Chapter 6 Chapter Three: The Mystery of Lin Daiyu's Eyebrows and Eyes

In the last lecture, I started with archetype research through careful reading of the text, and interpreted for you the life archetypes that may correspond to the five characters Jia Mu, Jia Zheng, Jia She, Li Wan, and Jia Lan. Thus revealing the non-close relationship between Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu's prototype in life.But Lin Daiyu is a literary and artistic image after all. She is a noble lady who has a love story with Jia Baoyu, a peerless beauty who is as good as a fish and a wild goose.Among the many versions that have been handed down to the present, there are great differences in the description of Lin Daiyu's portrait. Then, which description is most in line with Cao Xueqin's original intention?In the novel, Cao Xueqin has portrait descriptions for many characters.For example, when Lin Daiyu first entered the Rongguo Mansion, she first introduced the three ladies in the mansion to her, and then Cao Xueqin looked at them through Lin Daiyu's eyes. This is actually a portrait description.

The first is Yingchun, saying that she has slightly plump skin, a medium-sized figure, fresh pear cheeks, greasy goose fat nose, gentle and silent, and is amiable to look at. Then write about Jia Tanchun: slender shoulders and slender waist, long and tall figure, duck face, handsome eyes and eyebrows, looking forward to the sky, the essence of literary beauty, forgetting the vulgarity when you see it.This is very different from Jia Yingchun. Then, for Jia Xichun, the writing is relatively simple, saying that she is not mature enough, and her description is still small. There is also a portrait description of Wang Xifeng's appearance, saying that she has a pair of red and phoenix triangle eyes, two willow-leaf brows, a slim figure, a coquettish physique, a pink face that does not show spring, and red lips before smiling.

There is also a portrait description of Jia Baoyu when he appeared on the stage, saying that his face is like the moon of Mid-Autumn Festival, his color is like flowers of spring dawn, his temples are like cut by knives, his eyebrows are like ink paintings, his face is like peach petals, and his eyes are like autumn waves.Although he is angry and sometimes smiles, he sees and is affectionate. The portrait descriptions of these characters are relatively clear. There may be slight differences in individual words in various ancient books, but there is no great difference. When it came to Lin Daiyu, trouble started.Two of my "red fans" friends once quarreled in my study about Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes, because the descriptions of Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes are different, even very different, in different ancient books.

For example, there is a popular version called "Additional Reviews and Complementary Maps of Stones". Now some publishing houses still use such a basic version. When it writes about Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes for the third time, it says that she is "two-curved". Eyebrows that seem to be frowning but not frowning, a pair of eyes that seem to be happy but not happy."The reason why this passage is unsatisfactory is because Lin Daiyu was still very young at that time, how could she have a pair of affectionate eyes?Another example is the "Gengchen Book", which is an ancient book with a lot of references. This book has many advantages, but when Lin Daiyu's eyebrows are written this time, the text is like this: "Two curved and half frowning Goose eyebrows, a pair of affectionate almond eyes." It also emphasizes affection, but almond eyes are an uninnovative description.This is a very banal way of writing, and it can even be said to be a bit vulgar.The description in the passbook is not satisfactory either.So the two of them fought.

Therefore, when we read, we still have to read Cao Xueqin's, ancient editions.I personally think that Mr. Zhou Ruchang used eleven ancient editions, compared them sentence by sentence, selected the sentence that best fits Cao Xueqin's original meaning, and then joined them to form "Zhou Huiben", which is really a book worth recommending.Of course, it can still be debated, but generally speaking, it is a book that two generations and three people of a family have used for 56 years. Therefore, regarding Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes, I also suggest that everyone read this book, it should be more in line with The original meaning of Cao Xueqin's writing.So what exactly does Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes look like in Cao Xueqin's works?

Mr. Zhou Ruchang believes that the text in the Tibetan version in St. Petersburg, Russia should be closest to Cao Xueqin's original meaning, and I agree with this judgment.Its description of Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes is as follows: two eyebrows that seem to be frowning but not frowning, and a pair of eyes that seem to be weeping but not weeping. In this way, Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes in that situation at that time can be described very penetratingly.The smokey eyebrows seemed to be wrinkled, but they were not completely wrinkled, and the eyebrows were trembling slightly, like a frown but not a frown.What is "smoke"?It's just a plume of smoke hanging in the air.This "smoke" has an allusion.Cao Xueqin has two royal friends, two brothers, one named Dunmin and the other named Duncheng.Dun Min wrote poems, and there is a poem called "Xiao Yu Ji Shi", in which there is a sentence "Looking at the willows in the distance", which is to describe the willow leaves in the spring mist, like the smoke hanging in the air Same.The use of "smoke" perfectly describes the pair of eyebrows of an immature girl like Lin Daiyu who may continue to grow.The smoky eyebrows that seem to be frowning but not frowning are like two curved willow leaves floating in the air.As for the eyes, they are a pair of weeping and dewy eyes, as if they contain dew.This is in line with Cao Xueqin's overall design.Because as I said in the first chapter, Lin Daiyu is the crimson celestial grass by the Sansheng Stone on the bank of the Linghe River in the west of the heaven. .When she first met Jia Baoyu, she couldn't have feelings for him immediately, so she couldn't have a pair of passionate eyes immediately. "Affectionate eyes" and "passionate almond eyes" are all words and phrases that later generations arbitrarily changed and filled in.When Cao Xueqin wrote about her for the third time, she already had a pair of watery eyes, and the storage of tears in them should be quite rich, so it is a pair of eyes with dew—the dew had not turned into tears at that time, her eyes Tears flow gradually, and finally dry up.There are many descriptions of this point in the novel later, and there is a very specific explanation in one episode. I will talk about it below. Her feelings for Baoyu and her tears are a gradual process.

Regarding the portrait description of Lin Daiyu, I think that the brushwork of "smoky eyebrows, with dewy eyes" implies that the art design of Jiangzhu Xiancao returning tears to Shenying's waiter is more in line with Cao Xueqin's original intention.The characters appearing in the novel are not only numerous but also very different, and the portrait description has become an important brushwork for Cao Xueqin to portray the characters.So among the descriptions of many characters, is the portrait description of Lin Daiyu the best?Not quite. Cao Xueqin puts a lot of effort into writing portraits of characters, which brings us great aesthetic enjoyment.The two "red fans" friends of mine mentioned above, because they read different versions, have different opinions on the way of writing Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes, although I introduced to them that "Zhou Huiben" came from " The two sentences extracted from the Russian Tibetan Version are the most appropriate, but it is difficult for the two of them to agree with each other for a while, but it does not matter, we respect each other, and we are united but different.

What is a harmonious society?That is, everyone has different opinions, but they can still get along happily.So we express our opinions and describe the portraits that touch us the most in our memories.Each of the three of us has a deepest impression.A "red fan" friend said that he was most impressed by the portrait description of mandarin ducks in the novel, surpassing the description of Lin Daiyu's eyebrows and eyes, and surpassing the examples I just mentioned.In the forty-sixth chapter, Mrs. Xing wants to complete a task assigned by her stupid husband, which is to mobilize Yuanyang to leave Jia Mu and become Jia She's concubine and concubine.At this time, the novel looks at the mandarin duck through Mrs. Xing's eyes, and there is a portrait description about the mandarin duck.It doesn’t matter if she has a slender waist, a duck-shaped face, and black oily hair. The “red fan” friend said that the following two sentences left the deepest impression on him—a high nose, and a few cheeks on both sides. freckles.

He said that after reading these few sentences, he suddenly felt that there was such a special woman in front of him, how vivid it was!When we both heard it, we said yes.So I am not the only one who read the text carefully, others also read very carefully. Among so many portrait descriptions, I chose the portrait description about mandarin ducks.Another "red fan" friend of mine also has his own unique insights, and he was particularly impressed by the one-stroke description of Siqi.Siqi is the big girl in the Yingchun room. This person has a little romantic behavior. There are specific descriptions in the novel, so who discovered it?It happened to be discovered by mandarin ducks.How did Yuanyang find out, how did he know it was her?It is written in the novel that Yuanyang went to the Grand View Garden to pass the message, and it was already dark. She found Siqi when she left the Grand View Garden and returned to Jiamu's yard.

The spatial relationship described here is quite complicated. Taking Rongguo Mansion as an example, the central axis of Rongguo Mansion is several layers of large gardens, and at the end is Rongxi Hall. Rongxi Hall is the most important building on the central axis. Where Mrs. Wang and the others live, of course there are other auxiliary rooms behind the Rongxi Hall; there is a large courtyard on the west side of the main building complex on the central axis, which is the courtyard of Jiamu; The gardens of the village were connected, and some servants' houses were demolished to build a grand view garden.At that time, walking around the mansion was also very tiring, because usually the distance is not very close. Yuanyang encountered a very specific problem at that time, which was internal urgency.This situation is described vividly in the novel: it is convenient, but it is too late to return to Jia Mu's yard, so she starts to walk into the grass from the path in the garden.This of course makes us have such a feeling: Although the Rongguo Mansion is so rich and the Grand View Garden is so luxurious, the sanitation facilities at that time are completely incomparable with today's.

Let's say that Yuanyang was going to go to make things easier, but found a figure shaking under the tree and beside the rocks. At this time, he wrote an image of playing chess through Yuanyang's eyes.This "red fan" friend said that this image impressed him very much, what image is it - wearing a red skirt, combing hair, tall and muscular.This is chess.First, her figure is different from other girls, she is very tall and plump; in addition, her hairstyle is very unique, combing her hair.Although we are not very familiar with the headgear hairstyles of women in the Qing Dynasty, the first two characters can still inspire a lot of our imagination.My "red fan" friend made gestures, and I asked him if he had ever seen a haircut, and he said that anyway, he thought it was very vivid: a tall and burly girl, her hair should naturally be puffed up and combed high, so that the It matches her figure, which shows that Siqi is very good at dressing up and has chosen a hairstyle that suits her body proportions.So you see, the benevolent sees benevolence, and the wise see wisdom. People have written so many images of Jia Baoyu. Although he thinks it is not bad, the image of Siqi is the one that impresses him the most. The two of them asked me at that time who the most impressive portrait description was about, and I didn't expect to highlight the Raiders-I didn't give examples of the main characters, but only mentioned a very small character, who only appeared in a short time. A short paragraph of characters, and it is not the image description in the narrative text, but the description of her in other people's words.Who is this character?It belonged to Qin Xian's family - there was a servant named Qin Xian in Rongguo Mansion, and his daughter-in-law was named Qin Xian's family.How did this character appear?It is because the novel was later written about the inner kitchen in the Grand View Garden, where a power struggle took place. Don't think it's just a kitchen. For some people, this kitchen is also a "fat office", and they need to fight for control of it.Chess is not a fuel-efficient lamp, so she wanted to drive away the head of the kitchen at that time, Liu's, to take control of the kitchen - of course not to be the head of the kitchen herself, but to find someone who was good with her to control the kitchen, then Everything will be easier for her in the future. After a fierce fight, Liu's daughter-in-law (who was originally the head of the kitchen) was dismissed for stealing with her daughter.At that time, the housekeeper Lin Zhixiao and Lin Zhixiao's family were in charge of this matter. They dismissed the Liu family and sent a Qin Xian family.After Lin Zhixiao's family made such an arrangement for the change of power, Ping'er questioned, saying, who is this Qin Xian's family?Why doesn't she know him?Ping'er is very serious. As Sister Feng's assistant, she is in charge of the Rongguo Mansion. She should be familiar with all the male and female servants. Let Qin Xian's family, who she doesn't know, replace the Liu family. Er felt uneasy, so Lin Zhixiao's family came to introduce Qin Xian's family, and there was a description of Qin Xian's family's portrait in the words: tall and lonely, with big eyes, the most clean and crisp.The solitary crutch is the cheekbone.She introduced Qin Xian's family in this way, hoping to arouse Ping'er's impression of the existence of this life. Of course, Ping'er did not agree to her, and finally let the head of the Liu family take charge of the inner kitchen.I read it, but I didn't expect that after reading this, I suddenly felt the image of Qin Xian's family vividly before my eyes.I told two "red fans" friends that I admire these few words: high cheekbones, big eyes, clean and crisp—the image of a woman comes out.So you see, discussing Cao Xueqin's portraiture is really fun and enjoyable. The three characters of Yuanyang, Siqi and Qin Xianjia are not the main characters in the novel, but Cao Xueqin's succinct portrait description immediately makes them vivid and vivid on the paper, making them unforgettable for readers.In Cao Xueqin's writing, Lin Daiyu, who is "sick as Xizi wins three points", has a sickly beauty comparable to Xishi, so is this beauty just in the eyes of Jia Baoyu's lover, and is not appreciated by ordinary people?When Cao Xueqin wrote characters, he did not only describe portraits. For example, when writing about Lin Daiyu, he not only wrote about Lin Daiyu's external image many times, but also wrote about Lin Daiyu's body language.He is good at conveying the characters' emotions through the body language of the characters, and showing the inner world of the characters to the readers. Therefore, reading cannot always start from a concept, from a frame.When it is said that Lin Daiyu is anti-feudal, just flip through to see which point is anti-feudal, and if this point is anti-feudal, just look, if this point is not anti-feudal, just pass it by.There are indeed anti-feudal factors in Lin Daiyu's ideological realm, which deserves our attention when appreciating this artistic image, but I personally think that we should not read it that way, we must appreciate the flow of Cao Xueqin's entire writing - he wrote Lin Daiyu not only with portrait descriptions , wrote about her eyebrows and eyes, and also wrote about her body language. The twenty-sixth chapter describes Jia Baoyu walking into the Xiaoxiang Pavilion. The description of the environment of the Xiaoxiang Pavilion is the most vivid and successful.He wrote, "The phoenix tail is thick, and the dragon sings softly", "The Xiang curtain hangs down to the ground, and there is no sound."Walking to the window, I saw a ray of fragrance secretly leaking from the green screen window. At this moment, Baoyu put his face on the screen window and looked in. Not only did he see Lin Daiyu, but he also heard Lin Daiyu's voice. He sighed softly and said: "Every day, the family feels sleepy and drowsy!" This is a sentence in it, because the two of them secretly read "Hui Zhen Ji" under the peach tree in the Grand View Garden, and "Hui Zhen Ji" is , so Lin Daiyu knew it by heart, and couldn't help humming one of them after taking a nap.After hearing this, Baoyu didn't feel itchy in his heart. When he looked at it again, there were many body language below.I saw Daiyu stretching on the bed - a beautiful woman stretching in the boudoir, this body language is very beautiful, of course Baoyu went in.Daiyu knew that Baoyu had peeped and eavesdropped from outside the window, so she felt embarrassed, blushed, and then showed body language: covered her face with her sleeve, turned inside and pretended to be asleep.Cao Xueqin portrayed the state of a noble lady in this way, which is very vivid.Then Daiyu said that she was asleep, and Baoyu walked in. The servants who served Daiyu, those nurses, women, etc., followed in and asked if you would come back later. Miss Lin is asleep.At this time, Daiyu turned over and sat up—she didn't want Baoyu to go, so she said with a smile, "Who is sleeping?" So she sat on the bed, raised her hands to tidy her temple hair, and said to Baoyu with a smile, "Hey, you are sleeping, come in and do it." what?These are all descriptions of body language, combined with the description of her portrait in a specific situation: Baoyu saw her starry eyes slightly staring, her cheeks flushed, didn't she feel fascinated, and sat on a chair with a crooked body? ?How vivid!The so-called star-eyed micro-opening, the word "饧" is rarely used now, it is half-opened, as if it is a bit stuck to the honey, it is a state that makes people really fascinated after seeing it. The two "red fans" friends also discussed this issue with me, and one of them said that this Lin Daiyu is sick anyway, and if she is tested with today's testing methods, she may have tuberculosis, so, the novel Her beauty described in it is morbid beauty, so one can draw a conclusion: Jia Baoyu loves her because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.This leads to a question, is Lin Daiyu objectively beautiful?This is a question worth exploring.The two of them started arguing with each other about this. One party said that Lin Daiyu was sickly beautiful, that is to say, Jia Baoyu liked her and was annoying when others saw her. How could the trembling walking posture attract other men?How could they think she was a beauty?Another friend reads more carefully, and he usually reads ancient books, and he can see some descriptions that have been deleted in the current version, so he immediately put forward different opinions.He said that in the twenty-fifth chapter, Aunt Zhao killed both Wang Xifeng and Baoyu through Ma Daopo. People were about to kill people, and Baoyu became close to death, which alarmed all relatives and friends, like Wang Ziteng, Wang Ziteng's wife, all came to visit, people from Xue's family also came to visit, including Xue Pan of course, So there is such a description: Others are in a panic, needless to say, only Xue Pan is more busy than everyone else, and he is afraid that Aunt Xue will be squeezed out-he is still filial, afraid that his mother will be squeezed; Afraid that Xue Baochai would be seen by others—he still cared about his sister. At that time, the women in the boudoir should not be seen by men who came in from outside, but it was inevitable under such circumstances, and the whole mess was already in chaos; Dry skin——I'm afraid that Xiangling will be eaten tofu by some sex fans in this situation, and take advantage of it.For him, it is very natural to have such an idea, and we will not be envious when we read it. However, there is a sentence after that: I suddenly caught a glimpse of Lin Daiyu's graceful and graceful, and she has already collapsed there. Although Xue Pan is Lin Daiyu's relative, he has no chance to meet Lin Daiyu.Men and women are different, whether to give or not to kiss.But in that situation, because there was chaos, the whole house was in chaos, and so were relatives and friends. At this time, men and women were mixed, and he caught a glimpse of Lin Daiyu.Xue Pan is a very vulgar person, and his aesthetic concept is very vulgar, but he also thinks that Lin Daiyu is coquettish and tactful, so beautiful, so he has already collapsed there.We once ate a kind of dessert called Walnut Crisp, and his body turned into Walnut Crisp.This paragraph of description was deleted in the passbook. Maybe the person who made the passbook thought: Oh, this paragraph of description is too much, why write this?In fact, some of Cao Xueqin's writing styles preserved in ancient books are very precious. What does this explain?It shows that Lin Daiyu's external beauty is appreciated by both refined and common people, and even ordinary people like Xue Pan think it is good.This reflects an aesthetic consensus of the whole society.For example, the story of the white-haired girl we all know now, why did the landlords and bullies rob Xier, because Xier is beautiful, whether Xier is beautiful or not, the conclusion is the same for poor peasants and landlords.People can reach consensus beyond class boundaries on aesthetic issues.Of course, after a consensus is reached, bad people may want to do bad things with bad intentions, and good people are another situation, which has to be discussed separately.Therefore, I think Cao Xueqin has his own intentions for this stroke. He wants to use such words to balance some unbalanced psychology that people have when they read.For example, a friend who hasn’t read the book may think that Lin Daiyu, that is, Jia Baoyu, looks beautiful, but others can’t do it.not like this.Xue Pan collapsed there when he saw her. His originally solid body bulged section by section, which is very interesting to write.In my opinion, Cao Xueqin's description is intended to show that Lin Daiyu is not only beautiful in the eyes of Jia Baoyu who knows her and loves her, but her beauty also conquers ordinary people like Xue Pan.In the book, the love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu is an unforgettable true love, but what is puzzling is that Cao Xueqin arranged for Jia Baoyu to have vague or ambiguous relationships with other women in the book. Why did Cao Xueqin design it this way? ?For this seemingly contradictory writing, how should we analyze it? Cao Xueqin's writing is very hard work.For example, he wrote that Jia Baoyu began to have a sexual awakening after traveling in the illusory realm, and then had such a relationship with Xiren. I have touched on this in my previous book, so some people don’t understand it , You said you were discussing the image of such an anti-feudal fighter, but you also said that he had such a thing, but you just brought it up. Isn't this the instigation of hooligans?That's not the case, and you can't look at things that way.Cao Xueqin wrote Jia Baoyu like that because he was afraid that readers would misunderstand, because some readers did have two misunderstandings. A misunderstanding is that Jia Baoyu is far from mature physically, so his interest in young women is very chaotic, and the relationship between him and Lin Daiyu is not love.This misunderstanding has been extended to a more serious misunderstanding, that is, some people have overemphasized the ideological resonance between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, as if they are purely spiritual love; whether Jia Baoyu loves Lin Daiyu's body, whether his love is from the soul to the flesh All-round love becomes a problem.Cao Xueqin was afraid that you might misunderstand, so he wrote very detailed in many places. He just wanted to tell you that the love between these two people is a kind of all-round love from spirit to body, which has reached a mature stage of physical and mental development.This is very important for our understanding of these two main characters. There is also a misunderstanding, because it is written in the book that Jia Baoyu is good with Qin Zhong, with Liu Xianglian, and with Jiang Yuhan, so he thinks that Jia Baoyu is a homosexual.Baoyu regards young women as playmates, playing games together, composing poems together, and making fun together. He does not seem to have a clear awareness of gender. If he has gender awareness, he can only be a homosexual Or, he likes men, smart and handsome men.Cao Xueqin clearly pointed out that Jia Baoyu was not like this through Jia Baoyu's first test of cloud and rain.First, Jia Baoyu's physical and mental development has reached a mature stage.Of course, the life expectancy of people in that era was relatively short. At the beginning of this book, there were the words "half a lifetime". It is not uncommon for a man to get married at the age of 14 or 15. A man's physical and mental development has already opened up the majesty when he is 13 or 14 years old. He has sexual awakening and becomes a mature man with self-identification in gender cognition.Of course you can say that Jia Baoyu is a bit precocious, but you can't think that Jia Baoyu is a person whose physical and mental development is lagging behind and who doesn't understand the relationship between men and women.Cao Xueqin wrote to you in detail, and at the same time told you that although Jia Baoyu had very deep relationships with some men, he was not gay in terms of sexual orientation.Some people say whether he is bisexual, and there is insufficient evidence of bisexuality.Even if he is bisexual, his main sexual self-cognition is that he is a man and wants to marry a woman he loves. This woman is either someone else or Lin Daiyu.This is clearly stated in the book. Remember one more detail, which I mentioned before: Jia Yuanchun bestowed the gift for the Dragon Boat Festival, the share he got was exactly the same as Xue Baochai’s share, what’s in it?There are red musk musk skewers.Although Lin Daiyu also got a few beads, it was not a red musk string.Xue Baochai put it on his wrist immediately after he got it. Once Jia Baoyu wanted to ask Xue Baochai to take it off for a closer look. At this time, he saw Xue Baochai's snow-white arms, and immediately had a psychological reaction. What is written in the book—— ——If this arm grows on Sister Lin, you may have to touch it—it means that it is a pity that it is growing on Sister Bao now.This is a very important stroke, which shows that Jia Baoyu is not a promiscuous person. Although he is a bit general-loving, he can't help liking all young women, but who does he really want to live with and marry? wife?Apart from Lin Daiyu, there is no second choice.Through these details, we should be able to understand Cao Xueqin's painstaking efforts.I personally think that Jia Baoyu is so good with people like Qin Zhong, Liu Xianglian, and Jiang Yuhan in the book, mainly to show that Jia Baoyu has a special feeling for the marginalized people in society.The marginalized people in that era were resolutely rejected by the mainstream society and mainstream values. Cao Xueqin wrote such characters and stories with his pen, praising and affirming these marginalized people.The aristocratic son Jia Baoyu he wrote, on the one hand, loves Lin Daiyu deeply and wants to marry Lin Daiyu as his wife, on the other hand, he respects, cares and loves all young women. I associate with marginalized people who have nothing to do with power, and I especially like them.This is Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu described by Cao Xueqin. People generally think that the theme is anti-feudalism, and the two images of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu represent a new image in the society at that time, with anti-feudal ideological connotations.My two "red fans" friends agree with this point, and I agree with this point. This book does have that kind of theme, and these two characters do have that kind of characteristics.However, the content of the book is extremely rich, and its themes are not limited to this, and its thinking reaches the depths of life and society.Speaking of this, two "red fans" friends pointed out to me that although they read different versions and often had disputes, they both came to the same conclusion on one point, that is, Lin Daiyu Xue Baochai and Xue Baochai reconciled very early in the book, and Daichai became one. They asked me what I thought of Cao Xueqin's artistic treatment.Take eighty chapters of this book as an example. How could the main contradiction disappear in only forty chapters?In the next lecture, I will discuss such a problem with you, that is, how to treat the problem of the combination of black and white hairpins in Cao Xueqin's works.