The Economic | of the Red Chamber: A List of The Wealth of Jia Province

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The author is a researcher at the China Academy of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Some of this article has been deleted.

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Zhang Qi

Cao Xueqin is a literary giant who cherishes ink and gold, but "Dream of the Red Chamber" uses nearly three and a half chapters to write the plot of the rural village woman Liu Grandma going to Jia Fu to "fight the autumn wind". If you think that these depictions are idle writings that wander away from the rise and fall of Jia Fu, then the value and significance of the character of Liu Grandma are too superficial.

In terms of literary techniques, this is a contrast between Jia Fu and the countryside, a contrast between the "Zhumen Dahu" and the "Chaimen Burrow", and a contrast between the Prince Wang Sun and the Old Man of Tian Yuye, which greatly expands the capacity and depth of the novel. From the perspective of economic life, this plot writes about the wealth of Jia Fu and the soil and roots of its wealth.

Wealth and luxury are difficult to highlight without a frame of reference. "Dream of the Red Chamber" found an elderly old woman Liu Grandma who had some origins and climbs with rongguofu in the countryside on the outskirts of the city, which was very helpful for us to understand the living conditions of the low-level people in the early Qing Dynasty and the difference between rich and poor.

Grandma Liu had no heirs under her knees and relied on her son-in-law to receive her family to live. The son-in-law's family only has two acres of thin land. Poor and frightened, in order not to drag her son-in-law down, she thought hard and meditated, and found that she had some ties with her son-in-law's family, a high-gate family that had some ties with her son-in-law's family, climbed relatives and walked around, called walking around, which was actually "fighting the autumn wind".

The first time Liu Grandma returned to the Rongguo Mansion was to recognize the door and the people, especially Wang Xifeng, the great housekeeper of the Rongguo Mansion (Wang Xifeng's grandfather had recognized the grandfather of Liu's son-in-law as a nephew and even as a fellow emperor).

Before leaving, Wang Xifeng gave her twenty-two pieces of silver and a hanging of money. The gift is neither light nor heavy, but it is a little greeting gift for the elderly relatives who have not walked for a long time. According to Wang Xifeng's words, don't look at the appearance of the palace, in fact, there are great difficulties. But Grandma Liu thought in her heart: Jia Fu plucked a hair thicker than her own thigh. This is actually nothing, and it is still some distance from my expectations!

Grandma Liu came to Rongguo Mansion for the second time, and it was the autumn harvest season. She led her grandson Ban'er and brought some fruits, vegetables and vegetables produced in her own garden—especially the big gourd (that is, the pumpkin that people often eat nowadays)—and made the girls and ladies in Jia Fu look dumbfounded.

This time into Jia Province, Grandma Liu spent three days of work and visited the Grand View Garden. And the Grand View Garden was like the Golden Ruan Hall where the emperor lived.

In Jia Province, what is the most memorable and incomprehensible thing for Grandma Liu? It was a dish eaten at Jia Mu Zhang Luo's feast, which was an "eggplant carp" marinated and dried with the soup of more than a dozen chickens, and how many manpower and material resources were attached to it.

Grandma Liu couldn't figure it out, could the people in Jia Province make sense? This was the economic life of the rich and noble at that time, and it was also the most grotesque place in the economic life of many rich and noble families!

Regarding the complexity of the preparation of the dish "eggplant carp" and the high cost, there is a detailed account of the forty-first time in the book, "Li Cui An Tea Plum Blossom Snow Yi HongYuan Robbery Encounter with Female Locusts".

The banquet that received Grandma Liu, from the point of view of etiquette, should be the highest figure in Jia Province, Jia Mu, who invited guests, and Wang Xifeng was only the main escort and xiangli. In the face of Grandma Liu's taste of the "eggplant carp" food and a look of doubt, Wang Xifeng made a careful explanation and explanation:

"It's not difficult either. You put the eggplant that has just come down to the skin, as long as the meat is cleaned, cut into nails, fried in chicken oil, and then with chicken breast meat and fragrant mushrooms, new shoots, mushrooms, spiced dried rot, all kinds of dried fruits, all kinds of dried fruits, all cut into nails, take the chicken soup simmered, the sesame oil is collected, plus bad oil is mixed, sealed in a porcelain jar, when you want to eat, take it out, use the fried chicken melon to mix. ”

The old woman in the countryside, Grandma Liu, had never heard of it, and she had never seen the original eggplant and the way to do this and eat it, so:

Shaking his head, he said, "My Buddha! Pour a dozen chickens to match him, strange taste! "

The plot arrangement of Liu Grandma's entry into Jia Mansion is unique. In addition to the contrast between "poor" and "rich", the contrast between "noble" and "humble", the origin and change of "poor" and "rich" are excavated more deeply, and the dialectical unity relationship between "noble" and "humble" is excavated, that is, there is a "humble" side in "noble", and "humble" people also have their own "noble" places.

More importantly, it establishes a coordinate façade for the social class in which Jia Fu is located, and installs a "probe" marked with specific orientations for the various economic relations corresponding to Jia Province.

Grandma Liu and Mother Jia are similar in age, and they are both "jigu" people. Both of them are full of children and grandchildren, three generations and four generations of people in the same house, but in the eyes of the world, one is rich and noble, and the other is a bean and a little grass, and the other is bitter.

But where do you know that the old feudal lord who is well-bred and well-treated often eats dishes such as "eggplant carp", but always wants to "eat the melon vegetables freshly picked in the field". The grandson who always thought of leading his clothes to Jia Mansion was timid, shy, and did not show up, but he did not know that another old grandmother did not know how many times he had added worries and sorrows to the grandchildren and granddaughters of the garden, and the things that were "not in a variety of ways", and then even said things like "it is not a wrongdoer and no gathering".

Yes, Jia Fu is the Great Shrine and the Feast. There is no shortage of dignitaries and nobles with heads and faces, female guests, but that is by "money", it is "silver" you come and go with me, years and years, years and years, how many "exchanges" and "transactions", a little careless, will lose the essence, and even destroy the family... This is what Grandma Liu didn't know and couldn't understand.

Just like although Jia Mu is used to listening to the messy silk bamboo and watching dazzling dances on weekdays, in fact, her old man's favorite is the local slang sound of green mountains and rivers, such as the phrase "the flowers have a big melon" She can't get tired of listening to it.

This is the mutual incompatibility and dissatisfaction between "noble" and "humble".

Also, after Jia Mu's death, the men and women in the house, all the people, died, crazy madness, distribution distribution, prison imprisonment, the building collapsed, and the wind and clouds scattered. But at that time, Grandma Liu was still in her village, planting grass and planting vegetables, ordering beans and collecting melons, and her hands were not so tight, a small family, and Hemei, a prosperous faction.

When Si Shi, Wang Xifeng, the great housekeeper of Jia Province, died, leaving behind his helpless and unreliable daughter, Sister Qiao. Or did Grandma Liu take Sister Qiao back to her village, give her food, and clothe her, so that sister Qiao, who was "bitter", would not be sold into the kiln by "human teeth".

Isn't this the cycle and circulation of "rich" and "poor," the retribution and compensation of this world?

Let's go back to the plot of Liu Grandma's second entry into the Grand View Garden itself, this time Liu Grandma won more than the last time. Jia Mu, Lady Wang, Wang Xifeng and six other people gave her a total of 1082 silver and gifts, clothes, medicines, etc., equivalent to more than 300 silver (the author calculated according to the price of the Kangxi and Yongzheng years).

These three hundred and two pieces of silver, if Grandma Liu used to buy land, could buy forty or fifty acres of good land. At that time, an ordinary person maintained the most basic life, and he only needed five or two pieces of silver a year. These three hundred taels of silver are enough to protect the life of Grandma Liu's family of four for ten years.

The most surprising thing is that Grandma Liu also inadvertently got a kiln multicolored clay bell teacup from Li Cui'an. This little teacup is worth a lot. In the Ming Dynasty, the price of a pair of kiln cups was already 100,000 yuan. What's more, this small lid bell teacup has a unique style, a clear color, and a real color of mud gold. In the Qing Dynasty, the world is very rare, only the royal family has a small number of remains, and its value is really immeasurable!

Miao Yu gave Liu Grandma this teacup because Grandma Liu had used it to drink a few sips of tea, and she felt that the things used by this old woman in the countryside were too dirty. Bao Yu suggested that giving this precious little teacup that Miao Yu did not want anymore was somewhat sympathetic to the consciousness of the people from poor backgrounds at the bottom. Baoyu said:

"It is better to give it to the poor woman, and she can live by selling it."

Baoyu still has some vision. This priceless small teacup of kiln, if the king dog is good at drilling camps, I am afraid that half the street under the imperial city can also be bought.

The powerful and rich, as long as they give us what is left, when it is fresh, we will think that they have come to save us out of a human heart; but in their view we are not worth saving; our suffering, hunger, our emaciation, is like a list of their riches; our suffering is their blessing.

This is a line from Shakespeare's play Coriolanus, which is quoted here to illustrate the value of Liu Grandma, a village woman who walked into jia fupan's relatives.

Why did Cao Xueqin write this plot of Liu Grandma entering the Jia Mansion? Why did "Dream of the Red Chamber" include Liu Grandma in the "list" of Jia Fu's wealth?

Because, "Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden" has specimen value. It has not only profound socio-political metaphors, but also profound economic critical significance. In a sense, this plot provides us with a "key" to understanding the decline of Jia Fu and the economic decline of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, a "Dream of the Red Chamber" is by no means just a plot of Liu Grandma entering the Grand View Garden. Many small people and low-level personnel are like parentheses in the article, annotating and describing the economic foundation and living space of Jia Province.

Jia Fu is a large family, and it is necessary to pray for peace and auspiciousness during the four o'clock and eight festivals. On the twenty-ninth occasion, it is written that Jia Mu led a group of people to the Qingxu Temple to fight peace, and did not forget to "eat money" to the "poor" around the Qingxu Temple. Both Jia Mu and Zhang Daoshi deeply understood that without these poor people around them, their wealth and wealth would not be able to be discussed; without the peace of thousands of grass people outside Jia Province, the peace of a province would be difficult to maintain and last for a long time. This is why "Dream of the Red Chamber" is interspersed with the description of Jia Fu's "friendship with the beans" (the seventy-first time) and "throwing money and praying for blessings" (the fifty-third time).

Jha fu does not live in a vacuum, and is inextricably linked to society. The social and economic relations corresponding to the masters and slaves of Jia Fu are recorded and described in the big joints and big backs of "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Qin Keqing mourned and moved the Lingtie Sill Temple, and Bao Yu stayed with Xi Feng at the Mantou Temple not far from the Tie Si Temple. The book states:

(Baoyu) took the little squatters around and wandered around. Whatever the farmers used, they had never seen. When Baoyu saw a shovel, a shovel, a hoe, a plough, and other things, he was surprised, but he didn't know what it was and what its name was. Xiao Wei told the name one by one, explaining the original commission. Bao Yu listened, and sighed because he nodded: "Strange Dao ancient poetry said: 'Who knows the plate of Chinese food, the grains are hard', and it is for this reason." As he spoke, he went to a house again, only to see a spinning wheel on the kang, and Bao Yu asked the boys, "What is this?" The squatters told him again. When Bao Yu heard this, he came up and twisted it, making himself amused. I saw a village girl of about seventeen or eighteen years old running and shouting, "Don't move!" Bao Yu hurriedly threw away his hand and said with a smile, "Because I haven't seen this, I tried him." The girl said, "You guys will get this there, stand up, and I'll spin it with you." ”

Fifteenth time

This time also writes:

Wang'er prepared a reward and rewarded the village master, the village master, the village woman, and so on. Sister Feng didn't care, but when Baoyu watched carefully, there was no second lady in the inside (that is, the one who demonstrated the performance for Baoyu, the author's note). When he got into the car, he didn't go far when he came out, only to see the second lady holding his little brother in his arms and laughing with a few little girls. Bao Yu was eager to get out of the car and follow him, but it was expected that everyone would not rely on him, and he could not look at him with his eyes...

This plot meticulously describes the mentality of Baoyu, the noble prince of Jia Province. He rarely had access to the peasant family and the affairs of the peasant family. His curiosity and obsession with farm tools and performance has a profound meaning. Rich children who stretch out their hands and open their mouths to eat, such as Baoyu, although they also know to recite such aphorisms as "who knows the plate of Chinese food, the grains are hard", but only what they see with their own eyes, hear with their own ears, and practice it with their own eyes will be deeply beneficial!

In fact, this is exactly what the sons and sons of Jia Fu are missing, and it is also what Jia Zheng, Jia Amnesty, and Jia Jing, the "Lu Yin", are missing in the so-called "education" of their children.

In addition, in the book, Baoyu suddenly visits his own personal servant (in fact, the concubine that the government has reserved for Baoyu early, and Baoyu himself knows it) to attack people's homes; Baoyu rides a fast horse out of Jia Province to pay tribute to king Shuishui's concubine of King Jing of Beijing; Baoyu sends his own bookboy to the countryside to check the "temple" that Liu Grandma is nagging about; and the lord wujin Xiaolaifu pays tribute and rent; the Mandarin duck brother-in-law watches over the old house in Jinling and collects rent...

Many plots have greatly expanded the space for the survival of Jia Fu society, annotated the soil of the economic structure of the gentry class in the early Qing Dynasty, and profoundly revealed the complex social and economic reasons for the prosperity and decline of the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue.

Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and has nothing to do with the position of this public account. Some of the illustrations come from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.