Lin Daiyu said that Jia Baoyu was a "silver pewter gun head", and duo girl said that Jia Baoyu was a "myrrh cannonball". These two metaphors express the same meaning - Jia Baoyu is not useful, on the surface it is shiny and slippery, pleasing to the eye, but in fact there is nothing to use.
And many details in "Dream of the Red Chamber" seem to be supporting Lin Daiyu and Many girls' evaluation of Jia Baoyu again and again.
When the servant Jin Jun'er was slapped out by Madame Wang for laughing with Jia Baoyu, Jia Baoyu "had already run away with a cigarette"; when Qingwen was thrown out of the Grand View Garden by Lady Wang, Jia Baoyu was also silent, and respectfully followed Lady Wang and sent her out of the Grand View Garden.
The beating of Jin Jun'er and Qingwen, and the subsequent death, Jia Baoyu can not be said to be sad. On Wang Xifeng's birthday, he once ran to the suburban Shuixian Nunnery to worship Jin Jun'er, and once wrote a very long sacrifice to pay homage to Qingwen in front of the hibiscus flowers in the Grand View Garden. In particular, Qingwen's death made Jia Baoyu sad and even seriously ill.
But it was painful to be sad, Jia Baoyu did not do anything to solve the problem for these two unfortunate girls who were unfortunate because of themselves. No matter how beautifully the sacrifice text is written, no matter how sincere the sacrifice is, it cannot bring these two girls back to life. What is such a Jia Baoyu not a "silver pewter gun head"?
Therefore, this can't help but remind us of a question: If Lin Daiyu encounters any trouble, can Jia Baoyu protect Lin Daiyu?
After all, Lin Daiyu is an orphan girl who has no one to rely on. In the words of the purple crane, "The old lady is still good in a day, and if the old lady is gone, the girl will have to rely on others to bully." In the great Jia Mansion, there are actually only two people who really care about Lin Daiyu, one is Jia Mu and the other is Jia Baoyu. Jia Mu is already old, and one day she will have to drive the crane west. If there is no Jia Mu, can Jia Baoyu become Lin Daiyu's protector, and don't let Lin Daiyu live a life of "relying on people to bully"?
In fact, what Ping'er once said really revealed some truths after eighty times - Lin Daiyu was tragically poisoned, and in order to protect Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu did his best.
"This spring, the old man (Jia Yu) did not know where to see a few old fans, went home to see that all the good fans collected in the house were not used, and immediately asked people to search everywhere. Who knows that there is a wrongdoer who does not know how to die, surnamed Shi, nicknamed 'Stone Nerd', who is so poor that he does not even have to eat, but there are twenty old fans in his family... It's all Xiangfei, brown bamboo, elk, jade bamboo... The stone nerd said, 'I will not sell a thousand taels of silver to death, to death of starvation and freezing to death!' ’......”
Ping'er's words were about Jia Yu buying twenty old fans in Shi Nerd's family, and Shi Nerd would rather die than sell. So, what is the relationship between this matter and Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu?
In fact, it is obvious that this is a very cryptic metaphor for the author. The so-called "stone nerd" is actually Jia Baoyu, because Jia Baoyu's psychic jade is actually a stone left over from Nüwa Tiantian, and he is often called "nerd"; and those precious ancient fans are made of the finest bamboo, which also symbolizes the Xiaoxiang Pavilion planted all over the bamboo, alluding to Lin Daiyu.
Therefore, shi nerds were forced to sell ancient fans, in fact, Lin Daiyu was poisoned, was hit by the magnates, and was forced to kiss, and Jia Baoyu desperately wanted to protect Lin Daiyu. Sadly, the arms can't twist the thighs, and the decaying Jia family is not the opponent of the magnates at all.
Jia Yucun framed Shi Nerd for defaulting on Guan Yin, "taking it to the Yamen, not knowing whether he is dead or alive", which is actually the biggest ordeal in Jia Baoyu's life. In order to protect Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu did his best.
This story is the biggest tragedy in "Dream of the Red Chamber". Afterwards, the heroine Lin Daiyu was humiliated and died; the male protagonist Jia Baoyu, for the sake of Lin Sister, was tortured and died nine times.
Although in the first eighty times of "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jia Baoyu behaved like a "silver pewter gun head" everywhere, like a "myrrh cannon battle", but in fact, the real Jia Baoyu was not like this. Eighty times after Jia Baoyu, in order to protect Lin Daiyu, also tried his best, Ping'er's story, is the saddest truth, sad.