Hong lou meng: chapters 64-67, 13-15, funerals, horny men and women, Taoism

 1/ The funeral of Giả Kính (Jia Jing) is similar to the one of Tần Khả Khanh (Qin Keqing) at the beginning of the novel: extravagant and wasteful, and much of it is insincere and theatrical. I’m now convinced that even though Cao Xueqin earlier bores readers to death describing all the minute details of a funeral for 3 goddamn chapters, he isn’t a fan of these funeral rites, which are essentially not about grief nor respect for the dead but about honour, wealth, and social status. Vietnamese people have the same mindset—a small, simple funeral doesn’t just make you look poor, it also makes others think you lack filial piety.  

Cao Xueqin tends to group the father and son Giả Trân (Jia Zhen) and Giả Dung (Jia Rong) of Ninh quốc (Ningguo) together, and the father and son Giả Xá (Jia She) and Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) of Vinh quốc (Rongguo) together, but all 4 of them belong to the same set of men: those who can’t keep it in their pants. Their behaviour during the funeral is disgusting. 

I can’t help noting the different ways the authors of The Tale of Genji and Hong lou meng write about horny men: Murasaki Shikibu, as a woman and especially a gentlewoman at court, exposes double standards and male entitlement but still has to write with a certain delicacy and subtlety, whereas Cao Xueqin doesn’t shy away from depicting them as animalistic, shameless, and utterly repulsive, with some rather gross details.  

2/ In an earlier blog post, I noted that Cao Xueqin reported Vương Hy Phượng’s (Wang Xifeng) miscarriage but didn’t write more about her feelings, as though it’s a non-event. 

I’ve now realised that instead of writing at length about it from the start, what he does is that he first mentions it and then slowly drops more details about it, so the incident turns out to carry a lot more significance and also becomes more tragic than I thought, especially in light of what her husband Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) is doing behind her back. He also appears a lot more callous and unfeeling. Cao Xueqin’s approach works well. 

Now, to my own surprise, I’m on Vương Hy Phượng’s (Wang Xifeng) side. 

3/ I love the way the masks of Giả Trân (Jia Zhen) and Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) are dropped: 

“… The two men were spellbound, and yet at the same time repelled. Her looks and gestures were all that inflamed concupiscence could desire; but her words and the very frankness of a provocation too brazen to be seductive kept them at bay.

And a poor pair they made of it in a situation where something other than carnal satisfaction was required of them. Not only was there none of that lively repartee that might have been expected of men who prided themselves on their gallantry; they could not produce so much as a single amusing remark between them and sat there, as the effortless flow of talk continued to pour out of her, fascinated but unresponding. Sometimes she abused them, called them names, said the most outrageous things to them. It was as though the roles had been reversed – as though she was the man and they were a pair of poor, simpering playthings whose services she had paid for. And when she had had enough of playing with them, she dismissed them ignominiously, bolted the door after them, and went to bed.” (Ch.65) 

What a fabulous scene. 

The woman in the scene is Vưu Tam Thư (You Sanjie). Her elder sister Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) is the new secret wife of Giả Liễn (Jia Lian). These two are half-sisters of Vưu Thị (You-shi). 

We’ve always known Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) to be weak and scared of his wife, but Giả Trân (Jia Zhen) has had an affair with his daughter-in-law (now dead), tried something with his new daughter-in-law, and banged his sisters-in-law, so now this scene is delicious. 

4/ Both Hong lou meng and The Tale of Genji have horny men, but here’s something found in the former but not in the latter: horny women, wanton, promiscuous women. 

Hong lou meng doesn’t only have lovely girls, it depicts all kinds of people, all kinds of men and women. 

The Vưu (You) sisters are very vivid creations, especially the youngest—at least in chapter 65. This is one of my favourite chapters in the novel (some others are 1, 5, 9, 12, 50, 56, 63…). 

5/ Speaking of horny women and horny men, I can’t help going back to chapters 10, 11, and 13-15: now the affair between Tần Khả Khanh (Qin Keqing) and her father-in-law Giả Trân (Jia Zhen) becomes so obvious. Compare the father-in-law’s heartbreak to the husband’s indifference during her illness and after her death. 

A Vietnamese-language article I came across yesterday also pointed out 2 interesting details.  

The first one is about her servants:

“News was suddenly brought that Qin-shi’s little maid Gem, on hearing that her mistress was dead, had taken her own life by dashing her head against a pillar. Such rare devotion excited the wondering admiration of the entire clan. Cousin Zhen at once had her laid out and encoffined with the rites appropriate to a granddaughter and ordered her coffin to be placed in the Ascension Pavilion of the All-scents Garden side by side with Qin-shi’s.

As Qin-shi had died without issue, another of her little maids called Jewel volunteered to stand in as her daughter and perform the chief mourner’s duties of smashing the bowl when the bearers came in to take up the coffin and walking in front of it in the funeral procession. Cousin Zhen was very pleased and gave orders that thenceforth everyone was to address her as ‘Miss Jewel’ just as if she were Qin-shi’s real daughter...” (Ch.13)

Their Sino-Vietnamese names are Thụy Châu and Bảo Châu respectively. 

At the time I thought this detail was very odd but dismissed it as a weird Chinese thing (lol), but now that there have been several deaths and funerals in the novel, this appears quite unusual and weird. This is more than grief.  

Later, after the long, very long funeral rites: 

“Jewel, it seemed, refused absolutely to go back home, and Cousin Zhen was obliged to leave a woman or two at the temple to keep her company.” (Ch.15) 

Note too that Tần Khả Khanh (Qin Keqing) isn’t meant to die after a long illness. As everyone points out, including David Hawkes, the riddle and painting of Kim lăng thập nhị thoa chính sách (12 Beauties of Jinling—official register) and the song in 12 khúc Hồng lâu mộng (Dream of Golden Days song cycle) hint that she hangs herself, and her manner of death is apparently changed because pressure from Ky Hốt Tẩu (Odd Tablet in Hawkes’s translation), one of the two earlier commentators of the novel. He and Chi Nghiễn Trai (Zhiyanzhai/ Red Inkstone) knew Cao Xueqin intimately; he was older and seemed to have some authority over the author. 

Another interesting detail that the article mentioned was Vưu Thị (You-shi). She says lots of nice things to other people about her daughter-in-law when she’s alive and right after she’s dead, but “calls sick”, leaves all the funeral arrangements to Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) and others, and hardly appears during this time. Is she really sick as she says, or merely pretends in order to avoid the funeral and avoid public scrutiny?  

6/ The development of Vưu Tam Thư (You Sanjie) in chapter 66 is a bit of a disappointment. The change to me appears abrupt and unconvincing. I may believe that Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) is transformed by domestic life, by her love for Giả Liễn (Jia Lian), but her sister’s change doesn’t make much sense. It seems forced, almost like Cao Xueqin doesn’t know what to do about the character. 

7/ Liễu Tương Liên (Liu Xianglian) from chapter 47 reappears. I like that he says: 

“‘The only clean things about that Ning-guo House are the stone lions that stand outside the gate. The very cats and dogs there are corrupted!’” (Ch.66) 

He is, as Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) correctly says, cold. 

I can’t help wondering what Cao Xueqin truly thinks about the characters in the novel who join Taoism. People say that Hong lou meng is a Taoist novel; a Buddhist monk and a Taoist priest bring the stone to earth and keep an eye of the stone—Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu); Taoist texts such as Zhuangzi are mentioned, etc. but does it necessarily mean that he agrees with all the characters who follow Taoism? 

I think one can argue that he doesn’t agree with Giả Kính (Jia Jing), who renounces life, evades all responsibilities, and does nothing whatsoever in the house, and in the end swallows some toxic substance “in pursuance of his Taoist researches” (ch.63). 

But what about Chân Sĩ Ẩn (Zhen Shiyin)? And Liễu Tương Liên (Liu Xianglian)? Do they not seem like cowards who run away from life, especially the former? Or am I merely talking as someone ignorant of Taoist teachings?

8/ Tiết Bảo Thoa’s (Xue Baochai) reaction to the incident involving Liễu Tương Liên (Liu Xianglian) and Vưu Tam Thư (You Sanjie) is like her reaction to the Kim Xuyến (Golden) tragedy. She is considerate and nice to people around her, but is cold to those who are dead or gone. Even her brother Tiết Bàn (Xue Pan), one of the arseholes of the story, seems now to have more feeling than she does. 

Only Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu) seems to have compassion. 

But what if Cao Xueqin’s point is to be like Bảo Thoa (Baochai), to accept things as they are and to let all things take their course? I don’t know. But this is something I can’t quite accept. 

9/ The part about Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) at the end of chapter 67, I’ll leave to the later blog post.