My understanding: in the extension of the couplet "Jade asks for a good price in the rafters, and firewood stays in the rafters and flies", "Jade" refers to Daiyu, "Good price" refers to "Good Jia", and firewood is undoubtedly a treasure chai, so is "Shifei".
"Jade asks for a good price in the rafters, while women stay and fly" appeared for the first time. At this time, Dai and Chai have not appeared yet, but they are about to appear, and their appearance is directly related to. Needless to say, Daiyu's debut. If Jia Yucun hadn't abolished Xue Fan in the gourd case, Baochai wouldn't have come to Beijing to participate in Jia Fu's Dream of Red Mansions drama. Therefore, an obvious extension of this couplet is to explain the upcoming plot and the appearance of Dai and Chai.
However, this understanding seems to encounter a serious problem, that is, how can such a figure be called a "good Jia"? This is actually the deep intention of Cao Xueqin's writing that "jade asks for a good price in the rafters, and women stay in the rafters to fly". This profound meaning is also contained in Jia Yucun's article The Debate between Good and Evil.
In this discussion, "the righteousness of heaven and earth, the grasp of the benevolent, cruel and eccentric, the evil of heaven and earth, the grasp of the evil" is the definition of "righteousness" and "evil".
Then, "today's Yong Dynasty is prosperous, the world is peaceful and inaction, and the spirit of Qingming and Lingxiu is everywhere, from the imperial court to the grass field. The rest is delicate and unrequited, so it is nectar and gentle wind, which is suitable for watering the world. " It should be a necessary sentence to "praise the saints" with the above "great benevolence and great evil", which is not Cao Xueqin's original intention.
Let's talk about "evil spirits" again: "His cruel and perverse evil spirits can't overflow in broad daylight, so they condense and fill deep valleys." Obviously, the expressions of "righteousness" and "evil" here are asymmetric. Righteousness is the mainstream and evil is the tributary. This asymmetry is also the requirement of "praising saints" rather than Cao Xueqin's original intention.
Then, "I feel a little shaken by the wind, or urged by the cloud, and a little bit of mistakes are released. I value the spirit of exquisite beauty, and I can't tolerate evil, and I am jealous of benevolence and righteousness. The two are incompatible, just like feng shui lightning, which can't be eliminated and can't be let go. It will only be exhausted when you fight. " This is an exposition of "the unity of opposites between good and evil", in which "the right is not allowed to be evil, and the right to be jealous is not at the same time" means "the unity of opposites", and "such as feng shui and lightning, when it meets the ground, it can't be removed, it can't be released, and the struggle for the unity of opposites" is discussed. This is Cao Xueqin's own real idea.
Then it discusses the relationship between this "unity of opposites between good and evil" and the performance of good and evil: "Therefore, its qi will also be given to people, and it will dissipate when it is exhausted. With this spirit, men and women can not be benevolent gentlemen in the world, nor can they be evil in the world. If placed among thousands of people, its glorious spirit is above ten thousand people, and it is absurd and inhuman. The meaning here is: whether a person's behavior is good or evil depends on whether he shows "smart spirit" or "his absurd and unreasonable state"; In other words, everyone's performance of good and evil is not constant.
This view expressed by Cao Xueqin through Jia Yucun is completely different from the orthodox Confucian view of human nature. Confucian point of view is just as Confucius said: "A gentleman who is not kind has a husband, and a benevolent person has no villain." People who try to be a gentleman sometimes behave inhumanely, but villains don't behave inhumanely occasionally. ) It can be seen that according to Confucian orthodoxy, a gentleman is always a gentleman, a villain is always a villain, and Jia Yucun will never have a "good" side. However, Cao Xueqin expressed his unorthodox view of human nature with his vivid and realistic stories.
What some readers may overlook is that Jia Yucun is Lin Daiyu's teacher. By describing Lin Daiyu's father Lin Ruhai's attitude towards Jia Yucun, Cao Xueqin indirectly shows that Lin Ruhai appreciates Jia Yucun's educational achievements towards Lin Daiyu. Daiyu's outstanding talent is directly related to Jia Yucun. In fact, Jia Yucun was always a "good Jia" until she sent Lin Daiyu to Jia's home. Yes, when he was an official in the past, he was involved by his boss because of the so-called "being greedy for coolness has some disadvantages, bullying the weak and being afraid of being hard and being talented", but that thing actually happened for a reason, and some scholars made a convincing in-depth analysis and explanation (note 1).
But by the time Xue Baochai stepped onto the stage of Jia Fu's Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Yucun, who had finished the gourd case, had changed from a "good Jia" to a man of right and wrong.
By the end of 120, Cao Xueqin attributed Jia Yucun to A Dream of Red Mansions and also to the story of Jia Yucun-he returned to the state of an outsider who was neither good nor evil. At this point, Cao Xueqin affirmed his view of human nature: a person's good and evil is neither innate nor unchangeable, but depends on his contradictory struggle between good and evil. When this contradiction and struggle is transformed under certain conditions, people's good and evil will also be transformed into each other. Good people can be transformed into bad people, and bad people can also be transformed into good people.
Although Cao Xueqin didn't fully express his views on human nature in The Debate between Good and Evil (mainly because he didn't mention "the transformation of good and evil under certain conditions", which should be a concern of "hindering language"), he clearly expressed this view with Jia Yucun's vivid stories.
This view of human nature is directly opposed to the orthodox Confucian view of human nature, such as "the benevolent has no villains" and "the gentleman is selfless and only saves righteousness and destroys human desires", which is completely progressive. In A Dream of Red Mansions, this view is not only reflected in the characterization, but also runs through the whole Dream of Red Mansions including the last forty chapters (such as the description of Mrs. Wang in 120). This shows that Cao Xueqin's dialectical view of human nature is not simple, but has risen to a rational height.
From an artistic point of view, Cao Xueqin's original intention should also be to use the seemingly mismatched relationship with "good Jia" to arouse readers' in-depth thinking about human nature.
Note 1: See Jia Yucun, how courtiers are "refined";
Use the label of Jia Yucun.