Hong lou meng: chapters 57-60, Daiyu, actors, servants’ hierarchy

1/ After the magnificent chapter 56, 57 is a bit of a disappointment. However the mad scene of Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu) explains a scene back in chapter 32, about which I complained in an old blog post (at number 3). 

2/ The focus of Hong lou meng is the girls and women. As the girls are growing up and would soon have to worry about marriage, in chapter 55 Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) and Bình Nhi (Ping’er/ Patience) allude to Giả Thám Xuân’s (Jia Tanchun) bad marriage prospects because of her inferior status; now in chapter 57, Tử Quyên (Zijuan/ Nightingale) worries about Lâm Đại Ngọc’s (Lin Daiyu) future. 

Cao Xueqin writes happy, joyful scenes of the cousins together but there’s always some shadow hanging over them, some hint of a dark future ahead. 

3/ In Hong lou meng, Lâm Đại Ngọc (Lin Daiyu) and Tiết Bảo Thoa (Xue Baochai) are conceived as foils to each other. In popular culture, Bảo Thoa (Baochai) is the pragmatic, proper, and prudent one but lacks passion and doesn’t have an emotional bond with Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu)—she is Sense; Đại Ngọc (Daiyu) is the delicate, hypersensitive, melancholic, and poetic one—she is Sensibility. The latter is seen as the one with depth of feeling. 

But now I don’t quite think so. Think about it, does Đại Ngọc (Daiyu) really have depth of feeling as people say? Or her feeling is mostly for herself, Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu), and “abstract things” such as poetry, autumn rain, or dead flowers, not other people? 

Contrast her with Bảo Thoa (Baochai). After the beating, Bảo Thoa (Baochai) says nothing but brings medicine; Đai Ngọc (Daiyu) brings nothing but herself, and just cries. Bảo Thoa (Baochai) is the one who is considerate of other people’s feelings, she is the one who tries to do some kindness to Sử Tương Vân (Shi Xiangyun), Tập Nhân (Xiren/ Aroma), Hình Tụ Yên (Xing Xiuyan)… Or if we look at Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu)—he may be seen as foolish and cannot do much, but he’s sensitive to other people’s suffering and tries to take care of his (female) cousins and servants. 

Placed next to them, does Đại Ngọc (Daiyu) not appear self-centred? Does her sensitivity not appear hollow? 

Of course you may argue that she doesn’t have the freedom and financial independence of Bảo Thoa (Baochai), but I’d say that she doesn’t seem to care much about other feeling’s plight either. She is more sensitive to the melancholy of autumn rain or dead flowers than to the feelings of other people. And speaking of lack of freedom or financial independence, we can look at Sử Tương Vân (Shi Xiangyun). 

4/ Note for the troupe of actors and actresses in chapter 58:

Văn Quan (Élégante)=> goes to Giả Mẫu (Jia Mu).

Phương Quan (Parfumée)=> goes to Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu).

Nhụy Quan (Étamine)=> goes to Bảo Thoa (Baochai).

Ngẫu Quan (Nénuphar)=> goes to Đại Ngọc (Daiyu).

Quỳ Quan (Althée)=> goes to Tương Vân (Xiangyun).

Đậu Quan (Cardamome)=> goes to Bảo Cầm (Baoqin).

Ngải Quan (Artémisie)=> goes to Thám Xuân (Tanchun).

Già Quan (Aubergine)=> goes to Vưu Thị (You-shi). 

Chapters 58 and 59 are about the small actors who stay with the Giả (Jia) family after others have gone home. They stay either because they have nowhere else to go, or because they don’t want to be sold again. Cao Xueqin doesn’t seem to leave out any group, any class of people living in these mansions. He sees them all and depicts them all.

5/ Look at these lines from Xuân Yến (Swallow), daughter of a servant named già Hà (mamma He), who is godmother of Phương Quan (Parfumée): 

“‘… it does seem to be as Bao-yu once said. “A girl before she marries is like a priceless pearl, but once she marries the pearl loses its lustre and develops all sorts of disagreeable flaws, and by the time she’s an old woman, she’s no longer like a pearl at all, more like a boiled fish’s eye.” He said, “How can the same person, at different times in her life, seem like three completely different people?” – Of course, I knew at the time he was only talking his usual nonsense; but really there does seem to be some truth in it. I don’t know about other people’s families, but it’s certainly true of my mother and my aunt. The older they get, the more they seem to care about nothing else but money.’” (Ch.59) 

HAHAHAHAHAHA that final line. 

This however confirms my generalisation in an earlier blog post about girls vs women in Hong lou meng. 

6/ There is strict hierarchy in the Giả (Jia) family, there is also hierarchy among the servants. It is a complex, intricate world and there is a clear sense of order that nobody can violate. We already see this throughout the novel but it becomes the focus of chapter 59.  

These chapters have lots of fighting, lots of pettiness, lots of spite. 

Chapter 60 becomes more complex when there’s a conflict between Phương Quan (Parfumée) and Triệu di nương (concubine Zhao). It’s a conflict between a child actor, or former child actor, whose status and rank in the house are unclear compared to the rest, and a concubine, who is above the servants but not equal to the mistresses of the house.     

Again I think the Vietnamese translation is much better to read than the English translation (except for the poems) because there is a stronger, more colourful tone in the dialogue, especially in sarcastic remarks or in fighting scenes such as we see in these chapters.