"Reading Sun Wen's full picture of 'Dream of the Red Chamber', you feel as if you are in the picture of life where the scenes blend, the vivid characters and beautiful and moving stories, and even the sounds and smiles, costumes, life interests, architectural gardens, folk etiquette, more intuitively displayed in front of your eyes, to help you have a deeper understanding of the "Dream of the Red Chamber."" [1]
"Dream Shadow Red Chamber: Lushun Museum Collection of Sun Wen's Complete Picture of the Dream of the Red Chamber"
This is a passage in the preface of Zhang Qingshan, president of the China Red Chamber Dream Society, for the book "Dream Shadow Red Chamber: Lushun Museum Collection of Sun Wen's Complete Picture of the Dream of the Red Chamber" published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.
The information in this passage clearly shows that Sun Wen's two hundred and thirty "Dream of the Red Chamber" pictures have a certain authenticity and reference for the display of social life such as characters, buildings, utensils, and customs. With the help of these pictures, we can interpret "Dream of the Red Chamber" from an intuitive point of view, and we can reflect on the advantages of the author's creative skills through the artist's interpretation.
First, written and drawn
Readers who are familiar with "Dream of the Red Chamber" will not forget a detail, that is, Jia Mu said when criticizing the stories of the talented and beautiful people in the past:
Even if it is said that the eunuchs and the eunuchs are all familiar with the etiquette of reading, and even the lady knows the etiquette of the book, it is to tell the old man to return home, naturally there are many people in this population, and there are many people who are nursing mothers and nurses, why are there such things in these books, only misses and a lady who follows closely behind? If you think about it, what are those people in charge of, but the preface does not answer the afterword? [2] (54th)
The difference between a novel and a picture is that the text of the novel is a tool used to highlight the person or thing that needs to be expressed the most, and there is no need to repeat the irrelevant characters or events. In addition to being able to highlight a person or a scene, the picture can also use the identity or environment of the foil to represent other people or objects in the same picture, without making the viewer feel redundant and redundant.
For example, Jia Mu said that the ladies and mothers-in-law who are sketched out for the needs of the storyline in the novels of Caizi Jia ren who follow the young lady are a group of people who have lost their sense of existence in the reader's text reading experience.
Sun Wen painted the Grand View Garden
In Sun Wen's paintings, these parts that have been ignored by the author and the reader are suddenly and unusually clearly displayed in front of them, just like the green mountains after the clouds have opened and the fog has dispersed, and they have jumped into view with great clarity. However, everything is clearly seen, is it a good thing or a bad thing?
1. The road encounter in full view: the lack of privacy
Obviously, the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and Sun Wen attach great importance to What Jia Mu said, "Why is it that in these books, whenever there is such a thing, there is only a lady and a young lady who follows closely behind?" "This detail is a matter.
The eleventh time, Sister Zhongfeng came out of Qin Keqing's room and met Jia Rui on the road. After the novel ended the dialogue between Sister Feng and Qin Keqing, she said, "So Sister Feng led the in-laws and daughters-in-law of Ning Province to go around the door of the garden from the inside", which is indeed different from the traditional novels of talent and beauty, and the author wrote about this group of people who followed.
But this sentence is easily forgotten by the reader, why? Because the novel immediately follows a large description of the scenery with birds and flowers, and then there is the scene of Jia Rui and Feng Jie's "chance encounter" (Picture 1):
So Sister Feng led the in-laws and daughters-in-law of ning province who came with her, and from the inside, they came around the door of the garden. Suddenly, a person walked past behind the rock and said to Sister Feng, "Please sister-in-law." Sister Feng suddenly saw it, looked back, and said, "This is Uncle Rui, isn't it?" Jared said, "My sister-in-law doesn't even recognize me?" Not who I am! ”......
As he spoke, he couldn't stop looking at Sister Feng with his eyes. Sister Feng is a smart person, seeing his situation, how can he not guess the eight or nine points, because he smiled at Jia Rui... Sister Feng smiled falsely, "A family of flesh and blood, saying that what is young is not young." When Jarry heard this, he no longer thought of this adventure today, and his expression was also unbearable. Sister Feng said, "You go to the table quickly, and carefully hold on to punish you with wine." ”
Jared listened, half of his body was already wooden, and he walked slowly while looking back. Sister Feng deliberately slowed down her steps, and when she saw that he had gone far, she secretly wondered in her heart: "This is the person who knows the face and does not know the heart, there are such beasts there!" If he did, when would he tell him to die at my hands, he would know my means! (Eleventh)
After inserting such an interesting description, the reader is concerned about the next development of the story, and has long forgotten whether Feng Jie and Jared are a person or a group of people around them when they talk. For readers born in the modern era and have no experience in aristocratic life, it is even more clueless what it is like to be surrounded by a large number of servants and servants who are blocked and flirted with.
A close reading of the above dialogue reveals that it is difficult, if not unwilling, to imagine that such an explicit depiction of a man-woman meeting takes place in the presence of a group of onlookers in full view. Therefore, when contemporary readers read this paragraph, under the influence of reading habits and social customs, it is easy to forget that the author wrote about those around Feng Jie.
However, when we first see Sun Wen's picture book, we will be shocked by a large group of people in the scene where Feng Jie meets Jia Rui. At the same time, you will quickly identify with this composition and begin to look at this section of the novel with a new eye.
In the picture book, Feng Jie and Jia Rui are not as prominent as in the novel under the background of Feng Jie's group of followers. The reason is the lack of privacy. The lack of privacy expressed in the plot of the painting may have two diametrically opposed effects in the readership:
Dream of the Red Chamber
1) For contemporary readers, it will lead to a large degree of reduction in Jarry's shamelessness and lust, that is, with the intervention of bystanders, scenes designed to show lust lose their appeal and become extremely ordinary, even with the opposite effect.
2) For ancient readers, it would lead to Jarry's shamelessness and lust multiplication. Because the behavior of daring to bully the sister-in-law in full view of everyone cannot be ignored.
But for the author's creation, there is another reason. Why would Jia Mu question the novel of the talented lady not to write about a large number of servants around the lady, but only about the one who followed?
Because Jammu is evaluated from the reality of the story rather than from the skill of writing novels. In order to make the novels appealing and narrative effect of the novel stories, the people around the beautiful people in reality must be diluted or even deleted from the scene.
Sun Wen drew a scene in which Feng Jie met Jia Rui in a realistic way, according to Jia Mu's point of view and the author's original text, but the effect was to make our contemporaries guess: since it is under the gaze of so many people, even if Jia Rui says something, it will not be too much, even if Feng Jie pretends to cater to it, she will not lose her courtesy, after all, she still has to worry about the servants around her! As a result, the space for imagination is thus closed. This reflects the difference in reading caused by different times and cultural backgrounds.
2. Throw feces on the head
In the picture of Jia Rui being taught a lesson by Feng Jie's design (Picture 2), we also found the same situation. For the section on Jarry's splashing of feces, the novel reads:
Jared couldn't help himself at this point, so he had to crouch there. The heart was calculating, only to hear a sound overhead, Dora la a net bucket of urine and feces poured down from above, but coincidentally poured him one by one, Jared couldn't stop snorting, busy and covered his mouth, did not dare to open his mouth, full of urine and feces, cold fighting. Only to see Jia Qiang running to shout: "Go fast, go fast!" "If Jared got his life, he ran from the back door to the house in three steps and two steps, and the sky was already three times over, so he had to call the door." (Twelfth)
After reading the novel, we only know that Jia Rui saw only Jia Rong and Jia Qiang, but after reading Sun Wen's picture book, he suddenly realized that Jia Rong and Jia Qiang should also be like Jia Mu said that it is impossible not to have servants around. The picture shows a little girl standing on a high place and pouring feces at Jared, who is hiding under the wall.
We have to agree with this. Because how could a stupid boy like Jia Rong and Jia Qiang personally run to carry a bucket of and urine, and then pour it on Jia Rui himself! In contrast, picture books complement the details in the novel that cannot be written or written verbose, add a sense of reality, and are indeed a necessary auxiliary tool for contemporary people who are no longer familiar with the daily life of the ancients to read the text.
3. Baoyu's "school bag"
In addition, before Baoyu went to school, he went to talk to Daiyu (Figure 3), and the description in the novel is:
On Jia Mu's side again, Qin Zhong had already come to wait, and Jia Mu was talking to him. So the two met and resigned Jia Mu. Bao Yu suddenly remembered that he had not resigned from Daiyu, because he was busy in Daiyu's room to make an explanation. At that time, Dai Yu was making up under the window, and when she heard Bao Yu say that she was going to school, she smiled and said, "Good! This time, it is bound to be 'Toad Palace Folding Gui'. I can't send you anymore. Bao Yu said, "Good sister, I'll have dinner after school." And rouge paste is also waiting for me to re-make. After nagging for half a day, Fang withdrew. Dai Yu stopped and asked, "Why don't you quit your sister Bao?" Bao Yu replied with a smile. I went to school with Qin Zhong. (9th)
But the picture in the picture book is divided into two by a room, Baoyu and Daiyu are talking in the house, and there is a group of people waiting outside the house, which can't help but remind us of the words of the early raiders:
By the morning, when Baoyu got up, the raider had already wrapped up the books and pen cultural relics, packed them up properly, and sat on the edge of the bed and was stuffy. ...... The attacker said, "I also wrapped up the big hairy clothes and handed them over to the boys." It is cold in school, and it is better to think about adding and changing than to have someone to take care of it at home. The charcoal of the foot stove is also handed over, and you can force them to add. That lazy thief, you don't say, they are happy not to move, white frost spoiled you. (9th)
The raiders really packed up a lot of Baoyu's daily necessities and handed them over to the small squatters who followed Baoyu. Sun Wen was very delicate, he wanted to show this detail, but it was difficult to draw the words of the attacker and the action of cleaning up, so he borrowed the scene of Bao Yu and Dai Yu talking, and in the same picture, he also showed the small squatters who held him stationery, clothes and cold protection materials, and they even picked out two boxes.
In this way, it also tells the reader that Baoyu's daily necessities are extremely trivial, showing his honor and status. We also saw Qin Zhong in that group of servants, and once again pointed out the person who had almost been forgotten by us. Qin Zhong wears a red hat. In Sun Wen's paintings, men also use clothes and hats to distinguish ranks.
Like Qin Zhong, Jia Qiang's hat is also red (Picture 2), and in the picture of Jia Rong's appearance, most of his hats are also red. For example, in "Baoyuhui Qin Zhong" (Figure 4), it is Qin Zhong who is asked by Feng Jie's hand, and the novel says:
(Sister Feng) leaned over and took the child's hand, ordered him to sit down next to him, and slowly asked him about his age, reading, and other things, and knew that his scientific name was Qin Zhong. (7th time)
Therefore, the person standing on the ground talking to Baoyu and wearing a red hat was Jia Rong.
In addition, in the "FengJie Receiving The Second Master of Feng Lian" (Figure 5), Jia Rong and Jia Qiang also came to ask Jia Lian for instructions to discuss the purchase of Gu Su for The Yuan Concubine Province:
Jia Qiang said back closely: "Xiagu Su cut off the teaching, bought girls, and purchased the first class of musical instruments, and the eldest uncle sent his nephew to lead the two sons who came to the housekeeper, as well as Shan Ren and Bu Guxiu, two Qing guests, who went together, so they ordered me to come to see my uncle." Jia Lian listened, looked at Jia Qiang, and smiled: "Can you be in this line?" Although this matter is not very big, there is a lot of hiding in it. Jia Qiang smiled and said, "I just have to learn to do it." Jia Rong quietly pulled Feng Jie's clothes under the shadow of the lamp next to her, and Feng Jie would understand, because she smiled: "You are also too worried, is it that Uncle Feng can't use people than we do?" ......”
Here Jia Qiang also quietly asked Jia Lian: "What do you want?" By the way, weave filial piety to uncle. Jia Lian smiled and said, "Don't be excited." Only to learn to do things, but first learn this trick. I am short of anything, I must not write to you, and do not talk about it here. "After saying that, send the two of them away." (16th)
It can be seen that the person who specifically reported things in the novel is Jia Qiang, and Jia Zhen mainly assigned him to be responsible for going to Gusu to buy. Therefore, the painter used three postures to express the identity of Jia Lian, Jia Qiang and Jia Rong and the content of the ongoing dialogue: Jia Lian was sitting, Jia Rong was standing, and Jia Rong was kneeling. Jia Lian is Jia Rong and Jia Qiang's uncle, so the man sitting on it must be Jia Lian. When explaining Jia Qiang and his relationship with Jia Rong, the novel says:
It turned out that this one was called Jia Qiang, who was also the grandson of the upright sect in Ning Province, whose parents died early, and who had lived with Jia Zhen since childhood, and was now sixteen years old, more handsome than Jia Rongsheng. The two brothers were close to each other and often coexisted. The people of Ning Province were full of miscellaneous mouths, and those undesirable slaves were capable of making words and slandering their masters, so they did not know what kind of villains were slandering and slandering.
Jia Zhen thought that it was not good to smell some bad words, and he also had to avoid some suspicions, but now he was divided into houses, and ordered Jia Zhen to move out of Ning Mansion and go to the gate to live by himself. This Jia Qiao is both beautiful and unavoidably slanderous, no wonder the mouth of the villain. ...... There is always Jia Zhen doting on the top and Jia Rong Kuangsuke on the bottom, so who in the clan dares to rebel against him. (9th)
That is to say, although Jia Qiang was also born as a grandchild of the Zheng sect in Ning Province, she was an orphan, raised by Jia Zhen from a young age, and grew up with Jia Rong. Jia Rong is older than Jia Qiang and is the elder brother. Therefore, in Figure 5, in addition to Jia Qiang making him kneel for reporting things to Jia Lian, the painter also wants to tell the reader that his status among the three is the lowest.
On seniority, Jia Rong is younger than Jia Lian, can be called a beautiful teenager; on the generations, Jia Rong is longer than Jia Rong, plus Jia Rong and Jia Qiang have a dialogue with Feng Jie and his wife in this play, it is difficult to distinguish the weight of the play, so the red hat representing a young man, the painter still gave Jia Rong.
Second, who is this woman?
In Sun Wen's "Dream of the Red Chamber", there is a painting of "Lin Daiyu's First Arrival at the Rongguo Mansion" (Figure 6), which is worth playing.
We all know that after Lin Daiyu entered the Jia Mansion, she was led by Two aunts, Lady Xing and Lady Wang, respectively, to meet the two uncles. This painting depicts the two aunts taking Daiyu to see her.
The painting uses a cloister to divide the Rongning Second House into two. In the first half of the picture, the woman on the right is Lady Xing, and on the left is Lin Daiyu. The two had pleasant expressions and talked and laughed. There are three women in the second half of the picture. A palatial room stands on the left, taking up nearly half of the space in the painting. The third time in "Dream of the Red Chamber", it is written:
Dai Yu knew that this side was facing the inner chamber, a big road, directly out of the gate. Entering the hall house, I looked up and saw a large red gold Nine Dragon Qingdi plaque, on which was written the three characters of Dou Da, which was "Rongxi Hall".
The painter sketched the scene of Dai Yu and Madame Wang standing in front of the red gold Kowloon plaque.
The most interesting thing is, who is the woman standing in the middle of the picture?
There is simply no such character in this section of the novel who should be in such a compelling central position. What's more, the woman's expression was suspicious: she was holding hands together, twisting her body, standing sideways outside the Rongxi Hall, squinting her eyes, and staring at the two people in the room with a look of displeasure and contempt.
In a large picture, the painter vacates a large open space with the most prominent center and closest to the viewer, just to show such a woman? Since it is Dai Yu entering the Rong Guo Mansion, shouldn't the protagonist of the picture be Dai Yu? Reading through this chapter of the novel, we can't identify the exact identity of this woman from Cao Xueqin's text.
1. Hairstyle
However, if we look at the whole story of "Dream of the Red Chamber" coherently, we can infer that this woman belongs to Zhou Rui's family.
To find out whether it is Zhou Rui's family, we must first distinguish the identity level of the characters in the picture book. The easiest way to do this is to look at their hairstyles and hair accessories.
Sun Wen's setting was: a woman of the rank of lady or above had a dark triangular crown inlaid with pearls in her hair, and her sideburns were decorated with sparkling jewelry, wearing gold-encrusted jade earrings, such as Jia Mu, Lady Xing, and Lady Wang in "Dai Yu Entering Jia Mansion" (Figure 7) and "Lady Wang Receiving Distant Relatives" (Figure 8).
The girls' hair is pulled up with a cloud bun, a double screw bun or a high bun.
There are the most double screw buns, and there are also jewelry on the sideburns, such as Daiyu's hairstyle in "Dai Yu Bei Father" (Figure 9) and "Dai Yu Entering Jia Mansion" (Figure 7), Bao Chao and Dai Yu's hairstyle in "Jia Zheng System Lantern Riddle" (Figure 10), Bao Chao (sitting) and Dai Yu's hairstyle in "Yu Wu Junlan Yan Explanation of Doubts" (Figure 11). Among them, Baochao often appears in a high bun, and the gold lock worn on the necklace is also very eye-catching to distinguish it from other sisters.
Young grandmothers have similar hair styles to girls, sometimes with dazzling jewelry inserted in high buns or high buns, and often one more bun than the girls, or their hair is pulled higher.
For example, the hairstyles of Qin Keqing and Feng Jie in "Qin Keqing's Dream" (Figure 12), because Qin Keqing was dressed before he died, so the person standing in the picture is Qin Keqing, speaking to Feng Jie, who is sitting on the bed and is actually still sleeping. In "As soon as Grandma Liu enters the Rong Mansion" (Figure 13), Sister Feng has three buns on her head.
In the "Dai Yu into Jia Province" belated Feng Jie's head is also three buns, and one of the important signs that Feng Jie distinguishes herself from other grandmothers is that she wears cloud shoulders on her shoulders (Figure 14), and the color of her clothes is more vivid and dazzling.
In the "Daguanyuan Crab Feast", sitting around the table is either the wife, the grandmother or the lady, whether it is a screw bun or a high bun, in short, their hairstyles are combed upwards (Fig. 15), which is obviously different from the beard.
Huang Shen, a famous Painter of the Qing Dynasty who excelled at drawing materials from folk life and one of the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou", had a good performance of the Hairstyles of Women in the Qing Dynasty[3], and the women in his paintings combed lily buns that were knotted in strands and folded on top of their heads (Fig. 16).
In the Court Paintings of the Qing Dynasty[4], the depiction of the hairstyles of aristocratic women in the Qing Dynasty is more delicate and specific, such as the (Qing) Anon. "Ying Yan Ancient Costume Xingle Tu" (Figure 17), the (Qing) Jin Tingbiao "Lady Hairpin Flower Diagram" (Figure 18), the (Qing) Wang Confucianism "Banana Tong Baby Drama Diagram" (Figure 19), and the most famous (Qing) Anon. Most of these court women combed cloud buns or thrown buns. It is also a hairstyle where the hair is raised upwards into a bun.
Nanjing calligraphy and painting collector Li Ruihua's collection of the Qing Dynasty Qianjia period court painter Mu Bingtai (Qianlong 8 to Jiaqing 11 years) painted "Xiangyun Drunken Sleep" fan, "is the earliest known painting age, involving a higher level of crowd theme art works of "Dream of the Red Chamber". ...... Mu Bingtai is a royal portrait painter of the Qianjia Royal Family, and his artistic skills are naturally a temporary choice, and the fan surface is painted at the request of the royal family, and the artistic standard is naturally the best of the fine works..."[5]
Therefore, the realism of the "Dream of the Red Chamber" lady hair style expressed by the fan should be relatively strong. Among them, the hair of Xiangyun and the girl standing next to her is also pulled up in a double screw bun, with her back to the reader, and the hair should be combed downwards, with a humble posture, cautiously looking at Baoyu.
Therefore, even if some people say that Qing painting often borrows pre-dynasty costumes or hairstyles, which is not completely realistic, at least we can say that the hairstyles in Sun Wen's picture books are basically more in line with the painting habits and conventional painting patterns of the Qing Dynasty, especially the Qianlong period.
In the twenty-fourth time of the novel, when Bao Yu first saw Xiaohong, she "had a good black hair and a good hair, holding one.". "It's the bun behind my head."
Sun Wen's hair in sun wen picture books is combed downwards. For example, in "Dai Yu Cut Sachet" (Figure 21), the little lady behind Bao Dai combed her hair downward (or sideways); the seventeenth time, when everyone went to Madame Wang's room together, among the group, Bao Chao wore a gold lock and a high comb vertebral bun, Dai Yu was still a double screw bun, and the other three beards were all downward combed buns, similar to falling horse buns or lower than falling horse buns (Figure 22); when "Bao Yu first tried cloud rain", the hairstyles of the four beards around him were the same. (Figure 23)
In the picture scroll "Lamp Making Riddle Jia Zheng Sad saying", standing on the ground are all beards and mother-in-laws, who are basically combed or buns behind their heads, and the mother-in-laws are wearing blue turbans on their heads.
The blue turban is the most important symbol of grandma and mother-in-law in picture books. In the scene where Baoyu was summoned to see Jia Zheng and was hesitant to enter at the door, Baoyu was followed by a pair of beards and mother-in-law, their hairstyles were easy to distinguish, the two wearing blue turbans standing on the far right were the mother-in-law, the other three were around Baoyu, and the one who combed the bun behind the head was the beard.
There are also several mother-in-laws wearing blue turbans when Dai Yu bids farewell to her father (Figure 24), and the mother-in-laws who wear blue turbans around Bao Yu in "Qingwen Paste Crimson Xuan Plaque" (Figure 25).
2. The attitude of the accompanying room
Now, let's look at Zhou Rui's family.
The place where she appears more concentrated in the novel is the seventh "sending palace flowers", so it is a more reliable way to use the picture of this story to determine the image of Zhou Rui's family.
She first met Xue Baochao (picture 26), who was recuperating from illness in the boudoir, then went to see Aunt Xue and Lady Wang (picture 27), took the palace flowers out, and met Xiang Ling (picture 28).
Because Jia Mu said that there were too many granddaughters, she let Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun live in the three small hugging houses behind Madame Wang's room, and the Zhou Rui family stopped by here.
First I saw Yingchun and Tanchun playing Go in front of the window (Picture 29), and then went to Xichun and saw XiChun zheng and the little nun of Shuiyue'an smiling (Picture 30).
After coming out of Sister Feng's room, I arrived at Bao Dai 's place (Figure 31).
It is very clear to see this series of scenes that have appeared in the Zhou Rui family, and the Zhou Rui family is also wearing a blue turban like other mother-in-laws and grandmothers in Jia Province.
We zoomed in on the face of the woman standing in the center of the painting in front of us (Figure 32) and found that her face and expression were very similar to those of the Zhou Rui family in the picture above.
Judging from the above analysis of the identities of various people in Jia Province, she is either a wife, a grandmother, a lady or a maid, she is a grandmother. And the grandmothers who can appear in the scene of Daiyu and Lady Wang in the Rongxi Hall, in addition to Daiyu's wet nurses and grandmothers, are the mother-in-law and grandmothers around Lady Wang.
The novel has always been skimmed about Daiyu's mother and grandmother, but it is very much ink on the Zhou Rui family around Madame Wang. She is Madame Wang's companion, brought from her mother's family, and is a grandmother who serves Madame Wang closely.
The forty-fifth time, Sister Feng wanted to throw him out because the son of the Zhou Rui family had done something wrong. Aunt Lai advised Sister Feng: "If he has it or not, beat him and scold him, make him change, and shake it up to make sure it is impossible." He is no better than the son of our family, and he is now his wife's companion. Grandma just took care of him, and Mrs. Lady's face was not good-looking. According to me, Grandma taught him a few boards to keep them next time. Don't look at his mother, but also look at his wife. ”
Stills of Wang Xifeng in the TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber"
Just because it involved Lady Wang, it could make Sister Feng, who was in a fit of rage, immediately change her mind and only hit him with forty sticks, which showed the special status of Zhou Rui and Zhou Rui's family in the palace.
On the seventy-first occasion, the two mothers-in-law in the Rong Mansion offended you and were known to the Zhou Rui family, and the novel wrote: "Although the Zhou Rui family does not care about things, because he is always the companion of Lady Wang, he is somewhat decent, his heart is obedient, and he is in charge of everywhere to please him, so the owners of the various rooms like him." When he heard this today, he rushed into the Yihong Courtyard and flew away while saying, 'I'm mad at Grandma, but I can't help it!' In our family, the habit is too unbearable now. If I am not in front of me, if I am in front of them, I will give them a few ear scrapers, and then wait for these few days to settle the account. ’”
He also provoked Sister Feng and said, "These two mothers-in-law are housekeepers and grandmothers, and often we talk to him like fierce insects." If Grandma doesn't quit, Grandma can't get over it. As a result, Feng Jie offended her mother-in-law, Lady Xing, because of this incident, and gave Feng Jie no face in public.
The wife's companion room in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is almost all a negative role. The accompanying room that the author vigorously portrays, in addition to Madame Wang's accompanying room Zhou Rui's family, is Lady Xing's accompanying room fee mother-in-law, she "often relies on the old and sells the old, fights with Mrs. Xing, often eats some wine, and scolds and complains in her mouth." Nowadays, Jia Mu celebrates such a big event, watching people sell their skills and do things, drinking six tricks, and their hearts are already uncomfortable, pointing out chickens and dogs, gossiping and making trouble. It was she who instigated Lady Xing to humiliate Sister Feng in public.
In the seventy-fourth inspection of the Grand View Garden, there is a lady Xing's companion Wang Shanbao's family, and it is a famous negative character in the novel, and it is precisely because of listening to her instigation that Lady Wang took away the seriously ill Qingwen and killed her youth. Several housekeepers are not only the executors of the inspection of the Grand View Garden, but also the people who personally snatched away the beards.
When they picked up Siqi for the seventy-seventh time, they showed a vicious face that they had not seen in the past, and ignored Siqi's crying, "Zhou Rui's family's irritability said to Siqi: 'You are not a vice miss now, if you don't obey, I will beat you.'" Don't think about having a girl to protect you in the past, let you do the waste. The more I talk, the better I am. Now with the little masters pulling and pulling, into a system! ’”
Angry Baoyu: "I was afraid that they would go to the tongue, and the hate only stared at them, seeing that they had gone far, Fang pointed to the hate: 'Strange, strange, how come these people only married a man, stained with the smell of men, just like this, more than men can kill!'" ’”
The author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" borrowed Baoyu's mouth to express his deep disgust for these aunts who accompanied the room. But let us not forget that without the support and tolerance of the ladies, how can such a person survive in Jaffa?
Carnegie Mellon University's Posner Center holds the Spring of the Twelve Noble Houses of Jinling
We know that by looking at the ladies' servants, we can understand the temperament and disposition of their masters, for example, the servant book of Tanchun had a wonderful performance when copying and inspecting the Grand View Garden, and scolded Wang Shanbao's family, and Sister Feng smiled: "Good lady, if there is really a master, there must be a servant." Tanchun sneered, "Those of us who are thieves have three words and two words in our mouths." This is still stupid, and behind his back, he will only not instigate the master. ”
The author deliberately wants to write about the character of Tanchun and his beard with a certain commonality. At the crab feast, Bao Chao and Li Yi counted the servants in each room: "Bao Chao smiled: "'These are all ones out of a hundred, and the magic is that each person has its own benefits.'" Li Yi said, "For example, in the old lady's house, how can that Mandarin duck make it?" ...... If it weren't for the raiders in this little house, what kind of field would you measure! Feng Yatou is the Chu Bawang, and he also has to lift these two arms well. He's not this guy, he has to be so thoughtful! ”
Only a good master can train an excellent slave, and the temperament and character of the master and the slave must be compatible and appreciate each other. For example, Jia Mu likes Qingwen and thinks that only Qingwen is assigned to Baoyu as a concubine. Imagine Qingwen's personality is so stubborn, if Jia Mu's aesthetic is the same as Madame Wang's, can Qingwen still have room to survive? Can you still be so free to be around Baoyu?
It turns out that as soon as Madame Wang found Qingwen, she immediately drove her away. Therefore, although the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" did not explicitly tell everyone that the slave in Jia Fuli was the mirror of the master, he prompted in the story at any time and anywhere, and only a careful reader could understand this.
3. Is it really Daiyu's "small sex": behind the storm of sending Pa
Zhou Rui's family was brought by Madame Wang from her mother's house, and it was a grandmother who watched Madame Wang grow up. What the Zhou Rui family often does and dares to do is all to cater to Madame Wang's wishes. As a slave, she has limited room to develop her own personality.
Therefore, Zhou Rui's family is a mirror of Madame Wang. When we saw her, we also saw Madame Wang. Scholars also admit that Qingwen is the shadow of Daiyu, and Qingwen was eventually framed and died by Lady Xing's family with Wang Shanbao. Although the author does not explicitly state that the Zhou Rui family is not good for Daiyu, we can clearly know from Madame Wang's attitude toward Daiyu that we can clearly know how people like the Zhou Rui family who are inflamed and dependent will usually treat Daiyu.
Lin Daiyu's wedding photo in the TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber"
Although Dai Yu has the love of Jia Mu, Jia Mu is also an old feudal lord who is high above and it is impossible to take care of everything. And we should also note that except for the conversation between Jia Mu and Dai Yu when Dai Yu entered Jia Mansion, the author basically did not write about Jia Mu and Dai Yu talking. Maybe the author is trying to embody Daiyu's loneliness? Maybe it is not necessary to show the close relationship between Jia Mu and Daiyu? However, Daiyu's exclusion on weekdays can be seen from what happened to the Zhou Rui family's palace flowers.
Many people have always believed that Dai Yu said "I just know, others don't pick the rest and don't give it to me", showing Daiyu's "smallness". But I forgot another detail:
The thirty-fourth time, after Baoyu was beaten, he asked Qingwen to send an old veil to Daiyu. But Dai Yu said, "Who gave him this veil?" It must be good, tell him to keep it and give it to others, I will not use this. "Why did Baoyu send something that Dai Yu didn't want to think about and think it must be good?"
We also remember that in "Dream of the Red Chamber", Baoyu will give it to Daiyu every time he feels that it is a very precious thing. We all know the principle of Pavlov's conditioned reflex experiment, "what Baoyu sends is the best", this concept has penetrated deep into Daiyu's ideology, so even if Baoyu sends an old veil, she does not want to think it is good.
So why did the palace flowers sent by Zhou Rui's family immediately think that they were the ones leftovers? First of all, there are only two left, of course, there is no way to choose. Secondly, the Zhou Rui family's daily treatment of Daiyu must be the opposite of Baoyu' and they are accustomed to treating her slowly. As soon as she saw that only the last flowers were left for her, she would of course think that it was the Zhou Rui family's unkindness and deliberately doing it.
We can also assume that these two leftover flowers were given to Daiyu by Baoyu, and it is likely that Daiyu's ideas will be completely different. She would even think that this might be the two best ones that Baoyu had specifically picked for her. Daiyu's attitude towards the Zhou Rui family in this matter was cumulative, not a matter of fact, nor did it happen overnight. It is a concentrated embodiment of Daiyu's daily exclusion in Jia Province.
Liu Danzhai painted Bao Dai deeply
Although the author does not explicitly write it, the reader perceives it very deeply. Sun Wen is also a reader, and is a ashes-level fan, after reading the original work, he will not give up, and he is determined to paint his own "Dream of the Red Chamber" with 230 paintings. He used his brush to analyze and study Dream of the Red Chamber, and reflected his understanding of the novel in his canvas.
He did not inadvertently place a woman dressed as a mother-in-law in such a prominent position in the frame. His 230 paintings are based on the stories in each chapter of the 120 editions of Dream of the Red Chamber, and the composition of each painting is carefully designed. The characters, storyline, environmental background, and even the expressions and body language of the characters all represent Sun Wen's views and interpretations of the novel.
He either hated Lin Daiyu as much as Lady Wang, but he could not directly and clearly show Lady Wang's disgust on the screen, because the author did not describe this positively, so he borrowed the attitude of Lady Wang's side of the Zhou Rui family to innuendo Lady Wang; or he wanted to borrow such a malicious mother-in-law image to show the "wind sword and frost sword" that Dai Yu encountered after arriving in Jia Province, so that there was such a strangely conceived picture that we see now.
It is conceivable that without this woman, this picture would give people a sense of tranquility and joy. But she stood so unpleasantly and awkwardly behind Dai Yu, so that the air of the whole scene was frozen, making the moment when Dai Yu entered the Rong Guo Mansion full of embarrassment and disharmony. This is Sun Wen's post-reading feeling, and he uses paintings to convey this feeling to us.
Third, whether the lame Daoist has feet or no feet
The lame Daoist appears a total of eight times in Dream of the Red Chamber, and eight times in Sun Wen's picture book. In order: "Qingganfeng Monk Dao Talks About Stubborn Stones", "Zhen Shi Yin Dream Knowledge Psychic", "Shi Yin Hugging Child Road Meets Monk Dao", "Zhen Shi Cain Listens to Songs Meets Lame Foot Road", "Crippled Foot Road Sends Wind and Moon Jian", "Psychic Jade Blinds Meet Double Truth", "Jia Zheng Road Meets Jia Baoyu", "Zhen Shi Cain Female Return to Tai Void". This not only shows Sun Wen's complete performance of the plot of the novel, but also shows the importance of the lame Daoist character in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
The appearance of lame Taoists in "Dream of the Red Chamber" has changed. When the "stone" (later the psychic treasure jade) left by Lady Nuwa niangniang first met the Daoist at Qinggan Peak, he was "born with extraordinary bones and a different abundance of gods." Qi Ben had a pinch and said: "This is the true image, not the illusion also."
In ancient folk beliefs, all enlightened people had "true images" and "illusions", the true image was the original appearance of the incarnated immortal queen, and the illusion was borrowed from the heavens or the fairyland to the human world, for the convenience of human beings. Therefore, the lame Daoist people's appearance when they were gods in heaven was very radiant and extremely immortal, which could be seen at a glance from Sun Wen's picture book.
The Daoist in Figure 33 is not lame at all, he is brightly dressed, his expression is relaxed, he is handsome, sitting on a stone, holding a bamboo dust in his right hand, and behind him is a bamboo pole with a gourd. This is the "humble real person" who carries the psychic treasure jade under the mortal calamity.
In Figure 34, when Zhen Shiyin sees the obscure real person in the too illusory realm, his appearance changes and he begins to lame one leg, but the novel does not specifically describe the appearance of the monk at this time.
When Zhen Shiyin meets the Daoist with Yinglian in his arms (Figure 35), the novel describes it like this: "That Dao is lame, crazy, and profligate. The commentary of the Kojimoto is: "This is an illusion." In Sun Wen's picture book, the Daoist who "entered the world in the illusion" no longer has immortal qi, but is lame and barefoot, or has a disheveled beard, and carries either a bucket or a gourd behind him. The expression is very sarcastic and playful. And when Tu 7 and Tu 8 returned to be too vain, he became moral and calm again, and his expression was condensed.
It is worth noting the way in picture books used to represent "lameness". It is not clear in the novel whether the lame Person has or without feet. We also know that among the painters of Sun Wen's picture books, in addition to Sun Wen, there are also Sun Xiaozhou (some people think that they are the same person), and the seals they carry are sometimes "Sun Wen", "Runzhai", sometimes "Sun Xiaozhou", "Xiaozhou", "Yunmo" and so on. Some people have verified that Sun Wen's character is Runzhai (run zhai).
Among the eight drawings of the lame Daoist, Figure 33, Figure 34, Figure 35, Figure 37 print "Sun Wen", Figure 36 and Figure 38 print "Runzhai", Figure 39 Figure 40 print "Xiaozhou". Sun Wen's painting of a Daoist is the appearance of only half a leg left. Carrying a wooden or bamboo cane and putting half a stump leg on the cross of the cane, (Figures 34, 35, 36, 37) The color and hairstyle of the clothes are also the same.
The Daoist depicted in "Runzhai" is related to the Daoist person carrying a gourd in the painting of Sun Wenyin, and the image is quite different, especially in Figure 38. In the 25th episode of "Dream of the Red Chamber", when the uncle and sister-in-law were attacked by the devil, the monk Dao came to treat Bao Yu, and the Taoist appearance was: "One foot high and one foot low, full of water and mud." If you meet and ask where your home is, you are in Penglai weak water west. "One foot high and one foot low indicates that his legs and feet are not stumps, but still have feet."
Figure 38 is exactly this time. It shows that "Runzhai" noticed the image of the Taoist mentioned in the text of the novel, so he painted his feet. But the strange thing is that the Daoist of Figure 35 is also painted by "Runzhai", but he has no feet. Judging from the image of the Daoist carrying the gourd in Figure 36 and Figure 38, it seems that these two paintings were made by the same person.
However, why does the same painter have feet without feet when drawing the same person, and the gap between the front and back is so large that they do not pay attention to and modify it? Moreover, the Daoists of Runzhai Drawing Thirty-Six and Figure Thirty-Eight are very different from those painted by "Sun Wen" from their clothes and hats to their facial expressions.
In particular, the Daoist expressions and appearances painted by Sun Wen are very similar to the appearance of the Daoists in the Qinggan Peak Wonderland, which means that the appearance of the Daoists in heaven and on earth has not changed much. The cunning smile of the Daoist and Zhen Shiyin in Figure 36 of Runzhai makes it easy for us to think of the crazy Daoist who in the novel", "crazy fall off, maggot clothes", singing "good songs".
What shows more that Runzhai is careful is that the Daoist who sings the "Good Song" is not like the barefoot in the previous paintings, but wears "Ma Jiao", that is, hemp shoes. Therefore, the Daoists in Figure 36 did indeed wear shoes. It also shows that Runzhai has carefully read the text of the novel.
Perhaps "Sun Wen" and "Runzhai" are not the same person, runzhai at the beginning imitated Sun Wen's image of the footless Daoist after drawing Figure Thirty-Six, and then read the 25th time "one foot high to one foot low", and then drew Figure Thirty-Seven footed people with feet.
It is also worth mentioning that in ancient times, the method of drawing figures with lame feet on crutches and forks has long existed. The iron abduction Li in the Fifth Dynasty Southern Tang Dynasty painter Chiyang Tao Shouli's "Iron Abduction Of Li Statue" [6] (Figure 41) is carrying a wooden crutch, and there is a fork under the wooden crutch, and the iron crutch Li stomps on it with one foot.
But the leg of the iron crutch Lee in the painting is not a stump. Sun Wen borrowed from it and made extremely exaggerated modifications, simply cutting off his feet and calves, so that the shocking short stumps were directly attached to the branches, depicting the immortals after the illusion as a vivid and slippery city well, which better expressed the image that the author of the novel wanted to express.
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Exegesis:
[1] (Qing) Sun Wen, Sun Yunmo, Lushun Museum, ed., Dream Shadow Red Chamber: Lushun Museum Collection of Sun Wen's Complete Illustrated Dream of the Red Chamber, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2017 edition, Preface.
[2] The quotations to "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the text are from the 1982 edition of "Dream of the Red Chamber" by the People's Literature Publishing House.
[3] Shi Dafu, Wu Bin, Liu Hongyu, Qing Dynasty Character Painting Style, Chongqing Publishing House, 1995.
[4] The Palace Museum, ed., Qing Dynasty Court Painting, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1995.
[5] Fan Zhibin, "The Discovery and Significance of the Xiangyun Drunken Sleep" Fan Surface of Qianlong Jian Mu Bingtai Painting", Cao Xueqin Research, No. 4, 2020.
[6] Artron Art Network, Beijing Poly International Auction Co., Ltd., the 27th Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Auction, "Scattered Truth Integration - Chinese Calligraphy and Painting".