Tell me about Shi Xiangyun in Dream of Red Mansions!

Shi Xiangyun

Shi Xiangyun is one of the characters that Cao Xueqin focuses on portraying in "A Dream of Red Mansions". She ranks among the best among the "Twelve Beauties of Jinling" and occupies a very important position in the complex image system of "A Dream of Red Mansions". Her image has played an important role in profoundly exposing social contradictions and broadly expressing her works.

In the judgment against Xiangyun, it is written: "What is wealth and honor? Parents are disobedient in their infancy. In a blink of an eye, the slanting light is hanging, and the water of the Xiangjiang River passes away, Chu Yun flies away." The judgment summarizes that Xiangyun was born in wealth and grew up in wealth. Worrying, he lost his parents at an early age, and suffered a misfortune, so he could only spend his life in poverty and misery. Because her life was extremely varied, her character also changed with the changes in her life circumstances.

Because she had lived in a high-walled courtyard under feudal rule since she was a child, and was imprisoned in a feudal mansion filled with feudal lords. Her long-term standard feudal upbringing made Shi Xiangyun accept a set of outdated traditional thoughts. concept. In Chapter 31, Shi Xiangyun talks about yin and yang with his maid Cui Lu: Shi Xiangyun believes that "the world is endowed with the two qi of yin and yang, which may be good or evil, strange or strange, and ever-changing, all of which are in harmony with yin and yang." Contrary, how many people are born with rare surprises, but the truth is still the same." When Cuixi suggested: "From ancient times to the present, the world has been yin and yang," Shi Xiangyun called her "confused" and scolded her for "farting." , and then further explained his point of view: "Everything is yin and yang, how can there be a yin and yang? The two words yin and yang are just one word. When yang is exhausted, it becomes yin, and when yin is exhausted, it becomes yang; It’s not that when the yin is gone, another yang is born, and when the yang is gone, another yin is born.” This grand essay by Shi Xiangyun highlighted how deeply she was poisoned by feudal idealism. Its feudal class nature was exposed.

In this case, Xiangyun and Baochai have the same ideological system. When she first appeared in Jia's house, she still slept on the same bed as Lin Daiyu. When Thirty-Seven responded to the invitation to join the poetry club, she was dragged by Xue Baochai to live with him in Hengwuyuan. In the twenty-first chapter, when she saw Jia Baoyu trying to eat rouge, she slapped him away, and at the same time scolded him, "How long did it take for this ungrateful boy to change his ways?" From this point on, she began to reveal this aristocratic girl. The feudal Taoism in him. Then she used Xue Baochai's accent to persuade Jia Baoyu to make friends with people like Jia Yucun and pursue an official and economic career. This Xue Baochai-like remarks made Baoyu very angry. He immediately denounced it as "bastard words" just like he did to Xue Baochai in the past, embarrassed her, and drove her to sit in another room. It can be seen that Shi Xiangyun still has deep-rooted feudal ideas in his heart.

However, with the unfortunate experience of her living as a dependent, the decline and ruin of the four major families, and the turmoil in the Grand View Garden, the "Catkins" written at the last poetry meeting clearly showed her unwillingness to feudalism. The class's "goodbye" and the infinite attachment and mourning for the complete loss of paradise.

However, the biggest change in Xiangyun's character occurred in Chapter 76. On the bright night of the Mid-Autumn Festival that year, Jia Mu led the whole family to have a banquet in the Grand View Garden to admire the moon. Although they kept their spirits up and had fun, playing drums and playing flowers, drinking wine, composing poems, and telling jokes, an atmosphere of solemnity and decay surrounded them tightly. Coupled with the sobs and melancholy flute sounds that came from time to time, the sensitive and melancholy Daiyu naturally felt emotional about the writing and leaned over the railing to shed tears. When it was late at night and Xi Sanren returned, only Shi Xiangyun, who was suffering from the same illness, was left to comfort Lin Daiyu. As she talked, she couldn't help complaining to Baochai, "I hate Sister Baochai. She talks about being intimate with her every day. She has already said that in the middle of autumn this year, we should all enjoy the moon together. It is necessary to get together and join hands with each other. Today, she has given up." Let’s go and admire the moon by ourselves.” Xiangyun, who experienced major changes in the Jia family, was ignored by Baochai, and experienced the harshness of the world, finally became isolated from the feudal forces. Together with Lady Daiyu, she sang the elegiac song of despair and despair before the aristocratic class was destroyed, "The shadow of the crane crosses the cold pond, the soul of the flower is buried in the cold moon". In addition, in Shi Xiangyun, we can also see a series of high-level images such as "heroic and magnanimous", "moon-worthy" character and outstanding talents.

As a successful artistic model, Shi Xiangyun’s dialectical characters play a very important role in revealing the social contradictions expressed in the work itself