Forty-two of the 100 questions asked by characters in Red Mansions: Is Caiming next to Wang Xifeng a girl or a boy? (Chapter 14)

(Chapter 14) It is not difficult to tell whether a character is a boy or a girl, a girl or a boy. But Caiming is a special character, and there has been controversy since Zhipi. It’s no wonder that the first word of the two words “Cai Ming” looks like a girl’s name, and the latter word looks like a boy’s name; besides, at the time when “A Dream of Red Mansions” was written, the word “she” had not yet been coined. Both men and women use the word "he" uniformly. Regarding Caiming's gender, the annotations at that time had two different opinions. The earlier one said: "With such a big family in the Ning family and A Feng's status, how can it be reasonable for a close girl to communicate with the men in the family? This is something the author ignored." A later one said: "Sister Feng used Cai Ming , because I don’t know much about literacy, and Caiming is a child who has not been crowned. It is convenient for Ah Feng to come in and out, so I didn’t know whether he was a boy or a girl. It’s ridiculous! "Obviously, the former statement thinks that Caiming is a girl, and the latter statement thinks that Caiming is a boy. Which of them makes more sense? In fact, Wang Xifeng, the deputy director of Ningguo Mansion, mainly dealt with women. This is explained in many places in the book. Why did Jia Zhen ask Wang Xifeng to assist? Because Mr. You had an old illness and was unable to take care of affairs, he was afraid that he would be incompatible with etiquette and be laughed at if he came and went according to his official duties. When Jia Zhen made a face-to-face request to Xing, Mrs. Wang and Wang Xifeng, she made it clear: "Now that my grandson's wife is gone, and my nephew's wife has fallen ill again, I think it's really unethical. Why do you condescend to your eldest sister to stay here for a month?" I feel relieved to be able to cook here." As soon as Wang Xifeng took office, he asked for a roster from those who were promoted to the family, gathered together the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in Ningguo Mansion, called them one by one, and then assigned work to each class. . All those mentioned here are women. One of the people on the way to see off relatives and guests was slapped twenty times for being late. Of course she was also a woman. The book also writes that Wang Xifeng took time off to deal with matters in the Rongguo Mansion and received money and goods for Wang Xing's family, Zhang Cai's family and others, all of whom were women. Of course, he didn't know how to deal with men. Wang Xifeng ordered someone to beat the latecomer twenty times, then threw down the Ningguo Mansion card and went out, saying that he would be promoted to the general manager and that the person would be given a month's silver rice. But basically it’s still dealing with women. Caiming has already appeared once in the seventh chapter, when Aunt Xue gave Wang Xifeng four palace flowers, and Ping'er sent Caiming to give two to Qin Keqing. It’s also about dealing with women. According to the logic of the previous reviewer, if Caiming is a girl, there is nothing wrong. It cannot be said to be the author's negligence. Later reviewers saw that the main people he dealt with were women, so they repeatedly emphasized that Caiming was an "untitled boy", which meant: What's wrong with an underage boy dealing with women? There are two specific reasons why Caiming is believed to be an "unprecedented boy": first, Wang Xifeng "does not know much about literacy", and second, "it is convenient for envoys to come in and out". In fact, the amount of literacy can neither determine whether the person is a master or a slave, nor whether he is a male or a female. Caiming is a slave and is literate; Wang Xifeng is the master and is literate. The daughters in the Grand View Garden are more literate; Xue Pan is a boy and is less literate. Of course, relatively speaking, the boys among the slaves may have more chances to be literate than the girls. "Easy to come in and out" is an important reason. At the back of the book, there are some descriptions that can further explain the problem. For example, in Chapter 45, Grandma Lai's grandson became the county magistrate, and Wang Xifeng sent Caiming to Lai's house to reward things. This time it was also mentioned that Wang Xifeng was celebrating his birthday, and his parents' family came to give him gifts. Zhou Rui's son got drunk and got into trouble, so Wang Xifeng sent Caiming to talk to him. These things are more likely to be done by boys than by girls. Especially when Grandma Lai mentioned Caiming’s gifts in front of Wang Xifeng, she affectionately called Caiming “Brother Cai”. Of course, calling "Brother" does not necessarily mean he is a man. Wang Xifeng is called "Brother Feng" and Sister Jia Qiao is called "Brother Qiao". But the "Brother Cai" that Aunt Lai calls is more likely to be a boy. It doesn't actually matter whether Caiming is a boy or a girl, a girl or a boy. If we must make a distinction, what the later reviewers said may be more reasonable. However, a new problem arises here. The "young boy", although he is still underage, is probably a young man. Wang Xifeng is always followed by a young man, how can he behave like that?