The two characters in the opening chapter of the novel "Dream of Red Mansions" are Zhen Shiyin and Jia Yucun: Zhen Shiyin is dreamy and psychic, and Jia Yucun is beautiful in the dust. The text of the novel also clearly explains that this story is "the truth is hidden" and "the false words are preserved".
According to Cao Gong's structure and writing logic, at the end of "Dream of Red Mansions", these two people must still be used as the conclusion. Cheng Weiyuan Gao Yi continued to take this line of thought, and used it for the last time: Zhen Shiyin said in detail that it was too vain, and Jia Yucun boiled down to the dream of Red Mansions.
Specific to the character of Jia Yucun, judging from the text of the novel, he is an out-and-out villain, and the two cases of the gourd case and the stone nerd ancient fan nailed Jia Yucun to the pillar of shame, which is the consensus of almost all readers.
However, since Jia Yucun is a character who starts and ends, during which his connection with the four major families is getting deeper and deeper, and almost all major events are related to him, especially when he used to be Lin Daiyu's enlightenment teacher, and he is also Lin Ruhai's deathbed person, and the novel also faintly writes that Jia Yucun is also an important force in the transfer of the Lin family's industry trusted by Lin Ruhai to Jiafu. It is not difficult to see that Jia Yucun is loyal to Lin Ruhai, who opened his second political life.
Zhen Shiyin is another important nobleman in Jia Yucun's life, and it is precisely because of Zhen Shiyin's financial and material support that the impoverished Jia Yucun can enter Beijing to participate in the scientific examination and enter the official career. In fact, after Jia Yucun became an official, he married Jiaoxing, the maid of the Zhen family who looked back at him, and at the same time repaid the Zhen family. The second episode of "Dream of Red Mansions" describes this incident through the mouth of Feng Su:
"The master of this mansion (that is, Jia Yucun) just passed in front of our door, because he saw Jiaoxing's girl buying line, so he only moved here as a son-in-law. I went back to the truth one by one, and the grandfather sighed sadly, and asked his granddaughter again, and I said that I lost the lamp. The grandfather said, 'Well, I must come back from a visit,'"
Regarding marrying Jiaoxing, Jia Yucun used "two letters of silver and four brocades" as a dowry, saying that he was thanking the lady of the Zhen family, and he also gave Feng Su a hundred gold as a reward, so Feng Su was happy to flatter.
The original text also said: Jia Yucun also rewarded the Zhen family for many things, so that the Feng family could support the Zhen family's mother, and once again emphasized that they would find Yinglian's whereabouts.
Compared with treating the Lin family like a Dharma protector, Jia Yucun's treatment of the Zhen family is indeed a reciprocal meaning, marrying the Zhen family's maid, this cannot be called bullying, and people are not married in vain, in addition, the dowry is a dowry, the thank you is a thanks, the remuneration is a reward, and the favor is a favor, so Jia Yucun treats the Zhen family like this, and it is not a good idea to repay the grace of a drop of water, which can be regarded as a normal feedback. Especially on the issue of Yinglian's whereabouts, Jia Yucun promised twice, saying that it was his own business.
After the gourd case, Jia Yucun learned from Menzi that the girl who sold the kidnapper to Feng Yuan and then to Xue Pan was the daughter of Master Zhen Yinglian. Menzi also pointed out that it was recognized from the rouge mark between Yinglian's eyebrows.
Here's the problem, Jia Yucun, who promised to help the Zhen family find Yinglian, now knows Yinglian's whereabouts, and the case is still in his hands, he will face three choices: one is to sentence Yinglian to belong to the original Feng family, the second is to be noncommittal about Yinglian's whereabouts, that is, since the Xue family has occupied it, he will only sentence her to a lawsuit, as for this woman, he will not put her in this case, and third, he will rescue Yinglian and return her to the Zhen family.
Judging from the text, it seems that Jia Yucun adopted the second plan, which is to acquiesce in the result of the competition between the Feng and Xue families, this girl belongs to the Xue family, and he has to protect Xue Pan to curry favor with Wang Ziteng and Jia Zheng and his wife.
Imagine, if Jia Yucun wants to ask the Xue family to send this girl to the yamen first in the name of handling the case, saying that because this girl caused a human life, the Xue family will protect Xue Pan's life at this time.
Because in fact, the later Xue Pan's concubine Xiangling was not the Yinglian in the lawsuit at that time, so it is not impossible to say so:
First of all, this girl was bought into the Xue family, and her identity is essentially a slave of the Xue family, not even as good as her aunt, but Xiangling treats Xue Pan wholeheartedly, if she marries Feng Yuan, she is the wife of a standard small rich family. Therefore, it is possible to say that Xiangling is not the Yinglian that she bought at the beginning.
Secondly, after Xue Pan beat someone to death, he handed over the case to his old family to deal with, and he himself explained in the original text:
So he took his mother and sister and got up and walked away.
He competed with others for Yinglian, at least not as an ordinary girl, but when explaining the population of the Xue family in Beijing, he only said that Xue Pan brought his mother and sister into Beijing, and there was no mention of how to deal with Yinglian. Therefore, it is possible that Yinglian was cut off by Jia Yucun and grafted.
In the end, Jia Yucun slowly changed from a promising young man to a corrupt official, although he was greedy and ruthless, but he was a man and a worker, he had saved Xue Pan's life, as for a girl, there was no need for the Xue family not to give Jia Zhifu a face. And Jia Yucun also fulfilled his commitment to the Zhen family.
Although Jia Yucun is bad, he is grateful to the Zhen family and the Lin family, and he should try his best to do what he promised, why do you want to excuse Jia Yucun here? Because "Dream of Red Mansions" has only one newborn from beginning to end, that is, the son born to Jia Yucun and Jiao Xing, so that Jia Yucun has a son and has an heir to the family, which is a crucial thing for the upper class of feudal society, and to a certain extent, it also represents the author's attitude towards the characters. If Jia Yucun is the kind of person who is bad to the bone, then he will most likely be cut off. In fact, the four major families have many female dependents, but there has never been a newborn, let alone a son. Therefore, whether there is a son or not is indeed one of the criteria, which cannot be ignored.
I hope that Xiangling is not Yinglian, and I hope that Yinglian can reunite with her mother, at this time, the author's good wish is that when the Xue family entered Beijing, it was indeed not mentioned that Yinglian also entered Beijing. It's a pity that this is not very likely, because Cao Gong listed Xiangling as the deputy book of the Bo Ming Division, that is, she was the embarrassing fate of being the master first and then the slave.
The author of this article: Pingshan Magenta Mansion
Reference to the original work: Jiazhu Ben, Gengchen Ben "Fat Yan Zhai Re-evaluation of the Stone Record"
Image source: "The Dream of Red Mansions by Sun Wen"