Anyone who has read "A Dream of Red Mansions" can feel that when it comes to Baochai, the first thing people think of is the word "wealth". Speaking of the Xue family's property, no one would not be in awe, "Pearls are like earth, gold is like iron", rich! The ancestors of the Xue family were also officials in the imperial court. Their ancestor Xue Gong was once a member of Ziweishe. The so-called "Ziwei Sheren" is also called Zhongshu Sheren. It is an official position. The main job is to write the pardon. Simply put, it is to act on behalf of the emperor's will. Its nature is somewhat similar to today's personal secretary. But unlike the Jia family's nobility system, this profession cannot be passed down from generation to generation, so the successors of the Xue family changed their careers and went into business. Relying on their ancestral connections, they became "imperial merchants" and received internal funds. Money, food, and purchasing miscellaneous materials. The so-called "money" refers to the money from the national treasury. Businessmen who receive money from the national bank to do business are "imperial merchants". It stands to reason that such a family should be quite wealthy. Indeed, if the Xue family were not rich and powerful, they would not be ranked fourth in the "Guard Protector" rankings. But everything has a process of success and failure. Xue Baochai's father and ancestors managed the family business well, so there were grand events in those years. However, when the leader was replaced by Xue Pan, this situation began to change, and the Xue family gradually declined. Connected. Although Jia Wang Shi Xue is one of the four major families described in "A Dream of Red Mansions". But as a reader, don't think that these four major families were the top wealthy families of that era. They were just a small group of wealthy forces in the entire society, and they were also representatives of the gradual decline. In the fourth chapter, when this official amulet appeared, the article had already explained that "everyone who is a local official has a private list, and on it is written the name of the most powerful, extremely wealthy and noble squire in the province. This is true in all provinces." It can be seen that the four major families of Jia Wang Shi and Xue Xue written on the guardian amulet are only famous in the Jinling area. If they were extended to the entire Qing Dynasty, they would certainly not be considered wealthy families. And a family like Lin Ruhai is not necessarily poorer than the Xue family. The reason why it is not on the list of the four major families may just be because this amulet is from Jinling, not from the Suzhou area. The article reads: Jia is true, white jade is the hall gold and horse. (After the second Duke of Ningguo Rongguo, the emperor was divided into twenty houses. Except for the eight houses sent by Ning Rong in the capital, the original residents now live in twelve houses.) The Epang Palace is three hundred miles away and cannot accommodate a person in Jinling. (After Baolinghou Shangshu ordered Shi Gong, the houses were divided into eighteen and eighteen. The current residents in the capital have ten rooms, and the original residents currently live in eight rooms.) The East China Sea lacked white jade beds, so the Dragon King came to invite the King of Jinling. (After the Du Taiwei took control of the county Bo Wang Gong, he had twelve houses, two houses in the capital, and Yu was still registered.) There is heavy snow in good years, and pearls are like earth and gold are like iron. (After Ziwei passed away to Mr. Xue, he now received money from the government, a bank accountant, and was allocated eight rooms.) Before Yucun finished reading, he suddenly heard a message and someone reported: "Master Wang is here to pay his respects." Let's look at the last sentence: "Yucun hasn't finished reading yet." What does it mean? If this protective amulet only belonged to these four families, Jia Yucun should have finished reading it when he saw this. Why does the author say that he has not finished reading it? Unless there are other families on this list, not just these four! It is very possible that the author left this protective talisman exposed and then covered it up, which means that these four families are related to each other by marriage, and there will be other families later, but because of the relationship with these four families The connection is not big, so I might as well not mention it. The purpose of depicting these four families as four major families is to make the inextricable connections between them serve the storyline. Therefore, to interpret the real economic status of the four major families, we should not simply stop at this protective talisman. Perhaps there are many families like King Jia Shixue in Jinling and even the entire Qing Dynasty, and they cannot be called anything. The richest man in the country. After all, at the beginning of "A Dream of Red Mansions", the four major families have already entered a stage of decline. The Jia family, which ranks first, has already been unable to make ends meet, and the Shi family, which ranks second, has almost gone bankrupt. Although the Wang family has not stated it clearly, the situation must not be much better. If they are still rich, Wen Jia's family will fall, and Wang Xifeng's brother Wang Ren will not be able to make ends meet. It is necessary to sell my niece Qiaojie for money. Looking at it this way, the Xue family, ranked fourth, has even less capital. Everyone who has read "A Dream of Red Mansions" knows that Dao Baochai doesn't like to dress up and prefers to be plain. However, the reason why she no longer has any gorgeous makeup on her body is because she feels that she is no longer a young lady from a high-ranking official and a wealthy family. In the book In the book, Baochai once said: Seven or eight years ago, I was dressed very luxuriously, but times have changed and it is better to keep everything simple.
It can be seen that Baochai likes to be simple and simple no matter how she dresses or cleans the house, and advocates a simple life. This is not only due to her personality and hobbies, but also because her family's financial situation is really worrying and she does not allow herself to have excessive luxury, so she saves what she can. . Not only Baochai, but also Xiangling, who is Xue Pan's concubine, still lives a life of half master and half servant. She still has a lot of work to do at home, which shows her hard work. In the Jia Mansion, even the disgusting "doormat" Aunt Zhao did not see her busy working all day long. Of course, Baochai, the real lady, is even less likely to be idle. She has to do needlework until late at night every night. She is simply in the same situation as Shi Xiangyun, whose family has declined. Maybe you can interpret this as a sign of Xue Baochai's hard work. However, even if a wealthy family needs to teach their unmarried daughters some life skills to please their parents-in-law in the future, there is no need for such hard work. The girls of the Jia family are not like her. . Lin Daiyu can make a sachet every year which is good. Tanchun occasionally makes a pair of shoes only as a gift from Baoyu, not every day. The ladies of the Jia family just play Go, practice calligraphy, paint pictures, and cultivate themselves all day long. Qingwen and Fangguan in Baoyu Yihong Courtyard "just sleep" all day long and have nothing to do. The cuckoos and snow geese in Lin Daiyu's house not only take care of Daiyu's daily life, but also feed the birds and chat with the insomniac owner in the middle of the night. They have never seen anyone working until late at night. It can be seen that Baochai worked harder than Qingwen, Fangguan and others. In the Grand View Garden, Baochai was the only one who could sympathize with Shi Xiangyun, whose family was declining. The situation of the two people was actually similar! Xue Baochai is a precocious girl who grew up in the unsatisfactory life. She had a happy childhood, but when she grew up, she faced the crisis of family failure. She is already well aware of the difficulty of life at a young age. Among the girls in the Grand View Garden, she is the only one who has a clear concept of money and status and knows how to be diligent and thrifty about housekeeping, so she does not like to dress up in luxury. From this, we can better understand the hardships of the Xue family and their daughter, and understand why Aunt Xue wants to try her best to promote a "golden and jade marriage". After all, only if Xue Baochai's future husband's family has a strong enough foundation and can help unconditionally, can it be possible to further postpone the Xue family's fate. Although Baochai does not have the innocent and straightforward personality of Daiyu, she has a stronger sense of responsibility and responsibility than Daiyu. Baochai suffers from being too sensible and ambitious. If Xue Pan has half the effort of his sister, the Xue family He must be rich and powerful. It's a pity that a heavy burden falls on a girl. She has to save the whole family from the decline of her own marriage. How can Baochai avoid suffering? Daiyu's suffering is caused by nature, while Baochai's suffering is caused by society. As a result, the tragedy of Daiyu makes people cry and the tragedy of Baochai makes people sigh with regret. As a result, readers can better understand the difficulty of Xue's mother and daughter's stay in Jia's house. In order to have someone to rely on, the mother and daughter are willing to act as "guests". They welcome Jia Mu's knees every day, and they must always be observant and careful. Aunt Xue and her daughter were not at ease in the Jia family, and they also had to endure considerable psychological pressure. This may be the reason why Xue Baochai stayed in Jia's house for a long time.