Chapter 34 Chapter 33 The so-called "hodgepodge"

Exploring the "Old Authentic Version" is to get a glimpse of the overall conception and ending theme of Xueqin's original book as much as possible, and thus to know that this is an essential difference with Gao E's pseudo-continuation, and has nothing to do with "art" trivia.Zhang Ailing thought that the 10 pieces of information I cited were a "hodgepodge", but I mistook them for one.That is to say, there were several "true versions" and "alternative versions" back then, and it was hard to agree which one was true and which was false.

I sincerely accept her criticism.But there are a few words to say:— First, try to collect and compile data and records for comprehensive research. Is it a merit or a demerit? Second, the existing information is "objective", not created by me. Third, is there any problem in the "hodgepodge" of phenomena that has not yet been studied deeply, or even misunderstood the meaning of the word, and has not been well thought out.Are they all blaming the "miscellaneous" information? These are not things that can be determined in a few words. In fact, this was a "hot" topic at that time. Under the atmosphere of "talking without talking, reading poetry and books is futile", it was mainly "talking". What can be seen today is just a few particularly "diligent" activities. The author has memorized it into words; and this includes multiple layers of narration, "rumors and different words", one is there and the other is not, and the other is detailed; There are differences in the ability to express, and the wording is clumsy....

There is also a very important fact, that is, human memory has its own obvious characteristics, which I call "everyone takes what he needs".That is to say, the attention points of listening and reading are very different from each other, so the memory points left behind are also different, and they are not the same, "balanced" into the brain. Let me give you an example: Decades ago, my brother Huchang and I rushed back home to visit our relatives on New Year’s Eve (except the day of the lunar year). Back from Tanggu, the route was tortuous, and the last section was in a wooden mule cart with no protection against the cold.I got home very late, and I was so cold that I washed my face with hot water, and said to me with relief: "It's so bad! An old lady in the same car said when she got off the car: 'Oh! My face is frozen!" "This situation is still vivid as it is now.

The strange words of the old lady meant that it was extremely cold, the whole face was numb from the cold, and I lost consciousness - I felt that my face was "no longer"! A few years later, on New Year's Eve, I mentioned my past to Huchang and relived the strange words of the old lady.Unexpectedly, he was stunned and said, "I don't remember this happening." Afterwards, I "mutually confirmed" the memory with him, only to find out that he remembered a lot of details of the childhood and childhood memories that I experienced together, and I was at a loss; on the contrary, he was very vague about the past events that I could tell very vividly. .

Based on this, most of the narrators of the "authentic version" are written by hearsay, not by personal experience and detailed reading, so what about the discrepancy between their memories? The most obvious cases, such as Chen Qitai and Jiang Liangfu, can be used as "reflection": Chen can only say that his grandfather specially rewarded Baoxiang's New Year's Eve and poems... .Can this be said to be the only thing?In the same way, Jiang Neng’s recollection is as many as 16 volumes, but he can only cite a little bit of the reunion of Bao and Xiang; if the hungry "red fan" asks anything else, he can't answer a word ——And could this prove that what he saw was only this one section?

So, how do you know that the "different" recorded by different people is not based on the above-mentioned reason?Baoyu "strikes the watchman", meets the king of Beijing, and encounters the servant of the attacker by chance (not necessarily the meaning of "death", but fainting)... Finally, he and Xiangyun reunited after thousands of twists and turns, and reunited. After the meeting, there was a couplet on New Year's Eve. This is like remembering the ones that are most interesting and impressive to each of them. I think Ms. Zhang's "hodgepodge" of judgments is too hasty and "straight-line logic" thinking, too reckless, and too light to settle the case, so it has become another example of her own "nightmare".

Judging a case like this is a bit dangerous, it is easy to judge the truth from the false, and "miss it". ——Fortunately, she has admitted that the "early draft" had a reunion with Baoxiang, and it was not a random fabrication.Thank goodness! As long as she admits this most important point, the remaining difficult subjects will not be difficult to solve step by step. It will take time, intelligence, spiritual wisdom, and continuous discoveries (such as materials).No matter how smart you are, a single mind can't solve all the mysteries left by Cao Xueqin. Recently, a friend told me that there was a rumor on the Internet that a Belarusian "picked up" a "Red Mansion" in the Northeast 8 years ago. It is different from today. It only saw one page, which was written by Xiangyun criticizing Baoyu: "Why do you sing more and more vulgarly!" It seems that Baoyu has a poor son who sells singing (?)

Regardless of whether it is credible or not (there are many fakes on the Internet to confuse people), anyway, there is one thing: even if it is fabricated, the focus is on Baoxiang.Isn't it a "coincidence"? The poem says: Are concerns real or debatable?The rumors are different and common. Everyone's memory is not a machine, and computers are still in vain.