thing in common.That is to say, they all have mysterious and incomprehensible meanings.It is this kind of mystery that makes these two articles seem indescribable and incomprehensible, and cannot be reasonably explained based on reason and understanding.In this way, what we who are engaged in novel analysis can do is temporarily accept the author's premise unconditionally, and conduct research on what kind of techniques the author uses to logically direct the story from this established premise. come out. In the novel, from the beginning to the end, there is not a single word that expresses the mysterious connection between Wubao and Juanjuan.Not even an "express".Totally "hinted".And the narrator himself, apart from feeling that the two of them have similar faces and expressions, does not think of them as the same person (or, the same "soul").Since it is not clearly stated, even the narrator is not aware of it, how can the author convey such a deep and mysterious meaning?This depends on superb performance skills. The author's first expressive technique is to emphasize the similarities between the five treasures of the past and the present Juanjuan, as well as the repetition or correspondence of their experiences before and after encounters.The first similarity, of course, is that they are both the narrator's homosexual love object.As for Wubao singing opera, Juanjuan sang, with a very similar expression, "that kind of sad expression". "Both of them have triangular faces, short chins, high cheekbones, and slightly sunken eyes. Both of them have such unlucky faces."They have never received the love of their parents. We have already talked about Juanjuan's life experience. Wubao was abducted from the countryside of Yangzhou by human teeth dealers at the age of fourteen and sold to Wanchunlou. She didn't even know who her mother was. Know. The "Commander-in-Chief" used to sleep in the same room with Wu Bao, and covered her with the quilt in the middle of the night; now he serves Juanjuan to go to bed, and also covers her with the quilt.Wubao was entangled by the old turtle man Huasan of the underworld, and allowed him to abuse him in every possible way, but sneered at the narrator: "This is fate, sister." Let him be violent and bullying, and smiled sadly at the narrator: "There is no way, commander-in-chief." Wubao's arm was branded with a row of scorched bubbles the size of copper coins by Hua San's opium pipe.Juanjuan's arm was pierced with a row of four or five black and blue morphine pinholes by Ke Laoxiong.Wubao's "those small tits" were once bitten so that "the green and red are full of teeth marks"; Juanjuan's "two nipples were bitten and swollen, like two overcooked cows. Bloody plums, dripping with mucus." The author's second expressive technique is to confuse the present and the past.We have noticed that the structure or description method of this novel is to let what happened in Shanghai in the past and what is happening in Taipei now go hand in hand.The transition between the present and the past, most of the time the boundaries are quite clear (to varying degrees).But sometimes the boundary line is very ambiguous, so that in the narrator's consciousness, the past and the past are confused, and reality and memory are mixed together.This is the so-called "stream of consciousness" technique. (Actually, Juanjuan’s story is also told in a retrospective way, so strictly speaking, it is also an action of reminiscence and "past". I say "now" and "now" in contrast to the past more than ten years ago On.) The narrator’s past and present associations are always centered on Juanjuan and Wubao, so although the narrator does not know it, subconsciously, he often confuses her two homosexual love objects.And we readers, at the mercy of the author, feel that these two women seem to be coincidentally together.Let us give a few examples to see how the author uses the narrator's sense of past and present communication to create the illusion that the reader has the impression that the two are one and the same. The first time the narrator took Juanjuan home to spend the night, Juanjuan was forced to drink alcohol by a Japanese escort, so drunk that she vomited into a coma. The "Commander-in-Chief" served her to go to bed by himself, was very considerate, and covered her with a quilt, so it reminded me of "the time when Wubao slept with me in the past", when he came back drunk with wine, and when he came back after being beaten by Hua San situation. On her snow-white arm was printed a row of scorched spots the size of copper coins, branded by Hua San's pipe.I saw that she was in severe pain, and I always lay beside her, rubbed her, and stayed with her until dawn.I touched Juanjuan's forehead, it was cold and she was sweating all the time.Juanjuan was really drunk, she tossed and turned all night, and slept very restlessly. The first half of this text, from the sentence "accompany her until dawn", is about the past, that is, Wubao; while the second half is about the present, that is, Juanjuan.But the upper and lower halves are very coherent in meaning, as if they are the same scene, the same experience, that is, the "commander in chief" lies beside his lover who has returned from suffering, and stays with him until dawn.In this way, the more than ten years between the two scenes and the two experiences seem to disappear and not exist at all, and Wubao and Juanjuan seem to be merged into one. Another example is the "commander in chief" narrating that she made a wish with Wu Bao before, and in the future she saved enough money to buy a house and start a family.From this, he talked about Wubao's poor life experience, and how he began to feel a maternal pity for her.Having said so many things about the Five Treasures, a sentence followed suddenly: "Juanjuan. This is our home." This kind of text is connected and the ideas are connected. If it is not clearly written "Juanjuan", it will really make people think that the words "Commander-in-Chief" are speaking to Wubao, and that the two of them have finally achieved their wish to buy a house and start a family.Also, the "Commander-in-Chief" bought this apartment on Jinhua Street to live with Juanjuan, but the money she bought the house, in addition to her life savings, was also sold off the jade bracelet left by Wubao to make up for it.So it seems that she and Wubao bought together to start a family.In this way, in the reader's impression, Juanjuan and Wubao secretly match again. Another example is the night when the accident happened on the Ghost Festival, the narrator recalls the scene of Wubao being abused by Huasan before committing suicide: ...She yelled desperately: Sister—I exerted all my strength and punched the window with two fists, and the window pane cut my hand to blood—a piercing scream made me startled Get up, grab a kitchen knife on the case, and run into the room. These few lines of text also include the present and the past, separated by more than ten years.In the first half, to "I cut blood from my hand", it is about Wubao; from "a piercing scream", it is about Juanjuan now.But when we read it in one breath, we can hardly feel the boundary between the present and the past. It seems to be a single scene, as if the same woman is in a tense crisis. The third technique used by the author to express the mysterious meaning is to let Juanjuan finally avenge her wrongdoing, so as to coincide with Wubao's vow "I will turn into a ghost to find him" before his death.As I mentioned, Hua San and Ke Laoxiong are almost like the same person (both drug-addicted, sadistic underworld thugs, both have gold teeth, Hua San calls Wubao a "stinky bitch", Ke Laoxiong curses Juanjuan "Dry Yi Niang").Wu Bao committed suicide because he couldn't bear Hua San's torture. When he died, he was extremely unwilling, and kept saying that he would turn into a ghost to find him.Sure enough, on the night of the Hungry Ghost Festival (the so-called "Ghost Festival") fifteen years later, Juanjuan murdered Ke Laoxiong and smashed his head. We carefully read the author's description of the accident that night, and we can say with confidence that the author did mean to imply that Juanjuan and Wubao are the same person.Or, to put it more appropriately, the soul of Wubao resides in Juanjuan.On this "ghost festival" night, the narrator bought ingot candles, made four-color libation dishes, and offered sacrifices to the spirits of the five treasures.During this sacrifice, Wubao's soul (Juanjuan?) probably felt it, because the commander-in-chief "both cheeks had a fever" and "it was as if his heart was burning, and he couldn't calm down no matter what."Then, also because he heard Ke Laoxiong yelling and beating Juanjuan in the room, the "commander in chief" suddenly remembered Wubao's tragic situation before committing suicide. At this moment, Juanjuan, who had always been weak and miserable, suddenly exerted a huge force that was unexpected, and hammered a ferocious man like a beast to death with an iron iron.Where did this great power come from?How did her sudden change come about?We could, of course, explain that the madness inherited from her mother had suddenly flared up.However, "Juanjuan's long hair flew up, and her mouth opened wide, screaming like a crazy wild cat"; "Her thin and white body... suddenly seemed to have swelled This kind of description is quite creepy, implying that Juanjuan is possessed by ghosts, and with the help of "ghost power", she has avenged the wrongdoings of her previous life.In fact, the author describes Juanjuan from the beginning, in addition to the "unlucky appearance", also gives "ghost" images: for example, she smiles wryly, with a triangular face, "distorted so that her eyebrows and eyes are indistinguishable"; Long hair hanging down the shoulders, tied up around the waist." It is also worth noting the concept of karma implicitly hinted at by the author in the description of the accident that night.Let us first read carefully the scene where Wu Bao was abused by Hua San before committing suicide: Wubao fell down and sat in Hua San's room. Hua San grabbed her head and turned the rotor like a millstone. He chopped down with a copper bong in his hand, and the golden light flew wildly. I saw her hands flying in the air. Scratching and fishing... Read carefully the scene where Ke Laoxiong was murdered by Juanjuan: Juanjuan held a black iron iron with both hands, aimed at Ke Laoxiong's head, and hammered it down, boom, boom, boom, one after another...Ke Laoxiong's heavenly cover was knocked open...his two red irons The thick black arms are still stretched and trembling in the air... When we compare the details of the murders in these two scenes, we can find that there are quite a few places that completely correspond to each other.First of all, the murder weapon used is a pair: Hua San beats Wubao with a "copper bong"; Juanjuan (the soul of Wubao) takes revenge with an "iron iron".Secondly, Hua San grabbed Wubao's "head" and "slashed it down", hitting it so that the golden light ran wildly; Juanjuan pointed at Ke Laoxiong's "head" and "hammered it down", one after another.In addition, Wubao was beaten so that "two hands were grabbing randomly in the air", while Ke Laoxiong's "thick arms were still stretched and trembling in the air". The author seems to imply this: what kind of sins have been committed, what kind of retribution must be suffered.If not in this world, then in the next life.And the soul carrying the injustice will never rest in peace until the debt is paid off.The act of killing Ke Laoxiong, on the one hand, seemed to make Juanjuan pay off the debts of her previous life, and on the other hand, it seemed to wash away her new sins in this life.So later on, her smile no longer had a desolate meaning, but was "naive".We noticed that she originally had shoulder-length hair, but after entering the lunatic asylum, "Juanjuan's hair was cut short... she looked like a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl." When it was sold to Wanchunlou, it was a 14-year-old virgin with "a doll's head cut".In this way, we feel that Juanjuan, who is full of grievances, after killing the beast Ke Laoxiong, seems to be mysteriously transformed back to the original pure five treasures. Through the three techniques and methods discussed above, the author successfully implies that Juanjuan and Wubao are ghosts with different souls, adding an eerie and ambiguous atmosphere to the novel.Juanjuan is the only one among all the main characters who was not born in mainland China.But when we understand that she is the "ghost" of Wubao, her background and past can be related to mainland China.However, according to the content of the novel, there are still some doubts about the meaning of the gods and monsters that the two women share the same soul.Let me say something about it. Juanjuan, if it is true that she was reincarnated from five treasures as the author suggests, then she cannot justify her age.When the "commander in chief" offered sacrifices to the five treasures on the Ghost Festival, he said: "After all the calculations, the five treasures have been dead for fifteen years."However, when Juanjuan recounted her tragic experience of being raped by her father, she said, "I was only fifteen years old at that time."The "Commander-in-Chief" later saw her hair cut short and thought she "like a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl".From this comparison, it can be seen that when Wubao passed away, Juanjuan was already born and lived in the world.Then, how could the soul of the Five Treasures be reincarnated into Juanjuan?Is this an oversight by the author?Or is the author playing tricks, deliberately making it specious and creating suspense?Can a small soul not be "reincarnated", but swim back in the neon and hydrogen of heaven and earth, and stop on a living person when it chooses?Juanjuan, was she born with the Five Treasures, or did she become the Five Treasures at the moment of murder?Are two souls the same?Or because of the worship of the "Commander-in-Chief", Wubao's innocent soul came back from the underworld, attached to Juanjuan, and used her hands to commit murder and pay off the evil debt? There is one more point worth pondering.Juanjuan was born with madness inherited from her mother.But incest was forced on her when she was fifteen.In other words, her "sin" was fixed fifteen years after she was born.The wronged soul of Wubao also waited fifteen years before returning to collect debts.Is there any mysterious connection between them?Or just by chance? This great mystery, like a piece of chaos, makes the meaning of this novel even more ambiguous, like a bottomless mystery.The real thing is: the past and the present are unknown, and the truth and reality are indistinguishable.Seemingly real and illusory, intoxicated and infatuated. This is probably the mystery of life. In addition, the author seems to imply that Juanjuan, a poor woman, is not only Wubao's wronged soul, but also the sum of all the wronged souls in the world. Another character in the novel, Lin Sanlang, fell in love with a Penglai Pavilion called Baiyulou during the Japanese occupation He wrote this very sad song for her, and since then, he has played it every day on his old accordion.According to "Commander-in-Chief", "When Juanjuan was in Mayflower, Lin Sanlang liked her very much and taught her many Taiwanese ditties. He taught her to sing the one he wrote himself."And the commander-in-chief "in Mayflower, I don't know how many wine girls have sung this song, but none of them can sing as sadly as Juanjuan, as if they are complaining."These words faintly imply that Juanjuan, Lin Sanlang and this song also have some kind of mysterious fate.It seems that she is also the wronged soul of the drowned Bai Yulou.We have noticed that the name "Baiyulou" and "Penglai Pavilion" both symbolize the most beautiful "spirit".The author seems to imply that this wine girl died in vain because she couldn't bear the injustice of "meat".The author spends a lot of pen and ink describing the small role of Lin Sanlang.This old musician, whose eyes were rotten to the point of blindness, held the oily-worn accordion every day, playing dirges, as if playing an eternal dirge for the world's drunken girls and the world's innocent souls.Finally, the "Commander-in-Chief" went to the Hsinchu Asylum to see Juanjuan, and Lin Sanlang accompanied her there.When we saw these two people, for the sake of Juanjuan, supporting each other and walking step by step on the lonely and long yellow mud road, we faintly felt that there seemed to be some kind of mysterious connection between the two women and one man, as if there was some kind of fate in the previous life portion like.It coincides with the plot meaning of a play. Also, according to the "Commander-in-Chief", Ke Laoxiong, the owner of the black den, was a frequent visitor of Mayflower three years ago and played with several drinking girls. Then he died suddenly. All of us in Mayflower made a noise and said that he was the one who died, so he only disappeared for a few years."This time he went back to Mayflower, "I sent Lijun and Xinmei there, but he didn't want them, and he scolded her a few times as 'Gan Yiniang', but he fell in love with Juanjuan."Why Ke Laoxiong refused to ask Lijun.Xinmei, these famous wine girls, chose Juanjuan, who was obviously not very good?This is also "destiny", right?Or maybe Juanjuan is also the soul of Fengjuan who is dying, coming to collect debts from Ke Laoxiong? From this point of view, it seems that Juanjuan is not just the wronged soul of Wubao alone, but the sum of all the wronged souls between heaven and earth. As I have discussed above, in the author's vision, people, born with evil marks on their bodies ——The sins inherited from the primitive ancestors of human beings.And this "evil" is the bestiality or fleshiness of human beings.人既不能超脱“肉”而存在，就根本无法法除这个被迫加诸身上的冤孽，所以从作者观点而言，全人类的灵魂都是“冤”魂，而娟娟，既代表所有的冤魂，也就变成了全人类的象征。于是这篇小说，从一个酒女的故事，引申扩大，成为整个人类的故事。成为一个天长地久、永无止息的人类悲剧。 所以我们可以说，这篇小说的真正主角，不是娟娟，不是五宝的鬼魂，而是全体人类的“冤孽”。 还有一点我也顺便一提。我们中国古代神话，认为人间乱世，和“冤魂”有关，里，唐太宗游观地府，阴司的崔判官就提醒他回阳间以后，做个“水陆大会”，超度“那无主的冤魂”，因为，“若是阴司里无报怨之声，阳世间方得享太平之庆”。白先勇在里，似亦取用同一神话含义，影射我们今日社会之混乱。然而除了这么一点暗示性的社会批评，这篇小说的象征意义远甚于写实意义，我们不宜将它归为社会写实小说的类型。像柯老雄那样凶蛮下流的黑心野兽，像娟娟父亲那样连自己亲生女儿都要强奸的丧心病狂，用来影射人性恶的一面，十分适当。可是如果我们偏要用纯写实眼光来看，就会觉得太缺乏普遍性。而且会误解作者选用这样的人物题材，是想以色情暴力刺激读者的感官。 本来，像这样一个“鬼故事”，也不可能是“写实”——除非解释为“心理之写实”。在西洋文学里，也有不少以人性善恶或灵肉对争为主题的小说名著，内容牵涉到鬼魂或其他“超自然”（Super natural）力量。例如亨利·詹姆斯的《碧庐冤孽》（The Turn of the Screw），王尔德（Oscar Wilde）的《陀利安格雷的画像》（The Picture of Dorian Gray），史蒂文生（Robert Louis Stevenson）的《化身博士》（The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde），这些都是。为什么如此？这，大概是因为，一谈起“灵”和“肉”，就是触及人类生命最根本的奥秘；而要表现解释这样一个无可理喻的生命之谜，即使天下最高明的作家，也不得不借助于鬼神吧！