Chinanews client, Beijing, September 27th (Reporter Shangguan Yun) In Chinese classical literature, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is undoubtedly one of the most successful works for women.
Xue Baochai is one of them.
Readers have always received mixed reviews for her personality.
Some people say that she is the most typical lady in feudal society; others say that she is a "scheming girl" who persistently pursues reality, fame and fortune, and protects her life wisely.
Recently, scholar Ou Lijuan's new book "The Cubism of Characters in A Dream of Red Mansions" has also received attention.
She puts forward a point similar to this: Don't look at characters in a "flat" way, but return to the text to understand the complexity, depth and fullness of human nature.
The image of Xue Baochai in the film and television drama.
Image source: Screenshot of the 87 version of "A Dream of Red Mansions"
In her opinion, Xue Baochai's talent is comparable to that of Lin Daiyu, and his family management ability does not lose to Wang Xifeng.
But in "Dream of Red Mansions", her whole life is nothing but a tragedy of aristocratic women in ancient society.
Ren is ruthless and touching
In "Dream of Red Mansions", Xue Baochai seems to have the perfect character setting: outstanding appearance, born in a wealthy imperial merchant's house, stable and peaceful temperament, supporting Xing Xiuyan from poor family background, organizing crab banquets for Shi Xiangyun, and considerate everywhere.
However, she failed to win the unanimous love of readers.
A considerable number of people label her hypocrisy and "scheming girl".
So, what was Baochai's attitude when it was written in the original work?
Ou Lijuan gave an example. In the first eighty chapters of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Cao Xueqin's analogy or metaphor for Xue Baochai were all flowers or allusions with good meanings.
For example, in "Shouyi Hong Qunfang Banquet", Baochai's flower lottery is a peony, the title is "Yan Guan Qunfang", and there is a poem "Anyone is ruthless and touching."
In the 22nd episode of "Dream of Red Mansions", there is a scene where a family gathers together to guess lantern riddles. Because of the presence of Jia Zheng, a serious-faced elder, Baoyu and the other sisters have become restrained and not talkative, only Baochai is calm and composed.
Ou Lijuan believes that this is a manifestation of Baochai's strong mind: facing the pressure brought by higher authority, she is not only committed to promises, and does not deliberately express it. It shows that no matter who she is facing, she can face it equally and comfortably. Is a gentleman's demeanor.
"Lin Daiyu did misunderstand Baochai, but later admitted that she was wrong." Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu are also not opposed.
She said that in the realm of illusion, the goddess Kanmei has assembled the advantages of the two, and "the combination of chai and dai" is the perfect one.
The misunderstood "good wind depends on power"
In fact, it is no wonder that readers compare.
In the same way, Lin Daiyu wrote "Willow Catkins Ci", but she said "good wind will send me to the blue clouds with strength".
With this phrase, Xue Baochai is regarded by some people as a negative example of a deliberate attempt to become a man.
Lin Daiyu (left) and Xue Baochai.
Image source: Screenshot of the 87 version of "A Dream of Red Mansions"
The text of "A Dream of Red Mansions" explains very clearly, "Except for the selection of concubines and concubines, all the daughters of eunuchs and eunuchs are all personally named Dabu, and the candidates are princesses and princesses attending school, serving as talents and praise.
This also shows that the "draft" that Xue Baochai participated in was not the selection of concubines.
According to Ou Lijuan, the so-called talented person and praise are nothing more than high-ranking court ladies.
According to the custom of the court, it is not a good job to be able to rise to the top.
In fact, even becoming "Mr. Bao" is not a success.
Not only did Jia and Xue match each other right away, what's more, in the second half of "A Dream of Red Mansions", the decline of the Jia family has become very obvious. If you marry into Jia's house, you can't be regarded as a "flying blue sky."
Besides, "Qingyun" was rarely used in ancient times to refer to glory and wealth, but at most it represented the noble and refined.
Therefore, "good wind, by virtue of its strength, will send me to the blue sky" has nothing to do with the pursuit of flying yellow.
"She just thinks that we shouldn't always write so sad, and we can be positive. This is a poetic reversal technique and a sunny will." Ou Lijuan said.
The "stain of life" that cannot be erased?
However, in the eyes of many readers, Xue Baochai still has "life stains" that cannot be erased.
There is a famous plot in the first 80 episodes of "Dream of Red Mansions", which is "Dicuiting Baochai's Butterfly".
Baochai encountered a pair of lovely jade-colored butterflies on the road, and the childlike heart chased Di Cuiting all the way, but he overheard the conversation between Hongyu and Luoer, and learned the secret of Hongyu and Jia Yun's private exchange.
Image source: Screenshot of the 87 version of "A Dream of Red Mansions"
Seeing that avoidance is inevitable, she had an idea and lied that she had seen Lin Daiyu chasing here from a long distance, but Daiyu disappeared as soon as she walked around.
In this way, Baochai used a trick to "escape the golden cicada" to wash away the two people's suspicions about him.
This episode is considered by many people to be "intentionally putting on blame": on the one hand, they chose to clean themselves, and on the other hand they pitted Lin Daiyu, laying the groundwork for Daiyu's future rotten popularity, and there is even a hidden danger of being framed.
Is it really the truth?
If Hongyu and Daiyu are equal in status, then the result may be really hard to say; but the problem is that Hongyu is a little girl who works in the Yihongyuan, while Daiyu is the noble lady favored by Jia's mother. The difference between mud.
In other words, even if she had a handle in Daiyu's hands by mistake, she would not be able to cause any substantial harm to Lin Daiyu if she wanted to use some small tricks. On the contrary, she might also bring trouble to herself.
As in the current workplace, the way Hongyu chooses to deal with problems is more likely to be a kind and careful response to Daiyu.
As far as the content of the text is concerned, the incident of "Dicuiting Yang Fei's play with colorful butterflies" did not develop at all.
The tragedy of Xue Baochai
However, no matter how many merits Xue Baochai has in the book, her life is still a total tragedy.
Baoyu and Baochai are married.
Image source: Screenshot of the 87 version of "A Dream of Red Mansions"
For example, she married Baoyu and persuaded her husband to pursue "career economy", which was an indispensable skill for a good wife in ancient times, but Baoyu was most disgusted with.
Marriage with different views is destined to not go long.
In the end, Baoyu became a monk and Baochai faced the unknowable fate of the rest of his life alone.
"Xue Baochai is actually the most perfect female figure of the noble class of that era, and she is a lady of all the people." Ou Lijuan concluded that she was young and widowed, and lonely to the end, otherwise she would not be included in the "Bo Ming Division" of "A Dream of Red Mansions".
In her opinion, there is no principle of character guaranteeing destiny in the world, so Sima Qian asked many unsolvable questions in the "Historical Biography of Bo Yi": "I am so confused, if the so-called God's way is evil or evil. ?"
Today, "A Dream of Red Mansions" still has enlightening significance, but the premise is to read it correctly and treat each character in a three-dimensional and fair manner.
For example, Wang Xifeng's tenacity and fortitude, the so-called "great virtue is not more than leisure, and small virtues can go in and out"; another example is Tanchun's talents and aspirations, grandeur, and is a model of modern women.
Try to control your personality as much as possible. Perhaps this is one of the insights people should have after reading "A Dream of Red Mansions".
(Finish)