There are many versions of Dream of Red Mansions, and there are large differences in chapters and texts. In contrast, the Fat Yan Zhai commentary is more original and has a better reading experience. However, the origins of Yan Zhai remain an unsolved mystery, although she participated in the creation, annotation, and transcription of The Stone Record.
There are many inconsistencies about royal secrets in Dream of the Red Chamber, which made the book only circulated in a small area for a long time. Through the reading of the lipo book "The Stone Record", we can understand the identity of the owner of the Yan Zhai and the background of their small gang, and the status of this small circle of people is usually higher than that of the author Cao Xueqin.
For example, the second Prince Yi, Hongxiao, had participated in the annotation of the "Stone Record", but in order to avoid trouble, he did not mention this matter in his "Yifu Shulu". Through the comments and annotations of Fat Yan Zhai, we can find that this small circle of people has a common characteristic.
When Yan Zhai reviewed the "Stone Record" for the fourth time, Prince Yi Hongxiao personally instructed him to complete this task. Hongxiao himself has profound literary attainments, and the house has a collection of many classics.
But he is a prince after all, and if he can let Hongxiao participate in this matter, the person behind him must have a higher status, at least a higher rank than Hongxiao, and has a certain influence in the clan.
Some of the details in The Stone require in-depth reading to understand.
Because Cao Xueqin skillfully designed two juxtaposed stories, which not only revealed the royal affairs, but also covered them up with the help of the story of Ning Rong's second mansion. This is a way of writing that can only be done by a person with a lot of political experience, not a pure writer.
Cao Xueqin's "Stone Record", although it was with the participation of Yan Zhai, its materials, editing and finalization were all completed by Yan Zhai, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it was not officially published, but circulated in a small circle.
Cao Xueqin devoted half her life to "The Story of Stones", but she got nothing. This shows that the person who can make Cao Xueqin pay so much must have a deep relationship with the Cao family.
Therefore, the small group of Yan Zhai organized and premeditated to criticize the current dynasty and slander Yongzheng and Qianlong with the help of annotating the "Stone Record", but because they were afraid of getting into trouble, they adopted a more subtle way.
At the beginning of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there was a clan force. This force not only includes the princes of the clan who were suppressed by Yongzheng, but also the prince Baylor who was rectified by Emperor Qianlong, and the highest ranking of them is Yunlu, the sixteenth son of Emperor Kangxi.
In the fourth year of Qianlong, Qianlong labeled Yunlu as a "party for personal gain", accusing him of colluding with Honghui and other clans and plotting against him. Although the specific cause of this political incident is not clear, all indications indicate that only Yunlu is qualified to organize a group of clans dissatisfied with Yongzheng and Qianlong to carry out this secret work.
As for why the second-generation Prince Yi Hongxiao was involved, it was mainly because their family had ties to the Cao family. As early as when Yongzheng investigated the Cao family, Yunxiang was the specific person in charge and gave the Cao family a lot of help.
Later, the descendants of the Cao family often had dealings with Prince Yi's mansion.
Prince Zhuang Yunlu had a closer relationship with the Cao family, because the Cao family was a member of the Han army, and happened to be a descendant of Prince Zhuang, in Qing Dynasty terms, "flag slaves".
After the Cao family was raided, Yunlu also came forward to defend the Cao family and help the Cao family recover the silver taels. These intricate connections make Cao Xueqin a link between them.