"Dream of Red Mansions" often mentions "Western", and the Jia family will also have a lot of imported imported products. For example, wall clocks, pocket watches, Western self-propelled boat models, as well as Wang Cha snuff, Everne plaster, and so on.
In particular, Xue Baoqin once personally told the story of her and her father going to the West Sea Yanzi Zhenguo, which made people even more curious where the "West Sea Yanzi" was.
(51st) Baoqin laughed: "... When I was eight years old, I went with my father to buy foreign goods on the West Sea edge, and who knew that there was a girl from the real country, only fifteen years old, with the same face as the beauty in the Western painting, also wearing yellow hair, tied down, and full of coral, cat's eyes, emeralds and other gemstones; He wears chain mail brocade sleeves woven with gold silk; With a sword, it is also inlaid with gold and inlaid treasures, and it is not as good as him in the painting. Some people say that he knows Chinese poetry, can speak the Five Classics, and can write poems, so my father annoyed a general official and bothered him to write a word, and it was his poem. ”
Regarding the West Sea and the West Ocean in "Dream of Red Mansions", it is not the same thing as the West Sea in our traditional culture.
The ancients paid attention to the round place of heaven and the four seas becoming one.
"Chu Ci Leave": "The road is not circumspect, turning left and referring to the West Sea." ”
"Classic of Mountains and Seas, South Mountain Sutra": "The swaggering mountain faces the West Sea." ”
It does not matter whether this West Sea really exists, some people consider it to be Qinghai Lake, or Lop Nur, Caspian Sea, etc., all belong to the category of mythology, which is the world in the minds of the ancients.
However, the West Sea and the West Sea Yanzi in "Dream of Red Mansions" occurred after Zheng He went to the West and the Western missionaries spread to the east. At that time, the world was more extensive and real in people's eyes. The Western Sea and the Western Ocean are more clearly divided into geographical scopes.
The four major families in "Dream of Red Mansions" have a deep relationship with the West.
The Jia family was originally appointed by the emperor to supervise the construction of the sea boat in Jiangnan, which was the kind of sea ship that Zheng He went to the West. This was not the case at the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties.
The Wang family is also in charge of the tributes and pilgrimages of various countries, and all foreigners come to feed their families. All the foreign ships and goods in Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan and Zhejiang belonged to their families.
The Xue family even made their business to the area of the West Sea along the Zhenzhen Kingdom.
Therefore, the "Western Ocean" and the West Sea at that time were the trade waterways opened up by Zheng He after he went to the West. It is now known as the "Maritime Silk Road".
The West Ocean can be connected as far as Spain and Portugal in the Mediterranean.
Like the plaster used by Wang Xifeng, Everna, is said to come from France.
Wang Chabao tobacco, about Spanish snus.
Venus glass from Undurina is supposed to be a product of Persia and Western Asia.
Therefore, the location of the Western Ocean was very clear at that time, which was generally the Indian Ocean all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and even the eastern coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
At that time, people's worldview had already developed, and they knew that there were countless civilizations and countries in the West of the world.
After talking about the Western Ocean that is easy to understand, but where is the West Sea and where is the true country, it needs to be explored separately.
Regarding the West Sea Yanzi, there is a clear record in the history books. "Great Qing Unification System": Pungge Thorn, Whisk, Guli, Cochin, Ceylon Mountain, Western Zori and other countries are located in the Western Sea. Among them, except for the country of Fuling, which is located in the northwest coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the rest of the countries are in South Asia, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Therefore, in the era of "Dream of Red Mansions", Xihai Yanzi can clearly refer to the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, covering the entire scope of Southeast Asia, Siam and Ancient Tianzhu. It was also the only way for Zheng He to go to the West.
As for the Zhenzhen country mentioned by Xue Baoqin, "Zhenzhen" is a colloquial phrase in "Dream of Red Mansions", such as Jia Zhen saying "It's really called farewell to the New Year". It means emphasizing fait accompli and aggravating semantics. There is also a slang word in the north for "true child", which also means to emphasize confirmation.
But in "Dream of Red Mansions", the superposition of two "true" may not be true, or it may be "false".
Cao Xueqin minded telling the reader that the true country is a place of fabrication, and it is also related to the fact that the author's pen is "nothing".
However, even if it is false, there is actually a pretext. Cao Xueqin's story is false, but the place may be true. Forcibly deducing, you can also get a rough answer.
This is to pay attention to the intention of the beauty of the West Sea Yanzi Zhenzhen Kingdom mentioned by Xue Baoqin.
When she talked about the poem written by the Western beauty, and when she recited "Yesterday Zhu Lou dreamed, tonight the water country chanted", it was easy to conclude that this was a poem by the daughter of the Han family who missed her homeland.
If combined with the foreshadowing of Jia Tanchun marrying a foreign country as a princess, it can be seen that this poem should be a metaphor for Tanchun's distant marriage. It shows that Jia Tanchun married into the West Sea Yanzi Zhenzhen Kingdom after the day.
But Xue Baoqin said this story in Xiaoxiang Hall, not in Autumn Shuangzhai. What she said to Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu was not present with Jia Tanchun.
If the reader remembers that the purpose of Xue Baoqin's visit to Xiaoxiang Pavilion at that time was that she got four pots of flowers, gave a pot of narcissus to Daiyu, and a pot of plum to Tanchun. None of the others. This connects Jia Tanchun and Lin Daiyu.
Combined with Xiaoxiang Concubine, Furong Flower Stick, and foreshadowings such as "Qingzuka Huaigu", "Peach Blossom Xing", "Liu Xuzhi" and "Funeral Flower Chanting", Junji Yakan Honglou has always believed that Jia Tanchun and Lin Daiyu's two daughters followed Xiaoxiang's concubine and married the same husband.
Combined with Tanchun Yuan's marriage overseas, Lin Daiyu Furong flower signature is also writing about distant marriage like Zhaojun's departure, and there is another strong clue.
Lin Daiyu and Jia Tanchun should marry together to the West Sea Yanzi Zhenzhen Kingdom. And Lin Daiyu soon died in tears. The incense mound buried after her death is in this "true country".
In the end, after Jia Baoyu became a monk, he also went south and west to find it there, and guarded the tomb in front of Daiyu's grave for the rest of his life.
But it was again in response to the "story of the three birthstones on the bank of the Western Spirit River", and finally returned to the original place.
As for the West Sea Yanzi Zhenzhenguo, where is the country? It can be sure to be an "island fruit".
The island countries near the West Sea are naturally the first in Ceylon. The Ming Dynasty and Ceylon are the best. The famous prince of Ceylon was unable to return to China due to a coup d'état, and eventually died in Quanzhou.
And when Zheng He went to the West, there was a "Bushi Ceylon Mountain Buddhist Temple Stele" in the Ceylon Mountain Temple, which is still present today.
Ceylon is now Sri Lanka and was once known as the country of lions.
Of course, the outcome of the distant marriage and the true kingdom of Ceylon can only be used as speculation, and it is still expected to be known. But the West Sea and the West are historical facts.
The above views are based on the story clues of "Dream of Red Mansions" 80 times ago.
Text|Junji Yakan Red House
Illustration|Qing Dynasty painter Sun Wen's "Dream of the Red Mansion"