Chapter 76 The Mystery of the Bluestone

When I was a child, on summer nights, when my family sat around in the courtyard to enjoy the shade, I loved listening to my mother or my mother telling me stories and "solving riddles".Among those interesting folk riddles, there is one: "Bluestone slab, slab azurite—silver nails nailed to the bluestone slab." Everyone guessed in succession.Finally, the answer was revealed: "It's the stars in the sky!" At that time, the child remembered this vivid and picturesque "picture" very convincingly in his mind: the bluestone slab—the sky turned out to be made of stone!I raised my head and tried my best to see through the blue sky and blue sky, only to see that it was as clear as washing, like translucent.I thought to myself: How beautiful is that bluestone! ——Do you know how many feet it is thick? (It should be explained here: At that time, we were talking about Chinese inches, feet, and feet, and there were no "meters", "yards", "centimeters"...etc.)

I asked my mother "how many feet thick", but she didn't answer. When I grew up, I found the answer myself. God, how "thick" is it? — Twelve feet! Where did you find this answer?is in.This is not a secret book.It turned out that Cao Xueqin had already answered this question in advance. You see how he wrote—— "It turns out that when Nuwa smelted stones to mend the sky, she smelted thirty-six thousand five hundred and one pieces of boulder at Wuji Cliff in Dahuang Mountain, with a height of twelve feet and a square diameter of twenty-four feet..." All right!You can see that he said it so accurately, the "height" is twelve feet, which is exactly the "thickness" I thought of when I was a child.Terrific!

By the way: This "jing" refers to the meaning of the word "degree" in "scale".It is wrong to use "diameter" in some books, because "three-week diameter one", the diameter radius only occurs in "circle", and it is not the same thing as "jing". It dawned on me that the blue sky was "paved" or "framed" with many large stones with square corners, and the thickness of the huge stones is half of the "side length". For example, It looks like a piece of tofu or "mung bean cake". However, although Cao Xueqin also answered my childhood questions, he is a great "encyclopedist", and he is also proficient in "mathematics", and the numbers he uses still have a hidden layer of magic.

This miraculous effect was originally beyond our "common sense" and "formal intelligence", but luckily the critic Zhi Yanzhai pointed out the mystery inside, let's see—— Under the sentence "Twelve Zhangs of the High Classic", the comment reads: "According to (a total response to) the twelve hairpins." Under the sentence of "Twenty-four Zhangs of the Fang Jing", it was criticized again: "Take care of the deputy twelve beauties." This really makes us happy! Everyone knows that there are several different names. Xueqin titled "The Twelve Beauties of Jinling", which refers to the twelve most important women in the book: Dai, Chai, Xiang, Yuan, Ying, Tan, Xi, Wan, Feng, Qiao, Miao, Qin.But in the fifth chapter, Baoyu read the brochures at Fairy Jinghuan, and there were also "Deputy" chapbooks, "You Fu" chap..., he put it down before he had to read it, and went to listen to the opera again.

Does this seem to be the number of hairpins with only three layers of principal, deputy, and deputy?The answer is no.The evidence lies in another comment, saying that it was not until I read the last episode of "Love List" that I knew all the "lists" of the principal, deputy, second deputy, third deputy, fourth deputy.... Speaking of this, I dare to remind everyone: the "deputy" has many layers, which can be confirmed: the word "deputy" in the above quotation "responsible to the twelve hairpins of the deputy" is used in a broad sense, and it is a turnkey package. In terms of all the "sub-levels" other than Zhengchai.

Then, the next new question is: How many layers of hairpins are there in Xueqin's original work?The answer is: eight floors. What is the evidence for this?The evidence is still the "Twelve Beauties of the Deputy Director" in the "Fangjing Twenty-Four Zhangs" cited above.Please see: the boulder is square, with four sides, each of which is twenty-four feet long, that is, two "twelve", so the four sides of the square have a total of "eight" and "twelve" - ​​this is "response". The "mathematics" of the eight-layer vice hairpin.At this point, I ask again: Please do the math, one layer of primary hairpins, plus eight layers of auxiliary hairpins, there are nine layers in total, nine times twelve, exactly one hundred and eight women.

This shows that Xueqin's work is based on the ideological inspiration and artistic association obtained from it!Its meaning is as follows: Mr. Shi, you have written one hundred and eight green forest heroes, and I will write one hundred and eight cosmetic heroes, which form a neat "couplet" with your book! 108, this is a number that our nation loves, in fact it is also a "symbolic number" - a symbol of "many". Why use 108 alone to symbolize many? To talk about this kind of very popular mathematical theory of numbers, it must be derived from our ancient "Yi" learning.Since it would take a long time to talk about it, let’s just say a little bit now. "Yi" is composed of yin and yang, and our numbers are also divided into yin and yang, that is, "odd" numbers are yang, and "even" numbers are yin.Therefore, in "Yi", the yang line uses "nine" as the word for counting the line, and the yin line uses "six" as the number for counting the line. Twice "six" (Diekun hexagram) is "twelve".Therefore, in our Chinese culture, "nine" is the extreme number of yang (the ninth day of September is the "Chongyang" festival), and "twelve" is the most negative number (the month of the solar calendar is twelve).Therefore, we use these two "representative numbers" to "multiply" to get a "one hundred and eight" - Xueqin is exactly the same!

Xueqin used this representative or symbolic number to write "Zhufang", "Qunchai", "Qianhong" and "Wanyan" in his book, and wept (cup) and cried (cave) for the unfortunate fate of these women. ! This is a great literary masterpiece of China's new concept of women - also a cultural miracle. Xueqin not only wrote one hundred and eight people, but even the number of chapters in the book is also one hundred and eight.The whole book is divided into two big "fans", the front one is about prosperity, and the back one is about decline. The front and back are respectively divided into fifty-four chapters, which are always ups and downs, honors and disgraces, gatherings and separations, joys and sorrows... Echoing each other and reflecting each other - the great symmetry The structural pattern is extremely precise and meticulous.

The general spirit of the book is summed up in only two words in the title, which is "Qinfang".These two characters are actually the "condensation" and "crystallization" of "flowers fall into the water and flow red" and "flowing water falls into the spring", and they refer to the poor and painful ending of this unfortunate daughter.The word Qinfang is the most painful, but the world regards it as "leisure writing" and cannot understand its meaning.Will there be 108 chapters in the novel?This is too strange. The answer is not strange.A novel written by Weiwan at the same time as Xueqin is called "Forked Road Light", which has 108 chapters.

But Xueqin's 108 is more precise: every 9 chapters is a paragraph, and there are 12 paragraphs in total-it is still a clever use of odd and even numbers. Check it out: Chapter 9: Navigating the School (always writing about men’s inadequacy, which caused Qin Keqing’s illness), Chapter 18: Visiting relatives in Yuanchun, point), Chapter 63: Qunfang, Shouyihong, ... May I ask which key is not in the "nine" superior?Not understanding (or acknowledging) the structural laws of such great writers will cause a huge gap and loss to the understanding of Xueqin's thoughts and art. Isn't that a pity?

After Renshen Summer Solstice Festival