In the article "Foreigners Watching Peking Opera and Others", Zhang Ailing discussed the drama "Red Mane Horse", which is the source of Wang Baojun's story. Zhang Ailing said this:
Xue Pinggui devoted himself to his career for eighteen years, calmly leaving his wife in the cold kiln like a fish in the refrigerator. One day, he suddenly became uneasy, and Starry Night rushed home. The best years of her life had been ruined by the loneliness of poverty and a social traitor, yet he thought that the joy of reunion was enough to satisfy everything that had been before. He didn't put herself in her shoes—he made her empress, empress in the territory of the Princess of War! Beg for a living in the hands of a young, powerful concubine! No wonder she died eighteen days after she was crowned empress—she was not blessed.
Zhang Ailing is always so profound, so profound that people feel mean. But her words, her opinions, really make sense.
A woman, in ancient times, was unlikely to have a career. Her whole life is nothing more than a husband and children. Wang Baojun married Xue Pinggui, and soon he was gone, and after eighteen years, her best youth was gone, but she did not have a husband—not only did she not have a husband to accompany her, she did not even have a message, she did not know whether he was dead or alive.
Eighteen years later, he suddenly returned. She had missed the opportunity to procreate—in that time, women in their forties were no longer very likely to have children. He deprived her of the right to be a wife and a mother.
And that's not all. Xue Pinggui also married Princess Daizhan, a "young, powerful" woman, beautiful, capable, and backstage.
An old wife, a concubine who is prosperous. Isn't this combination a bit familiar? In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jiaoxing married Jia Yucun, "only one year gave birth to a son, and half a year, Yucun's wife suddenly fell ill and died", in "Golden Bottle Plum", Chunmei married Zhou Shoubei, and the grandmother was "blind at a glance, eating long fasting and reciting Buddha, regardless of idle things", and also died shortly after Chunmei gave birth.
In addition to the Taoism like Jia Zheng, who loves Aunt Zhao, and also the wife is a wife, the concubine is a concubine, which cannot be surpassed, and the other warriors such as Xue Pinggui, Jia Yucun, Zhou Shoubei, and the powerful and capable concubines in the families of the nouveau riche are always a bit "Lingshang", forming a strong psychological oppression on the half-old wife.
As a result, Jia Yucun's wife died quickly, Zhou Shoubei's grandmother died quickly, and Wang Baojun couldn't stay up for long.