#以书之名#
preface
As one of the four classical Chinese masterpieces, Dream of the Red Chamber has always been praised for its profound cultural connotation and unique artistic charm.
Among them, there is a fable of "the mouse stealing the fragrant jade" made up by Jia Baoyu, which can be called a stroke of genius, just like Yun Tianming made up three fairy tales for Cheng Xin in "The Three-Body Problem", which played a role in promoting the plot of the whole book.
Jia Baoyu's "fairy tale" seems absurd, but in fact it is real and profound, not only revealing the corruption of the Lin family for us, but also subtly hinting at the collusion of several of their families in officialdom.
Let's talk about it in detail.
1. Rat's Nest - What does "Daishan Forest Cave" refer to?
Although Jia Baoyu is very smart, he is only a little smart, his talent is average, and he can't make up profound stories, so the moral of this story is easier to understand.
Daishan Linzi Cave, this fictional place name, is embedded with Lin Daiyu's surname "Lin", as well as the word "Dai" in her name, this "Linzi Cave" is not just a literal cave in the woods, but Lin Daiyu's family, the Lin family.
The prosperity and glory of the Lin family, like this forest cave, seems to be vibrant on the surface, but in fact it hides countless crises and corruption.
The theme of the story compiled by Jia Baoyu is, to put it bluntly, that the Lin family is a rat's nest, that is, a home of corrupt officials.
In ancient times, corrupt officials were often compared to rats, such as the "Shuo Rat" in the Book of Songs.
The corruption of the Lin family can be seen from Lin Daiyu's father Lin Ruhai.
Lin Ruhai, as the salt patrol of the Lianghuai Salt Administration, held heavy power, and should have worked for the well-being of the country and the people.
However, how he benefited the people, there is no description in the book, but he wrote a paragraph about him running for the official position of Jia Yu Village, something that others may not be able to do with a lot of money, and he solved it with a letter, and how much energy he has, which can be seen.
The rat's nest in the story of "Rats Stealing Xiangyu" - "Daishan Linzi Cave" is a vivid depiction of the corruption of the Lin family.
Second, the hint of a nest of snakes and rats
In the story of "Mouse Stealing Xiangyu", the mouse dares to go to Lin's house to steal things, and this plot is not accidental. It alludes to the collusion and collusion between the Lin family and these corrupt officials.
As the saying goes, the Lin family and these corrupt officials colluded and used each other to form a huge interest group.
In this interest group, Lin Ruhai, as the patrol of the salt imperial history of the Lianghuai Salt Administration, naturally became the core figure among them.
He used his power to provide shelter and convenience to these corrupt officials, and at the same time obtained huge wealth from them.
As mentioned earlier, Lin Ruhai ran for Jia Yucun, although he did not let Jia Yucun spend money, but the money will definitely be used in the whole process, who paid for it?
There are two possibilities, one is Lin Ruhai's money, he should have a lot of money elsewhere, that is, to transfer property, which is a basic skill for corrupt officials. Another possibility is that someone else's money is exchanged with Lin Ruhai.
In the book "Dream of Red Mansions", it was also written that the Jia family had tens of thousands of taels of silver in the Zhen family, and they didn't bring a lot of cash when they went to Suzhou to buy plays, so they took it from the Zhen family when they used it.
Therefore, the "mouse" and the Lin family are very familiar, so the little mouse can become Lin Daiyu's appearance.
In classical novels, the things that a magical person or demon needs to become must be something he has seen before, even if it is the Monkey King in "Journey to the West", if he has not seen something, he can't change it. Moreover, the rats are not afraid of the Lin family, so they dare to become Lin Daiyu to her house in a grand manner.
Why didn't he go to the cat's house to steal things?
Moreover, their collusion and collusion are not based on real friendship or family affection, but on a "nest of snakes and rats", driven by interests. As soon as the interests are damaged or threatened, the interest group will collapse and disintegrate immediately.
This is also one of the reasons why the Lin family and the four major families eventually declined.
3. Jia Baoyu is accustomed to corrupt behavior
In "Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Baoyu, as the son and brother of the Jia family, has lived in wealth since he was a child, and he has long been accustomed to corruption in officialdom.
Although he doesn't like the shackles of feudal etiquette, he likes to live the life of a feudal swinger.
Although he doesn't understand the world, he is not stupid, and he knows more or less about the corruption of the family, but he is powerless to change all this.
In the story of "Rats Stealing Xiangyu", Jia Baoyu inadvertently ridiculed the corruption of the Lin family.
Actually, he didn't mean to be critical, and he was used to it.
In the 87 version of the TV series "Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Baoyu was implicated by his family and sentenced to prison, and later the emperor saw that he was young and ignorant and let him go.
As a family member of a corrupt official, he has an original sin, and his sentence is not unjust, because after all, the brocade clothes and jade food he enjoys and the song and dance of Yingyan are all greedy from the family.
epilogue
Through the story of "the mouse steals the fragrant jade", the author cleverly reveals the corruption of the Lin Daiyu family and the collusion between the Lin family and the Jia family.
At the same time, he also expressed ridicule of this kind of corruption through Jia Baoyu's perspective, but Jia Baoyu's original intention in making this story was just to amuse Lin Daiyu, and there was no intention to criticize and reflect on the corruption in officialdom.