Classic characters in Dream of Red Mansions

Jia Baoyu

To comment on the characters in "A Dream of Red Mansions", the first one is the male protagonist Jia Baoyu. As a character throughout the whole book, the author Cao Xueqin puts the most emphasis on him. , and has the deepest sustenance. He has become one of the most successful artistic models in the history of Chinese novels. Everyone even says that this image alludes to Cao Xueqin himself. But in my opinion, this typical image is by no means the author's own creation, but a perfect artistic image created by the author based on the same type of characters in real life, combined with his own imagination, and artistic processing. .

In the third chapter, "Jia Yucun Yuyuan resumes her old job and Lin Daiyu abandons her father to Kyoto", there are two poems "Moon over the Xijiang River", which describe Baoyu like this:

Looking for sorrow and hatred for no reason. , sometimes as silly as crazy. Even though he was born with a good skin, his belly turned out to be rough. He is poor and ignorant of world affairs, and he is too stupid to read articles. If your behavior is eccentric and eccentric, let the world slander you!

Wealth does not know how to enjoy life, poverty is intolerable and desolate. It's a pity that we have wasted our good time and have no hope for our country and our family. The most incompetent person in the world, unparalleled in ancient and modern times. A message to the dandy and the wealthy: Don’t follow this example!

After reading these two poems "Moon on the West River", some readers have concluded that Baoyu is a troublemaker who does not seek advancement and only loves makeup. But in fact, this is not the case. The two poems "Moon over the Xijiang River" are based on the thoughts of feudal rulers, and reflect the "good intentions" of the feudal patriarchs who hoped that Baoyu would win the election and become famous so as to inherit the cause of the landlord class. The author uses "Moon over Xijiang" to combine praise and criticism, and fully summarizes the most prominent shining point in Baoyu---the rebellious character.

The poem says about him: "He is poor and ignorant of worldly affairs. He is stupid and afraid of reading articles. His behavior is eccentric and eccentric. He doesn't care if the world slanders him!" In fact, it means that he is unwilling to "pay attention to the relationship between Confucius and Mencius and devote himself to the relationship between Confucius and Mencius." "Economic Way", he did not want to follow the life path prescribed for him by his feudal parents: study, make friends with officials, obey etiquette and law, and help the world. Instead, he despised fame and fortune and was tired of the knowledge of "official career economy". He even believed that Confucian writings such as Zhu Neo-Confucianism were "made up" by predecessors for no reason. As for the Eight-part Gu Shiwen, it is even more: "The descendants of Baigu will be known as Diaolu Zhijie", and they are "using the reputation of Anzhen to make a living." He criticized the Confucian Taoism, which the feudal rulers regarded as gods, as worthless. Based on this idea, he "searched for miscellaneous knowledge" and would rather read "novel and pornographic words" such as "The Romance of the West Chamber" and "Du Danting", which were regarded as evil books by feudal defenders, rather than read the "Four Books", Eight-legged Eight-legged Theory, etc. Listen to the "bastard talk" of "official career economy".

He has a strong hatred and contempt for secular men who are educated and motivated and serve as officials.

Not only that, in Chapter 32 of A Dream of Red Mansions, Shi Xiangyun advised him: "You should also meet with these people who work for officials from time to time and talk about some knowledge about official career economy. We will attend to world affairs in the future." Baoyu was very upset after hearing this, and said quickly: "Girl, please invite other sisters to sit in the room. I have carefully slandered your knowledge of economics."

Jia Yuyu's rebellious spirit is not only reflected in his determination not to Taking the feudal life path is also reflected in his bold challenge to the traditional feudal concept of "men are superior to women". Of course, the most impressive thing about his character is his hatred and contempt for secular men, and on the contrary, his special love and respect for girls. In the second chapter, he expressed his unique and deviant insights: "It turns out that humans are born as the spirits of all things. The beauty of mountains, rivers, sun and moon is only appreciated by daughters, and men with eyebrows are just dregs and turbidity." Daughters are made of flesh and blood, and men are made of mud. When I see a daughter, I feel refreshed, but when I see a man, I feel stinky." Later, as Baoyu grew up and his thoughts became more mature, he discovered. "Daughters" are also constantly changing, so there is also a view that daughters change from "priceless pearls" before marriage to "death pearls" after marriage and finally to "fish eyes". This shows that as he matures or gradually realizes that girls are the most oppressed in feudal society. Therefore, he showed unusual tenderness and consideration for his daughter in his actions.

Furthermore, Yang Baoyu extremely despises the feudal hierarchy of order and distinction between high and low.

Jia Huan is both his younger brother and a concubine. "The rules of his family are that all brothers are afraid of their elder brothers" and "they must set an example for their children", but Baoyu "does not want anyone to be afraid of me", so Jia Huan and the others are not very concerned. Afraid of him, she even went so far as to want to kill him and Sister Feng. Even though Jia Huan intentionally burned him with hot wax oil, he was still covering for Jia Huan. He also had no master-slave boundary for his servants, directly undermining the feudal order. To Mingyan, "It's all right, we all played around for a while," "Tearing off the fan and laughing with a thousand pieces of gold" made Qingwen turn her anger into a smile; Jin Chuan died in humiliation, Baoyu couldn't forget it, and ran to the suburbs secretly, regardless of such important events as celebrating Sister Feng's birthday. Tears were shed in a deserted place to pay homage.

Also, even the love and marriage pursued by Baoyu are based on this rebellious thought. He had long made his pursuit of marital autonomy and individual liberation clear to the world. He yelled in his dream, "How can we trust the words of monks and Taoists? What's the word 'gold and jade'? I prefer 'wood and stone'." He even held Xiren's hand and poured out his full feelings for Daiyu.

Therefore, some people say that the image of Jia Baoyu embodies the preliminary idea of ??democratic equality. But after all, his thinking is still a bit narrow. For example, he did not dare to completely break with the feudal system; he never dared to have a direct conflict with the feudal parents, and the confrontation was relatively passive; and when he struggled to find a way out, he wanted to die and wanted to "disintegrate into smoke". The empty and illusory thoughts of "grey".

2 Lin Daiyu

The influence of Lin Daiyu on readers is almost the same as that of Jia Baoyu. She is another rebel of the feudal aristocratic class carefully created by the author. Every time I finish reading "A Dream of Red Mansions", she can make me think deeply. She uses her sensitivity and suspicion, her resistance, her pain and tears. , and even used her love to resist the oppression of the ruling class. But at the same time, she also has many weaknesses.

Because of Lin Daiyu’s family background and background, she represents an aristocratic group at the most fundamental level. After visiting Chunli's house, Daiyu commented: "This is the best. Our family is too expensive. Although I don't care about things, I am always busy in my heart. I will go out more and get less. Now if I don't Being frugal will lead to failure." (Chapter 62) This shows that she is extremely concerned about herself as a member of the aristocratic class and the fate of the Jia family nobles with whom she is closely related. When Xiangyun and others said that an actress playing Xiaodan looked very much like Lin Daiyu, she was very angry. "Daiyu sneered...I was originally here to make fun of you, compare me to an actor, and make fun of everyone!" (Chapter 22) This is not only because of her "little temper", but more importantly The key point is that she has drawn a deep gap between herself and people with low social status, such as actors. Therefore, I think that comparing myself with such people is an insult to myself. Here, her sense of class superiority is very prominent.

On the other hand, although there is a rebellious element in her character, it does not mean that she will blindly fight against the feudal class. When Baoyu's rebellious thoughts conflicted with feudal traditional concepts, and the conflict was at its most intense - when Baoyu was beaten, Daiyu persuaded Baoyu after being beaten: "You can change everything from now on!" (34) Here, what kind of idea did Daiyu rely on when persuading Baoyu? Also, she occasionally said a few lines from "The Peony Pavilion" and "The Romance of the West Chamber", which were overheard by Baochai, who gave her a long sermon on feudalism. Daiyu not only had no objection to this, but also "secretly convinced" (chapter 42) and became very close to Baochai from then on. So what kind of thought does Daiyu rely on to give Baochai's advice? Obviously, in Daiyu's character, feudal traditional concepts coexist with rebellious factors.

Lin Daiyu’s character is closely related to the environment in which she grew up. Since she was born in a noble family and was loved by her parents since childhood, it is not surprising that she developed the character of an aristocratic lady. However, the most prominent aspect of her character is her rebellion against feudal ethics.

Lin Daiyu was born in a "noble family" of a hereditary marquis.

Because she lives in the south, where her thoughts are the first to arrive, and the ideological environment is relatively open, and her parents love her and raise her as a boy, she is more open-minded and talented. Later, her parents died early, and she lived in the Jia Mansion, where hatred, strife, contention, and fraud occurred every day. "Three hundred and sixty days a year, the wind, the frost, the sword force each other to confront each other", "The whole family is as flesh and blood as black-eyed chickens, and I wish you could eat me, and I can eat you." In such a dangerous environment, Daiyu could not get any joy and happiness. But at the same time, the dangerous environment also cultivated her rebellious character. She will never learn Xue Baochai's tact in dealing with things, nor can she learn to please the feudal ruling family. She couldn't hold the sand in her eyes, and she couldn't hold the pain in her heart. Ignore the existence of the feudal norm of "gentleness and thickness". She used her words "more powerful than a knife" to expose and ridicule all the darkness and scandals in aristocratic families. We often say that Daiyu is willful, suspicious, sensitive and petty. But in fact, we should see that she used her unique way to resist the constraints of feudal ethics.

In addition, Lin Daiyu also directly resisted feudal ethics. Xiu Baochai once solemnly preached to her the feudal creed that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue", but she didn't take it to heart at all. She was talented and could write poems and compose poems as well as men. Moreover, she also has the same hobbies as Baoyu, and loves to read "miscellaneous books" that "touch people's hearts" such as "The Romance of the West Chamber" and "The Peony Pavilion". She despised the vulgarity of feudal ethics and cursed the hypocrisy of eight-legged fame. She never persuaded Baoyu to become an eunuch, and never used "bastard words" such as "official career economics" to persuade Baoyu. Therefore, she won Baoyu's respect and was praised by Baoyu. Baoyu is regarded as a "confidant". This commonality between them has also become the common foundation of their love.

But sadly, the love between Bao Daiyu is destined to be a tragedy. The stubborn feudal ethics do not allow the love between them to exist. So he despised her sickly body and young family temperament, and issued warnings to their love again and again. From "The Good Marriage of Gold and Jade" to "Hui Zicuckoo's Love Speech Testing Mang Yu" and then to "The Death of Qingwen." Finally, it reaches the stage of destruction of love when "Checking the Grand View Garden". In this disaster, Siqi, Fangguan, Si'er, etc. successively became victims. Even Qingwen, who had "memories like Sister Lin's", was forcibly kicked out of the Grand View Garden when she was seriously ill, and eventually died of humiliation. Here is a signal that the feudal forces have completely abandoned Daiyu. From then on, Daiyu's condition deteriorated day by day, and even when she was seriously ill and dying, no one cared about her. The beautiful ideal was eventually destroyed. Daiyu won love but could not get a happy marriage.

Lin Daiyu's artistic image is deeply rooted in people's hearts, touching readers and making people sympathize. But the image is also alive. Her complicated character, obvious weaknesses, and distinctive personality that dares to resist and pursue love form a living individual. It makes us feel that she is someone we know well and someone we love deeply.

Three Xue Baochai

After talking about Bao Dai, naturally we have to talk about Baochai. The evaluation of Baochai has been mixed for a long time. We cannot completely deny or affirm this character. Although she is a guardian of feudal ethics and an accomplice of feudal forces, at the same time, she is also one of the tens of millions of people who are oppressed and poisoned by feudal forces. Therefore, when the author depicts this character, he is both sympathetic and critical.

The author sympathizes with her. She is also a "fateless person" in the "Unlucky Division". The author also praises her. Her talent and appearance are obvious to all. She is erudite and talented. She is familiar with all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, poetry, and songs. She is familiar with the customs of various places and everything in life. Even the principles of medicine. Baochai also knows a little bit about it. Therefore, Baoyu is often praised for it. Her artistic attainments are very profound and are well-known in the Grand View Garden. His poetic talent is quick and he often comes out on top, comparable to Daiyu. As for her appearance and charm, which is "differently charming and elegant than Daiyu", Baoyu often falls into a daze with envy. Indeed, Xue Baochai is a girl with both talent and beauty.

But the more the author exaggerates and praises her talent and appearance, the more people can criticize her feudal character.

But at the same time, the author does not write her as a clown, but achieves the purpose of relegating Baochai to the feudal system through criticism of Baochai. There is praise in the derogation, and there is derogation in the praise, but basically he has a negative attitude. I think this is The author's attitude towards Xue Baochai.

In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Baochai rarely directly promotes and defends feudal ethics, but reflects her true personality through her words and deeds in daily life.

In life, Baochai does not reveal her true feelings like Daiyu, but often hides her secrets. On the surface, she "follows the times", "pretends to be foolish" and "rarely taciturn", and her every move appears to be "dignified and virtuous", completely in line with the feudal "lady" style. But in fact, she hopes that "the good wind will send me to the blue sky with its strength." What is concealed in her gentle and honest manner is the ambition of "wanting to repay the White Emperor." She is well versed in the world and has deep integrity. Although "in the past few years since I came to Jia Mansion", I have been silent on the surface and kept my peace, but in fact I have been "observant". Therefore, even in the complicated and contradictory environment of Rongguo Mansion, I can still live a balanced life, like a fish in water. Even Aunt Zhao, who had little hatred for anything, praised her: "very generous" and "good at being a good person".

"Knowing how to be a good person" is indeed Xue Baochai's character trait. This, combined with her "gentle and honest" exposed characteristics, makes her praised by everyone. Baochai's principle of "knowing how to be a good person" and "don't speak up when it's no business, shaking her head when asked and not knowing" makes her not like Daiyu who pointed out everything with harsh words, but turned a deaf ear and pretended to be a good person. I can't see it, just because I understand it in my heart. This caused those feudal masters who usually did some shameful things to praise her for "being a good person". Baochai's "knowledge of being a good person" is not only reflected in his silent win over the highest ruler of the feudal class, but also in his sale of the oppressed people at the lower level of the feudal class. Jia Mu made a birthday party for her and asked her to do some drama, so she told her according to Jia Mu's usual preferences. He also mentioned the sweet and rotten food that Jia Mu liked to eat as his own favorite food. As a result, "Jia Mu liked it even more." After Mrs. Wang forced Jin Chui'er to death, when she and Xi Renkou heard the news, even Xi Ren, who had always been very servile, shed tears. However, the ruthless nature of the exploiting class made her feel "surprised" and hurriedly Leaving the attacker behind, he ran to Mrs. Wang to comfort her. Attribute all the blame to Jin Chuan'er's "confusion". She also said: "If you give her a few more taels of silver and send her away, you will be fulfilling the love of a master and a servant." In order to win over Mrs. Wang, her future mother-in-law, Baochai acted very generously, showing that she had no taboos. He gave his own clothes to the dead slave and went home immediately to get some clothes. As for the oppressed lower-level rulers of the feudal class, Baochai used Xing Xiuyan to cover up the fact that he was living in poverty to maintain the status of the feudal ruling class. She also tried to win over Daiyu and sent bird's nests and candy tablets to Daiyu who was ill. Even Aunt Zhao, a woman despised by everyone, sometimes gets a gift from Baochai, which makes her feel flattered. Encountering her talking about official career and economics in front of Baoyu, Baoyu was annoyed and ordered her to be kicked out. Baochai naturally couldn't get angry because he wanted to be "a good person", so he could only bury his efforts deep in his heart, laugh it off, and let Xi People admire her reputation for being a good person. Baochai not only knows how to be a good person, but also often uses the opportunity of "being a good person" to express her talents. Shi Xiangyun wanted to start a poetry club, but had no money, so Baochai took the opportunity to set up a business for her. Baochai told Xiangyun that he would bring something from home to treat everyone, but when he went out to call a woman, he said: "Tomorrow, after dinner, I will invite the old lady and my aunt to enjoy the osmanthus flowers." Baochai, who was "good at being a man", ostensibly helped the poor and orphaned girl. Although he was very busy, in fact it was a blow to another "good relationship". She made an excuse to invite everyone, but in fact she wanted to please the feudal patriarch. She is careful in everything and arranges everything to please Jia Mu. This shows how Baochai, who "knows how to be a human being", "knows how to be a human being".

Another main character trait of Baochai is hypocrisy. Although she said that she thought the "gold and jade marriage" mentioned by monks and Taoists was nonsense, and said that wearing a heavy golden lock was boring, but in fact it was not in this way.

Baoyu went to see the sick Baochai. Baochai took his jade and "turned it over again to look at it carefully" and "recited it twice". Then he blamed the maid Ying'er for not pouring tea, which made Ying'er laugh and say, "I'm with the girl." The two sentences on the collar are a pair." This just achieves the purpose of attracting Baoyu's attention. Then he took out the boring gold lock from the big red coat inside. The same is true for Xue Baochai walking through the market with a red musk deer in a cage. Originally she didn't like pollen, wore simple clothes, and didn't like to dress up the most, but the golden lock was waiting for the jade to match, and the red musk string was given to her and Baoyu alone in Yuanchun. They are all signs of destined marriage, so this can prove that only She is the one who is destined to be worthy of Baoyu. Baochai, who is hypocritical and "good at being a good person", is like this. She uses her "honest and gentle" "lady" status as a cover-up, and uses her hidden scheming to hint and please the parents of Jia's family.

However, in terms of his social status and the praise he received in people's hearts, Baochai was successful in "being a person". From this we may be able to get some inspiration. In today's rapidly changing society, if you want to deal with it skillfully, you may have to learn a few tricks from Baochai. But with every gain comes a loss, and perhaps we push our true nature. But I think that as long as we remove the dross, take the essence, and only learn the good side, it may be helpful to us.

IV Wang Xifeng

In "A Dream of Red Mansions", the author created a successful negative image for everyone, that is Sister Feng. In her body, she embodies the greedy, greedy, ferocious, vicious, insidious and cunning class nature of the feudal ruling class. It can be said that through the author's successful description, readers can see the ruling class itself while seeing Wang Xifeng.

Wang Xifeng is a very vivid character. Wherever she appears, there will at least be excitement. At only twenty years old, she took charge of the housekeeping of Rongguo Mansion. At the beginning of the volume, we introduce her through Leng Zixing’s words: “She is extremely beautiful in appearance, eloquent in speech, and extremely thoughtful. She is actually a man who is not as good as a man.” “Although she is young, her actions are older than those in the world. She looks like a standout beauty now, but she has a lot of tricks up her sleeves. Even if it comes to speaking, she can't beat her." This has given me some impressions of her, but after all, these impressions are relatively small. indifferent. But the first time she appeared on the scene, she was immediately brought to life in front of the readers, making people never forget it. That was the first time Daiyu met her grandmother. When her ancestors hugged her granddaughter and cried heartily, even Mrs. Wang, Li Wan and the other ladies "all held their breaths, solemnly and respectfully." When I was getting ready, a person laughed from the backyard and said, "I came a little late and didn't greet the guests from afar." Just one sentence left a particularly vivid impression. This sentence could only be said by "this" Sister Feng. of. Maybe everyone in Jia's family has dulled their feelings, but like Daiyu, we feel particularly clearly: "Who is coming? Is this so rude and rude?" It turns out that this is Sister Feng, Jia's mother's favorite. After a short description, we saw a busy man, a famous man. She was late because she was busy. During the short gathering, I also talked about two other things with Mrs. Wang. Shaanxi Tube Jia? Oval? Feed R leech? Stew? Round Ou Yi Zhui Nuo? Fanqi? Flag cover plate 鹇鸶? Youxibamei was closed by 酢腢苺崖喴崾 eggs? A certain flat screw U cuisine? Technetium Lang Bu Dong Dong swollen about the sea? Rate swing? Bin return men willing to pay attention to ⑹ stare Γ? Kun knock Naū rely on yiǎ?奂绦?诟钒『Xia把捶technetium dissonance?⒁偂talk about the urgent situation of the situation, Xiongqiu is willing to be congenital? The author not only describes Sister Feng from a positive perspective, but also most often expresses the image of Sister Feng through other people's observations and descriptions. The description of Grandma Liu, a poor relative of the Jia family, when she first met Sister Feng, well demonstrated her "prestige". Grandma Liu finally entered the Rongguo Mansion. After some twists and turns, when "Sister Feng" "came down", she only heard the sound of people but no one was seen. After passing the drinks, "no one heard anything for a long time", she finally Get an audience.

But what they saw was Sister Feng, who was "pink and rosy, sitting there upright, holding a small copper fire chopstick in her hand to stir up the ashes in the stove. Ping'er stood on the edge of the kang, holding a small lacquered tea tray. There was a small clock on the plate. Sister Feng didn't take the tea or raised her head. She just shook the ashes in the stove and asked slowly, "Why don't you come in?" When she looked up, she saw Grandma Liu standing on the ground. "I was about to get up, but before I got up, I said hello with a spring breeze on my face." This description is particularly wonderful, and a few strokes are enough to express it. In particular, the detail of her "pushing ashes from the stove" is written as "chasing the soul." Although this kind of detailed description is simple, it fully describes the authority of a grandma who is the steward of a large aristocratic family over a poor relative. In addition, his servant Xing'er commented on him: "Vicious in heart, sharp in mouth", "Sweet in mouth and bitter in heart, duplicitous in three ways, smiling at the top and making a stumbling block at his feet. He is obviously a pot of fire but secretly a knife." It reflects Sister Feng's character traits extremely accurately.

From the twelfth chapter onwards, the author has successively shown the true side of Sister Feng’s character through the description of large plots. "Poison to set up a lovesickness trap" describes her cruelty, "Co-President Ning Guofu" describes her talents, and "Taking power in the Iron Kan Temple" describes her greed and fraud. These descriptions allow readers to discover the darker side of his character the more they read. In "Tiekan Temple", the old nun of Shuirian begged Sister Feng to break up Brother Zhang Jin's marriage. As a result, Sister Feng got 3,000 taels of silver and forced a couple to death. However, after the conspiracy succeeded by taking advantage of the relationship between Jia and Wang's government, "Sister Feng became more courageous, and if something like this happened in the future, she would act arbitrarily." The author's condemnation was very obvious.

Sister Feng is not like Jia Zheng and Mrs. Wang who wear the mask of "generous" and "merciful". She does bad things consciously and boldly. She once declared, "I never believe in the retribution of hell. Whatever happens, I’ll do it if I say it”, indicating that she dares to challenge any force that stops her from doing bad things. In this sense, Sister Feng's philosophy of life is probably the same as that of Cao Cao: "I would rather teach me to betray the world than teach the world to betray me." But people will never confuse her with Cao Cao. At the same time, despite her greedy and vicious nature, Sister Feng, with her feminine beauty and intelligence, is good at flattering people and hiding herself more cleverly and more complexly. In terms of her greedy pursuit of money, she really loves money as much as her life. She lent usury without telling Jia Lian, and even diverted all the monthly money of the maids and servants to lend money. Later, the Jia family was left with nothing, and the money was really not enough, so Ji Lian asked her to ask for a mandarin duck, and she asked for one or two hundred taels of silver as a reward. Even the husband and wife are in such intrigues, which shows that they are indeed the moth before the collapse of the Jia family.

In the typical plot of "Five Xifeng makes trouble in Ningguo Mansion", the author spends nearly two chapters to fully and vividly display Sister Feng's character. After she discovered that Jia Lian secretly married Second Sister You, Sister Feng heard the whole situation from Xing'er's mouth, and adopted different countermeasures for different people. She first humbly and falsely win over Second Sister You, tricked her into moving into the Grand View Garden, and then used a knife to kill someone. Zhang Hua, who sued Jia Lian to "show her power", ended up being killed and silenced. What she did was indeed the best verification of Xing'er's words.

The full description of Sister Feng's character effectively exposed the ugliness of the feudal ruling class and the darkness of feudal society. The author's "judgment" to Wang Xifeng is that "the agencies were too clever in their calculations, and they calculated Qingqing's life." My heart was shattered during my lifetime, and I am ethereal after my death. A rich family will eventually be separated, and my heart will be hanging around for a long time in vain. It's as tragic as the light is about to burn out. It's hard to say that the world is full of joy and sorrow." From this, it can be seen that the author still cherishes it. The more capable Sister Feng is, the more she accelerates the collapse of the Jia family's dilapidated building, and she herself also perishes.

In short, this image has rich artistic charm and profound social significance.

5 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.

Even some characters such as Jiao Da, Sha Da Niu and Xiao Hong, who are not mentioned much in the book, left a vivid and profound impression on people.