Hong lou meng: chapters 67-70, multiple wives, jealousy

1/ These chapters of Hong lou meng make me think about Truyện Kiều: both Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) and Thúc Sinh are terrified of their wives and get a concubine in secret; both Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) and Kiều are soft, naïve, and gullible; both Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) and Hoạn Thư are clever, shrewd women and extremely jealous and cruel. The name of Hoạn Thư has come to mean “a jealous woman" in Vietnamese culture. 

As I’ve read quite a bit about Hong lou meng and spoilt the book a bit for myself, I’m aware that there’s going to be another jealous woman in the novel. Can’t wait to see what she’s like. 

Without condoning anything, Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) is in a different class—she is smarter, more scheming and calculating, and more artful. A crucial difference in circumstances is that Hoạn Thư is the lady in her own house, whereas Cao Xueqin’s character has to think of her reputation and has lots of people above her to consider (and manipulate). 

Hoạn Thư, hearing that her husband has secretly got a concubine, gets people to kidnap Kiều and forces her to become her slave. Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) doesn’t do anything so crude, so primitive. Everyone else is dull and helpless next to her. 

These are such excellent chapters, full of fun. She is one of the best-written female characters, and characters, I’ve encountered in literature. 

2/ There’s no denying that Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) is cruel, but in the earlier blog post I wrote that I was on her side because Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) is in the wrong—he secretly gets a second wife while in state mourning and family mourning; he also gets a second wife without telling his first wife, shortly after his first wife had a very bad, possibly life-threatening miscarriage and can no longer have children; he even talks about wishing she were dead… 

Cao Xueqin writes so well that I may sympathise and side with, even just for a brief moment, a character I find absolutely cruel, heartless, and two-faced. 

3/ Chapter 69 becomes more complex as Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) comes back from his work trip and his arsehole of a father adds fuel to the fire by awarding him with a chamber wife called Thu Đồng (Autumn). 

This is where I must pause to note that there’s a distinction between a concubine and a chamber wife (Hawkes’s translation): a concubine is officially married, such as Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie); a chamber wife is not, and not much above other servants, such as Bình Nhi (Ping’er/ Patience) and Thu Đồng (Autumn).

In Hong lou meng, Giả Xá (Jia She) and Giả Chính (Jia Zheng) and many other men have multiple wives, and Cao Xueqin throughout the novel has depicted the dynamics between the wives and between the children, especially in the case of Triệu di nương (concubine Zhao), who is always jealous and full of resentment. Her son Giả Hoàn (Jia Huan) shares her pettiness and meanness and is liked by nobody but her, while her daughter Giả Thám Xuân (Jia Tanchun), the phoenix born in the crows’ nest, is always embarrassed of her and has to be more watchful of her own words and actions than the other young people. She is an excellent and clever girl but her marriage prospects would be hampered by her status as daughter of a concubine.  

In these chapters, Cao Xueqin goes even further—it’s bad enough that several women have to share a man, imagine if you’re the concubine and the main wife is vicious, brutal and at the same time manipulative like Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng). Imagine the dark games she plays. Imagine how Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) suffers. 

Not only so, Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) has to live in a house where the chamber wife Thu Đồng (Autumn) is an aggressive little bitch, the mother-in-law Hình phu nhân (lady Xing) cares about nobody but herself, the matriarch is gullible and quite dumb, and the husband is a piece of shit who at first neglects her to spend time with the new one and later cannot do a thing to defend or protect her. The only one kind to her is Bình Nhi (Ping’er/ Patience) but there isn’t much she can do, as a servant. 

Vương Hy Phượng’s (Wang Xifeng) true colours come out here, especially in the last moments. There are some readers out there who adore her, but if they read to the end of chapter 69 and still feel the same, there is no hope. 

4/ I note that Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng) is dishonest in her prayer to Buddha. Nothing is sacred to her.  

5/ Now you would ask, what about the young people while all this is happening? Here is something curious. 

Here’s the English text by David Hawkes: 

“Bao-yu and the girls were privately concerned about Er-jie. Though none of them would venture to speak out openly on her behalf, they all of them felt sorry for her. Sometimes, when no one else was about, one or other of them would get into conversation with her.” (Ch.69) 

Here’s the Vietnamese text: 

“Chị em ở trong vườn như bọn Lý Hoàn, Thám Xuân, Tích Xuân đều cho Phượng Thư là có lòng tốt, chỉ có Bảo Ngọc, Đại Ngọc một số người lại lo thay cho chị Hai. Tuy họ không dám nói ra, nhưng trong lòng đều thương xót và thỉnh thoảng lại thăm nom chị ta.” (Ch.69) 

My translation of the Vietnamese text: 

“The sisters in the garden like Li Wan, Tanchun, Xichun all thought that Xifeng was kind, only Baoyu, Daiyu, and a few people worried about Erjie. Even though they didn’t dare to say it openly, they all felt sorry for her and visited her from time to time.” 

Is that not strange? I don’t know what the original says.

However afterwards, apart from Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) and perhaps Bình Nhi (Patience), the only one who feels grief is Bảo Ngọc (Baoyu). People die, life goes on, and the young people in the garden return to writing poetry and doing their things (like playing kites) in chapter 70. 

Cao Xueqin has done this before—a dramatic thing happens only to vanish away quickly, leaving barely any ripples in the later chapters. But this time I don’t think it quite works. The psychological abuse of Vưu Nhị Thư (You Erjie) takes place for a few months, it isn’t a sudden event like the thing with Kim Xuyến (Golden). Even though a few months pass, is it not cold still that the young people just move on with their lives as though nothing happened?  

Update: I’ve just read David Hawkes’s preface and appendices in volume 3. There seem to be lots of textual problems and continuity errors in chapters 64-69, mostly to do with Giả Liễn (Jia Lian) and timing. It’s possible that the story of Vưu Tam Thị (You Sanjie) is grafted onto the novel at a very late stage, without the timing issue being fixed. It’s rather messy.