The Ming and Qing dynasties were the most prosperous moments of mainland novels, and under the brainstorming of many authors, many classic works emerged in the society, many of which have been handed down to later generations, and even to this day have been circulated and discussed by people, the first of the four famous novels, "Dream of Red Mansions" is one of the finest, which can be called the ceiling of the novel world.
It was created by the writer Cao Xueqin during the Qing Dynasty, because it is a true reflection of his own experience and life, so the emotions in the book are very real, the connotation and readability are more, the whole book takes the love story of Baoyu and Daiyu as a clue, reflecting the rise and fall of the four feudal families dominated by the Jia family, of which the second generation of Jia Zheng is a very important link.
From the point of view of the integrity of Jiafu, Jia Zheng is the only one among the descendants of Jiafu who has embarked on a career in office, and it is also the only possibility to continue Jiafu, but his qualifications are mediocre, although he can be regarded as an official, but the specific official position can not touch the real core of the imperial court.
The tragedy of Jia Zheng
From the perspective of the overall description of the Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Zheng always gives people a helpless tragic image, just from his name, it can be seen that he is a person destined to go to political life, but the reality is always very unsatisfactory, which has to talk about the overall tone of Cao Xueqin to the Dream of Red Mansions, which is the tragic trend of almost all people.
As early as the beginning of the story, it can be known from the mouths of others that the high-sounding appearance of Jiafu is only the last return to the light, although standing there, but the decadence inside has been reflected, which is the tragic trend of Jiafu itself, and it is also the reason why the image of Jia Zheng is helpless, because this tragedy is like an inevitable result that cannot be changed.
The current problem faced by Jiafu is actually "continuity", because Jia Zheng is very clear that the current glory of Jiafu is the hard work of the previous generation, and there are Rongguo Gong and Ning Guogong who follow the emperor to fight everywhere, so there is the holy decree of "creation", for Jia Zheng, the current situation is "the predecessors planted trees, and the descendants enjoyed the coolness".
But the real problem is that Jia Zheng and Jia Yu's generation was consumed by the holy grace of their predecessors, and they only knew how to enjoy it, and never thought about the continuity problem.
In the second generation of Jia Mansion, Jia Zheng's qualifications are mediocre, Jia Yu is lustful, he is not doing his job, and it is impossible to become an official in the court.
In Jia Zheng's view, this is the only chance to save the decadent status quo of Jiafu, but Jia Baoyu chose to give up, in this unpredictable realm that can predict the future, Jia Baoyu saw the thin life division of the twelve hairpins of Jinling, which also stated the future fate of every woman in Jiafu, but Jia Baoyu was still in a comfortable nest at that time.
He is greedy for pleasure and has no sense of crisis at all, so he doesn't care about what happens in the future, and even skips class many times even under his father's advice, because of Jia's mother's favor, Jia Zheng is also helpless, so he can only let him go, which makes the next generation of Jiafu once again become incapable of doing nothing.
Jiafu put all his hopes on Jia Yuanchun, thinking that relying on this daughter who was named a noble concubine could maintain the longevity of Jiafu, but after all, it was in vain, and even Jia Yuanchun himself knew that Jiafu's continued reliance on her alone would not work at all, not only Jia Baoyu needed to study hard to become an official, but also needed Jiafu itself to open source and reduce expenditure.
So at this time, the biggest headache is Jia Zheng, upward, although he is the manager of Rongguo Mansion, but in fact, he is still limited by Jia's mother, even if he hands over all the management power to Wang Xifeng, let her become the big housekeeper of Jiafu, almost the most powerful woman in the entire Jiafu, but still has no real power.
Wang Xifeng also thought about saving Jiafu's income by opening up sources and reducing expenditure, but he still has the existence of Jia's mother, whether it is the Lantern Festival or Jia's mother's birthday, the degree of luxury is staggering, including the construction of the Grand View Garden when Yuanchun Province was later pro-Yuanchun, and it was also in the case of the emptiness inside Jiafu, which brought the luxury to the extreme.
Even Jia Yuanchun, who was accustomed to living in the palace, saw the scene in front of him, and felt that such a large construction project was too extravagant, these were all things that Jia Zheng couldn't do, because above himself, there was also the existence of Jia's mother, and downward, Jia Zheng couldn't restrain his son Jia Baoyu, also because of Jia's mother's interference.
Although Jia Zheng is only a petty official, he knows the importance of reading, but after having Jia's mother's doting, Jia Baoyu's study and life have been interrupted, taking the first time he saw Lin Daiyu as an example, only an order from Jia's mother is needed, and the men and women in the house don't have to go to the school anymore.
So on the whole, Jia Zheng needs to face many problems, but he can't solve them, so after combining his character, his tragedy is even more aggravated.
Jia Zheng's image and character
In the story, whether it is with his own ability or using his family relationship, Jia Zheng is bent on becoming an official, which can also reflect his character from the side, that is, "loyalty", from the beginning of his career, he is extremely loyal to the emperor, which can also foreshadow the relationship with Jia Yuanchun from the side.
Jia Yuanchun later became the imperial concubine, and Jia Zheng should have become a relative of the emperor, at this time, he thought that this was the emperor's gift, and it was also the ancestor of the accumulation of virtue, so he respected the king more in his heart, and this kind of thinking made Jia Zheng regard his daughter Jia Yuanchun as a very respectful existence.
At this time, Jia Yuanchun is no longer a daughter in Jia Zheng's eyes, she is the mother of the court, and an important role in leading Jiafu to glory.
In addition to loyalty to the emperor, Jia Zheng's image also reflects a kind of filial piety, that is, the relationship between himself and Jia's mother to deal with problems, he has always maintained respect and obedience to Jia's mother, and attaches great importance to what Jia's mother said, such as after returning from the last dynasty, Jia's mother urged him to rest, even if he was reluctant, Jia Zheng still obeyed his mother's decision.
But this kind of unconditional obedience to filial piety is a huge flaw, will gradually lose their own opinions, for example, in Jiafu, Jia Zheng will directly listen to Jia's mother's opinions at the level of life and management, especially in the case of obvious financial problems, Jia Zheng knew that this would aggravate the crisis of Jiafu, but still agreed under the drive of the so-called filial piety.
Originally, as a father, Jia Zheng should face Jia Baoyu with a stern attitude, but his character of "abiding by filial piety" made him dare not disobey Jia's mother, who was overly doting on Jia Baoyu, so the role of the father was not very good.
So on the whole, Jia Zheng's self-cultivation, Qi family, and governing the country have all been done, but they have not been done, which leads to his whole life full of tragic nature, and the only positive factor that Jia Zheng can talk about is his own position, and he is also the only politician in Jiafu, what is his position and main work?
Jia Zheng's position and work content
Jia Zheng entered the imperial court as an official actually has a certain personal background, in the early years, Jia Mansion was also a behemoth, so even if he entered the imperial court as an official, Jia Zheng's starting point was higher than that of ordinary officials, from the book, Jia Zheng himself was preparing to enter the imperial court by imperial examination, but he received the grace of heaven, and the emperor directly arranged him in the Ministry of Industry because of the pension of the ancestors.
The "Ministry of Industry" mentioned here is one of the six departments, and there have been many changes in the specific position and scope of work, but in the early Tang Dynasty, in fact, there has been, the poet Du Fu has served in the Ministry of Industry of the Dynasty at that time, which is also the origin of his title of "Du Gongbu", this position has also existed in the Qing Dynasty.
Combined with the background of the story of Dream of Red Mansions, it is not difficult to find that Jia Zheng's position is a gift from the emperor, so it will not be very low, the position given to Jia Zheng at that time is the head of the Ministry of Industry, according to the official rank of the Qing Dynasty at that time, it should be the official position of the sixth grade, according to the imperial examination system at that time, the Qing Dynasty increased the difficulty in the selection.
According to the promotion system of the Qing Dynasty, from the ninth rank to the sixth grade, almost more than ninety percent of the people will be turned away, that is to say, Jia Zheng just can't get in touch with the core of the imperial court, and his official rank and status are actually not low.
Later, Jia Zheng was once again promoted by the imperial court to the Ministry of Works, up to about the position of Wupin, from the point of view of work, the Ministry of Industry is mainly responsible for the country's engineering construction work, the country's civil construction, water conservancy projects, and even machine manufacturing, weapon manufacturing, etc., are within the scope of his control, but in a strict sense, it is only the country's logistics work.
Perhaps Jia Zheng's ability is like this, or perhaps the emperor's deliberate targeting in the name of grace, all in all, although Jia Zheng's official rank is not low, and the scope of management is relatively extensive, he has never really been able to get in touch with "national politics", and the participation of manufacturing has not been able to reverse the decadent trend of Jiafu.