Audio of this article: What secrets are hidden in the old monk of the Dragon Bell of Zhitong Temple?
After Jia Yucun was deposed, he went to Lin Mansion to be a Xibin and became Lin Daiyu's teacher, and Daiyu did not go to school for a while due to his frailty and illness, coupled with the death of his mother, Jia Yucun had kung fu to hang around.
One day, Jia Yucun wanted to enjoy the scenery of the village, so he mistakenly entered the Zhitong Temple hidden in the depths of the Mao forest. This Zhitong Temple", "the doors and alleys are decaying, the walls are decaying", there is an old monk with a dragon bell cooking porridge in the temple, this monk is also "deaf and faint, his teeth are dull, and his answers are not what he asks." ”
It seemed that this was a long-abandoned and dilapidated temple, without incense, and the old monk may have been a beggar who lived in the temple, or the other monks in the temple had moved to other temples, but he had voluntarily stayed because of his old age.
Just such a dilapidated scene, such a deaf and dim old monk, Cao Gong sketched a few strokes, let him appear in the eyes of Jia Yucun, is it just the needs of the plot? Or is it something else?
Of course, this is not a general stroke, just look at the couplet on the temple door, you can see that there is a deep meaning.
The couplet is "there is a forgotten hand behind you, and there is no way to turn back." Even Jia Yu Village, who has traveled a lot, has never seen this, thinking that "one of them has turned over the tendons and is not known." ”
But what Jia Yucun did not expect was that this old monk did not seem to be a high-ranking monk, so Jia Yucun did not care, asked him two sentences, but also answered the question, so he was a little impatient and came out.
Is this old monk really a dimwitted man? Of course not. It's just that a layman in Jia Yu Village who is bent on making a name for himself can understand the mysteries of it? Therefore, Li Yanzhai said many times, "It is the fire of the rain village." ”
What is "fire gas"? Even if there are three fires of greed and anger, and there are worldly desires full of eyes, he naturally can't see through the deep meaning. And the old monk, who looked like his teeth were blunt, was really a tall man who had turned over his muscles, and the so-called teeth and blunt tongue were deaf and faint, just an illusion of a stinky skin bag.
Just like Jin Yong's sweeping monk, who would have thought that this least noticeable sweeping monk was the monk who was really strong in martial arts and great wisdom hidden in the Tibetan Scripture Cabinet of the Shaolin Temple?
Therefore, don't look at the Zhitong Temple, a desolate place that is so simple that it is less than a hundred words, but The Fat Yan Zhai has made a lot of ink annotations, and through the Fat Yan Zhai Criticism, we can also glimpse the deep meaning of this.
After all, Yucun is still a common eye, and can only recognize Ah Feng, Bao Yu, Dai Yu and other unenlightened first, but not after the evidence. What does this mean? That is to say, Jia Yucun was a layman, and he knew Wang Xifeng, Jia Baoyu, Dai Yu and other people in the world, but he did not know their true faces after the robbery.
Further, we can say that this old monk is the embodiment of the people in the dream of the Red Chamber represented by FengJie Baoyu daiyu and others after the completion of the robbery, or the flesh they left in the secular world after the completion of the red dust crossing.
Jia Yucun couldn't see that it was too normal, don't say him, Jia Baoyu would not be able to see it when he arrived here. When he wandered too illusory, he saw the twelve pamphlets, and the police fairy tried his best to warn him of his infatuation, but he still didn't have an epiphany? How many people in the world can see themselves many years later?
It can only be said that the hour has not yet arrived, just like the lyrics sing, you and I are mortal, born in the world. Although Bao Yu and others are not mortals, but they have fallen into the red dust and crossed the robbery, naturally they are also mortals with naked eyes, and without experiencing a personnel affair, how can he "break the rouge array and sit through the red pink pass"? What's more, Jia Yu Village, who has not really entered the career at this time?
Therefore, Li Yanzhai said that before going out of ningrong and prosperity, he first wrote a desolate and small place; he did not write that the whole part of the world was charming, but first wrote a life of awakening; the wind and snow, the reverse wave of the hero, and the other methods that were not in the novel. This means that Cao Gong gave the world a stick to drink before he wrote about the real rich red dust represented by Ning Rong.
This is equivalent to flashbacks in the way of writing novels, which is also a major style created by the Dream of the Red Chamber, the story has not yet opened, first tell you the ending. But you will still look at it, because ordinary people like you and me, without experiencing the dust, you never know why this is the end.
Jia Yucun saw that the old monk was deaf and dim, but he did not know that the old monk was the awakened person who had turned over the tendons, the real tall man of the Tongbu Red Chamber, and he was the one who was really lost in the red dust, but unfortunately Jia Yucun had not woken up until the shackles were carried.
Of course, for this old monk of the Dragon Bell, we can also look at it from a different perspective. The Dream of the Red Chamber writes dreams, and this Zhitong Temple that Jia Yucun accidentally bumped into is also a kind of illusion? That is to say, the next time he came back, he would never find this desolate place again.
Was that old monk of the Dragon Bell Jia Baoyu in his later years, or Zhen Shiyin, a monk, or a leprous monk or a lame Daoist who was transformed into a cripple, just to warn the world?
Author: Xi Si Shao, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber.