Preface
Dream of Red Mansions is a masterpiece of the Ming and Qing dynasties in mainland China, which is not only the pinnacle of mainland novels, but also an important work with influence in the world.
It is obvious that the love tragedy between the three of Bao Daichai is obvious, and the rise and fall of the four families of King Jia and Shi Xue are the dark lines, showing us the poignant tragedy of the competition for beauty in Jiafu to their respective dispersion.
Jia Zheng, as a high-level in the Rongguo Mansion, was in a position of high and low in the future.
There is the existence of Jia's mother upward, the actual power of Jiafu is held tightly by her, and things are turbulent in Jia Zheng's room below, although it seems to have its own maneuvering on the surface, but the undercurrent is surging Mrs. Wang is quiet, Aunt Zhao is restless, and Aunt Zhou has always remained silent.
Jia Zheng's embarrassing position
Jiafu is an absolutely large family in the setting of "Dream of Red Mansions", and the word "erection" also shows that it has a great relationship with the royal family. Therefore, Jiafu can also be seen as a microcosm of a small feudal society, in which the hierarchical order is very obvious.
Jia Zheng is the second son of the Fuzhong, and his status is not as good as his brother Jia Yu, but Jia Yu is lustful and has a bad impression of Jia's mother. So Jia's mother doesn't attach much importance to Jia Yu.
Look at Jia Zheng again, since he became an official in the court, he moved to live with Jia's mother, and his son Jia Baoyu was even more pampered by Jia's mother as a baby, but despite this, Jia Zheng's life was not satisfactory.
In terms of official positions, there is more than enough to be at the top, and there is no access to the political core at the top, and it is stronger than some local county orders at the bottom, and it is canonized by the shadow of the ancestors, so it is not possible to return to the hometown.
In Jia's Mansion, he seems to be the person in charge of Rongguo Mansion, but in fact, Jia's mother has the final say in everything, and even disciplining her son will be reprimanded by Jia's mother.
Looking at the private affairs in his room, Jia Zheng, who has a wife and a concubine, is busy in the court all day long, but he doesn't know that the three wives and concubines already have their own careful thoughts.
Mrs. Wang
Mrs. Wang is Jia Zheng's wife, and she should also be the highest-status existence among the many women in Jiafu. She comes from the Wang family, one of the four major families, and is the eldest daughter, especially after marrying into Jiafu and giving birth to three children.
The eldest son, Jia Zhu, was both civil and military, married Li Kun, a talented daughter from a large family, and gave birth to Jia Lan. He was originally the hope of the family, but later he accidentally contracted an illness and unfortunately died young, which is also the reason why Jia Baoyu was favored later.
The only daughter, Jia Yuanchun, is the only woman living in the palace among the twelve hairpins in Jinling. Due to the death of Jia Zhu, Jia Mansion has cultivated Jia Yuanchun as a lady since he was a child, and later became the imperial concubine by the grace of heaven, making the entire Jia Mansion a relative of the emperor and a qualitative leap in status.
From this point of view alone, Mrs. Wang is an existence that even Jia's mother can't afford to offend.
In addition, on the surface, it seems that Wang Xifeng is managing the affairs of Jiafu, but it is actually her aunt Mrs. Wang who has the final say. This can be seen from Mrs. Wang's measures when Jiafu was unable to make ends meet, and Xue Baochai replaced Wang Xifeng's position in one sentence.
Therefore, Mrs. Wang has made a great contribution to Jiafu, and if the final crisis of Jiafu does not come, she is likely to be the next person in charge of Jiafu. The reason why Mrs. Wang behaved calmly in Jia Zhengfang's affairs was because no one could shake her status at all.
Aunt Zhao's restlessness and restlessness
Looking at Aunt Zhao again, she is greedy by nature and a little stupid in her style, which causes her to become the emotional impurity between Jia Zheng and Mrs. Wang on the surface, and it is also the source of all the contradictions in Jia Zheng's house.
Judging from her background, Aunt Zhao's brother is his wife's minion, and he should have such a low status, but judging from the plot development of "Dream of Red Mansions", Aunt Zhao should have been favored when she was serving Jia Zheng, and then she was accepted as a concubine.
After all, this is the "old tradition" of Jiafu, and the Xiangling and raiders assigned to Jia Baoyu are a typical example.
For Aunt Zhao, since she has changed from a slave to a concubine, even if she has become half a master, she later gave birth to Jia Tanchun and Jia Huan, a son and a daughter.
With an heir to rely on, Aunt Zhao is naturally more restless, she wants to change the status quo, but her identity as a half-slave has never been able to get rid of it, and Mrs. Wang seems to have no quarrel with the world, but in fact, she is also using Wang Xifeng to suppress Aunt Zhao.
Jia Huan once burned Jia Baoyu's face with oil, so Wang Xifeng scolded Jia Huan together with Aunt Zhao, for which Aunt Zhao could only choose to endure, but when she couldn't bear it anymore, Aunt Zhao also had her own vicious methods.
Once Aunt Zhao actually invited Ma Daopo to perform witchcraft and wanted to put Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu to death, but in the end she was unsuccessful. On the surface, Aunt Zhao acted like this for herself and her children, but it was actually a stupid practice of mental revenge.
Such a rebellion is not only jealousy of Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu, but also dissatisfaction with their current living conditions.
But Aunt Zhao's fate has been doomed from the beginning, the maid is the maid, even if she becomes a concubine with the master, she can't shake the status of Mrs. Wang's wife, so she can only be in a state of restlessness all the time, and often becomes the instigator of contradictions.
Aunt Zhou's silence
Compared with Aunt Zhao who became the focus because of the conflict, Aunt Zhou was more silent and stable. appeared in the twenty-fifth chapter in the original book, and there was basically no too much description of behavior, just serving Jia's mother with Aunt Zhao.
Jia Tanchun once described Aunt Zhou as "not necessarily someone bullying her, and she doesn't look for anyone", this sentence alone shows her silent image vividly.
In the whole book, Aunt Zhou is more like an insignificant secondary character, basically has no chance to act alone, only appears on important occasions every time, and follows behind Aunt Zhao.
This kind of performance is actually an act of resignation and self-preservation, Aunt Zhou often follows behind Aunt Zhao, and her restless measures and the fate after being targeted are not much better.
At this time, Aunt Zhou found that a person like Aunt Zhao who added children to Jiafu was still not treated well because of her status as a concubine, and now she has no children, so she has no chance.
When Aunt Zhao died, Aunt Zhou cried very miserably, which was more sad for herself, and it was also a rare outburst in silence. When she saw Aunt Zhou in front of her, she seemed to see herself in the future, and she would be even more miserable if she had no children.
summary
This is the general situation of what happened in Jia Zhengfang, not only Mrs. Wang's stability and weighing all sides, but also Aunt Zhao's unwillingness to be low and restless, as well as Aunt Zhou's recognition of reality and silence. In fact, this also reflects the three states of life of the people in Jiafu, based on the different states of hierarchical order.