An Analysis of Jia Baoyu's Role in A Dream of Red Mansions

Keywords: Double Rebellion of Gender Roles in Men's Liberation Society Jia Baoyu in A Dream of Red Mansions is an image of a rebel within a feudal aristocratic class and a newcomer on the eve of the collapse of feudal society, which has almost become the knowledge of the vast number of Redology researchers and enthusiasts today. When we reread A Dream of Red Mansions under the background of emancipating men's minds, we will find that Cao Xueqin's portrayal of Jia Baoyu reveals the subversion of traditional male gender roles everywhere. Let's try to pay attention to the image of Baoyu from the perspective of male liberation. (1) Jia Baoyu betrayed the gender role consciousness that "men should have a successful career". The ideal man under the Confucian cultural concept should be: self-cultivation, governing the country and leveling the world. Jia Baoyu is a figure with high hopes from his family. Jia Zheng and others' expectations of Baoyu are naturally "deep and refined", climbing high and looking far to worship their ancestors. Jia Baoyu despised fame and fortune all his life and hated the so-called "official career economy" the most. This "lack of initiative" runs counter to the requirements of traditional social gender roles for men. In Jia Baoyu's place, the opposite of fame is "romantic poetry and wine", in which he enjoys himself. The fifth time, Baoyu followed the Qin family to find a place to take a nap and went to the house first. He saw a picture and a couplet hanging, which was "burning quinoa" and the couplet was "everything is learned, and human feelings are also learned." Baoyu quickly said, "Go away, go away!" I hate being so famous. Anyone who advises him to take the road of economy is called "bullshit", which also shows his temperament. (2) Jia Baoyu subverted the gender role of "the man is the master outside and the woman is the master inside", demanding that in the traditional norms of social gender roles, boys should be taught to be different from girls at an early age and keep a distance from women. If a "mature" man hangs out with women all day, he will be considered "worthless" and addicted to making out with children. Jia Baoyu ignored all this. He hangs out with girls all day, which is actually the main content of his life. In Shi Xiangyun's words, it is: "Your adults are only in our group." And xiren also said in Thirty-four Chapters: "He made a lot of trouble in our team." So Grandmother Jia said, "A girl must have miscarried." Men should have men's things to do, and what things are naturally seeking fame. But Jia Baoyu is interested in what girls do. This may be because of his sense of gender equality. Baoyu has the respect for women required by male liberation. He once said: "It turns out that man is the soul of all things, and all the beautiful scenery of mountains, rivers, sun and moon is only for his daughter, and the man with a beard is just scum." He even thinks that "men are flesh and blood made of mud, and women are flesh and blood made of water". Men's world is like Abalone City, while women's world is like Lan Zhi's room. His concept of equality in communication with women and his love for women are all shown in many details. On the 21st time, Baoyu washed his face with Xiangyun's water, which is absolutely not allowed by the traditional "big man" image. For women with low social status, Baoyu does not have the concept of superiority or "master" as a man. For example, Qingwen loves to eat tofu skin buns, so she deliberately keeps them for her to eat, and covers her hands when it is cold. Another example is the twentieth time, Baoyu made a scorpion for Musk Moon; Another example is Fang Er combing her hair. Baoyu "hurriedly ordered her to put on makeup, and also ordered her to shave off the short hair around her, revealing a blue scalp." These details can be seen in his delicate care for women. (3) Jia Baoyu challenged the role orientation of "male chauvinism". China's traditional gender roles clearly define the differences between men and women, and the masculinity of men corresponds to the femininity of women. In order to create this different gender image, there are differences between men and women in the content of childhood games, but Jia Baoyu wants to break this difference. Back to the sixty-second, Xiangling and others mowed the grass. "It happened that Baoyu saw them fighting grass and found some flowers and plants to play with. "This kind of girl's game, I'm afraid only men like Baoyu will be keen to participate in the second government of Rong Ning. Love of beauty has always been a woman's patent, and men's love of beauty will be regarded as "sissy" and despised. But Jia Baoyu likes to wear exquisite embroidered bags and beautiful clothes. Look at the description of Jia Baoyu's first appearance in the third episode: "His face is like Mid-Autumn Festival, his color is like the flower of spring dawn, his eyebrows are like ink painting, his face is like peach petals, and his eyes are like eyes." Laugh when you are angry, and be affectionate when you are angry. " It's a template for feminization. As for liking to eat girl rouge, it is even more feminine to the extreme. The song "Baoyu Buries Flowers" is full of femininity, which can also be said to be full of "duality": Baoyu "dug a hole with the branches of the couple Hui and Bing Di Mausoleum just now, first caught some fallen flowers to pave the way, reconciled these mausoleums, then covered up some fallen flowers and buried them in plain clothes." This move is a replica of Lin Daiyu's funeral. Jia Baoyu is recognized as a son who values affection and righteousness, which is not allowed by the masculine image of men and is another betrayal of Jia Baoyu's traditional male gender role. As for Jia Baoyu's love of crying, because it can best reflect the androgyny concept of male liberation, I will talk about it later. (4) Jia Baoyu neglected the gender modeling of "mature and steady men". To this day, a mature and steady man is still an "ideal man" under the requirements of gender roles, and Baoyu's "slandering monks and ruining Taoism" is "speaking without taboo" in attacking people. This free and easy temperament is also in the hearts of male liberators. (5) Baoyu rebelled against "a friend of a gentleman". Under the traditional gender role, the deep friendship between men is suppressed. Confucian culture pays attention to "a friendship between gentlemen is as light as water". Based on the concept of male liberation, this avoidance of intimate friendship between men is rooted in the masculine image of men, who are considered extremely strong and can bear all the heavy shackles alone. Affectionate, sweet and intimate communication will make men look too affectionate and damage their image as "tough guys", so close friendship like that between women is forbidden in men's world. In addition, the distance between men also stems from "homophobia", that is, men who are afraid of being too close to each other will be considered gay partners by others. Jia Baoyu never wanted to play "tough guy". He subverted this ideal male image and also subverted homophobia. The "brotherhood" between Baoyu and Qin Zhong is profound. When he was named Jin, "the two places with him were very busy recently, and everyone was very proud." He is the only one who regards it as nothing and never cares. So everyone laughed at him for being more and more stupid. " Why not? Because Qin Zhong's father died, and Qin Zhong is dying. His close relationship with Jiang Yuhan, Liu Xianglian and others highlights his friendship with the same sex. In fact, Jia Baoyu's relationship with the same sex only stays at the level of friendship, not homosexuality. Therefore, it is different from Xue Pan's "moving the glory of Longyang", even from Qin Zhong's and Xiang Lian's "winking and passing secret words", and even more different from Jia Lian's "choosing handsome men to make a fire". Throughout A Dream of Red Mansions, although there are many descriptions of homosexuality, even those suggestive statements in Chapter 15 seem to have only layers of suggestive homosexual games, rather than real homosexual relationships. (6) Jia Baoyu's crying and facultative temperament in A Dream of Red Mansions, except Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu has the most tears. Lin Daiyu's crying can be understood from the feminine side of women, while Jia Baoyu's crying will be rejected because it does not meet the requirements of male gender roles. Liu Xianglian became a monk in A Dream of Red Mansions. Xue Pan went to look for it, but he couldn't find it. He came back and said, "I'm not afraid of your jokes. I can't find him, I cried. " It can be seen that men crying is really a "joke". The ideal man in traditional society is strong, and "a man can't cry lightly" is the most direct embodiment of the social requirements for us. Male liberalism questioned the orientation of this gender role, arguing that crying is a natural reflection of physiology and a process of self-healing. Men have the same nervous system as women. Why can't we cry when we are sad? Men cry when they have tears. The first 80 times explicitly mentioned Baoyu crying, reaching 19 times, all of which were rendered, which was unique among men in the book. Baoyu cried, and many people around him felt incredible. Xifeng called him "mother-in-law", but when we carefully study why he cried, we will find that the law is very obvious. Jia Baoyu cried for the first time, and for the third time, because he heard that Lin Daiyu didn't have jade either, he "suddenly went crazy and picked the jade and threw it away ... Baoyu cried with tears all over his face:" There are no sisters at home, only me, so I said it was boring; There are no such fairy sisters now, which means this is not a good thing. In the final analysis, it is because of the girls, because of Lin Daiyu, and because I am different from these "people made of water", I am dissatisfied. The second time I cried was the eleventh time. When I heard Qin tell me that "I may not last for the New Year", "tears flowed out unconsciously." Xifeng said, "Brother Bao, you are really a mother-in-law." The third time I cried, I said, "When Qin Zhong died, Baoyu wept bitterly." It is reasonable to cry because of death. It is clear in the book that Baoyu only cried twice because of it, that is, Qin Keqing and Qin Zhong. The former belongs to a pure woman in Baoyu's eyes, and the latter is his close friend. Thirdly, crying related to death is dreaming of Qingwen's death and crying. When Jia Jing, who belongs to the rank of "smelly man", died, everyone cried bitterly, except Baoyu. On the day of the funeral, "the grandmother was not well yet, leaving Baoyu to wait on her at home", which showed that there was another opportunity to cry and "teach by example". This shows that Baoyu's tears are mostly for women, mostly for things that are not worth crying. Of course, among them, it was Lin Daiyu who made him cry the most: if it is understandable to cry because of his secret crush on Daiyu, then on the 43rd visit to the Water Temple, I felt "stunned" and "shed tears unconsciously" when I saw the clay sculpture. There is only one explanation for crying over clay sculptures. Baoyu really regards clay sculpture as a goddess of Luo, and it is a young woman who cries like this. Baoyu only cries for his daughter and often cries for the distance between himself and the girls. He loves to cry, but he doesn't show weakness. For example, when he was in a group in the ninth school, he not only didn't cry, but also was very manly. Therefore, crying here has become an important means for Cao Xueqin to shape Jia Baoyu's character. We also need to notice that most of Baoyu's crying in Cao Xueqin's works are very feminine crying methods, such as "rolling down tears", "dripping tears" and "sighing with tears", which are consistent with Jia Baoyu's overall image and reflect his characteristics as a "facultative" image. Baoyu loves to cry, which is extremely contrary to the image of "ideal man" and embodies the temperament of traditional female roles. But it is precisely because of this total of ***38 cries that Jia Baoyu depicts an important aspect of abandoning traditional gender roles, which is consistent with his girlish temperament and his love for girlish companionship. Jia Baoyu's betrayal is the unity of class rebellion and gender role rebellion, which determines the thoroughness of his betrayal and makes his characters more vivid. References: 1, Men's Liberation edited by Fang Gang, China Overseas Chinese Publishing House, 1999 Edition 2, Selected Translation of Gender Studies edited by Du, Sanlian Bookstore, 1998 Edition 3, Women: The Longest Revolution edited by Li Yinhe, Sanlian Bookstore,/kl. Men roll Sally? Hite, translated by Lin Ruiting, Future Publishing House, 1998 5th edition. The fragile man Joyce? Polazes, translated by Lin Ning, Academy Press, 1989 6th edition, International Women's Movement, 1789- 1989, Min Zhu, Henan People's Publishing House, 19 1 7th edition. Baihua literature and art publishing house 1982 9th edition. A Dream of Red Mansions and Jin Ping Mei by Sun Xun and Zhao Chen, Ningxia People's Publishing House 1982.