Jia Zheng's joke about drinking foot washing water

As we all know, China people worship their ancestors. Generally speaking, outsiders do not participate. Baoqin in A Dream of Red Mansions is not a member of the Jia family, but she can participate in ancestor worship activities of the Jia family. What is the reason? Listen to me break down the slow solution.

First of all, let's briefly talk about the regular ancestor worship activities. All the people attending the memorial ceremony are members of their own families. However, if someone wants to see it, the people will not refuse, and if children from other families join in the fun, the people will not go out. Dead ancestors are a face-saving project. If no one knows about it, wouldn't it be a "night tour"? As a child, Baoqin was curious about everything. She wants to see Jia's ancestor worship activities, and no one will say "no". What's more, Baoqin is deeply loved by Jia people? There is even a grandmother who specifically explained that Baoqin is young and asked everyone not to be too strict with her. Moreover, Baoqin is a lady who has seen the world, and there are not so many red tape and false festivals in her behavior. The author asked Baoqin to participate in the ancestor worship activities of the Jia family, and also wanted to show people the hypocrisy of the traditional ritual system from the side.

Why do people worship their ancestors? Put it on the table, it is very grand: remember history, remember responsibility, carry forward ancestors' morality, inherit tradition, enlighten future generations, enhance friendship and enhance cohesion. In fact, all this is just formalism. When people in China worship their ancestors, quite a few people just use the dead to promote ostentation and extravagance and show off their filial piety. Everyone knows this, but it's just tacit. The Jia family is originally a scholarly family, and everyone is polite, and nature is no exception. Let's see how grand and solemn Jia's ancestor worship activities are. Jia Ren went to the main hall of the ancestral temple first, and stood in stages: Jia Jing was the main sacrifice, Jia She accompanied the sacrifice, Jia Zhen offered the title, Jia Lian and silk, Baoyu held incense, Jia Chang and Jia Ling spread carpets and guarded the burning pool. Tsing Yi played music, offered three titles, bowed and washed the end, burned silks, offered wine, paid tribute and resigned. " Then the purlin "worships the shadows", that is, worships the portraits of ancestors. Look at the layout of the main hall: "Before the curtain is hung high, the color screen is protected and the incense sticks are brilliant." Look at the clan's team. "The inner doors of the tribe are erected in turn, leading directly to your highness."

"Outside the sill is Jia Jing, jia forgive, female in the sill. Family members are outside the instrument door. " Men and women are really different. After reading the confession, he said, "Every dish has arrived and sent to Yimen. Jia Bian, Jia Zhi and others took it and sent it to Jia Jing in sequence. Jia Rong is the eldest grandson, and he is the only one accompanying his wife to the threshold. Every time Jia Jing brought rice, it spread to Jia Rong, Jia Rong to his wife, and then to Xifeng's family. It went directly to the altar, and then to Mrs. Wang, and Mrs. Wang went to the grandmother. She put it on the table.

Mrs. Xing stood on the west side of the altar and on the east side, offering sacrifices to the old lady. Jia stepped down and ranked above Jia Qin, until the dish rice soup handed wine and tea. The character chaser is headed by Jia Jing, and the jade chaser is headed by Jia Zhen; Jia Rong is the head of the person who followed the cursive script again. Zuo Zhao You Mu, male east and female west; Grandmother Jia bowed down with a little incense, and everyone knelt down together, wrapping up five halls, three halls, verandahs inside and outside, and two flower beds. All was silent, except the clang, the slight swaying sound of golden bells and Yu Pei, and the sound of kneeling boots. After the ceremony, Jia Jing, Jia She and others resigned and went to Fu Rongying to meet Jia Mu. "Chou Chou, ancestors eat a meal, so the children and grandchildren passed around, as if it was outrageous for anyone not to hold the food, regardless of the fact that the food was cold at that time.

Whether the descendants of the younger generation can truly achieve the purpose of ancestor worship is two different things. At that time, it was very harmonious and happy. Everyone is chatting, holding hands, laughing, playing and having fun. However, after the ancestor worship, everything changed. Even the whole family is like a black-eyed chicken. "I wish you ate me, I ate you!" "The ideal scene of clan harmony does not exist.

There are many children who come to see Jia Fu's grand ancestor worship activities, but why should they write from Baoqin's eyes? We must first know what kind of person Baoqin is. Baoqin has been to many places with his father since he was a child. He is well-informed and open-minded, and his mind is rarely bound by traditional etiquette. How does Baoqin view this blood bond of "respect" and "pro" and how to worship his ancestors? This book doesn't have much content. The author only uses the sentence "Let's say that Baoqin is the first time, look at this ancestral hall carefully" to directly introduce the description of Jiafu ancestral hall and ancestor worship. The author did not introduce any thoughts about Baoqin. Isn't this for the needs of the plot? No, since Baoqin "carefully explores this ancestral temple", he will naturally have his own ideas in his heart. Although the author didn't say it, we can't be fooled.

Baoqin, Baoyu, Xiuyan and Pinger spend their birthdays together in Hongxiang Garden. After everyone had sat down, Tanchun and other four people said; This noise won't last a day. "In the traditional etiquette society, the most important thing is seniority, respect and etiquette, such as ancestor worship and birthday. Usually, politeness is indispensable. However, the child's birthday is naturally much simpler than the birthday of ancestor worship and Jia Mu. However, they don't like these "simple" manners. They call them "noisy". Indeed, I could have had a good time, but once I was bound by etiquette, the birthday boy became a puppet. Who likes it? Baoqin called the etiquette that can't make people enjoy themselves as much as possible "noisy". Then, in Bao Qin's eyes, actually the ancestor worship activities that suppress the true nature in the form of emptiness and grandeur are just a big "noisy" drama.

It was good to worship ancestors. However, due to the erosion of decadent, ugly and despicable traditional society, ancestor worship has lost its ability to adjust people's hearts and rectify order. It has become a fancy form and a game in which the living use the dead as a tool to show people. When people worship their ancestors, they bow down like zombies, their faces twisted and they look like clowns. Going in and out when worshipping ancestors, behaving in a proper way, wandering around, doing their own thing, is extremely chaotic. In reality, people's ancestor worship is still like this, and others are even more unbearable. Jia Zhen, for example, is a righteous general in front, but he is pleased with life and enmity behind him. He lived a life of lead a drunken life all day, and together with his son Jia Rong, he gathered for scum like Second Sister and You Sanjie. Another example is Jia She, who is also a first-class general, but he has a lot of children and grandchildren and wants to marry Yuanyang as a concubine. He didn't achieve his goal, and spent 820 taels of silver to buy a girl of seventeen or eighteen as a concubine. For a few fans I like, I actually let the stone nerd "ruin the family".

Jia Zheng is a good man in the eyes of the public, but in fact this good man is a pedantic and clumsy layman with no taste or talent. He is very happy with his family. He can only tell some vulgar jokes such as "drinking his wife's foot bath water", or get some flattering articles praising saints. When you become an official, you will only do unpaid idle work. Once he is entrusted with an important task, he will become a puppet in the hands of his followers ... traditional ceremony. It is impossible to make life grow freely and develop harmoniously by relying on it. The appearance of sacrifice is rubber pillars and posturing, but the essence is idiotic and absurd. Ideal is too helpless to reality. Everyone in the world of mortals has a set of thoughts and behaviors that are good for others. However, those beautiful ideas, once stained with the edge of the ritual system, have become sharp arrows that hurt beauty and purity.

The old order has been "stormy and rainy", but the new order is still "the moon in the water, the flower in the mirror". More than 200 years ago, Cao Xueqin asked where to put a good life. Today, we are also looking for where to put a better life. There is no road, no direction, so we have to pretend to ask about our ancestors and seek inner peace in the grand scene praised by outsiders.