In Dream of Red Mansions, in addition to the famous love story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, what is even more convincing is the unfathomable cultural connotation of the author Cao Xueqin.
All kinds of poems, songs, and couplets are hidden in mysteries, especially a seemingly simple couplet, which contains a philosophy of life that only those who have truly experienced the vicissitudes of the world can understand.
What exactly is this couplet expressing? What does it mean?
Jia Yucun is a poor scholar, he was born in a scholarly family, the eldest in the family, he has been brilliant since he was a child, and he is obsessed with reading and reciting poetry.
It's a pity that his family is in the middle of the road, his parents died early, and now he is the only one left in the family who studies day and night to motivate himself.
In order to revive the family business, he decided to go to Beijing alone to take the exam, but he was short of money and could only live in the gourd temple in the capital.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival one year, Jia Yucun was invited by his friend Zhen Shiyin to come to his house as a guest.
Zhen Shiyin likes literati and ink writers, and the two hit it off at first sight and talked happily.
He became a bosom friend with the Confucian scholar Zhen Zhiyuan in the neighboring village, and the two often exchanged articles and wrote couplets and poems.
During the period of correspondence between the two, Jia Yucun often used wine to express his ardent expectations for the imperial examination, and his words revealed his great ambition to serve the country.
However, Jia Yucun has an ambition hidden in his heart, he longs for the officialdom of the capital and wants to soar to the sky.
In order to gain fame, Jia Yucun left his hometown and came to the capital to seek a job.
Zhen Shiyin praised his integrity and knowledge, and gave him a very generous road fund, totaling more than 20 taels, which was enough to support Jia Yucun to study in the capital for more than a year.
Not only that, before leaving, Zhen Zhiyuan also calculated an auspicious day for Jia Yucun, and asked him to set off on time to catch the exam.
Jia Yucun thanked him flatly, as if he didn't care about this huge amount of money at all, and left in a hurry before dawn the next day, for fear that Zhen Shiyin would regret it.
Surprisingly, Jia Yucun really won the Jinshi in one fell swoop, which was rare for thousands of people at that time.
Jinshi and the first show the world, nothing can make Jia Yucun more proud than this.
He soon relied on this fame to return to his hometown and take up the post of prefectural magistrate.
But he is not content with himself, and always wants to take shortcuts to obtain wealth.
Jiayu Village, which was ambitious, became proud and complacent, indulged **, and wantonly looted the wealth of the people.
Jia Yucun accepted ** bribes, made friends with powerful people, and made some interpersonal relationships, wanting to be promoted quickly and make a fortune.
He showed his sinister and treacherous nature when he seized power, which attracted the public anger of the local people.
As a result, he was targeted by the prefect, and within a year, he was dismissed and investigated for ** crimes.
Overnight, Jia Yucun lost his official position and wealth, and he was forced to leave the capital and travel around to earn a living.
During the journey, Jia Yucun met an old friend and learned that there was a family in Jiangnan that was in need of a teacher.
Jia Yucun saw a good opportunity to apply for this job, and eventually became Lin Daiyu's tutor.
In the Lin family, Jia Yucun lived a quiet life, Daiyu was a bright student, but she was weak and often sick.
In addition to teaching, Jia Yucun likes to wander around, one day he accidentally walked to Zhitong Temple, and saw a couplet hanging on both sides of the temple gate: "There is more than enough behind me to withdraw my hand, and there is no way to turn back." ”
Seeing this, Jia Yucun suddenly felt a shock in his heart! It's as if something is about to come out.
Zhitong Temple is built in the deep mountains and old forests, the door can be full of birds, the wall is decorated, the eaves are messy, and it is very dilapidated and desolate.
This aphorism woke up Jia Yucun and reminded him of the experience of greedily clinging to officialdom when he was young.
Jia Yucun was born in a scholarly family, but because of his family's downfall, he had to climb and roll in the officialdom after being lifted.
During his tenure, Jia Yucun went his own way, accepted gifts, made connections, and finally rose to prosper, and was even promoted to the manager of an important department in the capital.
Throughout his life, Jia Yucun has never been able to abandon his obsession with wealth and status, nor has he repented from his mistakes.
Although he finally achieved brilliant achievements, he still felt empty and dissatisfied in his heart, and finally ended up being dismissed, which can be described as very happy.
Reduced from a high position to an ordinary person overnight, Jia Yucun's heart was like ashes, but he still had no remorse, until now he saw this couplet.
He pondered and felt that although the couplet was simple, it contained infinite wisdom.
It is as if to remind the world not to be greedy and commit irreparable mistakes.
Jia Yucun was deeply moved and thought that this must be done by a master.
He couldn't wait to pay homage to the great monk who wrote the couplet and ask him to explain the truth in the couplet.
Who knew that as soon as he walked into the temple gate, he came out to greet a sloppy old monk.
The old monk was dressed in tatters, covered in dust, and looked confused.
Jia Yucun thought to himself, how could such a sloppy person write such a wonderful couplet?
He was immediately disillusioned, and hurried away without looking back, soon forgetting the brief epigram altogether.
Jia Yucun's move shows his lack of wisdom.
In fact, that couplet was inspired by the old monk's mouth, and Jia Yucun was specially reminded not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
However, Jia Yucun's eyes were above the top, and he didn't take the old monk in his eyes, nor did he cherish the wise words in the aphorism.
Later, with the help of the old lord Lin Ruhai, Jia Yucun became a higher official again, and his career was smooth for a while.
At that time, Jia Yucun managed to get in touch with Lin Ruhai and curry favor with Lin Ruhai to write a letter of recommendation to achieve his goal of becoming an official again.
Lin Ruhai also understood Jia Yucun's intentions, but he still wrote the letter.
Jia Yucun was overjoyed and immediately set off for Jiafu with a letter of recommendation.
When he arrived in Jiafu, Jia Yucun successfully became the prefect under the strong recommendation of Jia Zheng, and his official fortune was prosperous.
However, he also began to show the hypocrisy of flattery in officialdom.
A ** has become a turning point in Jia Yucun's career.
This was originally an ordinary homicide case caused by human trafficking, but it involved the Xue family, one of the four major families.
Jia Yucun wanted to deal with it impartially, but he listened to the persuasion of others.
He didn't dare to offend the four major families, so he had to favor the Xue family.
From then on, Jia Yucun began to enter and leave the Xue Mansion, relying on the Xue family to climb higher in the officialdom.
When Jia's mansion was raided, Jia Yucun immediately cleared up the relationship, for fear that he would also be implicated.
He even insulted and trampled on his former benefactor in public, which was extremely shameless.
However, the good times did not last long, and Jia Yucun soon made his own decisions in the new case and was dismissed and investigated.
When he remembered the Zhitong Temple couplet again, it was too late, and he could only sigh.
Although the epigram of Zhitong Temple flashed in front of Jia Yucun's eyes, he never understood the meaning.
As the old monk said, although Jia Yucun has a certain understanding, his wisdom is still shallow, and it is difficult to understand the wise words in the couplet.
This experience has also become the regret of Jia Yucun's life, but there is no regret medicine available in the world.
Only then did he remember Mr. Zhen's admonition, people always regret it when they are desperate, but it is too late.
Jia Yucun finally understood the deep meaning of that couplet, but he couldn't do it again, so he could only regret it.
Jia Yucun has changed from a young man with a sense of justice to a sycophant and opportunistic **.
Many of the key choices in his life have confirmed the phrase "think when you are desperate".
If he could have stopped his losses in time and kept his heart, maybe the result would have been very different.
However, Jia Yucun turned a blind eye and did not understand the importance of repentance until he had nothing to do, but it was too late.
There are no ifs in life, Jia Yucun can only accept this tragic result in regret.
He doesn't know how to cherish the hard-won opportunities, and his talent is difficult to make up for the lack of virtue.
Jia Yucun's experience clearly proves that success is not only a matter of necessity, but also requires the tempering of personality.
Whether he learns from his failures and reflects on himself after that will need to be verified by his actions in the future.
Jia Yucun was originally a scholar, but was contaminated by power, exposing his bad nature, if he had the heart of serving the country and saving the people, honest and self-reliant, he might win the love of the people, and he would not lose power, but unfortunately he was careless of human life, ungrateful, and finally could only collapse, Jia Yucun's story makes people think, a person's success or failure, the most important thing is heart and integrity. As the saying goes, success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He.
The nature of human nature is complex, greed is only one side, how we should look at greed, we need to think from a higher perspective, greed brings harm, but it can also promote progress, the key is judgment, and everyone is right"degrees"There are differences in understanding, which seems to put us in a dilemma – if we can't define "degrees", how can we determine what is the right path and what can go crazy? This requires a deeper level of thinking and **.