Lin Daiyu's birthday

After writing for the third time that Lin Daiyu entered the Jia family, I heard Mrs. Wang talk about Jia Baoyu and said, "This brother is one year older than me." (Page 47) In Chapter 62, Tan Chun and Aaron talked about birthdays every month. Aaron said, "February 12th is Miss Lin." (page 867)

As Jia Baoyu was born in the third year of A.D. 1706, Lin Daiyu's real date of birth was February 12, the year of Dinghai in A.D. 1707 (the last day of March B in Gregorian calendar 15, Tuesday [7]), and she died in A.D./KLOC-0. However, the author of the novel just embellished it, which not only confused her age, but also added a birthday.

The ninetieth time I wrote that in the middle and late October of that year, the old lady and Mrs. Wang talked about the marriage between Baoyu and Daiyu. The old lady said, "naturally, I married Baoyu first, and then I told Miss Lin about other people's affairs, and then it was mine. Besides, Lin Yatou is two years younger than Baoyu. " What the hell is going on here? How old is Lin Daiyu than Jia Baoyu?

The author's answer is that Daiyu is one year younger than Baoyu in the real year; Nominally, Daiyu is two years younger than Baoyu. The fifth chapter discusses the calculation of "nominal age", however, the calculation of "nominal age" is generally only used for men according to folk customs, and the age of women is calculated according to the actual age, which is the so-called "full of men and women" [8].

According to the presumption of this article, the plot written in Chapter 90 is 1722. In October of that year, Jia Baoyu's nominal age was 17, and Lin Daiyu's real age was 15, so "Lin Shantou is two years younger than Baoyu".

Back to the eighty-fifth, in the middle and late September, Jia Zheng was promoted to the Ministry of Industry, and the Jia family was ready to celebrate. The novel writes:

When the old lady asked Xi-feng who said anything about a play, Xi-feng said, "My uncle said the day after tomorrow will be fine. I want to send a new little play to congratulate the old lady, master and wife." Because he smiled and said, "It's not only a good day, but also a good day." When she said this, she smiled at Daiyu. Daiyu also smiled. Mrs. Wang said, "But the day after tomorrow will be a good day for my nephew and daughter." Grandmother Jia thought for a moment, then smiled. "It can be seen that I am old now and I am confused about everything. Thanks to me, this chicken girl is a gift for me. In this case, it will be very good. His uncle's family will send them a congratulatory letter, and your uncle's family will give you a birthday. Isn't that great? " (Page 1225~ 1226)

It can be seen from this passage that Lin Daiyu's birthday actually changed from "February 12th" to the middle and late September. What's going on here?

The answer is: this is not Daiyu's real birthday. The so-called "good day" refers to "Women's Day". In other words, this passage implicitly wrote about the time of Lin Daiyu's menarche, and Jia Mu and others wanted to hold an "adult ceremony" for her.

Twenty-eight times, xiren told Baoyu, "Yesterday, the imperial concubine sent Xia eunuch out and gave him 120 pieces of silver, asking him to stay in Qingxu for three days from the first day to the third day, singing opera and offering sacrifices, and asking Uncle Zhen to lead all the men to kneel down and worship Buddha." (Page 399~400) For the 29th time, I wrote: "Looking at the first day alone, there was a sea of people in front of Guo Rong Mansion. When the deacons downstairs heard that the imperial concubine had done something good, Jia's mother went to burn incense. " (page 404) The so-called "doing good" refers to "women's affairs", that is, menstruation. As can be seen from these plots, the reason why the Jia family mobilized the masses to bow down to the Buddha for three days was because of Yuan Fei's dysmenorrhea.

When a girl does a "good deed", it means that she is an adult. The adult ceremony of Yi women mentioned in Ma Linying's On Liangshan Yi Traditional Culture can be used as a good reference for understanding Lin Daiyu's adult ceremony. Ma Linying wrote:

As a symbol of the maturity of Yi women, it is necessary to hold an open adult ceremony. Ritual mainly depends on the development of women, that is, menarche. Generally, it is held at the age of 15 to 17, and some people hold it at the age of 13 and 19, but it should not be too late or too early. Most of them are held on auspicious days when women reach the age of one, usually hosted by mothers or older, beautiful and capable women with many children. Only adult female relatives and friends are allowed to attend, and men are not allowed to be present. [9]

According to the chronology of this article, the eighty-fifth cycle is 1722, so the time of Lin Daiyu's first menstruation is 15 years and 7 months. When Jia and others celebrated for her, no man was present:

Early this morning, he and his relatives sent a group of plays, and they set up a stage in front of the main hall of the grandmother. Outside, all the men were wearing public uniforms, and relatives came to congratulate about ten tables of wine. Because it was a new play, the old lady was also happy, so she separated the glass screen in the back building and put a banquet in it. At the first table, Aunt Xue accompanied Mrs. Wang's piano, and at the other table, the old lady accompanied Mrs. Xing's cigarette. There are two tables below, and Grandmother Jia told them to come quickly. After a while, I saw Feng leading all the maids around Lin Daiyu. Daiyu changed into some fresh clothes, dressed like the lower bound of Chang 'e, and came out to see everyone with shame and laughter. (Page 1226)

If it is really a birthday, there is really nothing to be ashamed of. Jia Baoyu didn't show up for the whole celebration ceremony, and didn't say a word after that. It can be seen that this "birthday" is indeed Lin Daiyu's menarche.

Without understanding the calculation of "nominal age" and women's adult ceremony, it is easy to misunderstand the above two plots, and think that "the dog's tail continues to marten" arbitrarily falsifies the first 80 episodes, which is contrary to the author's original intention.

There is one of the biggest doubts about Lin Daiyu's age. I wrote for the forty-fifth time that one day in early September of that year, Daiyu said to Baochai, "After careful calculation, my mother died early and I had no brothers or sisters. I am fifteen years old this year, but no one taught me as you said the day before yesterday. " (page 624) Geng commented after I grew fifteen years old this year: "Dai Yu is only fifteen years old." [ 10]

Zhi Yanzhai's description and comment on the novel are too messy. If this is the standard, the estimation of the time sequence and the age of the characters will be inconsistent and chaotic. The forty-fifth and twenty-fifth sessions are the same year. Around mid-March, the monk Guatou said, "Geng Qingfeng has been separated for thirteen years!" (Page 357) This shows that Baoyu is only 13 years old, so Daiyu is only 12 years old. In autumn, Daiyu suddenly became "fifteen years old". Isn't that weird?

The author thinks this is a conspiracy between the author of the novel and Zhi Yanzhai. Daiyu was indeed "twelve years old" at that time, and the author deliberately changed the word "two" to "five", which disrupted the time sequence. Zhi Yanzhai's comment on writing is actually a sign, especially reminding the author and even readers to pay attention to the real situation.

It has been discussed that the author changes the date and time to disturb the time series, so it is not impossible to add and subtract strokes on numbers to disturb the time series. On the issue of Daiyu's "fifteen-year-old" age, it is impossible to explain without such understanding. As for the author's confusion about the timing of digital subtraction strokes, the following will continue to discuss confirmation.