Ask the origin of "pointing at mulberry and cursing trees"

Scolding mulberry trees means pointing at mulberry trees and scolding locust trees. The metaphor of cursing one person on the surface is actually cursing another person. In many reference books, the origin of this idiom is recorded in this way: "The sixteenth time in A Dream of Red Mansions:' Who are these housekeepers in our family? If you make a mistake, they will make a joke. If there is a slight deviation, they will complain. "。 This sentence was said when Wang Xifeng complained to Jia Lian.

Su Hongquan told reporters that in the past, most old Nanjing people had the custom of planting locust trees in front of and behind their houses. Because in Nanjing dialect, the word "Huai" of Sophora japonica is similar to the word "Huan" of Hui, people hope that people who go out can go home safely, and the frustrated (evil spirits) in the house can escape from the back door. So there is a saying among the people.

Because Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, was born and raised in Nanjing, he wrote a book in Nanjing dialect as a common writing language. Old Nanjing dialects such as Canada (claiming to be the boss), hairy-footed chicken (doing things rudely), shaver (fighting with the mouth) and charcoal basket (flatterer) have been used many times in this novel. Therefore, it is probably also the Nanjing dialect used by Cao Xueqin to write.

It is also based on Nanjing dialect as the general writing language throughout A Dream of Red Mansions. Recently, a redologist came to the conclusion that Cao Xueqin wrote 120 times by himself.

Su Hongquan said that a recent study by Professor Xia He of Lanzhou University Business School showed that Cao Xueqin wrote this book 120 times, but Gao E didn't continue to write it. The reason is that these Nanjing dialects commonly used in the book are in line with the fact that Cao Xueqin once lived in Nanjing, but Gao E, as a northeast person, can't write these Nanjing dialects.

Zhou, a famous red scientist, also thought that Cao Xueqin had actually finished the 20 chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions/KLOC-0, but the Qing government didn't like it, so He Yasen and others who presided over the revision of Sikuquanshu deleted the last 40 chapters. Therefore, later generations usually think that Bai Hui, the later stage of A Dream of Red Mansions, is Gao E's sequel.

About the location of the story described in A Dream of Red Mansions, it has been the focus of debate among Redologists for so many years. However, it is an indisputable fact that Nanjing dialect is widely used in this novel. It is also based on this and the custom of planting locust trees in front of the door and mulberry trees in the back of the house since ancient times that Su Hongquan put forward the view that cursing mulberry may have evolved from Nanjing dialect.