In the era of Cao Xueqin's life, pay attention to the difference between men and women, emphasize the lack of affection, even if it is superficial solemnity, it must be maintained at all times, otherwise it will be like committing a crime and causing disasters to yourself. However, Jia Baoyu, the male number one in "Dream of the Red Chamber", prefers to mess around in the inner curtain and does not care about these taboos at all.
Before Jia Baoyu appeared on the scene, Cao Xueqin relayed to the reader the strange theories of this young master through leng Zixing's mouth:
"Daughters are flesh and bones made of water, and men are flesh and bones made of mud." When I saw my daughter, I was refreshed; when I saw a man, I felt foul and smelly. ”
In Leng Zixing's view, Jia Baoyu "will undoubtedly be a ghost in the future." However, once we have really read "Dream of the Red Chamber", we will find that although Jia Baoyu has not been able to get rid of the word lust, he is also completely different from Jia Lian and Jia JiaRong, and he is definitely not a vulgar billet who covets beauty. At least, under his mischievous skin, there was a lonely soul.
Most red science experts believe that the character of Jia Baoyu has the color of Cao Xueqin's "autobiography". When creating Jia Baoyu, the author did not deliberately shape it into a perfect image, but saw each other flawed. In addition to being stubborn, Jia Baoyu often performed some elusive grotesque behaviors, including a great obsession with women's rouge and fragrance.
According to Leng Zixing, when Jia Baoyu was one year old, he showed traces of "wine-colored disciples":
"When he was one year old, Old Father Zheng wanted to test his future ambitions, so he stretched out countless things in the world and grabbed them with him. Who knew that he didn't take anything, and reached out and only grabbed those fat powders and rings. ”
In the past, when a child reached the age of one, parents would conduct a "scratch week" to test his or her future interests. Although there is no scientific basis for this, it reflects people's expectations of children. Just think, a boy reaching out to grab rouge gouache and gold and silver jewelry really made the father anxious.
Jia Baoyu was not only curious about fat powder when he was young, but also continued this quirk when he grew up. When the raiders advised Jia Baoyu, there was such a sentence:
"There is a more important one, no more eating the rouge wiped on people's mouths, and the problem of loving red."
Here, "Don't eat the rouge on people's mouths", which is a pun. Rouge is rubbed on women's mouths, and from the whole "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jia Baoyu not only eats the rouge in the fat powder box, but also likes to eat the rouge smeared on the woman's mouth.
For example, in the twenty-third time, when Jia Baoyu went to see his father Jia Zheng, he met Jin Jun'er and a group of yahuan. At that time, Jin Jun'er pulled Jia Baoyu aside and quietly teased:
"I've just rubbed the rouge on my mouth, can you eat it?"
When I first read this, I was still quite shocked in my heart. The Second Master Bao of the Tangrong State Mansion would actually eat the rouge on the lips of yahuan? As a result, when reading further back, there is something even more jaw-dropping: the Mandarin Duck came to Jia Mu's order to ask for forgiveness for Jia Bao, and Jia Baoyu actually begged to eat the rouge on the mouth of the Mandarin Duck.
Unlike jin jun'er's ridicule of Jia Baoyu before, this time it is all Jia Baoyu's nature revealed:
(Jia Baoyu) looked back and saw that the Mandarin Duck was wearing a water red silk jacket, a green satin vest, a white crepe sweat scarf, his face was looking down at the needle and thread, and he was wearing a flower collar around his neck. Bao Yu then put his face on his neck, smelled the fragrant oil and gas, and couldn't stop rubbing it with his hand, its white grease was not under the attack, so he leaned up and salivated and smiled: "Good sister, reward me with the rouge on your mouth." ”
Mandarin Duck is the most trusted big girl ring around Jia Mu, although his status is not as good as his master, he is also a figure in the Rong Guo Mansion. Moreover, according to Jia Baoyu's character, he will never openly infringe on the Mandarin Duck, and although his words and deeds seem to be obedient, they are not intentionally blasphemous, but an aesthetic that is almost "pure feelings", so that it gives people a feeling of "fetishism".
Jia Baoyu, who has been messing around with his sisters and yahuan since childhood, does not have a clear understanding of the boundaries between men and women in his mind. Although when he was in the void realm, Jia Baoyu and Qin Keqing became relatives in the cave house, woke up and pulled the raiders to secretly test yun and rain, but he was not like Jia Lian and Jia Rong's stupid children, although he gradually became familiar with personnel affairs, he never disdained to do those vulgar and dirty things.
It can be said that Jia Baoyu's love of rouge shows that on the one hand, he has a primitive impulse to lust, and on the other hand, it implies the special aesthetic taste of this love. At one point, it may be the word "obscenity" used by the police fairy to describe Jia Baoyu. It is worth mentioning that the "obscenity" in the book, when it means "beautiful but unrealistic fantasy", is not used as a derogatory term.
Tasting the plot of the book, Jia Baoyu's obsession with rouge can undoubtedly be regarded as a "love of incense". Speaking of which, there is another plot metaphor for this. In the nineteenth time, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu were alone in the room, and when the two were talking, Jia Baoyu suddenly smelled a faint fragrance emanating from Lin Daiyu's sleeve. Here, Cao Xueqin used four words to describe Jia Baoyu's feelings - "drunken soul crispy bones". Li Yanzhai commented here:
"It seems to be obscene, but it does not commit a single obscenity."
Jia Baoyu's feeling of "drunken soul crispy bones", if placed on others, is naturally done under the wind. However, although Jia Baoyu was a lover, he was not a person of despicable character. Thinking that Jia Baoyu likes to eat rouge painted on people's mouths, it should also be consistent with the evaluation of Li Yanzhai.
Speaking of this, we can basically be sure that Jia Baoyu's rouge on the mouth of the Mandarin Duck, or the smell of the fragrance in Lin Daiyu's sleeve, are not the manifestations of the wind and currents, but just a kind of "love of incense", which can also be understood as "fetish", which is the same as his idea of "valuing women over men". It is precisely because of this that the police fairy called Jia Baoyu "the first adulterous person in ancient and modern times".
The information of this article is quoted from: "Dream of the Red Chamber · Fat Collection"