What is the metaphorical meaning of the silver wax gun head in Dream of Red Mansions?

The "silver-like wax gun head" comes from the second chapter of the fourth book of "The West Chamber" where the matchmaker scolds Zhang Sheng: "You turned out to be a seedling but not showy, bah! You are a silver-like wax gun head." It means that it looks good on the outside, but is actually useless.

In Dream of Red Mansions, Lin Daiyu used this sentence to cancel Jia Baoyu. First, she said that he looked brave (daring to bring in banned books like The West Chamber). If you scare him, he will relent. Secondly, they were just reading The West Wing, and they used the sentences in it to curse, which is a pun

Extended information

The vocabulary of Dream of Red Mansions in Yuan, Ming and Qing operas It has a direct influence. It is worth mentioning that: First of all, the theme of "The West Chamber" has a great influence on "A Dream of Red Mansions", and many plots of "A Dream of the West Chamber" are derived from many lyrics and lyrics of "The West Chamber". Bai Jun was absorbed by "A Dream of Red Mansions", such as "There must be a matchmaker's message outside the screen window", "Every day I feel sleepy at home", "Meng Guang took over Liang Hong's case", "Sitting with the sign diagonally" and so on. p>

In addition, "A Dream of Red Mansions" also absorbed many expressive sayings in "The West Chamber". The most typical example is the words Daiyu scolded Baoyu in Chapter 23 of "A Dream of Red Mansions": "Bah! You turned out to be a Miao but not Xiu, just like a silver-like wax gun head." This comes from the second chapter of the fourth book of "The West Chamber" where the matchmaker scolded Zhang Sheng: "You turned out to be a Miao but not Xiu, bah! You are a silver wax gun. "

Another example is Chapter 62 of "A Dream of Red Mansions": Xing Xiuyan said to Jia Baoyu: "This is what the saying goes, monks are not monks, vulgarity is not vulgar, women are not women, men are not men. "

It is taken from a libretto by Huiming in the second wedge of "The Romance of the West Chamber". In the above two examples, the former only changed the word order, but the whole saying is exactly the same. The latter Wang Shifu thinks it is not a saying, and Cao Xueqin When used, an article is added in front of it to indicate its colloquial nature. All this shows that Cao Xueqin creatively inherited the language elements in "The Romance of the West Chamber".

Due to the strict control of weapons in the Song Dynasty, it was not necessary to Civilians are allowed to hide weapons privately. When private parties need to hold social fires and other activities, the weapons used must be "silver-like wax gun heads"

Reference: Silver-like wax gun heads_Baidu Encyclopedia?