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Who is worthy of you to wait a lifetime for?
The question seems to be "who is worthy of you to wait for".
And this is the best part of the Chinese literature.
Actually the question is not "who".
I believe talented people can know the difference of who and what.
The point is:
What is worthy to do
Last night I watched a very good show in Hong Kong of the story "尤三姐"
Yue Opera – Yu Sanjie (Third Sister Yu).
Note: 尤三姐 is the character name "Yu Sanjie" (Third Sister Yu) in Yue Opera.
It is more than worthy to watch it.
4/15/2010
Who is worthy of you to wait a lifetietime for?
………………………………*Leechard
("Ask to the end" No. 7730 2010 0415 Thursday)
This is a story that Shakespeare could not write. Not because Shakespeare lacked the power, but because he lacked the tragically inflected cultural background.
This one person is so good that, once you hear his story, you are drawn into a mellow reverie. You feel that only he is worthy. If he does not come for five years, you will wait five years. If he does not come for ten years, you will wait ten years. If he does not come for a hundred years, then in a quiet retreat you would wait for a hundred years, to pass the rest of your life.
Who, exactly, has such immense charm?
This story is worth watching again and again. If, when you read it, you shed no tears, that’s fine—because you are still young. You have not yet known such a sorrows of thought.
And the story is not finished. The person, the one who is worth waiting a hundred years for, suddenly discovers your existence. He suddenly realizes that only you are the most worthy. He suddenly understands that your love is absolute, real. Only when he sees you lying in a pool of blood and then finally, in astonishment beyond words, understands.
Leechard would like to tell popular writers this: do not imitate stories like this. It is not that you lack the power—youthful power is not something anyone can scoff at—but if you do not know the background of the story, if you do not know the cultural focus of the story, then you are likely to turn tragedy into farce.
Where is this story?
Where is the story within “The Dream of the Red Chamber”?
Of course not on the Internet. The so-called complete text of the Dream of the Red Chamber online is all a fake antique from Zhi Yanzhai(脂硯齋), or it is due to my computer limitations—the real edition cannot be found online. They are all just people circulating a fake version to each other. It is unlikely that anyone has the means and resolution to publish online the 120 chapters of the Red Chamber, in movable type.
To tell the truth, I am a little embarrassed: the first time I found this brilliance was when I read a few lines describing Lady You Sanjie:
“Seeing this sister Sanjie simply remove her makeup, shed her outer garments, let her hair down, wearing a bright red jacket, half concealed, half revealed, deliberately exposing the green bodice, a trace of snowy bosom. Underneath green trousers and red shoes, dazzling and vivid; she would rise and sit, be joyful and angry, without the least bit of civility; two pendants hung like a swing, and in the lamplight the willow brows and the coral lips appeared more lush.”
These lines, what is good about them? You might think, “Oh, the “deliberate exposure,” the “trace of snowy bosom,” is wonderful. And there is also a description of her undergarments, which, however, are only green trousers.” What exactly is so good about them?
Armed with this question, me, Leechard, lacking a book at hand, tried to search online again. But in the end he found that the lines he wanted were exactly the ones deleted by Zhi Yanzhai. On the web, those phrases “suddenly rising and sitting, suddenly joyful and angry” are gone. This is the most brilliant dynamic description; without this kind of movement, her half-concealed, emerald-green bodice would have no charm at all.
But this is merely aside. Not the main point. Although, since we must say a bit more: Zhi Yanzhai intended to rewrite her as more wanton, deliberately turning her into someone no better than a prostitute, not that men would be lusting after her, but that she “prostituted” a man—yet he cannot see where the real attraction lies, and his mediocrity is both laughable and lamentable. Yet it is precisely this kind of mediocrity that dominates the entire Internet. Including Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, America—everywhere. Do you find this scary? (That same Zhi Yanzhai even adds a character after “willow brows and emerald around,” turning it into “willow brows and emerald around mist.” The basic knowledge of literature is lacking; adding the word “mist” slows the rhythm of the original. It is indeed sad for children who have not read the original.)
But these are merely digressions. Our real topic is:
Who is worthy of your waiting a lifetime for?
The story tells that in the Jia family, the two cousins Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, together with Jia Zhen’s son Jia Rong, for the sake of devouring You Erjie and You Sanjie’s beauty, scheme to appropriate them. They manage to obtain One Sister You Erjie; they want to win You Sanjie as well. But Sanjie’s temper is fierce, so they cannot easily keep her, and they fear keeping her would be a calamity, so they think about marrying her off. Fearing they might find a husband poorly, Second Sister takes the lead and arranges for her to talk in a whole night. They ask her whom she truly loves.
Those few lines are spoken then. The person she can wait for five years, ten years, a hundred years for. Because the Second Sister tells her that the man is a wanderer who may not come back to the Jia mansion, not even meet them.
Who could it be?
Who is worthy of your waiting a lifetime for?
Jia Lian and the others guess that it must be Jia Baoyu. But they guess wrong. Or perhaps at that time Baoyu’s true nature had not yet appeared. The question is: besides Baoyu, is there any other man with such charm?
Among the hundreds of characters in The Dream of the Red Chamber, is there anyone with such magnetism? Among the billions in the world, is there anyone with such magnetism?
Or consider this: when all of your pursuers beneath the pomegranate skirts are mediocre boors, or even shameless lackeys, and you suddenly see a man who seems to be “a person” among humanity, the surprise, the resolve, are beyond ordinary.
That man is Liu Xianglian. Readers may not know at first that this Liu Xianglian is a wandering street actor or something of that sort; he has no money and no fixed home. Although he is good friends with Baoyu, what is his good side?
Perhaps his only good side is that he once beat up Xue Pan, another family member of the story. Or perhaps it is this beating that attracted You Sanjie?
The story says that Xue Pan, thinking Liu Xianglian a street actor—or at least a male favorite—tries to latch onto him. Liu Xianglian, enraged, would like to kill him; so he devises a plan, pretends to agree, and arranges for a rendezvous beyond the North Gate. Each rides a horse, leaves Jia Mansion, and goes to a desolate place. There Liu Xianglian gives Xue Pan a severe beating.
But our question remains: what is the appeal of Liu Xianglian? Why would You Sanjie, merely based on hearsay, love a man like him?
Who is worthy of your waiting a hundred years for?
Because in this murky, dirty swamp, he is the only one who is truly willing to act. And this is something ordinary people cannot see. Even You Erjie can only barely barter her body to ensure a temporary survival. Sanjie dies too early to see what becomes of You Erjie later. The story is long; this is another thread. But in any case, without Sanjie’s discerning eye, she would never have seen Liu Xianglian.
The story says that Jia Lian, upon learning Sanjie’s mind, kept an eye out for where Liu Xianglian was. But when he found him, it was effortless. He even encountered Liu Xianglian together with Xue Pan. It turns out that later, after setting out, Xue Pan encountered bandits on the road, and Liu Xianglian saved him. But that is not the point.
What matters is this: there is one line that Jia Lian concealed. He saw Liu Xianglian and said that there was a beauty in his family, and asked if he would be willing to marry. He did not tell that Sanjie had actively chosen him; nor did he say that he needed to wait for a hundred years. But Liu Xianglian, moved by a martial-heroic spirit, agreed without hesitation. He even handed over the family’s famed “Swallow-twin Sword” as a token of betrothal.
Perhaps, after he left, at a late hour, Jia Lian would think: why would a man like him, always so lively with desire, be so generous as to give away a precious sword to marry a woman?
Readers of The Dream of the Red Chamber often think this book is too long and slow. They do not realize that at the crucial moment the pace is so rapid that few modern writers can match it. You can hardly catch your breath.
So, Liu Xianglian arrives, retrieves the treasured sword, and says that his own family has already agreed to marry him elsewhere. Jia Lian wants to argue, saying once a betrothal is set, you cannot revoke. Sanjie, who has overheard this exchange, immediately understands that she herself is deemed shameless and not fit to be his wife. She also thinks: if they go out to continue arguing, what is the point? So she rushes out and says, “You do not need to go out to discuss it further; return the betrothal gift.” She then bursts into tears, and with her left hand hands over the male sword in its sheath to Xianglian, while with her right hand she slashes at her own neck with the hidden female sword. The scene is drenched with blood. The author of The Dream of the Red Chamber writes that this was a passage of “striking down peach blossoms.” Once the lines are spoken, it is as if a wide lens suddenly pulls back, taking you away from the scene.
The pace of this moment is unimaginable, happening in the blink of an eye.
She waited for him a hundred years, but before she could finish a single glance, she raised the sword and killed herself. And this is a literary technique far beyond Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet’s death is but a temporary misunderstanding; here, a resolutely pitiable woman sacrifices herself beneath the word “shameless.”
Two tensions cannot be compared.
After thinking it over, it is still hard to imagine another path Sanjie might have taken. The author’s cry of “shameless” remains forever in the eternal depths of the universe, an indelible mark. The author’s two lines of poetry, which move you away from the scene, are to bring you to this point.
As for what Liu Xianglian later experiences—I do not at the moment have a book at hand, and do not wish to read Zhi Yanzhai’s nonsense again, so for a while we must let the imagination roam.
The story says that Liu Xianglian suddenly awakens and discovers a path, and follows a wandering Daoist who disappeared. This is also a foreshadowing; later, Baoyu’s own awakening also ends in disappearance.
Who is worthy of your waiting a lifetime?
Yes, Liu Xianglian is indeed worthy. But there is someone even more worthy. That is the great nameless author of The Stone Record, that is, The Dream of the Red Chamber: his farsighted vision and ideals deserve a lifetime.
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