The ancestral hall of Jiafu is a large inventory of the important men and important women of Jiafu according to the dignity, clan order, and eldest and youngest, one of which is described as follows:
The people of Jiafu are divided into Zhaomu and set up shifts: Jia Jing is the main sacrifice, Jia pardon is accompanied by the sacrifice, Jia Zhen is presented, Jia Lian Jia Cong is offered silk, Baoyu holds incense, Jia Ling shows a carpet, and guards the burning pond. Tsing Yi music, three dedications, worship the end, burn the silk and drink the wine, finish the ceremony, stop the music, and quit. (Chapter 53)
Sacrifice in China is the most important political activity for the country, and "Zuo Chuan" has "national events, in the worship and Rong." In other words, the two biggest things in a country are sacrifice and war (national defense). In the same way, sacrifice is also the most important event of a family, the purpose is to enhance cohesion through sacrifice and enhance the family's ability to share social resources.
Sacrifice is a major event, and the position of family sacrifice also reflects the distribution of family power.
After the death of the two generations of Ning Rong, Jia Jing of the family long house, as the eldest grandson of the long house, is the eldest of the third generation of Jia Mansion, and the former family head, and is the natural chief priest.
Jia Yu, the eldest son of the chief of Rongguo Mansion, the heir to the title of Duke of Rongguo, and the second order of the family sacrifice.
The third place is Jia Zhen, the successor to the Duke of Ningguo, the grandson of the fourth generation of the Jia family, and the patriarch.
At this time, Jia Zheng let go of the foreign office, not in Beijing, if he was there, in the sacrificial kneeling link, he should be ranked after the lord and the long house, Jia Zheng is the actual controller of the Rongguo Mansion, but he is neither the heir to the family title, nor the family long house, nor even the long house of the Rong Guo Gong lineage. In terms of actual family status, it should be ranked after Jia Zhen.
Another important figure is Jia Rong, because Jia Rong is the eldest grandson of the family, so only he is in the threshold with the female dependents, and the female dependents are an important existence in the continuation of the family bloodline.
What is the order of importance of the next generation of men?
First of all, Sun Jia Lian, the chief of the long house of Rong Guogong, and Jia Cong, the second grandson, offered silk together.
After that, Baoyu, the second son of the second room of the Rongguo Gong lineage, held incense. Then there are Jia Yi, Jia Ling and others.
Note that Jia Lian's family status is much more important than Baoyu, no matter how bright Jia Baoyu's protagonist's aura is, only when worshipping ancestors, everyone's actual family status is the most real.
There is also a Jia Cong in front of Baoyu, he is Jia Lian's younger brother, Jia Yu's second son, Jia Cong appears very rarely, no more than five appearances in the book, he has a good relationship with Jia Huan, and often appears together, but Jia Cong does not have a single line, the only description of him is that Jia Cong is sick, and the young ladies and sons came to say hello, Mrs. Xing saw Jia Cong covered in dirt, and reprimanded his nurse for whether they were all dead, no matter how he didn't care, where did everyone look like a scholar!
But from the perspective of ancestor worship, Jia Cong's status is a very important existence in the fourth generation of the family, in Rongguo Mansion, only after Jia Lian, before other sons, readers know that there is a deep contradiction between the long room and the second room of Rongguo Mansion, Sister Feng said that it is the daughter-in-law of the long house, but she is also the niece of Mrs. Wang, and Jia Lian is the eldest son of the long house of Rong Mansion, so Jia Lian and Sister Feng's housekeeper is essentially a compromise of the power balance of the two rooms.
Readers couldn't be clearer about what kind of person Jia Lian is, and he himself said: "As long as there is wine to eat and drama to watch, nothing else matters." "It is a typical brocade cloth who is drunk today, if one day the burden of the family falls on him, Rongguo Mansion will only accelerate its decline. Therefore, Jia Cong is actually a reserve force of Changfang.
Speaking of Jia Baoyu, the first male protagonist of the novel, not only the whole family attaches great importance to him and holds him like a phoenix egg, but even at the beginning of the novel, Ning Rong Ergong also thinks that Baoyu is the only one, and he may be able to place high hopes, so he asks the police Phantom Fairy Gu to police his stubbornness with lust and lust, and enter the right path. This is the story of Jia Baoyu's iQue Taixu.
In the reality of Jiafu, can Jia Baoyu really be ranked?
I'm afraid it's difficult, in the feudal family, the long house is a god-like existence, unless the long house is gone, it will be the turn of the second room, just like Jia Jing originally had an elder brother Jia Fu, but unfortunately died early, but the second son Jia Jing because he is the second grandson of the Changfang Ning Gong, he became the eldest grandson of the Changfang in turn, and the patriarch is also his, and will not let the real Rong Gong's eldest grandson Jia Yu to serve.
Rong Gong is in the same vein, Jia Yu is the elder, inheriting the title, his son and grandson are the orthodox inheritance of Rong Guogong's foundation, the first is Jia Lian, as we said earlier, Jia Lian is not good, that is the second son Jia Cong, so the two of them sacrificed together during the family sacrifice, anyway, it was not Jia Baoyu's turn.
Jia Zheng's lineage, the eldest son Jia Zhu died, but he has a son Jia Lan, so Jia Lan is the orthodox successor to Jia Zheng's lineage, in short, Jia Baoyu has to go to the back. But for the branch of Rong Gong, realistically speaking, Jia Cong's status is very high, but the novel greatly weakens him, not only weakens him, but even Jia Rong, the eldest grandson of the Jia patriarch, is very weak, Jia Rong, Jia Cong, Jia Lan, according to the patriarchal law, their status is very high, Jia Baoyu, the second room of the family, the second room of the Rong Mansion and the second son, do not occupy the same, far less than these three people, just because of the aura of the protagonist, giving the reader an illusion.
Only from the perspective of Rongguo Mansion, without considering Jia Lian's words, Jia Cong is the biggest threat to Jia Baoyu's family status, although his status is prominent when worshipping ancestors, he has no lines, no sense of existence, and readers will even ignore such a person.
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"