Chapter 25 "Ma's Shadow" in Li Wan

A friend asked me: Since you think that Cao Xueqin is based on his own family, and all the characters have prototypes, then who is the prototype of Li Wan?I immediately told him that I had been pondering this question for a long time, and came to the conclusion early: Li Wan's prototype was his aunt Ma Shi. As early as in the book "New Evidence of a Dream of Red Mansions", Mr. Zhou Ruchang verified that the prototype of Jia Zheng is Cao Xueqin's biological father Cao, and the prototype of Jia's mother is Cao Yin's widow. true mother-child relationship , this subtle relationship is artistically written in the book, reflected in many details.What's more interesting is that Cao has an older brother who did not adopt him to the widow of Cao Yin. However, in the process of evolving from a life prototype to an artistic image, for the convenience of narration, Cao Xueqin wrote this character as Jia Amnesty, so in the novel Jia Amnesty and Jia Zheng both became Jia's mother's own sons.The design of the characters is merged in this way, but when the pen is written, the reality of life is taken into account, so a strange phenomenon that could not have occurred in that era appeared: the eldest son of Jiamu lived in the Rongguo Mansion, and lived in a separate Heiyou The house with the main gate; the main house with the big plaque of "Rongxi Hall" bestowed by the emperor was actually occupied by the youngest son and youngest daughter-in-law. In the activities that must be strictly sorted, Jia She is always ranked in the secondary date position; Wang Xifeng and Heping'er talked about the wedding expenses of Baoyu's generation in the mansion, and mentioned that Jia She's daughter welcomes the Spring Festival. However, Wang Xifeng actually said that "the second girl is from the old man's side, so it doesn't count." The details of this kind of "passing through the gang" are teasing that Jia Amnesty's prototype is not the son of Jia's mother at all, but just a person living in another family, economically and economically. An independent nephew.

The reality of life is that Cao Yin passed away in the fifty-first year of Kangxi, and Kangxi asked his son Cao Yong to take over Jiangning weaving, but Cao Yong died when he went to Beijing in the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi, because Kangxi loved Cao Yin's family too much ( Cao Yin’s mother, Sun, was his unforgettable parenting mother. Cao Yin was his companion and bodyguard since he was a child, which can be described as “fat child”), so he let Cao Yin’s nephew Cao inherit the rich job of weaving in Jiangning.After Cao took over, he went up to Xie En and said: "The mother who stole the slave is in Jiangning. Long live Fumeng, the sky is high and the earth is generous, and the slave will inherit the post and keep the family. After hearing the order, the slave mother, Li, wept bitterly and led the whole family. Que kowtowed, and then went to Beijing on February 16th to thank God for his grace. When he traveled to Chuzhou, Fu heard the decree of Long Live: Don't come to Beijing. The slave mother obeyed the decree and returned to Jiangning. The slave's sister-in-law, Ma Shi, is pregnant now. It’s already July, and I’m afraid of long-distance fatigue, so I don’t have to go to the north for the funeral. If I am lucky enough to give birth to a boy in the future, the slave’s brother and heir will be there..." The Li family is the prototype of Jia’s mother. Cao Yin takes turns managing Yanzheng, and the Li family is also the historian in the book.Cao Yin, Cao Yong and his son passed away one after another. Li and Ma became two generations of widows. Li was in a good situation. Cao was adopted, and later Cao Zhan, Cao Xueqin, finally repaired the broken home. The Ma family was miserable. Cao Yong was twenty-seven years old when he died, and she was estimated to be around twenty-four years old. She could not return to Ning, let alone remarry. She could only stay in the Cao family as a widow. She is the "First Lady". After Cao moved in with his wife, the original cousin and daughter-in-law became the housewife who occupied the official position. She must retreat and restrain herself. What kind of role do you think she is?The situation is really embarrassing.What is particularly regrettable is that in the Yongzheng Dynasty, Cao was disliked. In the sixth year of Yongzheng, his family was confiscated and punished. There was nothing wrong with the Ma family, but she could only "eat and fish", and then she was unlucky.When Cao was arrested and questioned from Nanjing to Beijing, Li Shi, Cao Zhan and others naturally followed, and Ma Shi had no choice but to follow.According to the memorial of He Suide, who was in charge of searching Cao's family, "Cao's family, Meng En told them to keep less houses to support them; now that their families will return to Beijing soon, the slaves should allocate the house population in Beijing according to their discretion." Later. Some people say that the allocated house was at Suanshikou, Beijing, a courtyard of seventeen and a half rooms. As one of Cao's family members, Mrs. Ma had to live there patiently.Ma Shi lived with Cao Xueqin in the same courtyard from his infancy to his teenage years. Of course, he had a deep impression on Cao Xueqin. When he wrote in his youth, this prototype of life must be used. It is too explicit and does not conform to the textual premise of "hiding the real thing, making false statements", and it is bound to be cumbersome, so he evolved Ma into Li Wan.

If Cao Xueqin’s strokes were not smooth when he artistically transformed an uncle who was not adopted to his grandmother’s side in the prototype of his life into Jia She, then he transformed Ma into Li Wan and lowered his identity by a generation. Described as the granddaughter-in-law of Jia's mother and Mrs. Wang's daughter-in-law, it should be said that the handling is quite decent, with few loopholes.However, if we read carefully, we can also find some "Ma Shiying" from Li Wan.The fourth chapter of the book explains: "Although Li Wan was young and widowed, and his home was surrounded by beautiful scenery, he was like a dead wood and dead ashes. "According to the practice of feudal big families at that time, if she was really the daughter-in-law of Jia Zhu, the eldest son of Jia Zheng in the Rongguo Mansion, and she gave birth to an heir for the Jia family, even if Jia Zhu died, she was obliged to assist Mrs. Wang in managing the family. He should even become the "Prime Minister" of Rongguo Mansion's internal affairs as a matter of course, how can he be "ignorant of everything"?Then Wang Xifeng is just Mrs. Wang's niece, and her parents-in-law are people from another house in another courtyard. How could she manage the affairs of Rongguo Mansion with confidence?Wang Xifeng fell ill, so she was invited out like a guest to take care of things temporarily. This phenomenon can only be explained by identifying her prototype as Ma Shi.Also, from the words of Wang Xifeng in the forty-fifth chapter, we know that Li Wan’s monthly silver is actually the same as Mrs. Wang’s, which is twenty taels, which means that her treatment is at the level of a wife rather than a wife Same generation as Li Wan, but only five taels of silver per month), Li Wan also got the garden land, each rented, divided into years in the middle of the year, and got "upper and upper share", this is only Li Wan's prototype is a horse Shi, it only makes sense to write down the treatment, otherwise, it would be impossible for the big feudal family to make an exception for her daughter-in-law to enjoy the same treatment as the mother-in-law.

The twenty-second chapter has a very strange stroke: during the Lantern Festival, Jia Mu’s residence set up a grand spring lantern riddle, and Jia Zheng also went to have fun. At that time, the whole family was reunited, and Jia Zheng suddenly found that Jia Lan was absent, so he asked: “ Why don't you see Brother Lan?" The underground woman hurriedly entered the room and asked Li Shi, Li Shi got up and smiled and replied: "He said that the master didn't call him just now, and he refused to come." The woman replied to Jia Zheng, and everyone laughed and said "You are born with a strange heart." Jia Zheng hurriedly sent Jia Huan and the two women to call Jia Lan.This is probably a detail that Cao Xueqin wrote down based on real life.In real life, Mrs. Ma is Cao's sister-in-law, and her son is not Cao's son, but a nephew. Therefore, he has no obligation to go to Cao Yifang's reunion activities. At once

She refused to go voluntarily; because Mrs. Ma is Mrs. Li's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ma is obliged to go to Mrs. Li to make love, even if she temporarily puts her son aside.According to the logic of the relationship between the characters in the novel, since Jia Lan is the eldest grandson of Jia Mu and the grandson of Jia Zheng and Mrs. Wang, he is obliged to go to the elders to have fun, as it should be on weekdays, let alone Lantern Festival During the festive season, not coming is unfilial, there is no reason to come only after being invited!Cao Xueqin’s writing here is wrong. First, this detail in the real life makes him feel too vivid and unforgettable. Second, this is a manuscript that he has not finished editing. This kind of “glitch” has not yet had time in the manuscripts that have been circulated. Eliminate them one by one.

Li Wan's ending is very different from other people in Rongguo Mansion. When Jia's family "suddenly collapsed like a building" and "the dead and the dead scattered", she and Jia Lan were the only ones who slipped through the net. Shengteng, "spirited and proud, wearing hairpin tassels", "glorious and golden seal hanging on the chest", "Weihehe Juelu Gaodeng", this can only be explained from the fact that her prototype is Ma Shi, because in the fourth year of Qianlong, Cao Yin " When the "Hongxi Rebellion Case" was implicated in the catastrophe, all the family members of the Cao family would be imprisoned, but Ma was the widow of Cao Yong, and her husband was identified by Kangxi as a rare good official when he died. Qianlong paid the most attention to establishing his "ancestor" image, how could he punish Cao Yong's widow?Naturally, he made an exception and dealt with Ma Shi and her son separately so that they could still develop.However, Cao’s branch is obviously dissatisfied with the Ma family. It is probably because Ma’s mother and son were very stingy with their financial aid after the “tree fell down and the monkeys scattered”. This is reflected in the novel, which is about Li Wan in the fifth chapter. In the song "Late Shaohua", there are euphemistic criticisms of "Although it is true, life should not suffer from old age and poverty, but also need to accumulate children and grandchildren", and the sarcasm of "it is only a false name and respected by future generations".

After listening to my inquiry, my friend smiled and said: It is also a family opinion.I said that if more original materials about the Cao family can be found in the future, it will be easier to explore the trajectory of its creation from life prototypes to artistic images.