Chapter 31 Changing of Xiangling's status

Grandma Liu met Wang Xifeng and Jia Rong for the first time to talk about hidden feelings Xiangling is a very important person. She appeared first (the first episode). The author expresses her deepest regret, and the name "Yinglian" is a homophony of "Ying Lian", and it is "lucky" with "Jiao Xing". Treat each other. "Ying Lian" is not only for Xiangling alone, but actually includes the twelve beauties in the book, that is, all the women in the Grand View Garden.For example, "Yuan Ying Tan Xi" in Twelve Hairpins is a homonym for "Original Sigh", which is also the same as "Ying Lian".The author's intention is very obvious.

Another point is that Xiangling is listed in the supplementary volume or another supplementary volume. In general, she is listed at the top of the supplementary volume.There are two different theories in Zhiyanzhai's criticism: one is in the supplementary volume, and the other is in the supplementary volume.This contradictory situation shows that the author also hesitated to include her in the booklet at that time.In the end, I will probably include her in the sub-volume. A relatively basic concept is involved here, that is, high status in a feudal family is not necessarily a compliment; low status is not necessarily despised.And on the contrary, the higher the position, the more severe the belittling; the lower the position, the more sympathy is expressed for him.The author used this method to initially criticize the feudal family.Therefore, raising one's status does not mean praise, and lowering one's status does not mean derogating. It seems to be reversed, but it is actually very profound. Later, the book was continued, such as Gao E's last forty chapters. Because of sympathy for Ping'er, Sister Feng said after her death that she should be righted.This fully showed that he did not understand what Cao Xueqin meant.

Now let's talk about the change of Xiangling's status.Xiangling has the identity of an aunt, which can be found in the words of Sister Feng in the sixteenth chapter of this book: It's also because my aunt looks good at Xiangling, but she is the last one, but she behaves differently than other girls, she is gentle and quiet, and the master and girl of the same class can't match him.Therefore, it is troublesome to set up wine and treat guests, and make a marriage with him in an open and honest manner. This is always a bit higher than Xiren Ping'er and the others.But in the eightieth chapter, Xiangling's situation was written very unbearably, and she became an abused little girl.

Let Xue Pan and Baochan go to get married in Xiangling's room tonight, and order Xiangling to come and sleep with him first.First, Xiangling refused.Jingui said that he thought it was dirty, so he must be looking for comfort and fear of working at night to serve him. ... Xue Pan ... rushed to scold Xiangling again, "I don't know how to flatter, if I don't sleep, I will be beaten."Xiangling had no choice but to pack the bedding.Jingui ordered him to sleep on the basement bunk.Xiangling had no choice but to obey his orders.Just after falling asleep, he is called to pour tea, and sometimes he is called to beat his legs. If he does it seven or eight times a night, he will not be able to lie comfortably for a while.

Xiangling died under the oppression of Xia Jingui. In the fifth booklet, there was a clear text "since the solitary tree was born in the two places, causing the soul to return to its hometown".This has already been said, without further ado. ("A Study of a Dream of Red Mansions", pp. 44, 45) Her status suddenly plummeted, seemingly because of Jingui's bullying, but in fact it was not so simple. The main thing was Xue Pan's sudden change of attitude.Why the sudden change is related to Baoyu.Read the book carefully, and the clues can be followed clearly. In the forty-eighth chapter of "Excessive Love, Misunderstanding Amusement, Mu Ya Nu Gathering and Reciting Poems", the author spent a lot of effort to get Xiangling into the Grand View Garden.In the Gengchen version of Zhiyanzhai, there is a long comment explaining the psychological process of the creation, which is clearly approved by the author himself.He expended so much energy, is it really just to let Xiangling learn to compose poetry?I'm afraid it's not that elegant.The main thing is to write this "Staying Fragrance Ling and Emotional Pomegranate Skirt".This sixty-second chapter was originally a very noteworthy chapter. The owner of the flower protector in "Jin Yu Yuan" commented:

Baoyu's burial of his husband and wife, Hui Bingdi Ling, and seeing Ping'er's mandarin ducks dressing up, etc., are two words to describe obscenity.Xiangling stopped Baoyu and blushed. She wanted to say nothing, but told Xue Pan not to tell Xue Pan about the skirt. Damou mountain people commented: When Xiangling changed her skirt, someone was on her side, pretending to teach Baoyu to turn her face away, and after the attacker left, she immediately came to hold hands, and then blushed, and Fang Yun's skirt didn't matter for a long time.The scars of the butterflies cannot be washed by the Xijiang River.

Try quoting the last verse of this chapter: Xiangling turned back and called Baoyu to stop.Baoyu didn't know what to say. She shook her two clay hands, turned around with a smile, and asked what she was doing.Xiang Ling blushed, she just smiled, but she wanted to say something, but couldn't say it.Because his little girl Zhen'er came over there and said that the second girl is waiting for you to talk.Xiangling blushed again, and said to Baoyu, "don't talk to your brother about the skirt." After speaking, she turned and left.Baoyu laughed and said, "I'm not crazy. I'm poking my head into the tiger's mouth."

Taking this article and the comments quoted above as a reference, I know that what they said was good, but they haven't said it very thoroughly, so they are working on micro-cis and music pens again.On the surface, it seems that there is no problem, but it doesn't make sense when you look at it again. You have to look carefully to know the author's deep intention.Let's think about it: Why did Xiangling tell Baoyu these words?Could it be that if you don't tell me, Baoyu will really tell Xue Pan: How have I molested your concubine?This is beyond reason and absolutely unreasonable.No wonder Baoyu said, "I'm not crazy."

This statement can be viewed from two aspects: "reasonable" and "literary".As far as "reasons" are concerned, not only is it unnecessary, but this way of writing is fundamentally unreasonable.As far as "literature" is concerned, this must be the case in order to express the relationship between Baoyu and Xiangling, as critics say.This "reason" and "literature" are contradictory, and the author just uses this contradiction to express his true meaning.There was a flaw here.It is only when there are flaws that it is easy for readers to perceive, which is not really the case at the time.To put it bluntly, Baoyu and Xiangling have something to hide from Xue Pan.

Let's talk about Xue Pan.Xue Pan's nicknames are "Dasha" and "Stupid Overlord". In fact, this person's character is not simple, so I can't go into details here, but I will only mention one point.Xue Pan is very jealous, and is always afraid that Baoyu will steal his concubine, so Xiangling's entry into the garden is an important key.When she left the garden again, Xue Pan's attitude changed immediately.It seemed that Xiangling was forced to death by Xia Jingui, but it was actually so.Xue Pan really likes Xiangling, wouldn't he "dote on his concubine and destroy his wife"?

Forgive me for mentioning a weird article, an old saying, and I will take this opportunity to revise a little bit of "A Study of a Dream of Red Mansions", because this text is originally an old article of "A Dream of Red Mansions": Although Qi Ben is also good, but there are many places to laugh.For example, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Gao Ben (that is, Cheng's printed version), "Jia Zheng is also busy in his heart, and everyone is talking nonsense..." The style of writing is very coherent, but Qi Ben inserts a strange passage for no reason. , making us laugh. Jia Zheng and the others were also a little troubled, and they couldn't lose their minds here.Needless to say, others were flustered, but Xue Pan was the only one who was busier than everyone else. He was afraid that Aunt Xue would be pushed down, that Xue Baochai would be seen, and that Xiangling would be embarrassed. He knew that Jia Zhen and others were there. Women do kung fu, so they are very busy; suddenly they caught a glimpse of Lin Daiyu's coquettish and graceful, and she fell down there.At the moment, everyone is talking nonsense. ... Not only are the arts and sciences heavy, but the upper and lower parts of the text are separated and disconnected.The commenter said, "Writing while busy, what a sleight of hand, and a big trick!" (Page 89) Here I do not agree with Qi Ben (the same is true for Zhiben), and I also do not agree with Zhiping. Statements like this are superficial.Because at that time I didn't think of the complex and delicate relationship between Xue Pan, Xiangling, Baoyu and others, I just felt that it was not very smooth to insert this strange passage.Looking at this strange article now, I still feel this way, but I think it is true in the author's original manuscript.Here it is stated that "I am afraid that Xiangling will be shamed by others", and it is also clearly stated that "I know that Jia Zhen and others are working on women". "Jia Zhen and so on", only one word "waiting" includes Baoyu.In fact, Baoyu is the owner of the book, and Jia Zhen is the guest even though she leads the book.If this sentence is changed to: "Know that Baoyu is working on women."Then understand the arrival of Xiaochang.But this is too revealing, and it is not the author's intention.It is necessary to read the whole text before and after to know that this strange text is very useful and should not be deleted. The reduction of Xiangling's status is a special feature of the author.He expresses his sorrow for his poor daughter, and uses Xiangling to portray it.In terms of status, it is indeed a derogation; however, this derogation is where the author sympathizes with her the most and the deepest, and where the readers sympathize most easily. This is praise.The so-called praise does not necessarily mean being a king or concubine; the so-called derogation does not necessarily mean being a maidservant or concubine, or even the other way around.As for if she is included in the sub-book, the reasons are similar, and it is by no means derogatory.Looking at the booklet of Twelve Hairpins, I think that "positive" is the most important, "deputy" is second, and "deputy" is second. This is from the perspective of form.For example, both Qing and Xi are in the supplementary book, may I ask if there are any more famous characters in the book than these two.If Xiangling is listed with her, her importance will not be reduced to her being the first in the sub-volume.The author once wanted to include her in the supplementary volume, probably because of this reason.