Xue Baochai is an important figure in China's famous classical novel A Dream of Red Mansions. Her importance lies not only in the fact that she is one of the protagonists in the love tragedy of Bao, Dai and Chai, but also in the rich connotation and innovation of this artistic image.
There have always been different views on the image of Xue Baochai. Some respect Xue and restrain Lin, while others respect Lin and restrain Xue. The story of Xu, which has been passed down through the ages, is a typical example. Even today, there are still different views. Some people think that Lin Daiyu is mean and narrow-minded, and loves to tease her young children, while Baochai is dignified and steady, gentle and generous. Some people think that Baochai is ruthless, hypocritical and treacherous, and she is a "female Cao Cao". Have diametrically opposite views on the same character. One reason is that different people have different views, but it also shows the complexity, richness and objectivity of this image. So, what do you think of this picture? First of all, we should abandon personal prejudice and love-hate relationship, and make a concrete analysis from the description of the works.
Characteristic description
From the description of Xue Baochai in A Dream of Red Mansions, we can see that the image of Xue Baochai created by Cao Xueqin is a typical standard lady in feudal society. The basic feature of this image is that she is a loyal believer in feudal ethics, a conscious executor and a sad martyr. However, the image of this feudal lady is complex and colorful.
As soon as Xue Baochai appeared, the author described her beauty and personality incisively and vividly. She wears "not luxury, but elegance", and she is "square in character and beautiful in appearance"; "Few words, people call it a fool; Follow the time and be self-sufficient. " This summarizes her personality characteristics of abiding by feudal ethics and adapting to the environment and outlines the outline of a feudal lady.
A prominent feature of this character is that she faithfully believes in feudal ethics; Especially the slave morality imposed on women. She has repeatedly advised Jia Baoyu to take the road of "career economy" and "making a name for himself", and even aroused Jia Baoyu's great disgust, saying that what she said was "bullshit" and that "a good innocent woman also learned to seek fame and reputation and became a traitor and ghost"; She also preached to Daiyu and Xiangyun many times that "a woman without talent is virtue" and "chastity is always the main thing". All these are enough to show that among the aristocratic girls in the Grand View Garden, she was deeply poisoned by feudal orthodoxy and feudal morality. But it can't be equated with Jia Zheng, Mrs. Wang, Wang Xifeng and others, and they can all be regarded as feudal rulers. Although she belongs to the "master" camp, she not only has no ruling power, but also, as a girl in feudal society, she can't even master her own destiny; Everything was at the mercy of feudal parents. On the one hand, he is a "master" and lives a pampered life; On the other hand, under the oppression of feudal ethics, this is the particularity of Xue Baochai's social relations. Its special social status determines that its ideological character is essentially different from Jia Zheng, Mrs. Wang and Feng. It is wrong to equate Xue Baochai with Jia Zheng, Mrs. Wang and others.
character trait
Another outstanding feature of Xue Baochai is that she is very sophisticated, that is, she is good at being a person and dealing with the world. In Jiafu, a big family with complicated factions and many contradictions, on the one hand, she adopted the philosophy of "keeping silent when something happens, shaking her head and not knowing" to protect herself; On the other hand, she is good at dealing with interpersonal relationships and maintains a cordial, natural and appropriate relationship with people in all aspects; As the fat comment said: "When people are indifferent, not far away, not close, disgusting people can't see the cold state at last, and will form various sounds;" The gratifying people have not seen intimate feelings and all kinds of voices. " In this seemingly impartial attitude towards life, she paid special attention to trying to figure out and cater to the wishes of the Jia rulers in order to win their favor, but she never showed indifference and contempt for Aunt Zhao and others, so she was praised by all kinds of people in the Jia family. Jia Mu praised her as "stable and peaceful"; Aunt Zhao, who never praises others, also calls herself "generous". Even the little girl is close to her.
There is hypocrisy and affectation in Xue Baochai's character. She likes to please and flatter people. Jia Mu is going to celebrate her birthday and ask her what she likes to listen to and eat. Knowing that old people like lively operas and sweet and rotten food, she answered according to Jia Mu's usual hobbies. She also flatters Jia's face. She said: "I have been here for so many years, so I should pay attention. It seems that Miss Feng is not as clever as the old lady. " As a result, Grandmother Jia praised her: "Speaking of sisters", "From the four girls in our family, they are not as good as Baoyu." After Jin Chuaner committed suicide by jumping into a well, Mrs. Wang felt uneasy. She comforted Mrs. Wang and said: Kim will not commit suicide; If it's suicide, it's just a fool. It's not a pity to die. Just give me a few taels of silver. Mrs. Wang said that clothes for Lin Daiyu's birthday were not good for the dead. Xue Baochai was afraid of her taboo and automatically took out her new clothes for Mrs. Wang. This passage not only says that she courted Mrs. Wang, but also shows how heartless this feudal believer is. On the occasion of the "Shouyihong Night Banquet", she took off a toothpick for drinking, which was painted with peony, and there was an afternoon poem on it: "Being ruthless and moving". According to the standards of feudal society, Xue Baochai was called the crown of beauty, but she also said "heartless". "Ruthless" means that she is a believer and practitioner of feudal morality; "Also touching", but only her beauty. Maru said Leng Xiang, probably implying that she is not enthusiastic. But "ruthlessness" and indifference do not mean adultery. The butterflies flying in Shuige naturally show that she has a plan. But its purpose is to make Xiaohong and Zhui Er think that she didn't see this relationship and didn't mean to frame Lin Daiyu. Jin Xun did not consciously make Mrs. Wang dislike Lin Daiyu. In doing so, she completely followed the feudal philosophy of preserving our sanity and naturally showed her hypocrisy and selfishness. The hypocrisy of her thoughts and words is mainly the hypocrisy of feudal morality itself. Her mind is saturated with feudal thoughts, and she is a lady who faithfully believes in feudal morality and feudal ethics. She believes that it is the most moral thing to do according to feudal ethics; So she naturally achieved the "four virtues". Some people say that Xue Baochai is a "villain and thief", and fear of "Bo" refers to her loyalty and implementation of feudal morality; Because this morality itself is hypocritical. She won the trust of Jia Fu and was finally chosen as Baoyu's wife, which is mainly the natural result of her personality and environment, and should not be simply regarded as the victory of her or Aunt Xue's intrigue. The view that all Xue Baochai's activities are consciously and planned to serve Baoyu is not consistent with the description in the book, and it also narrows the ideological significance of this character. In fact, her character is not treacherous, and she is not always scheming everywhere, but she acts according to feudal orthodoxy, and she is so ignorant. That's like a duck to water. The hypocrisy that people see from her is the embodiment of feudal moral hypocrisy. Xue Baochai's scheming and Xi Feng's duplicity are completely different.
The complexity and richness of Xue Baochai's character are also reflected in some beautiful characters she has. For example, she is considerate, fair, caring, considerate and helpful. Once, xiren wanted to ask Xiangyun to do some needlework for her. When Baochai knew this, she immediately explained to her the difficulties of Shi Xiangyun's "not being in charge at home", "working in the middle of the night" and "being tired when she came", and accused her of being "inconsiderate for a while" and took the initiative to undertake the work that Shi Xiangyun wanted to do. On another occasion, Xiangyun wanted to open a cooperative as the host, and Baochai gave her a crab feast, because her expenses caused complaints from menstruation. Therefore, this outspoken and generous young lady once sincerely praised Baochai: "None of these sisters can compare with Sister Bao. Unfortunately, we don't have maternal love-I don't care if I have such a sister, even if I don't have parents. " We also gave various kinds of help to the benefactor Lin Daiyu and Xing Xiuyan, whose family was poor. Even the servants in the Grand View Garden, she can understand their hard work by getting up early and staying up late all year round and plan some extra benefits for them.
The author's original idea
The image of Xue Baochai was created by the author, not just a traitor, a ghost and a delicate villain. It is not to create a hypocritical and treacherous "female Cao Cao"; Even more than shaping a standard feudal lady image; However, in the image of Xue Baochai, the author has entrusted complicated feelings and deep feelings: praising the intelligence of this beautiful girl and sympathizing with her unfortunate tragic fate; She also deplored her servile belief in feudal ethics and criticized her philosophy of "drifting with the flow". So what he wants to create is a girl with dignified character, beautiful appearance, outstanding talent and profound knowledge, but she is poisoned or even destroyed by feudal ethics. Because of this, the author's exploration of Xue Baochai's character did not stop there, but showed the seemingly contradictory but wonderful unity between the beautiful and healthy factors and the stale and suffocating components in her character in many ways with delicate brushstrokes. This is the fundamental feature of Xue Baochai's typical image. The more profound and full the author shows this fundamental feature, the more profoundly he exposes the poison and destruction of feudal ethics to the girl spirit, and the more sharply he criticizes the "cannibalism" essence of feudal ethics. In criticizing the profoundness of feudal society, this image is no different from Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, except that the destruction of the former is the tragedy of rebels and the destruction of the latter is the tragedy of martyrs. However, they are all victims of feudal ethics. Although Xue Baochai's tragedy is not worthy of sympathy, its critical significance is very profound. Cao Xueqin's outstanding understanding of a generation has been shown here, and the author's ingenuity in shaping the image of Xue Baochai has also been shown here. Only from this fundamental feature can we truly understand these two artistic images.
A Dream of Red Mansions has a prominent feature in depicting characters, that is, it grasps the basic characteristics of the characters repeatedly to make them stand out, and also describes and depicts them in other aspects around the basic characteristics of the characters, making the characters more complex and rich. The image of Xue Baochai is also shaped in this way.
sapient
As a typical feudal lady, Xue Baochai's personality is not only a believer, executor and martyr of feudal ethics, but also manifested in many other aspects.
Xue Baochai is not only square and beautiful in appearance, but also intelligent and knowledgeable in nature. Her childhood upbringing, family environment and intelligent mind have created her profound artistic accomplishment and extensive knowledge. She has extensive knowledge of literature, art, history, medicine, hundred schools of thought and Buddhism, even Jia Baoyu, who is famous for his "miscellaneous studies", is far behind. Such as Yuan Fei's instructions on changing "sapphire" to "green wax" in Baoyu's poems about returning to the province, and Xiang Yun's explanation on "tree". She has a profound understanding of artistic creation and has published incisive opinions. For example, when talking about painting, she pointed out that artists must have hills and valleys in their hearts before creating, so as to accurately cut and treat materials and achieve the purpose of truly reproducing life; In poetry creation, she proposed to "express her own opinions", "be different" and "be deadly novel and open up a new look". Her view of opposing imitation and following others' footsteps is undoubtedly quite insightful. Obviously, in these places, the author endowed this talented girl with her unique views on art.
Her own poetry creation is also quite distinctive. Among the poets in the Grand View Garden, only Lin Daiyu can compete with her. In many poetry competitions, she often wins the championship. Her poems are novel in conception, profound in artistic conception, elegant in style and profound in implication. In this way, the author endows the image of Xue Baochai with rich book spirit and beautiful poet temperament. In these places, the author appreciates her very much.