Qin Keqing's funeral is one of the most grand scenes described in detail in "Dream of the Red Chamber", but there are four extremely public events in this luxurious funeral, which lay the groundwork for the decline of the Jia family.
The first was that Qin Keqing stopped the spirit for seven days and forty-nine days. Ancient society paid attention to hierarchy and inferiority, although Jia Rong was the eldest grandson of Ning Guofu, he did not have a knighthood and official position, and Qin Keqing did not have a commandment on him. It was not a matter of time to stop the spirit for seven days and seven hundred and forty-nine days, but this specification and its height, which was used on Qin Keqing to trespass the rules. This was a big thing in the feudal society that attached importance to etiquette and rules, and this matter was even more important in the Jia family of the generations of officials and eunuchs.
The second was that Qin Keqing used the coffin board of the prince of Yizhong. The emperor was called Banzai in ancient times, and the person who can be called a thousand years old must be a royal person. The things used by royal people are not only good items, but more importantly, high grades and specifications, which cannot be used by ordinary people. Jia Zheng once advised Jia Zhen that this thing is very enjoyable, and it is a high-grade fir tree. It can be seen that Qin Keqing's use of this wooden coffin board does not meet the grade specifications.
The third is that Jia Zhen donated five pins of dragons to Jia Rong. In order to make the funeral look a little more beautiful, Jia Zhen thought that Jia Rong was just a prisoner, and the Linghat Jing list was not good-looking when it was written, but the internal minister of the Daming Palace dai Quan came to mourn. Therefore, he spent twelve hundred taels of silver and took the opportunity to donate an official position of a five-pin dragon lieutenant to Dai Quan.
However, the silver donated by Jia Zhen was not sent to the household department for cash, but directly sent to Dai Quan's home, which was obviously suspected of selling the official. Moreover, Jia Rong's Five Pin Dragon Forbidden Lieutenant was not implemented, and from the following text, he was only an alternate, while all the furnishing specifications of Qin Keqing's funeral were cooked according to the specifications of the Five Pin Dragon Forbidden Lieutenant, which was obviously a practice of cutting first and then playing and exceeding the specifications.
The fourth is that the King of Beijing, Shui Rong, came to the road to offer sacrifices, and also gave the wagtail incense rosary beads rewarded by the emperor to Jia Baoyu, which was obviously a manifestation of disrespect for the imperial power. On the surface, it was to add glory to the Jia family, but in fact, it pushed the Jia family to an unbearable situation, so that the Jia family was charged with great rebellion.