Chapter 72 "Double Hanging Sun and Moon Illuminating the Universe"——Commemorating the 220th Anniversary of Cao Xueqin's Death

Cao Xueqin, one of the greatest writers of our Chinese nation, died on a day 220 years ago when mountains and rivers were shaken[Note]. , before his poetic spirit. This paper explores the nature of a rough outline of one of the great questions.It's not perfect, it's just the easiest step to reveal the problem. Who said the phrase "Double hanging sun and moon illuminate the universe"?It's Miss Shi, Miss Xiangyun.When Jinyuanyang announced the tooth card order three times, except for the two old ladies Jia Mu and Aunt Xue, the first sentence said by the girls who participated in this grand event and the first order was: double hanging sun and moon According to heaven and earth.

Where does this saying come from?It comes from the great poet Li Bai, who composed ten poems of "Songs of the Emperor's West Tour to Nanjing".The young emperor Chang'an opened the purple pole, and the sun and the moon hung on both sides to illuminate the universe. What is written here?It is "Tianbao's 15th year, June has been Hai, and Lushan has fallen into the capital. Gengchen in July, [Minghuang] Cishu County. Guisi in August, the crown prince, the emperor, is located in Lingwu. Ding Wei in December, the emperor Tiandi arrived From Shu County; amnesty, with Shu County as Nanjing".

Please note: This is an allusion of "two emperors", so it is very strange to compare it to "sun and moon hanging". Why did Xueqin use this allusion?It turned out that Shu Shen was implying a political incident involving the "two emperors", which was related to the life and death of the Jia family. There has never been an example of "single text and isolated evidence" in Xueqin's brushwork, and there are ups and downs everywhere, echoing back and forth.If someone thinks that the poem that Xiangyun said is a single text, an accidental phenomenon, and meaningless at all, then please let him have a look at this series of words and sentences: double hanging sun and moon illuminate the universe; The cloud was planted; the imperial garden was taken out by the Yingying (as mentioned by Xiangyun above).Double-viewing the imperial seat to guide the court ceremony; colorful battles to pick peony flowers (daiyu said above).

I want to remind readers emphatically: Look, when did Xueqin use such a series of facts about the emperor in the whole book?Now, when writing about the drinking order of Daixiang, the two most important heroines, in a big book, so many royal words are concentratedly used. Anyone who knows Xueqin's superb brushwork will still not understand Surely there must be his intentions here?This is not something that can be dismissed as a single document, isolated evidence, accidental phenomenon, etc. It begins with "Double Hanging Sun and Moon Illuminating the Universe" and continues with "Trouble and Sorrow Everywhere" (Baochai Wine Order), which is particularly eye-catching.So we should think about it and figure out why.

I intend to explain this reason from two aspects of the novel itself and historical facts, but this article can only briefly state the gist, without going into details. Xueqin's pen is never sloppy, there is intention everywhere, and every sentence has traction, but careless people often turn a blind eye and don't understand it.Always read Xueqin's books with the eyes of reading other people's novels, it is even more difficult to pay attention to this superb artistic technique.There is a characteristic, that is, all the characters who are only shown in the front with thick brushes and hooks, and most of them are vaguely "behind the scenes", their functions and importance are not obvious in the readers' minds, and they are regarded as "secondary". The characters of "Foil", "Miscellaneous Views" and "Occasionally" become more clear in the second half.There are a long list of such characters, and it is too late to describe them in detail in this article. Now we only start with the king of Beijing.Prince Jing, what's so important about him?His importance lies in his relationship with Baoyu.In the past, the comment of Damou Mountain Man [Yao Xie] once said: The king of Beijing is the number one confidant in Yuge's life.

This sentence can be said to be right in the target, and the mountain people have eyesight to penetrate the Qizha.Baoyu’s lifelong friends, such as Jiang Yuhan, Qin Zhong, Liu Xianglian, and Feng Ziying, have different identities, but the most "high-ranking" are only young masters and princes; in terms of princes, their power and authority are second only to the emperor If there is one, there is only one person, the King of Beijing Jing.It is a special case and special writing, but where the King of Beijing is written, readers mostly read it lightly, often between "seemingly paying attention, not paying attention".

What kind of person is the King of Beijing?You have to play with Xueqin's meaning carefully.His "introduction" is also unwilling to write too much, he only said: "It turns out that among the four kings, only the king of Beijing was the most accomplished, and today's descendants still follow the king's rank." Those who came to the capital did not fail to pay attention to others, because there are quite a lot of high-ranking people in Handi." No more, just these two items, those who are familiar with the history of the Qing Dynasty, probably already understand what's going on: Gai Zongchen's old honor, the higher the merit, the faster the disaster; A kind of unquiet, unruly, taboo-provoking scourge.This situation has become the custom of all kings since the Kangxi Dynasty, and it was even more so during the Yong and Qian Dynasties.Its phenomenon is to gather high-ranking people, its essence is to attract talents and cultivate power, and the core is political struggle. ——Looking at how Xueqin wrote about the relationship between Baoyu and King Jing, things became clear step by step.Now I would like to remind readers again, have you ever paid attention to the various accidents of the "prince first class" written in the book?If you haven't paid attention or can't see anything at all, it proves that you still don't pay attention to Xueqin's brushwork, and reading like that is often a return of the same thing.

In the whole book, Xueqin set a crucial line early on, and the matter happened precisely at the "prince level".The first time was due to the illness, death and funeral of Qin Keqing, the first young woman from the Jia family who died first in the book, which caused many accidents.Who is the Qin family?He was the one who announced to Wang Xifeng that a catastrophe was coming soon, and he was also the one who chanted for the first time "After the three springs are gone, all parties will be exhausted, and each must find his own door"!When she died, the choice of a good coffin first led to a "bad thing" "Prince Yizhong, old thousand years old", and then came this Prince of Beijing who specially sacrificed himself on the road!The second time was a "Prince Zhongshun's Mansion" that appeared in the turmoil in which Baoyu was flogged and almost died due to the incident of Jin Chuan, the first maidservant who died in the Rong Mansion!

Where can I get a glimpse of the troubles of things? Jia Zheng, when he heard that it was someone from the Zhongshun Palace, he was very surprised and thought to himself: he is not in contact with him on weekdays.After a while, he scolded Baoyu and said, "Damn slave!"It's fine if you don't study at home, why do these lawless things again!That Qi official is now the loyal and obedient prince's servant, what a fool you are, you lured him out without any reason--now it's a disaster for me! There is no doubt that this "faithful and obedient" prince is actually a fierce and evil god in Baoyu's life, an enemy of fate, and an enemy of spirit.But what is surprising is that the rare treasure Jiang Qiguan gave him when he first met Baoyu: the red scarf presented by the Queen of Qianxiang Kingdom, was "given to him by the King of Beijing yesterday." mine"!

It turns out that King Beijing is the "advanced" who "seduces" the person favored by King Zhongshun!Qiguan dared to escape from the mansion, because there was a "backstage"! Now, we can see how the relationship between King Jing of Beijing and Baoyu is. First of all, the relationship between Beiwang and Jia's mansion should also be clearly understood: it turns out that the two families "were in love with each other when their grandfathers met each other, shared difficulties and shared prosperity, and did not treat each other with different surnames."What is this nonsense?Those who understand the history of the Qing Dynasty will not immediately understand that this refers to the friendship between the Manchu royal family and the Han family who lived and died together? "Different surnames" refers to the difference between Manchu and Han masters and slaves, and is a special term in the Qing Dynasty. ——From this, it is also clear: if the important person between them "broke things", they must be connected in the same case, and they are "in the same trouble" with each other!

The book describes the closeness between the Beiwang family and Jia's family, and there is a special feature, that is, when an old concubine passed away and held a funeral, she lived in the "lower place". take care of.In other words, their fate is always connected by a thread. As for Baoyu, for the young king of Beifu who is "not yet young, but born with a beautiful description and a modest temperament", "I used to hear my father, brother, relatives and friends gossip, praise Shui Rong as a good king; and he was born with talent and appearance." Shuangquan, romantic and unrestrained, never bound by official customs and state system. Every time I miss each other, it's just that my father is strictly restrained, so I can't help but meet..." The Northern King happened to have "heard the sound of love and longed for Baoyu" for Baoyu - Zheng It shows that he is a first-class character, "a person who comes from the two Fus of good and evil".The King of the North personally told Jia Zheng that he wanted Baoyu to meet frequently, so naturally he dared not disobey him. The claws are dyed with hooks, and they refuse to draw them with correct brushwork. In Xueqin's original book, "a tiger meets a tiger", the contest between the two heroes, the death of the concubine Yuan, and the defeat of Jia's mansion are the result of the great political changes of the "princes". A reader said to me, "Bei Wang writes like a little emperor".Not bad at all.In the history of the Qing Dynasty, during the fourth or fifth year of Qianlong's reign, such a serious accident happened. I have already listed it in "Xin Zheng". Political institutions such as the Department of Public Security actually ascended the throne by themselves-to sing against Qianlong, and once arranged for an assassination while Qianlong was on tour.Prince Yi's son Hongjun (Ningjun Wang) and others are also included.Many people were implicated in the case, and it also involved foreign domains.This is exactly the background of "Double Hanging Sun and Moon Illuminating the Universe". Xueqin used to write in a leisurely manner, and she added a little bit of carelessness. There is another book, that is, the seventy-second chapter of Xufeng's family affairs and financial difficulties. She said that she had a dream. , Dreaming that another empress sent someone to ask her for the brocade, and robbed her.This is also a hint of "two courts". When he was in Yongzheng, looking back on the past, he said that when the kings acted as "rebels", they recruited all kinds of people, including monks, Taoists, green forests, actors, foreign vassals, and Westerners... .This happened to be the case in the four or five years of Qianlong's major case.With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at Jiang Yuhan (actress), Liu Xianglian (Qiangliang), Feng Ziying, Ni Er, and the horse dealer Wang Duanleg in Xueqin’s pen. The character under the banner of the "bad thing" king of the north.Baoyu and Sister Feng were imprisoned, one because of monks, the other because of Taoism, and quite a few people from the lower classes went to visit and rescue them. "After the three springs go, all fragrances will be exhausted" is the conclusion of this "double hanging sun and moon shining on the universe". Xueqin's original intention was to pass on the relationship between girlfriends, and he did not intend to "intervene in the court"—but when writing about the tragedy of these girlfriends, he could not avoid the court's time, so he declared his confession again and again at the beginning of the book: I The original intention is not here, but since it is faithful to life experience, it is necessary to let readers see the reason without using a vague brush. ——This meaning has always been commented by critics who have not seen the truth. Because the above-mentioned matters were involved after the eighty chapters, the imperial court (the winner) of course would not allow it.Singing praises and embracing "injustice" in the 80th chapter, when commemorating Xueqin's 220th anniversary, maybe I am still rejoicing: Thanks to Cheng Gao, who cared about Xueqin's remnants and finished the book for it, With high merit and virtue, he is Xueqin's great benefactor, right?I would like to dedicate this to Xueqin's poetic spirit: You are great and immortal, and it is a delusion to want to destroy and harm you, and sooner or later it will be generally recognized by the broadest masses of the people. Written at the end of the first meeting of the Sixth National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, The time was the end of June in 1983.