The book "Dream of the Red Chamber" gives people a very contradictory feeling, that is, Cao Xueqin obviously cherishes those women in her heart, but it seems that she can only give them a tragic fate one by one, and Baochao Daiyu Yuanchun is beyond any exception.
However, Cao Xueqin is still difficult to give up her feelings of compassion for the heavens and people, or wants to "do her best" to give these women as good an ending as possible, and this is especially evident in Xiang Ling's body.
Xiangling's real name is Zhen Yinglian, which is the earliest woman in the whole book, and it is accurate to say that she was still a little girl in the arms of adults at that time. But it was such an innocent girl, but the monk said that she was an ominous person who "had no luck and no life, and affected her father", and at that time wanted to make her a monk.
But it was obvious that this girl, as the monk said, was going to "affect her father", how could she get rid of such a fate so easily? Sure enough, Zhen Shiyin's family, who were reluctant to let her go out of the family, was soon devastated, their daughter was lost, and the house was burned to ashes by a fire. In this way, Zhen Yinglian, who was originally a gentry's house, was resold to Xue Pan by human traffickers in the blink of an eye. In the process of this resale, a murder case was also caused, which is not omitted here.
Anyway, the result is that Zhen Yinglian, who was originally "truly pitiful", became the Xiangling that people later became known as Xiangling. According to Cao Xueqin's habit of using harmonic sounds, the xiangling here still has the meaning of "pity", and in fact it is also true.
The follower Xue Baochao went to Xiangling in Jia Province, and in the eyes of everyone, she was really a good woman who was more than anyone else, and her appearance was quite similar to Qin Keqing, and her work and speech were also impeccable, so she won the hearts of jia houses up and down. Later, after Xue Pan went out to do business, Xiangling was able to enter the Grand View Garden that she envied, and took advantage of this leisure time to learn poetry with Daiyu. At this time, Xiangling let people see another advantage of her, that is, concentration.
After Xiangling got the opportunity to learn poetry, she humbly consulted Lin Daiyu, and after getting Lin Daiyu's guidance, she began the journey of "familiar reading three hundred Tang poems", and what was surprising was that she could not wait to complete this task, and then turned to poetry. How far did she concentrate? What is even more surprising is that she still does not forget to write poetry in her sleep, and also made a poem that makes Daiyu see through the eyes.
Such a xiangling can't help but make the reader look sideways, and even Baoyu directly shouted, "This is exactly the 'human spirit'... It can be seen that the heavens and the earth are just! ”
Originally, I thought that Xiangling had suffered so much and should have a good ending, but with her name change again, her situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
Xiang Ling was originally Xue Pan's concubine, and later after Xue Pan took a fancy to Xia Jingui, he married this pampered only daughter. However, after marrying the door, Xue Pan began to regret it, this Xia Jingui turned out to be a "Hedong lion", "with the posture of flowers and willows on the outside, and the nature of wind and thunder on the inside", a humble woman who xue pan could not avoid!
After Xia Jingui passed the door, it didn't take long for Aunt Xue and Xue Pan to submit, but she also felt that Xue Baochao was always high and inconspicuous, so she wanted to provoke it. At this time, Xiangling became a pawn of hers again.
Xia Jingui had long been displeased with Xiangling, a concubine who was very pleasing to Aunt Xue, and had heard that the word Xiangling was caused by Baochao, and in order to provoke Baochao, she deliberately changed Xiangling to Qiuling. A word difference, a thousand differences, Xiang Ling's life also seems to have entered the autumn of slaughter. Unfortunately, Cao Xueqin's book came to an abrupt end here, how did Gao Hu continue to write it?
In the sequel, Gao Yan gave Xiangling a very perfect ending, Xia Jingui died, Yin Andyang mistakenly poisoned himself, and later Xue Pan suddenly woke up and helped Xiangling to the main room. This point coincides with the ending expected by the public, but from another point of view, it also shows that Gao Osprey's sequel deliberately caters to secular values, and makes the elegant work of "Dream of the Red Chamber" become a secular work.
Why is Gao Yan's ending about Xiangling so disapproval?
The superficial reason is that Cao Xueqin has already made it very clear in the judgment of the fifth time too illusory realm, and Xiangling's fate is that "since the birth of lonely trees in two places, xiangling soul has returned to its hometown."
According to the word splitting method, the two places are two "earth" characters, and adding a "wood" word is just a "gui" word.
That is to say, since Xue Pan married Xia Jingui, Xiangling was tortured to death by him. This is completely different from what Gao Yan said in his sequel that Xiangling was corrected. The deep-seated reason why the change in the fate of the characters in Gao Yan's sequel has aroused greater resentment is actually that his so-called "compassion" has destroyed Cao Xueqin's consistent creative tone.
Cao Xueqin undoubtedly has twelve points of pity for the women in the book, that is, "the heart of a bodhisattva", but what does he do next? That is the "pen of the sword and axe"! Use the deepest brushstrokes to write the most profound content, that is, the pain of fate that the women in the whole book cannot escape.
As early as in the too illusory realm, Cao Xueqin has already shown the sad fate of the women and the gold noodles", "a thousand reds and one cry" and "Wan Yan and the same sorrow", and the thoughts of the world's bitter women jumped on the paper, because this tone had the next "Dream of the Red Chamber". However, Gao Osprey's tampering undoubtedly made such a thought disappear, and it is no wonder that it is said to be a "dog-tailed sable".