Jia Mu is one of the central characters in "Dream of Red Mansions", and her appearance frequency is very high, so many stories and details about her are relatively clear - at least in the first 80 episodes.
There are many metaphors in "Dream of Red Mansions", Jia's mother is a representative of a riddle, her surname is Shi, and she has a long life, she lived for eighty-three years, such a high life has the most experience and questions among the people in the Red Mansion, to a certain extent, Jia's mother itself is a metaphor for a history, is a record of the history of the rise and fall of Jiafu.
One of the reasons for saying that Jia's mother is a dead knot in the Red Mansion is that Jia's mother has saved Rongguo Mansion three times, but in the end they all ended in failure, and the decline of Jiafu cannot be stopped at all, and it can even be said that Jia's mother put a "dead knot" on Jiafu. So what is Jia's mother's identity, and how did she end up in Rongguofu?
1. The identity of Jia's mother and the rescue of Rongguofu
Jia's mother's surname is Shi, born in Jinling's Baoling Hou Shi family, is the eldest daughter of Shi Gong, she has a younger brother (nameless) to inherit the Shijue, she originally had three nephews, the eldest nephew (nameless) died early, and the daughter left behind is called Shi Xiangyun, is the granddaughter of Jia's mother, raised by the second nephew, that is, the second generation of Baoling Hou Shi Nai, and the third nephew is called Shi Ding.
Jia's mother is the eldest daughter of the princess's family, at the age of fifteen, she married the second generation of Rongguo Gong Jia Daishan at the time of Qin and Jin, and later gave birth to sons Jia Yu and Jia Zheng, Jia Yu inherited the title of the third generation of Rongguo Duke and the position of a first-class general, Jia Zheng was given the position of the chief minister, and served as an official in the Ministry of Industry.
When Shi Hou's eldest daughter Shi married into Rongguo Mansion, it was the heyday of Rongguo Mansion, as the Duchess of Rongguo, Shi Shi was the witness and witness of this Zhong Ming Ding Food House, according to the rules of Jiafu, she also obtained the power to take charge of the Rongguo Mansion after passing the door.
After Shi married Jia Daishan, the Duke of Rongguo, according to the practice of the (Ming) court, the wives of officials above the sixth rank were awarded the title of Yi, which is the so-called "life woman" title, Shi is the wife of the Duke of Guo, and the title is the highest level of "Taijun" among the ladies of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, when the Duchess of Rongguo Shi attended a large-scale event of the imperial court, she should be called "Shi Taijun" instead of "Mrs. Shi", "Mrs. Jia" or "Duchess of Rongguo", because the wife of an official with the status of an official can not be called by her husband's surname in public.
The title "Mother Jia" is limited to the interior of Jiafu, and is a statement used by Cao Xueqin to indicate Shi's identity in Jiafu, in fact, people in Jiafu call Shi "old ancestor" and "old lady" to show Jia's mother's highest status in Jiafu.
After Jia Daishan's early death, Jia pardoned the lord and took office, because he had no strict father to discipline, he neither studied nor was he a serious official, and he was greedy in the house all day long, and he messed with the concubines.
Jia's mother didn't like Jia Yu very much because of this, there was probably a conflict between mother and son, and Jia Yu moved out of Rongguo Mansion in order to escape his mother's supervision, and he found another courtyard to live in, and Rongguo Mansion let his younger brother Jia Zheng live and support Jia's mother, and he could do whatever he wanted outside.
Although the second son Jia Zheng is more loved by Jia's mother, he has no sense of existence in Rongguo Mansion, so Jia's mother became the actual controller of Rongguo Mansion.
However, after Jia Yu attacked the Jue, he neither made contributions to the country, nor did he refuse to assist the emperor in the court, so the third generation of Rongguo Gong Jia Yu gradually lost the trust of the emperor, and the emperor's attitude towards Jia Fu was much colder.
Jia's mother began to take precautions to pave the way for the future of Jiafu, since her son is not angry, then she can only start from her daughter, and the plan she thought of is to send the women in Jiafu into the palace, gain the emperor's favor, and re-make Jiafu into the emperor's field of vision.
Jia's mother has a young daughter, Jia Min, when Jia Min was young, Jia's mother began her "pre-palace training", and her words and deeds and actions must comply with royal norms. The book says that Jia Min is Jia's mother's favorite daughter, and the reason why Jia's mother loves Jia Min is probably not out of sincerity, but for this political purpose, she bets the future treasure of Jiafu on her daughter.
Later, in her marriage, I don't know how she used to make Jia's mother agree to marry her to Lin Ruhai, whose family status is far inferior to Jia's.
Jia's mother's plan to save Jiafu was forced to abort, but she did not give up, seeing that Jiafu was declining in the hands of this group of ointment gentlemen, she was anxious, so she had to put the "palace plan" on the agenda again, and she fell in love with Jia Zheng's eldest daughter Jia Yuanchun this time.
Since Jia's mother has been upgraded to the top of the power of Rongguo Mansion, she can control the fate of the people in Rongguo Mansion, Jia Yuanchun is powerless to resist under the double pressure of his grandmother and father, so he has to follow their wishes to enter the palace to make the emperor happy, so as to save Rongguo Mansion.
2. Jia Mu's second plan to save Rongguo Mansion
After the plan to let Jia Min enter the palace was aborted, Jia's mother thought about the other girls in Jia's mansion. There are few children and grandchildren in Ningguo Mansion, and no girls are born, Jia Yu on the side of Rongguo Mansion has an eldest daughter to welcome spring, but she is not qualified to enter the palace, and she is too young, so she is excluded by Jia's mother.
The second is Jia Zheng's children, Jia Zheng's eldest daughter Jia Yuanchun is the granddaughter of Jia's mother, who was born first in Jia's mansion, Jia Zheng is also an official residence, she fully meets the conditions for entering the palace to run for election, and her age is also appropriate, so Jia's mother's plan can be implemented in time.
Therefore, Jia Yuanchun was selected to serve as a female official in the palace, but she was not the emperor's real concubine. Jia Yuanchun was burdened with the hopes of her grandmother and father, and naturally did not dare to abandon the honor and fate of the family, she could only try her best to win the favor of the emperor in the palace, and then change the identity of the female official to become a concubine, so that the Jia family and the emperor became a family, and the Jia family could get the identity of the emperor.
Jia Mu thought that after Jia Yuanchun entered the palace to become a concubine, the emperor would pay attention to the Jia family again, but Jia Mu was wrong, she overestimated the status of the Jia family and Jia Yuanchun in the emperor's heart, and also underestimated the emperor's ability to govern.
Jia Yuanchun is indeed an out-and-out talented woman, before she entered the palace, Jia Baoyu was only three or four years old, she gave Jia Baoyu thousands of words in her abdomen, and she served as a female official of Shangzao Palace after entering the palace, which is equivalent to the emperor's secretary in the harem, helping the emperor deal with some documents and the like, if you are a person who is shallow in learning, where can you afford this task?
No matter what method Jia Yuanchun used in the palace to make the emperor make her a virtuous concubine, and later let her go home to save her relatives on the Shangyuan Festival, this seems to be a kind of honor, but in fact, the emperor doesn't like Jia Yuanchun at all, whether it is for Jia Yuanchun himself, or out of political considerations, this can be seen from the emperor's attitude towards Jia Yuanchun.
Jia Yuanchun only had one day to save his relatives, and he went to Jiafu after having dinner in the afternoon and doing other things, and it was already evening, and Jia Yuanchun and his family had gathered in a hurry for only a few hours, and they had to go back to the palace.
After Jia Yuanchun returned to the palace, the emperor only symbolically gave the Jia family a little silk, gold and silver as a reward, and did not give any compensation to the provincial villa built by the Jia family by hollowing out the family's funds.
The indisputability of the descendants of the Jia Mansion and all kinds of transgression have caused the emperor to be even more disgusted and jealous of the Jia family, and as the supreme ruler of the empire, he will never open the treasury to the Jia family because the Jia family gave him a woman.
Jia's mother saw from the provincial incident that Jia Yuanchun couldn't save Jiafu, so she had to find another way.
3. Jia's mother's final salvation of Jiafu
The third time Jia's mother exhausted her efforts to save Jiafu was to marry, this time, she directly married a rich family. In Jia's mother's view, the decline of Jiafu is because there is not enough money to support the glory and wealth she is used to, and the emperor refuses to reward it, so she can only take the initiative to "make money", she is also old, she must act as soon as possible and leave enough wealth for her favorite grandson Jia Baoyu.
So, Jia's mother took a fancy to Lin Ruhai's family, who had a huge amount of family wealth, the ancestors of the Lin family were also Houfu, and Lin Ruhai only had Lin Daiyu's only daughter, after Lin Ruhai's death, Jia's mother thought that Lin Ruhai would let Lin Daiyu inherit all the family wealth, so she brought Lin Daiyu into Jiafu for adoption, and waited for Lin Ruhai to die, so that Lin Daiyu married into Jiafu with Wanguan's family wealth and ate the Lin family's "extinction".
Mother Jia's mind is indeed vicious, but for the sake of the Jia family, she may not have remorse. But what she didn't expect was that Lin Ruhai was penniless after her death, and Lin Daiyu did not bring any wealth, she was very disappointed.
In the last forty episodes, Jia's mother's attitude towards Lin Daiyu suddenly dropped to the freezing point, and she no longer cared about her, Jia's mother immediately turned her attention to the long-rumored "golden jade relationship", Xue Baochai is a good candidate, and more importantly, Jia's mother thinks that the Xue family's wealth is huge, and the Xue family's marriage will inevitably be no less.
But after Jia's mother facilitated this marriage, Lin Daiyu died of illness, Jia Baoyu went crazy, and Jia's mother knew that the Xue family had already run out of oil and was just an empty shell.
All hope was lost, Jia's mother was heartbroken, depressed and sick, and died soon after, at the age of eighty-three, shortly after her death, Jiafu lost its central pillar, and also collapsed, raiding the house, distribution, bad news, once prosperous aristocratic family became the legend of the old Wang Xie.
Fourth, summary
Jia's mother is a princess, born in a famous family, since she was a child, she has enjoyed this rich life of fine clothes and jade food, she married into Jiafu and continued to enjoy fifty or sixty years of great wealth, but she seems to be a person who can't figure out the importance of the matter, it is the sons of Jiafu who corrupt and empty Jiafu, to be precise, it started with his son Jia Yu, in other words, it may be that she did not take care of Jia Yu and caused Jia Yu to take the lead in leading Jiafu to the brink of destruction.
Jia Zhen, the owner of Ningguo Mansion, is the grandson of Jia's mother, and Jia Zhen is also because his father Jia Jing doesn't care about him, so he dares to turn Ningguofu upside down, since Jia's mother is the highest status person in the Jia family, Rongning, and Ning, why doesn't she take control of these children and grandchildren, but let them fall?
When watching the children and grandchildren who are not angry consume the prosperity of Jiafu, but expecting weak women to come forward to fight for Jiafu's wealth, isn't this a palliative but not a cure?
Mother Jia is the dead knot of the Red Mansion, it was she who personally tied the dead knot of strangulation to kill them to Jiafu, because her approach could not save Jiafu from the root, this noble identity of Miss Houmen did not give her the wisdom of a wise housekeeper, as the supreme ruler of Jiafu, Jia Mu was obviously incompetent.