However, in this beautiful 360-degree article with no dead angle, the author describes a poor and ugly granny Liu from the civilian class with great color. Why? What is the author's intention?
It is said that the Red Chamber is difficult to understand, and understanding the role played by Grandma Liu Can will help us better understand the Red Chamber.
Granny Liu has been to Guo Rongfu for three times. From her second visit to Guo Rong Mansion, we can see the satirical effect of the author on the nobles.
Granny Liu tolerated Xifeng and Yuanyang and satirized Jia's "poetic style" as a mere formality. Granny Liu entered Guo Rongfu for the second time, and returned the gift for the sake of reciprocity. I was going to go home after the ceremony, but I didn't expect to vote for the old lady Jia Fu and let her stay for a few days. Therefore, under the arrangement of Jia Mu, Granny Liu had the opportunity to enter the Grand View Garden, experience the daily life of these noble ladies, and eat, drink and be merry with them.
Among them, there is a feast.
Wang Xifeng and Yuanyang always want to play something new to please the old lady. This time, they will play tricks on granny Liu to achieve their goal.
In other words, the initial intentions of Wang Xifeng and Yuanyang were not from goodwill. They don't really treat Granny Liu as a guest, they just want to make everyone laugh by playing tricks on her.
As a result, they are very satisfied. Granny Liu is very cooperative, especially open-minded, and takes the initiative to add drama to herself, making these ladies laugh their heads off:
Shi Xiangyun couldn't stay up and spit out a mouthful of rice; Lin Daiyu smiled and became angry. She bent down on the table and shouted "alas!" ; Baoyu rolled into the old lady's arms early, and the old lady smiled and hugged Baoyu, calling him "sweetheart"; Mrs. Wang laughed so hard that she pointed at Feng. Aunt Xue couldn't stay up, and the tea in her mouth was sprayed on Tanchun's skirt. Tanchun's rice bowls are all on Yingchun; Xichun left her seat and pulled her nurse to call "rub your intestines". There is no one in the ground who doesn't hunch over. Some hide out and squat and laugh, and some endure laughter to change clothes for their sisters.
In everyone's eyes, Granny Liu is a poor and ugly rural old lady, rude in words and deeds, shallow in knowledge and willing to be a clown to make fun of. In fact, granny Liu's heart is like a mirror. She only used one sentence to make Wang Xifeng and Yuanyang feel ashamed: "Nothing else, I only love your family." It's strange to say,' the ceremony will be shown to everyone'. "
"Be polite", a big family is the most polite, but is it a way to entertain guests by making fun of the poor? Is this the "heirloom of poetry and rites" advertised by Jia Fu? Where is the tenderness and gentleness of poetry? Where is Zhuang Jing's courtesy and frugality?
On the contrary, Granny Liu has never received the education of poetry ceremony, and has never flaunted this heirloom. But after seeing through the intentions of Wang Xifeng and Yuanyang, she not only failed to expose them on the spot, but also cooperated quite well. Why would she do that? Because although she has not received the education of poetry ceremony, she knows the truth that "the use of ceremony and harmony are precious". People are kind enough to let you eat, drink and have fun. Let's create a harmonious and pleasant environment together. If Granny Liu doesn't cooperate, or even shows dissatisfaction, she will be embarrassed with the other party, or even break up in discord.
This is the author's satire on Jia family through Grandma Liu: the so-called nobility is not reflected in pavilions and luxurious banquets, but in spirit. On the surface, Jia Fu is a nobleman. In fact, Granny Liu is a nobleman, and her spirit is much more noble than Jia's.
Grandma Liu satirized Jia Baoyu's sleepiness with a story and an act. Jia Baoyu always thinks highly of himself, thinking that he knows a lot about miscellaneous studies, and often looks down on this and that. Grandma Liu just used a story and an act to expose Jia Baoyu. He thinks highly of himself, but he is actually a groggy man.
Granny Liu was stayed by Grandmother Jia for a few days. Knowing that everyone liked her story, she made up a story about "Miss Mingyu smoking firewood on a snowy night". Granny Liu endowed this story with many attractive elements: "a beautiful girl of seventeen or eighteen", "wearing a red coat and white silk skirt", smoking firewood to keep warm on a snowy night, and after her death, she became refined, built a temple and shaped it. These are all made up by grandma Liu casually. Everyone knows it's a story, only Jia Baoyu believes it. He sent Yan Ming to find the temple and blamed Yan Ming for not finding it.
Jia Baoyu is also a scholar. He thinks he has read a lot of books, but he lacks the ability to distinguish. Why? Because he lives in his own world, he will believe as long as he is willing to believe. Therefore, in order to please him, people around him will do whatever they want. For example, he felt that his handwriting was good, and those followers coaxed him: "I saw Mr. Zhong's graffiti in a place the day before yesterday, and his handwriting is getting better and better. Post us a few sooner or later? " He's really on cloud nine. "Nothing, just chatting with my children." It's like accepting to write for others. I really think I have become famous for my calligraphy.
Grandma Liu's story can fool him. What ability does he have to distinguish between true and false in a complex society?
In addition, the author also satirizes Jia Baoyu's living in an illusory world through an unintentional move by Granny Liu.
Grandmother Jia took Granny Liu to the Grand View Garden and visited many quadrangles, but she didn't go to the most prosperous Hongyi quadrangle. However, because grandma Liu was suddenly in a hurry. After solving the problem, I went to YiHongYuan by mistake and slept in Jia Baoyu's bed.
Jia Baoyu loves cleanliness, especially for dirty women. Lin Daiyu told him to go to the outhouse and get a pillow to sleep in. He said, "I don't want that, and I don't know which dirty woman it belongs to." How dirty can the women in Xiaoxiang Pavilion be? No way, in Baoyu's heart, as long as it is a woman, it is dirty. The author Mr. Cao Xueqin is really a stroke of genius. Don't you think women are dirty? Ok, I'll arrange for you an older woman in her seventies, from the countryside, who will sleep in your bed when she is drunk and anxious. This is a terrible sleep. Not to mention "snoring like thunder" and "the smell of wine in the room stinks", which can be said to be extremely dirty.
However, the dirt became like this. After the attack, Jia Baoyu didn't know it, and he still dreamed a beautiful dream every night in this bed.
This is a very interesting irony: Jia Baoyu doesn't like dirty women, but it's not dirty, just the difference between visible and invisible. What he saw was dirty, he thought it was dirty, what he couldn't see was true, and he thought it wasn't dirty.
Therefore, it is easy to cheat him, to his face and behind his back. In front of him, show everything he wants to see cleanly and beautifully; Turn around and put all the dirty and ugly things where he can't see them. He won't know anyway.
This shows that Jia Baoyu thinks he lives in a fairyland-like beauty, but in fact his side is full of filth and ugliness. Because these dirty ugliness are artificially shielded, he can't see it and lives in the illusion carefully created by everyone.
A truly brilliant person can see through everything and is hard to be deceived. Jia Baoyu thinks he is smart, but in fact he is confused and blinded by himself.
The appearance of Granny Liu tore open the package of Lin Daiyu's scholarly family and exposed the essence of lack of education. Grandma Liu and Lin Daiyu have no intersection. During Granny Liu's second visit to the mansion, Lin Daiyu was just a bystander. Grandma Liu didn't provoke Lin Daiyu, but Lin Daiyu nicknamed Grandma Liu "Mother Locust" and said in a contemptuous tone, "What kind of grandmother is she!"
If we must talk about the relationship between relatives and friends, Granny Liu is certainly not Lin Daiyu's grandmother. But as soon as Granny Liu and Grandmother Jia met, Grandmother Jia made a reservation as Granny Liu: "Grandfather!"
Grandma's in-laws, of course, should also be called grandma, which is human nature. If granny Liu is a female locust, then Jia, who is in-laws, is naturally a female locust.
Lin Daiyu's outspoken remarks exposed her lack of education. In any case, those who are called "old husbands" by Jia Mu and those who have been stayed by Jia Mu for a few days are guests of Jia Mu. Even if you don't know how to respect the elderly and granny Liu, should you at least respect Jia? This is your own grandmother!
This is a truth known to a slightly educated person.
Among all the ladies and gentlemen in Jiafu, Lin Daiyu is the most educated person. Because she comes from a scholarly family, her father is a flower explorer, and she has read many poems, so her words and deeds should reflect her upbringing.
But she not only gave Granny Liu a derogatory nickname, but also directly denied this grandmother. As soon as this was said, the package of her scholarly family was torn open, and the lack of education was exposed.
This is the author's irony to Lin Daiyu through Grandma Liu: the so-called scholarly family should not be just a kind of packaging. Whether there is a scholarly family is reflected in words and deeds.
From Jia Fu's aristocratic form and lack of aristocratic spirit, to Jia Baoyu's high self-esteem but practical confusion, and then to Lin Daiyu's scholarly packaging and lack of scholarly upbringing, the author satirizes the so-called aristocrats through Grandma Liu. "It's true when it's fake, it's really fake, it doesn't matter at all." The Red Chamber seems to be aristocratic literature, but in fact, just like Jia Fu is a fake house, it is just a fake aristocratic literature. Through these aristocratic appearances described by the author, it is the author's real purpose to explore the "understanding of the world and the cultivation of human feelings" brought by Grandma Liu.