Why was Xue Baoqin repented of being married by the Mei Hanlin family? The answer was hidden in Aunt Xue's words that politely rejected Jia Mu
The purpose of Xue Baoqin's coming to Jia Mansion was not to visit relatives and friends, but to follow his brother Xue Tadpole to marry the Mei Hanlin family, but strangely, it was empty, the Mei family was not in the capital, and the whole family went to office. His brother Xue Tadpole had no choice but to take his sister Xue Baoqin to live in Jia Province with his aunt Xue Baoqin.
It is reasonable to say that the ancient marriage was agreed in advance by the parents' fate, Xue Tadpole took his sister Xue Baoqin to the capital to marry, the Mei Hanlin family should be aware, and the two families should have already agreed on the day, the strange thing is that the Mei family went to the office, not in the capital, and did not notify the Xue family.
In fact, this strange behavior of the Mei family, there is only a reasonable explanation, that is, the Mei Hanlin family wants to repent, the Xue family is not willing to give up, in the case of Xue's mother is ill, Xue Tadpole took the initiative to send his sister Xue Baoqin to the capital to complete the marriage, but encountered the Mei family's repentance, the situation is very embarrassing.
Why was Xue Baoqin repented of being married by the Mei Hanlin family? The answer was hidden in Aunt Xue's words that politely rejected Jia Mu.
First, the Xue family fell, and the Mei Hanlin family repented.
Aunt Xue meant it, probably to match Baoyu. Aunt Xue's heart was also willing, but she had already promised the Mei family, because Jia Mu had not yet said it clearly, and she was not good at formulating it, so she half-spit and half-revealed to Jia Mu: "Unfortunately, this child is not blessed, and his father disappeared the year before." He had seen a lot of the world since he was a child, and he had followed her parents all over the mountains and five mountains. His father was happy, because there were trades everywhere, with his family, this province for a year, next year to that province for half a year, so the world stopped ten times, and there were five or six stops. Here that year, she was promised to Mei Hanlin's son, but the next year his father died, and his mother was sputum again. ”
It is not difficult to see from aunt Xue's refusal of Jia Mu that Xue Baoqin's father promised his daughter to Mei Hanlin's son in the capital at that time, and died of illness the following year. After Xue's father died, Xue's mother suffered from phlegm again, and Xue Tadpole's father's branch began to decline, and the business was not as good as before.
Ancient marriage pays attention to the door to the household, originally Mei Hanlin for his son to set this family affair is also looking at the wealth of the Xue family and xue father's personality, now that the Xue father has died, the Xue family's business has also been greatly affected, the Xue family is in decline, and the defeat has begun to appear.
Obviously, at this time, the Mei Hanlin family no longer needed this family affair, and the Mei family wanted to repent, so on the day when the marriage contract expired, the whole family went to office and left the daughter of the Xue family in the middle of the road.
After all, Xue Tadpole was a child, and he took his sister to defect to his aunt Xue and asked Aunt Xue, the elder, to find a way to deal with them. Aunt Xue naturally had to rely on the help of Jia Fu to facilitate this matter, after all, Jia Yuanchun was still a noble concubine in the harem at that time. Coincidentally, Jia Mu liked Xue Baoqin very much, not only took care of her diet and living herself, but also forced Madame Wang to recognize Xue Baoqin as a dry daughter.
In this way, not only did he cut off Xue Baoqin's way of marrying Bao Yu, but he also added a layer of identity for Xue Baoqin, that is, the sister of the noble concubine Jia Yuanchun. When Jia Mu asked Xi Chun to paint, she deliberately stressed that she should paint the scene of Xue Baoqin holding a plum blossom in it. Jia Mu's intention should be very clear, that is, to borrow this painting to ask for the help of the noble concubine Jia Yuanchun for Xue Baoqin.
Just imagine if Jia Yuanchun was willing to help with this, with Jia Yuanchun's position in the palace, the Mei Hanlin family would not dare to repent. Sure enough, in the seventy-eighth dream of the Red Chamber, the Mei Hanlin family appeared, although the book did not state that he came to Jia Province to fulfill the marriage contract with the Xue family, but the Mei Hanlin family sent a gift to Baoyu. It also indirectly explains that Mei Hanlin sent someone to Jia Province, whether it is to discuss Xue Baoqin's marriage is unknown, but this at least shows that there is this possibility, but Cao Xueqin's last forty times the content is lost, and the reader can only guess Xue Baoqin's marriage based on the content of the first eighty times.
Xue Baoqin has a nostalgic poem, one of which is "not in the plum side but in the willow side", which is interpreted by readers as Xue Baoqin's marriage to Leng Erlang Liu Xianglian in the last forty times. In fact, there are two sentences behind this nostalgic poem: "Reunion Mo Yi Chun Xiang arrived, a farewell to the west wind and another year." These two poems are full of parting sorrows, and there is also the pain of parting after marriage.
It is not difficult to see from this that Xue Baoqin's marriage to Liu Xianglian is just a misunderstanding, and the real ending should be that she married Mei Hanlin's son, but after marriage, she lived a life of gathering less and leaving more, and her life after marriage should not be satisfactory, which is also in line with the tragic ending of Cao Xueqin's character Wan Yan.
Besides, after You Sanjie's death, Liu Xianglian followed the Taoist priest to become a monk, and it was impossible to marry Xue Baoqin again. Xue Baoqin's ending should be to marry Mei Hanlin's son, but the life after marriage is not satisfactory, and the days of gathering less and leaving more bring Xue Baoqin more sadness and unhappiness.
Second, the Xue family sent their daughter to marry the Mei family.
Later, Xue Panzhi's younger brother Xue Tao, because when his father was in Beijing, he had already married his sister Xue Baoqin to the son of Mei Hanlin in the capital, and was about to enter Beijing to marry, and when wang Ren entered Beijing, he also brought his sister to come.
This is a passage from the forty-ninth dream of the Red Chamber, which details xue Baoqin's purpose of coming to the capital and the reason for entering Jia Province. Xue Baoqin went to Jia Fu to live temporarily, with the purpose of waiting for marriage in the capital, but the Mei family went to the office together and were not in the capital.
It is not difficult to see from this that the mei family's entire family has gone to office, not a coincidence in the Xue family's population, it should be that the Mei family deliberately did this. After all, the marriage contract between the two families has long been decided before, the Mei family cannot not remember this date, the reason why the Mei family did this should be to see Xue Father die, the Xue family decay, and want to repent. In the face of the Mei family's approach, Xue Tadot and his sister had no choice but to temporarily live in Jia Fu and wait patiently for a way to save it.
In fact, judging from Xue Tadpole's practice of taking her sister to the capital to marry despite her mother who was seriously ill in bed, the Xue family should have already sensed the Mei family's remorse for marriage, and Xue's mother was worried that she was seriously ill and her daughter wanted to keep filial piety for three years to affect her marriage, so she let her son Xue Tao take advantage of her physical strength to take her sister Xue Baoqin to the capital to marry.
In fact, Xue's mother can also understand this, after all, the repentance at that time had a great impact on a girl, coupled with the Fact that the Xue family was unwilling to lose such a good relative as the Mei family, let Xue Tadpole take the initiative to send her sister Xue Baoqin to the capital to complete the marriage. Without thinking that the Mei family had moved out of the capital and gone to Renshang, the Xue family was equivalent to throwing themselves into the air, only to get Jia Fu to settle down.
Fortunately, Jia Mu liked Xue Baoqin very much, forced Lady Wang to recognize her as a dry daughter, and with the protection of the two layers of kinship between Lady Wang and Jia Yuanchun, I believe that the Mei Hanlin family did not dare to easily repent. At the end of the first eighty times, the Mei Hanlin family finally appeared, although they only came to Jia Province to give gifts, but they also hidden other meanings.
It can be seen that Mei Hanlin saw that the Xue family was defeated and Xue's father died, and he had the meaning of repentance. And the Xue family did not want their daughter to fall into a bad reputation of repentance, and did not want to lose such a good relative as the Mei family, just with the help of Jia Fu, turned the situation around, Xue Baoqin should have married Mei Hanlin's son in the last forty times, but the life after marriage was not satisfactory, and the two people lived a parting life after marriage.
I am Xiao Meng, telling you the story of "Dream of the Red Chamber".
Reference works: Cao Xueqin, Fat Yanzhai commentary on "Dream of the Red Chamber" Fat Collection