So who is Zhi Yanzhai?
There are several points that are recognized by all who read A Dream of Red Mansions. There is no doubt: First, Zhi Yanzhai knows Cao Xueqin's life very well; Secondly, Zhi Yanzhai understands Cao Xueqin's creative ideas and intentions; Finally, Zhi Yanzhai and Cao Xueqin became very close.
There is another thing that everyone suspects but can't confirm: Zhi Yanzhai is probably a woman.
Therefore, Liu said that Zhi Yanzhai was probably married to Cao Xueqin, which I don't think is necessarily true. What Liu said can be understood as that Zhi Yanzhai is at least Cao Xueqin's concubine or wife. Zhou, the leader of A Dream of Red Mansions, also said that Zhi Yanzhai called Cao Xueqin "Qin", which is not something that ordinary people can call him. However, Master Zhou is a national treasure expert after all, and he doesn't speak loosely about "husband and wife", but this title really resembles the taste between couples.
Regardless of the gender of Zhi Yanzhai, whether it is him or her, whether Cao Xueqin is a husband and wife or a gay couple-Cao Xueqin is also a sissy, no wonder many people think that Jia Baoyu's prototype is Cao Xueqin himself-two things are certain: first, Zhi Yanzhai's cultural level is very high, comparable to Cao Xueqin's; Secondly, Zhi Yanzhai should have been with Cao Xueqin, or at least they met when Cao Xueqin was not too old. Because some people have verified that Cao Xueqin was only about twenty years old when he wrote this book, which was based on the poems of Duncheng and Dunmin, then if Zhi Yanzhai knew Cao Xueqin very late, how could he know so much about Cao Xueqin's life? If you don't know Cao Xueqin's life, how can you annotate A Dream of Red Mansions, and the comment on writing has been affirmed by Cao Xueqin and published together with the original work?
Then, I guess the gender of Zhi Yanzhai. Could it be a woman? At that time, few women could read and write, and even fewer had higher knowledge. Can be compared with Cao Xueqin without falling in the wind-I conservatively estimate-should be rare-if such a woman really exists. Such a woman has been around Cao Xueqin for a long time, at least when he is writing a book. So did Zhang Yiquan, Duncheng, Dunmin, Yongzhong and Yi Ming mention this person? Such talented women are few and far between, and they are in short supply, so-called exotic goods can live in. Can they be ignored? Even if they prefer boys to girls, even if it is inconvenient for their wives to meet, if their relationship with Cao Xueqin is really iron, can't their wives avoid it? Unless they have a general relationship with Cao Xueqin, even Cao Xueqin's door will not be closed. If they came to the door, how could they not have noticed that the only woman, Cao Xueqin, was poor and had no money to buy wine? If she wants to change the wine, there will be no servant girl. But I didn't find any poems that can be understood as writing Zhi Yanzhai.
Once upon a time, some people doubted whether Cao Xueqin really existed. Later, Mr. Hu Shi found a lot of evidence through textual research, especially from the poems left by Cao Xueqin's friends before his death, thus finally establishing the authenticity of Cao Xueqin and his relationship with A Dream of Red Mansions. It can be seen that the works of these people are important materials for textual research of Cao Xueqin, and some people should also have textual research on Zhi Yanzhai.
Looking at the text of A Dream of Red Mansions again, since there is a saying "Who knows the taste", it can be seen that Cao Xueqin hopes that someone can understand his original intention of writing. Many people say that the background of the times is vague in order to cope with the publishing censorship system such as literary inquisition, so many things are difficult to understand. Mr. Zhou said that this book was not for reading hundreds of years later, but for the public at that time, so it should not be too obscure. So, how to bridge the gap between this erratic narrative and the understanding of ordinary people? Zhi Yanzhai's comment on writing played this role well. So I have reason to suspect that, in fact, Zhi Yanzhai was written by Cao Xueqin himself and approved by himself, just to make readers understand this book. In this way, the plot after 78 times (in the words of Master Zhou here) is well explained. In fact, the last 30 times (which is also Master Zhou's statement), I said whether I wrote or not, probably I didn't write. Cao Xueqin wrote everything in the comment on writing as red inkstone, and red inkstone read it all. What it looks like, so the plot behind it is already very clear, so there is no need to write it, which is also in line with the traditional artistic style of China. As we all know, China traditional art pays attention to freehand brushwork. One explanation is that everything that can be directly expressed is dead, and truly infinitely beautiful things depend on people to think. This is reflected in sculpture, painting, calligraphy and drama in ancient China. Naturally, it will be reflected in literature. It is not surprising that a generation of writers like Cao Xueqin did so. He omitted the final ending, but.