Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

Zhang Ailing discussed "Complete Manuscript", the title is "Chu detailed...", detailed is a verb, it is not easy to translate it into "vernacular"; Don't know, can't figure out - don't understand.She specially used the word "detailed", is it intentional? If she used the word "detailed" because Ziyun wanted to understand it, so what about "chu"?Could it be that she started reading "Red Mansion" from this book?of course not.It can only be interpreted as: If you want to find out the similarities and differences of each book, you should start from this book; and the same "details" in the same sequence, Xueqin's writing process can also be glimpsed.

This kind of insight is much wiser than the opinion that clings to a "Gengchen Edition" and believes that it is the "best" edition. The examples she gave included intriguing "mysteries".For example, Qingwen's family background was originally a cousin, so why did she say that she didn't even know her hometown and surname?Did Qingwen really die of illness?Is there any possibility? ——I was so suspicious. Who are the "slaves" and "shrews" who scolded in the special case of "Fu Rong Yi"?She unraveled the mistake of accusing and attacking people all the time, which is very convincing.Happily I agree with it in my humble opinion.

There is also a suspicious case of Tan Yun.Zhang Ailing thinks that Tan Yun is a maidservant who seems to be nothing, as if it is a fiction. Only in Baoyu's "Summer Night Immediate Poems" appears the couplet "The window is bright and the moon opens the palace mirror, and the room is covered with sandalwood and the cloud tastes the royal fragrance". Confrontation, and one place copied "Tanyun" as "Xiangyun". This aroused my great interest: I once thought that the next sentence of this couplet was actually related to Xiangyun-Xiangyun is just one end of "news".

Why do you say that?The words "gong" and "imperial" in this couplet caught my attention. This is not an exaggeration of the high "grade" of Rongfu products, all of which have royal specifications (or they are all given by Yuanchun).In fact, this is closely related to the two hidden meanings of Xiangyun's dental plaque order "the double hanging sun and the moon shine on the universe" and "the imperial garden is taken out by a bird". The "palace" and "imperial" here are not related to Qianlong, but refer to the side of Hongxi's "Great Rebellion Case" that established himself as the imperial court and plotted to assassinate Qianlong—this case was the great change that led to the Cao family's second confiscation and complete collapse. , and some of the girls of the Cao family were imprisoned because they served as errands in the Hongxi Mansion.Yuanchun should be one of them.Eileen Chang mistook other people's words for "visiting relatives" on Princess Pingjun, which was all wrong.

In "Chu Xiang", she discussed the ages of Bao and Dai.This is more complicated, briefly as follows - She believes that the word "five" in this book, which the monk said when he rescued Baoyu, "Five years away from Qinggeng Peak", is the original manuscript, and the "three" in other manuscripts was changed later. Daiyu left her father when she was five years old. But when she entered the mansion to answer questions, she was "fifteen years old" - "eight years on the road"! So, who is right?Absolutely rule out copying mistakes or someone making changes on the original?I'm afraid it can't be so absolute.I always feel that it is not necessary to be too "chiseled" and entangled with these "numbers".Taking a step back, if it is correct to change it to "thirteen years old", why not admit the combination of "three"?

But she also cited: Fu Qiufang is "twenty-three years old" in all the books, but this book is actually "twenty-one or two years old", and "three" is a typo written consecutively.For example, at the age of 23 and Baoyufang at the age of 13, how can there be any possibility of marriage negotiation?Ruo Qiufang is 21 and Baoyu is 15, which is barely reasonable. This analysis makes sense. She also believed what others said, and mistakenly thought that the date of death of the "Old Concubine" originally referred to the death of Yuan Chun, and so on, and calculated the age from this.She didn't know that the old concubine was Kangxi's concubine Xipin, who died in the first month of the second year of Qianlong, and she was exactly the same—this has nothing to do with the disaster in Yuanchun.

If you are a scholar, you are afraid of being clever, making yourself foolish, talking nonsense, and misleading others——mistaking the extremely intelligent Ms. Zhang. She gave another strange example: "Jinyuyuan" was copied into "Jinshi" more than once. This is really strange! I don't believe this is the carelessness of copying hands.Stone and jade are different, and they are key changes: stone is a big stone under Qinggeng Peak, which has not yet entered the world.Jade is the "jade" that is reincarnated as a human after being "attained" (not just the piece of jade hanging under the neck).It is only because of this that there is a dispute between "gold and jade" and "wood and stone".

Why is it so copied from the original, but the two are "recombined"? I think there is a lot of mystery in it.Zhang Ailing did not go into details here. Stone, lonely, crying day and night, two immortals came occasionally, saying "forgive me, idiot can't be present", and has no "function" of rotation - who is it "destined" to form an "alliance" with?The crimson bead grass is not clouded under the peak, but far away on the "western" river bank.The grass on the bank of the river has to wait for the nectar of "Shenying" to save it from withering. Is this called a predestined alliance with "Stone"?

It doesn't make sense, it just shows that Xueqin's "before alliance between wood and stone" has another reason and "ability".That is stone, not jade. The appearance of "Jinshiyuan" today surprised me so much that I couldn't help but play around with the word "alliance". Even if Shenying saves the wilt, there is no "covenant" there, and the oath is life and death, and the three lives will not change. The phantom of the stone descended to the earth, which was the first time after Emperor Wa refined it. How did the "three" births come from before?If there is, it is all "post talk".This cannot be reversed.

What is the meaning of "golden stone"?I would like to ask Ms. Zhang's spirit, did she have any new ideas later? The poem says: Peeling the cocoon and drawing silk to create a wonderful thread, you must be smart if you have to deal with many aspects. For the time being, Xueqin's purpose has not been achieved, so why lightly add the name of evil nightmare.