Chapter 31 Exploring the Mystery of Miaoyu Again

In the article "The Mystery of Miaoyu" (published in the supplement of "Jiefang Daily" and "Chaohua" on June 1, 1998), I have pointed out that in the official book of "Jinling Twelve Beauties", only Miaoyu does not belong to Jia and Shi. The four big families, Wang, Xue, and they are not related by marriage, but they are ranked sixth; The ten poems allude to the fate and finale of Zhuchai. It can be seen that this character is extraordinary. However, she was not included in the "Twelve Beauties", which proves that she only officially appeared twice in the first 80 chapters. In Cao Xueqin's overall conception, the Miaoyu of the 80th chapter must have a shocking deed of weeping ghosts and gods after the 80th chapter, but the real version after the 80th chapter has not been published so far.

It has been excavated in the world, so now we can only search for the lost according to the existing clues. According to Mr. Zhou Ruchang's textual research, Miaoyu was originally the daughter of a criminal family. She had no choice but to change her identity and hide under the shelter of Jia's family to protect herself; Miaoyu may have played a key role in the encounter between Baoyu and Shi Xiangyun, and she herself was so miserable that she probably fell into the hands of her enemies. (Please refer to a book written by Mr. Zhou) There is some truth to this way of thinking.But I'm thinking differently.According to my opinion, after the Jia family hid Qin Keqing, the daughter of the emperor's political opponent, they had been harboring ulterior motives. Everyone is in a state of anxiety and uncertainty”; who knows that this call is not a disaster but a blessing—“Jia Yuanchun chose Fengzao Palace”, and then happily built the “Visiting Family Villa”, preparing to enjoy the emperor’s favor; just imagine, the Jia family is in Andu. After the crisis brought by Qin Keqing, how could he openly hide a criminal's daughter and arrange her in the only nunnery in the "family-sacrificing villa" under the excellent situation of "flowers blooming brocade, fire cooking oil", Let her appear under the eyes of Yuan Chun and the eunuchs in the palace? (Please refer to my book "The Death of Qin Keqing")

It is not an autobiography of Cao Xueqin's family history, but the material comes from his family and his own experience, which is already a consensus among people.In the Kangxi Dynasty, Cao Yin’s family (this is the prototype of the Jia family in the book) and Li Xu’s family (this is the prototype of the historian in the book) were favored because their mothers were Kangxi’s babysitters when they were young, and they controlled Jiangning weaving and Suzhou weaving. As well as the Lianghuai Salt Administration, and cultural spies for half a century, so as long as Kangxi is there, their wealth will be there; The golden throne under the old emperor's buttocks is full of open and secret fights and turmoil. After Kangxi's death, "Who will win?" No matter how clever the prophet is, it is difficult to see through it. Even Kangxi himself seems to be dying and still cannot make up his mind. This makes courtiers like Cao and Li have to deal carefully among the princes, because logically, anyone may become the next emperor, and no one can afford to offend; moreover, even if they don't provoke those princes The princes, but the princes will take the initiative to come to the door. In this way, they will definitely get closer to some princes, so they hope that some of them will be able to ascend the throne in the future; The relationship between the two families is the weakest (that is, Emperor Yongzheng), which is fine. What makes them even more disturbed is that they had the closest relationship in the past, such as the abolished prince, and the fourteenth son of Kangxi who was the most guarded against Yongzheng (it is said that the original Kangxi passed the throne to him, but was usurped by Yongzheng's conspiracy), he was Yongzheng's biggest political enemy, and he wanted to put him to death and then quickly.How can this be good?As soon as Yongzheng came to power, Li Xu was quickly punished by his family. At this time, the Cao family was attacked by Cao Yin's step-son (the prototype of Jia Zheng in the book). Their family can only try their best to please the new emperor. Continue to perfunctory several Kangxi princes who have not been dealt with for a while, and in the confusing and complicated political situation, it is not ruled out to do something secretly for those princes and grandchildren who may still replace Yongzheng (the book uses After writing the story of Qin Keqing, I was afraid of getting into trouble, so I deleted the "Sorrowful Tianxianglou" and changed it to "Deadly Fenglong Banwei"); such a double-sided "political investment" is really helpless.I think that the prototype of Qin Keqing in the book is the daughter of a certain prince of Kangxi who was first punished by Yongzheng. Moreover, when Lin Zhixiao and his wife, the stewards of the Jia family in the book, appear for the first time in some manuscripts, the "Lin" is It was changed from the "Qin" point. I think this is probably Cao Xueqin's original idea. He wanted to write the family directly from the "Qin Wang" family in Jiangnan (that is, Qin Keqing's father's family). In the story of Qin Keqing, Qin Zhixiao was also changed to Lin Zhixiao, but the original design of the relationship between the characters was not completely corrected. Later we found that Lin Hongyu, the daughter of Lin Zhixiao's family, was already very big, but she herself But it is Wang Xifeng's goddaughter, which is obviously outrageous in a noble family like the one in the book - if it is written that Qin Zhixiao's family is a girl who came to Jia's house with Qin Keqing and hid in Rongguo Mansion, her age Shang Xiao, in order to cope with possible interrogations, it is much more reasonable for Wang Xifeng to recognize her as a goddaughter; the original reasonable design had to be changed into incomprehensible words to avoid literary disasters.From this, we can imagine that Cao Xueqin worked hard to "write the book Huangye Village" under such a harsh and sinister humanistic environment.In his conception, Miaoyu's ancestors should be colleagues of Jia and Shi, and they had a close relationship with the "Qin Keqing family"; She became an orphan who could not be tolerated by power, so after her master passed away in the Muni Academy in the capital, on the one hand, she had to go to the Shijiao Mansion for shelter, and on the other hand, due to her self-esteem, she must be respectfully invited by the Jia Mansion.Mrs. Wang knew her details, but she didn't know her situation in the past ten years, so she had almost heard what "Qin Zhixiao's family" said, so she didn't intend to listen any more, and immediately agreed.

It was not until the forty-first chapter of the book that Miaoyu officially appeared on the stage. At this time, readers were surprised that this surviving member of a dilapidated family with hair and practice has a collection of rare ancient porcelain relics that even the Jia family may not have.Moreover, the dialogue between Jiamu and Miaoyu is very thought-provoking: Miaoyu personally held a small tea tray filled with begonia and carved lacquer filled with Jinyunlong's birthday. Liu'an tea." This is obviously because Jia's mother knew Miaoyu's ancestors very well in the early years, and knew that her family was fond of drinking Liu'an tea. So he immediately responded with a smile: "I know, this is the sister of the old gentleman." Later, the Jia family's downfall should be caused by the untimely death of the concubine Yuan, Jia Amnesty being accused of killing a stone nerd for the ancient fan, and Wang Xifeng's several evil deeds; Jia's house was confiscated, Miaoyu may have been stranded in the deserted Grand View Garden at the beginning, and there is no serious problem for the time being; In the running accounts, we found out the origin of the small bell in Cheng Kiln——Miaoyu's family got it from "Qin Keqing's family" and passed it on to Miaoyu, and because Miaoyu used it to offer tea to Jiamu, Jiamu handed it over to her. I drank it up for Grandma Liu, Miaoyu thought it was dirty, and through Jia Baoyu's hands, I gave it to Grandma Liu, Grandma Liu's son-in-law Wang Gou'er, and later entrusted Leng Zixing to resell it, and it may have been sold to Prince Zhongshun... and this rare treasure was turned into a kiln The little bell bell was originally a thing in the palace, but Baoyu was arrested and imprisoned because of the incident. Miaoyu heard this and rushed from "outside the threshold" to "inside the threshold". Considering himself the "culprit", in the end, in order to save Baoyu, he did not hesitate to "go against his wishes due to the filth of the dust", "the flawless white jade was trapped in the mud", it is likely that he succumbed to the "dead bone" old pervert of Lord Zhongshun, but Baoyu did After escaping from the dangerous situation, he tragically died together with the "dead bones"!

Ordinary readers, influenced by Gao E's pseudo-continuation, often think that Miaoyu's various attitudes towards Baoyu are her secret love for Baoyu. The love relationship with Daiyu and Xue Baochai's waiting for the "golden and jade marriage" to come true are also obvious; will she have the idea of ​​"a fourth party to intervene"?I thought, no.What's more, she is also much older than Jia Baoyu.The reason why she sent someone to deliver a congratulatory note on Baoyu's birthday is exactly as Baoyu himself explained: "Because I am a little knowledgeable." What "knowledge"?That is: "I am poor and do not understand world affairs, and I am stupid and afraid of reading articles. Behavior is eccentric and perverted, so I don't care about the world's slander!" Their anti-"orthodoxy" is absurd and eccentric.

It makes sense.” From my point of view, Miaoyu should have secretly encouraged Baodai’s “Love of Wood and Stone”. Then, what does “Want to be clean and Zengjie” in the verdict refer to the piece of Miaoyu in the booklet of Taixu Illusion? And in the song about her in "A Dream of Red Mansions", "It's a pity that the people in the Qingdeng Ancient Palace will grow old; if you fail, the pink and red buildings are in the spring... What's the need, the prince and grandson lament that you don't have a chance" etc. How can I explain it? Some people refer to the "Prince Wang and Sun Gongzi" in the song as Baoyu, which is absurd! Baoyu only loves Daiyu, so how can he think of marriage for Miaoyu?! According to my thinking, Miaoyu Yu’s embarrassment to the world is that she once had a bold childhood love for a certain prince and grandson, which even her biological parents could not forgive, so they sent her to the "ancient palace" where the "green lamp" was lit (note, Quicui'an is by no means an "ancient palace"), which made her "failed, and the pink and red buildings are full of spring", and the prince and grandson who also loves her (Han Qi? Chen Yejun?) can only "sigh that there is no fate".

In the seventy-sixth chapter, the finale of the tragedy is approaching, Shi Xiangyun and Lin Daiyu's "Oujingguan" couplet, to the twenty-second rhyme, they respectively use the "prophecy" of "crossing the crane shadow in the cold pond, burying the flower soul in the cold moon" revealed their respective results.Later, Miaoyu turned out from behind the rocks, stopped them, and led them into Changcui Temple, which continued into thirteen rhymes in one go; The finale of the dead Qin Keqing and the nine beauties other than Shi and Lin: "Xiangzhu sells the golden tripod, fat and ice is greasy on the jade basin", which means that Yuanchun's good days in the palace are coming to an end; ", quilt Qian waits on children Wen", which means that Baochai will be a widow, and after the attacker leaves, "keep the musk moon at least" and depend on each other; Yu Wang Xifeng came to nothing in the end, and it also involved the separation of the girls in Jia's house; "Jubuying in the marsh" means that Yingchun will soon fall into Sun Shaozu's tiger's mouth, and "return to Jiliyuan" means that Tanchun will climb to a high place ( Xingyuan and Fan?) but feel lonely away from the family; "Unfamiliarity and forgetting the path" means that Xichun has long been determined to become a monk, and she has embarked on this road of no return; The benevolent Grandma Liu repays the rescue; "Zhongming Changcui Temple" reveals that Miaoyu herself will leave Changcui Temple to go to the disaster, and "Jichang Daoxiang Village" means that Jia Lanzhong was promoted and Li Wan was finally awarded the imperial seal; the remaining sentences, Mostly lament the various predicaments of Jia's mansion after "the trees fell and the monkeys scattered" in general. The sentence that is particularly worth noting is "vibrating the forest with a thousand trees and birds, and singing the valley with an ape". There are also Liu Xianglian and other people who acted as strong beams and practiced resistance to the emperor?

I once presented my findings on the ending of Qin Keqing and Yuanchun in the form of novels. Needless to say, I will try to dedicate my experience on the mystery of Miaoyu to readers in the form of novels.