author
Cloud Ice Lotus
In feudal society, it was not uncommon for wives and concubines to fight for wind and jealousy and even murder people. Many literary works have written about the dispute between wives and concubines in a colorful and outrageous manner. For example, in "Dream of the Red Chamber", Wang Xifeng borrowed a sword to kill people and killed You Erjie; in "The Marriage of two worlds", the concubine Zhen Ge killed his wife Ji Shi; in "Yutang Spring Fall and Difficult To Meet a Husband", the zheng wife Pi Shi poisoned her husband to marry the concubine; Pan Jinlian in "Jin Ping Mei" designed to kill Li Zhen'er.
Compared with these tragedies, "Chatting with Zhiyi Hengniang" is unique, containing wisdom and philosophy, and does not kill people.
At the beginning of the novel, Pu Songling points out that Zhu Shi, the wife of Hong Daye, a native of Beijing, is very beautiful. Originally, the husband and wife were in love with each other. However, after the husband married the concubine Baodai, who was "far inferior to Zhu", the life of the right wife Zhu changed. Hong Daye was obviously more fond of concubines. Zhu Shi was naturally unhappy, he looked more beautiful but was treated coldly, and the husband and wife were even more estranged after several quarrels.
Soon, Hong Daye moved. The neighbor Di shang also has a wife and a concubine, and his wife Hengniang is already in her thirties and has a general posture; the concubine is in her twenties, "very good", and looks very beautiful.
It is reasonable to say that the concubine should be far more favored than Hengniang. But in fact, it is quite the opposite. Pu Songling said in the original text:
Di Du loves Heng Niang, and the deputy room is just a virtual member.
This puzzled Zhu Shi. She thought that her husbands loved concubines, and she deeply felt that her wives were inferior to concubines, and she hated not being able to "call her a concubine in the name of a change of wife." She asked Hengniang for advice, and Hengniang smiled and said:
The son is self-neglecting, and the man is especially manly?
It was you yourself who alienated him, how can you blame your husband?
She pointed out that the Zhu clan's noise all day long is equivalent to driving fish for the yuan and birds for the bush, and she pushes her husband to the side of the concubine.
In order to make the Zhu clan regain favor, Hengniang taught the Zhu clan to grasp the psychology of men who "like the new and dislike the old" and "are difficult and easy". In the first month, let the husband and concubine fly both, and they must behave very virtuously and generously, and not noisy or noisy. In this way, the husband will lose the freshness of the concubine, and then, want to return to his wife.
The next month, Hengniang taught Zhu to "turn old into new", and this month she changed out of her previously gorgeous clothes, did not wear makeup, and wore coarse cloth clothes like servants, spinning and weaving. On the last day of the month, I changed into new clothes and dressed up in a radiant and new look.
Zhu's spinning thread weaving, Hong Daye saw that it was still a little distressed, several times let Bao bring to help, Zhu shi refused. When Zhu Shi was dressed in fashion and dressed up in a new way, Hong Daye was really hooked and went to his wife's room.
Zhu Shi obeyed hengniang's teachings, cold as frost, and wanted to take advantage of the situation and turn her husband away. Hong Daye was "difficult and easy", and sure enough, he did not die, and two days after being rejected, Hong Daye waited in his wife's room just to the west of the sun on the third day, and treated his wife "like a bride" at night.
In order to make Zhu Shi long-lasting favor, Hengniang taught her to learn to be charming. Zhu Shi "although beautiful, not charming". Her beauty is dignified beauty, not feminine. She herself should be more serious, Hengniang taught her to learn to "send a baby in autumn waves", like Bai Juyi's "Long Hate Song":
Looking back at a smile, the six palaces are colorless.
Charming helps to spoil the special room. Hengniang also taught the Zhu family to learn to laugh, and women in the feudal era should laugh without showing their teeth and not moving their skirts. Therefore, you can't laugh and grasp the scale. HengNiang taught her to "shine a sharp dew". This sentence is from the Book of Poetry, Wei Feng Shuoren:
The collar is like a cockroach, and the teeth are like a rhinoceros.
Hengniang taught Zhu Shi yan to smile and slightly expose a row of neat and white teeth through demonstrations, and Zhu shi imitated it dozens of times before it was slightly similar to Heng Niang's demonstration.
At the same time, Hengniang also taught the Zhu family to be spontaneous to her husband and do what he liked. Zhu Shi followed the plan and made her husband more infatuated.
Zhu Shi successfully defeated the treasure belt, and she also appeared very generous:
The treasure belt of goodness and goodness, the feast in each room, the call and the sitting together.
She was even more kind to BaoDai, and every time she held a banquet in the room, she would be asked to come and sit on the same bed. However, Hong Daye felt that baodai was getting uglier and uglier the more he looked, and he let her leave without waiting for the wine to finish.
Treasure Belt, who is alienated by Hong Daye, resentful and complains and curses people. Hong Daye hated her even more. Bao Dai simply gave up on himself and did not trim the edges, and Hong Daye actually "gradually whipped" her, who was once very pampered. In this seemingly smokeless war, Bao Belt was defeated.
Putting herself in her shoes, baodai and the concubines of the Di surnamed Shang were very pitiful, the position of the di family's concubines was useless, and her husband did not love her; baodai went from being favored and alienated to being whipped, which was very pitiful. The status of concubines in ancient times was already low, and it was even more desolate not to be favored.
And Chu's victory may not be long-lasting. "Zhu" means red, and Zhu Yan is red. Youth is easy to pass away, red face is easy to age. "The most is that the human world cannot be retained, Zhu Yan ci mirror flower ci tree", Zhu Shi's beauty naturally can not last long, people will inevitably grow old and fade.
"When can Israel do good things to others?" The husband's favor will disappear with zhu Yan's change. If Hong Daye had taken in a younger and more beautiful concubine who was also good at charms, Zhu Clan would inevitably be treated coldly again.
Hengniang taught zhu to "shine a sharp edge", which was born out of the "Book of Poetry", and the beautiful and virtuous Zhuang Jiang described in the original poem was not favored, which also foreshadowed the ultimate fate of the Zhu clan.
Pu Songling called her Zhu Shi, and also implied that her victory was only temporary. This is a female tragedy under the feudal era of the wife and concubine system. The Zhu clan defeated the treasure belt, but may not be able to defeat the other concubines.
At the end, Pu Songling reveals the identity of Hengniang.
A few years later, Hengniang told Zhu that she was a fox girl and was leaving. Fox immortals are different from mortals, and most of the fox spirits in Pu Songling's pen are "charming", gentle and kind, talented, insightful, perseverance and bravery, intelligent and cunning.
The Hengniang in the text is also very good to her husband and concubines, although she is not very beautiful, she is very smart and attractive. Pu Songling named her Hengniang, which means eternal beauty. However, such an eternal beauty does not exist in the human world. As a result, her ending is suddenly missing. This also predicts that Zhu's regain of favor is only a flash in the pan and will not be eternal.
Hengniang's departure is similar to several fox fairy spirits (such as Xiao Cui, Fox Concubine, Xin Fourteen Niang, Flower Girl, Lotus Three Niangzi, etc.) in other stories of "Liaozhai Zhiyi", and when the dust is full, they will leave, which also means that Hengniang cannot be retained in the human world.
Although the method taught in the story of "Heng Niang" is not a long-term solution, it also has a certain truth. Nowadays, whether in the workplace or in life, beauty is not the only capital for women. To be happy forever, you need to enhance your own connotation, be kind to others, be empathetic, constantly innovate, and maintain a unique charm.
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