The daughter Zhong Lingyuxiu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", in addition to the master girl of Jia Fu, even those who have a very outstanding beard, such as Qingwen, Purple Crane, Mandarin Duck and so on. Not to mention those big guys, but those little guys inside, they also have their own mood and distinct personalities. The little girls are also a rather large group, and we will only talk about a few of them with the word "small" in their names today.
1. Small cicadas: Cicadas chirp in summer but autumn
Little Cicada, also known as "Cicada Sister", is the granddaughter of Xia Baozi, whose appearance is unknown and whose age is unknown.
She works as an errand boy in the three girls' spring room, and is a little girl who is responsible for cleaning the yard, buying things and calling people. She maintains a good interactive relationship with the girls in the Spring House, and the girls are good to her. She has a hot temperament and sharp words, but she is incompatible with small dramas such as Fang Guan.
She only appeared once in her sixtieth appearance, but she played a role in threading the needle and fueling the waves. Because she is the granddaughter of Xia Pozi, Xia Pozi is the dry bride of the little dramatist, and the relationship between the little drama and the "dry niang" is very tense, so Xiao Cicada is hated and jealous of these little dramatists.
That time, it happened that Ai Guan secretly told Xia Baozi to provoke Aunt Zhao at the Spring Exploration Place, and was seen by Cui Mo, the big man who was exploring spring, and told Xiao Cicada. Xiao Cicada immediately went to tell Xia Pozi that xia po zi was guarding against the Ai officials. Xiao Cicada's "one line of scolding, one line of saying", it can be seen that she and her old wife Xia Pozi are united front, disgusted and hostile to the little dramatists.
The little cicada is different from the spring swallow. Although Chunyan is the daughter of He Pozi and the niece of Xia Pozi, she is a "colleague" with Fangguan, and she sympathizes with Fangguan and is willing to accept Baoyu's entrustment and take care of Fangguan, so that she is beaten by her mother. After all, Xiao Cicada is still young, and he only cares about the arrogance of the Fang officials and will not understand their pain. However, she is also very clever, and she prevents Xia Bazi from going to confront Ai Guan and find Tan Chun to "sue for injustice", and only advises the old woman to "guard against it".
How can just a breath of evil go out? At this time, Fangguan appeared. Fang Guan jokingly said that he wanted to eat Xiao Cicada's newly bought hot cake, and Xiao Cicada took the cake with one hand and said, "This is what people bought, and you are still rare in this." Xiao Cicada was right, this cake was indeed an errand she took, and it was Cui Mo who asked her to buy it." FangGuan lived a life of pampering in Yihong Courtyard, and he was flattered by Liu's sister-in-law, and this piece of cake was really not rare. However, Fang Guan was young, and she was also a pampered and arrogant frivolous girl, and when she saw that Xiao Cicada was not inferior, she did not shy away from it, but she lifted the cake given to her by Liu Sister-in-law to Xiao Cicada's face, smashed the birds and finches to play, and made Xiao Cicada angry.
The two young girls who have always had grievances are also slaves, Xiao Cicada is a son of the family, the whole family is here, it is not like FangGuan left his hometown and was alone; but Fangguan was pampered and habitual in Yihong Courtyard because of Baoyu's appreciation and pity, and Xiao Cicada could only do the rough work of cleaning the yard in Qiu Shuangzhai. They looked at each other unfavorably, and Xiao Cicada was jealous of Fang Guan, "I can compare to you", which is quite a bit sentimental. And Fang Guan was at that time when the spring breeze was triumphant, how could he put such a rough little mane as Xiao Cicada in his eyes? In the Yihong Courtyard, even the raiders treated her leniently, and even Qingwen brushed her hair--without him, only because of Baoyu's preference for her.
Xiao Cicada, such a low-level little girl, was doomed to take no advantage of Bao Yu's playmate Fang Guan in a quarrel, so Xiao Cicada "did not dare to talk about her very much." However, the quarrel between Xiao Cicada and Fang Guan has already put the contradiction on the surface, and this huge contradiction is about to erupt. The tit-for-tat confrontation between the little cicada and the "small intentions and courtesy" of the kitchen head Liu's sister-in-law are mutually contrasted, which is also the author's worldly sigh.
However, even the right and wrong of these small people at the bottom of Jia Fu, their grievances and hatreds, eventually ended up empty. Fang Guan was expelled, Liu Sister-in-law lost her beloved daughter, and where will Xiao Cicada go? Cicadas, working hard underground for years, but only one summer of splendor, how short-lived? Does the author give Xiao Cicada such a name, does it also hint at her fate?
Second, the little magpie, the little auspicious child: it is difficult to find a slave under the slave
Xiao Que and Xiao Jixiang are both Aunt Zhao's servants. According to the example, the aunt has two or two silver monthly money a month and two small maidens to summon. Once, my aunt's maid took a hanging of money a month, but later she was cut in half and turned into five hundred dollars. For this reason, Aunt Zhao once complained. Madame Wang asked about this matter, and Sister Feng pushed it clean, saying only that it was discussed outside, and it had nothing to do with her, and she only did things according to the rules. A big Jia Fu must cut off half of the monthly money of the aunt and the maid, which sounds strange. I would rather believe that Sister Feng did it on purpose, only because Sister Feng and Aunt Zhao had a bad relationship.
Aunt Zhao's life is poor, and the days of her two little girls can be imagined. Bao Yu's grandmother's brother Li Gui complained that people followed the master and earned some good decency, and we were scolded in vain. Although Li Gui said so, in fact, as Baoyu's retinue, whether it was decency or reward, it must be indispensable. Li Gui was scolded by Jia Zheng, and by the way persuaded Bao Yu to obey, his words should not be true. The one who really deserves to be the most bitter is afraid that Aunt Zhao's maid is not wrong.
Aunt Zhao's little magpie only appeared once, that is, when everyone in Yihong Courtyard was going to sleep, she came to report the letter and let Bao Yu guard against it. When Aunt Zhao asked Jia Zheng to ask Jia Huan for Cai Xia to be the person in the house, she mentioned that Bao Yu had already had people in the house for "two years", which was heard by Xiao Que and rushed to report to Bao Yu.
The people in the Baoyu House were all very familiar with her, and it seemed that it was not the first time that she had reported the letter. Just as Aunt Zhao wrapped up Lady Wang's lady Caixia and Caiyun, she secretly thought that the big lady of Yihong Courtyard would definitely also envelop the little lady and the little magpie. Xiao Que is not very old, Aunt Zhao is mean, her errands must be bad, plus around Aunt Zhao, I am afraid that even the reward is very limited, only the meager five hundred dollars of monthly money, it is not as good as the third-class little girl in the Yihong Courtyard.
In this case, the little magpie must be easily "bought". If she took advantage of her position and paid attention to providing some "information" to Baoyu, the big lady and Lady Wang of the Yihong Courtyard would definitely read her good children, and she would definitely get some rewards in private.
Xiao Jixiang'er appeared in the chat between The Snow Goose and the Purple Crane and Daiyu. The cause was that Aunt Zhao's brother Zhao Guoji died, and Aunt Zhao wanted to take her to the funeral, but borrowed a white coat from The Snow Goose to wear for Xiao Jixiang. Xueyan has her own ideas and plans, she believes that Aunt Zhao has no contact with her own girls, has no intersection, and borrowing pants is to take advantage, so she politely refused.
The snow goose was brought by Dai Yu from home, although it was occupied by the purple crane latecomers, but in the end it was Dai Yu who taught the beard, she immediately thought that this kind of homely clothing, Xiao Jixiang could not be without, only Aunt Zhao was afraid of getting dirty before she wanted to borrow someone else's wear. Even a piece of clothing was reluctant to wear out, which showed how poor Aunt Zhao and her little maid lived!
The "magpie" of the little magpie means magpie, which means good luck and blessing. The little auspicious child expressed the master's yearning for auspiciousness and happiness even more bluntly. In the names of Aunt Zhao's two little maidens, there is a hidden expectation and yearning for Life of Aunt Zhao. However, this good wish still became a bubble, and Aunt Zhao's heart was not right, and she eventually became a "yin and contemptuous" and a "foolish concubine" who could not be on the table. And her two little maidens, who also called these two auspicious names, did not bring her a little more blessing.
Third, the small house: up and down the heavens and the earth abandoned
Xiao She'er is a rough little girl that Xia Jingui brought from her mother's house. It is very strange that such a little girl, the author introduced her fatherless and motherless life, but also pointed out the reason for her name: "Xiao She'er", an abandoned child abandoned by heaven and earth and her parents, who was guarded by people. How similar to Xiangling in its thin life! Also helpless, rubbed by others, involuntary, Xiao She'er in the Xia Jingui family may not have suffered much, after all, the Guihua Xia family, even the word "osmanthus flower" is taboo, in case the call is wrong, the master girl must be severely punished.
Now, Xia Jingui asked Xiao She'er to do an errand to tell her to go to the house to get a handkerchief, and not to let her say the truth, but to be uneasy and kind, so that such an insignificant little girl became cannon fodder, and inadvertently became Xiang Ling's pusher who was bent by the greedy man's stick, how ironic! Xiang Ling's life is similar to it, since childhood was abducted and sold, her parents' hometown was forgotten, just like the duckweed on the water, drifting and helpless, after being robbed by Xue Pan, she was poisoned by Xia Jingui, and its thin life made people can't help but sigh.
The same fallen person at the end of the world, Xiang Ling's tragic fate should be added to this stroke with the same tragic little house, which undoubtedly aggravates her tragic meaning.
Fourth, Xiaohong: If you have the heart, you can also compete for the top
Although Xiaohong is called Xiaohong, its original name is Red Jade.
Xiaohong is the daughter of Lin Zhixiao. Lin Zhixiao is the grand steward of the Rongguo Mansion, and the power of the butler cannot be underestimated. If nothing else, just look at the power of the Lai family. Grandma Lai's family, as the housekeepers and servants of Jia Province, have donated officials to their grandson Lai Shangrong, and have invited guests to celebrate with great fanfare. Lin Zhixiao and his wife are already high-ranking in the management class of Jia Province, but the two have a low profile of "deaf and dumb", so that they "buried" their daughters in Yihong Courtyard as third-class little girls, and even Sister Feng did not know that they had such an excellent daughter.
It is believed that the reason why Lin Zhixiao and his wife did this was probably because they saw the benefit of Yihong Courtyard's yakuza being "released" in the future, that is, they hoped that their daughter would one day be like Lai Shangrong and get rid of slavery. And this, in Yihong Courtyard is an easy thing to do. Chun Yan personally told her mother He Pozi about this "benefit", and He Pozi was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth. I also think that Lin Zhixiao and his wife must love their daughter very much, so they named it "Hongyu". "Jade", and firm and expensive, "red", is also a symbol of the daughter, from a name, we read the parents' love and cherish for their daughters.
However, because he entered the Yihong Courtyard, Hongyu and Baoyu and Daiyu regained their names, so they were changed their names and only called "Xiaohong". The name "Xiaohong" is also a clear proof of her "huaicai does not meet". XiaoHong was born sweet and beautiful, with a delicate figure, good hair of black crows and crows, quite a bit of color, and articulate, able to speak the Tao, even Baoyu's first sight was moved, and he wanted to call up to do fine work.
However, in the huge Yihong Courtyard, the talented and beautiful Xiaohong did not have a day to emerge, and she and Jiahui, Xiang'er and other little girls were counted in a waiting, "can't go up". Her parents probably wanted her to be obscure in Yihong Courtyard, only to wait until she was old enough to let her marry herself, and the big guys above her were "wary" of her one by one, and they said evil words to each other, lest she exploit the loophole and join their ranks. In this situation, Xiaohong was inevitably discouraged and issued a sigh of "thousands of miles to build a pergola".
However, although Xiaohong is named "Xiaohong", she has always been a girl with pursuits and ideals, not only by virtue of her own talents to get the appreciation and promotion of Sister Feng, but even in the Jia Mansion where men and women are very strictly guarded, she and the young master Jia Yun of the collateral department have fallen in love. To borrow a poem from Xiangling, "it is difficult for the essence to cover up the material", Xiaohong's talent cannot be lost in the "small" word after all.
Author: Du Ruo, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber.