Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", when Lin Daiyu entered the Rongguo Mansion on the first day, she used "foreign objects" to allude to and foreshadow the personality of the Jia family. For example, the birds under the eaves of Jia Mu's corridor, Wang Xifeng's people have not yet arrived, the "Wen Wang Ding Spoon Incense Box and Ru Kiln Beauty Yao" in Jia Zheng and Lady Wang's room, and the concubines in Jia Zheng's room are gathered. In contrast, the "metaphor" of the eldest uncle, Mrs. Xing, is more special, and it is easy to be ignored if you pay little attention.
Jia Mu instructed her mother-in-law to take Lin Daiyu to see her two uncles, and Lady Xing stood up and returned to Jia Mu, saying that she would personally take her niece back to see Jia Yu, jia mu felt that this was more appropriate, so she went home directly without coming again. The third time in the original book is written:
Lady Xing agreed to a "yes" word, so she took Daiyu and Lady Wang to make a speech, and everyone sent them to the front of the hall. Out of the weeping flower gate, many small squatters had already pulled a green glazed car. Lady Xing took Daiyu and sat on it, and the wives lowered the curtains, and Fang ordered the boys to lift up and pull them to a wide place, and Fang rode on the mule, and also went out of the West Point Gate, and went east through the main gate of Rong Province, and then entered a black oil gate and came down in front of the Yi Gate.
In this description of Lady Xing leading Daiyu out, there is Cao Xueqin's "metaphor" about Lady Xing, and it should be noted that the car that Lady Xing is riding here is not a horse-drawn carriage, but a "mule taming" pulling car. Mules are both like horses and donkeys, with the advantage of being hard-working, endurance for a long time, growing as tall as a horse, but they can work harder than donkeys, and the disadvantage is that they cannot have children.
Lady Xing is Jia Yu's house filler, although she is also the eldest wife of Rong Guofu, the hereditary first-class knighthood lady, but she is the continuation of Jia Amnesty in the end, and the mother's family has long been defeated and cannot be relied on. The key is that Lady Xing has no confidence without childbearing, and Jia Huan's three children, Jia Lian, Jia Yingchun and Jia Chun, are not born of her, so that Lady Xing cannot stand up straight in front of Jia Amnesty, and also decides that her status in the family is inferior.
The taming word for "tame mule" means that Lady Xing obeyed Jia's words and never disobeyed. Cao Xueqin borrowed the "tamed mule" to describe Lady Xing's inability to have children and was too obedient, and the irony was extremely spicy. The slightly inferior image of Lady Xing was "jumped on the paper" at the beginning.