Fragrant Jade
As I noted in yesterday’s post, Jia Baoyu’s story about the mice is pretty ridiculous:
The conclusion is a bad pun, sort of like a dad joke:
「小耗子現了形，笑道：『我說你們沒見世面，只認得這果子是香芋，卻不知鹽課林老爺的小姐，才是真正的「香玉」呢！』」
黛玉聽了，翻身爬起來，按著寶玉，笑道：「我把你這個爛了嘴的！我就知道你是編派我呢。」說著便擰。寶玉連連央告：「好妹妹，饒了我罷！再不敢了。我因為聞見你的香氣，忽然想起這個故典來。」
“The little mouse turned back to his original form and laughed. ‘I’m telling you, none of you have seen the world,’ he explained. ‘You only know this fruit as a taro, or ‘xiangyu.’ What you don’t understand is that the daughter of Mr. Lin, the salt commissioner, is the real ‘xiangyu,’ the real ‘fragrant jade.’”
When Daiyu heard this part, she flipped herself over, scrambled over to Baoyu and pinned him down. “You moron!” she laughed. “I knew you were making it up about me!” And she started pinching him.
“Good sister, please spare me!” begged Baoyu again and again. “I won’t dare say anything like that again. I smelled your wonderful fragrance and suddenly remembered this old story.”
However, there might be something more going on here than just a play on words.
There are a number of different interpretations out there of precisely what is happening.
The most obvious reading comes straight from the text itself. In the first part of this scene, Jia Baoyu points out a sweet smell that he claims is coming from Lin Daiyu:
寶玉總沒聽見這些話，只聞見一股幽香，卻是從黛玉袖中發出，聞之令人醉魂酥骨。寶玉一把便將黛玉的衣袖拉住，要瞧瞧籠著何物。黛玉笑道：「這時候，誰帶什麼香呢？」寶玉笑道：「既如此，這香是從那裡來的？」黛玉道：「連我也不知道，想必是櫃子裡頭的香氣薰染的也未可知。」
Baoyu didn’t listen to a word of this. He only smelled a subtle fragrance coming from Daiyu’s sleeve, a fragrance so intoxicating it made his soul drunk and his bones melt. He grabbed Daiyu’s sleeve to see what was hidden inside.
“Who wears perfume at this hour?” said Daiyu with a laugh.
“Then where is that smell coming from?” smiled Baoyu.
“I don’t even know,” said Daiyu. “Maybe it’s from the incense in the cabinet.”
Baoyu shook his head: “I doubt it. This scent is strange. It’s not like a scent cake or a scent ball or a satchet.”
The idea here is that the story itself is just Jia Baoyu commenting on the sweet smell that comes from Daiyu. In other words, it’s really nothing but shameless flirting.
Some Redologists (紅學家) are convinced that Cao Xueqin is making a sort of historical allusion. Apparently there was a historical woman named Li Xiangyu (李香玉) who was the granddaughter of Li Xu, the Suzhou Imperial Textile Commissioner during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
This is actually discussed on the Chinese Wikipedia page for Lin Daiyu, which I’ve translated for you below:
經近年主流紅學家考證，林黛玉的原型為康熙年間任蘇州織造李煦的孫女，名叫李香玉，其父是任兩淮鹽課的李鼎。李家，曹家以及孫家之間互有姻親，故曹雪芹和李香玉從小耳鬢廝磨也不足為奇。然而按紅學家周汝昌在《紅樓夢新證》中的說法，李香玉更有可能是史湘雲的原型，故尚未有定論。
在《紅樓夢》十九回《情切切良宵花解語，意綿綿靜日玉生香》一回中，賈寶玉和林黛玉相對而臥，為寬林黛玉的心，賈寶玉胡編了一個小耗子偷香芋的故事：「一天，老耗子叫眾耗子分頭去偷米糧和瓜果為臘八粥，一小耗子自薦去偷香芋。眾耗子笑它身體瘦小，小耗子胸有成竹地說：『我變成香芋，滾在香芋堆裡，使人看不出……卻用分身法搬運。』眾耗子叫它變成香芋看看。小耗子就搖身一變，卻變成了一個最標致美貌的小姐。眾耗子說：『變錯了。』小耗子現形道：『我說你們沒有見過世面，只識得這果子是香芋，卻不知道鹽課林老爺的小姐才是真正的香玉呢。』很明顯，作者借這個故事暗示，林黛玉就是李香玉的化身。
In recent years, mainstream Redologists have concluded through textual research that Lin Daiyu’s prototype was the granddaughter of Li Xu, who served as the Suzhou Imperial Textile Commissioner during the Kangxi era. Her name was Li Xiangyu, and her father was Li Ding, who held the post of Lianghuai Salt Commissioner. The Li, Cao, and Sun families were all intermarried, so it is hardly surprising that Cao Xueqin and Li Xiangyu grew up in close childhood intimacy. However, according to the Redologist Zhou Ruchang in his work New Evidence on Dream of the Red Chamber, Li Xiangyu is more likely the prototype for Shi Xiangyun, so no definitive conclusion has yet been reached.
In Chapter 19 of Dream of the Red Chamber, titled “In a night filled with tender feelings, the flowers speak intelligibly; Through the lingering sweetness of a quiet day, the jade emits fragrance,” Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu lie facing each other. To soothe Lin Daiyu’s heart, Jia Baoyu makes up a story about a little mouse stealing taro: “One day, Old Mouse told all the mice to go their separate ways to steal rice, grain, and fruit for Laba porridge. One little mouse volunteered to steal the taro. The other mice laughed at him because he was so thin and small. The little mouse, full of confidence, said: ‘I’ll transform into a taro and roll in among the taro pile, so no one can tell the difference... and then I’ll use a body-doubling method to carry them off.’ The other mice told him to transform into a taro so they could see. The little mouse gave himself a shake, and, lo and behold, he transformed into the most elegant and beautiful young lady. The other mice said, ‘You transformed wrong.’ The little mouse reverted to his true form and said: ‘I tell you, you haven’t seen the world. You only recognize this fruit as taro, but you don’t know that the daughter of Mr. Lin, the Salt Commissioner, is the real “Fragrant Jade” [xiangyu].’” Clearly, the author uses this story to hint that Lin Daiyu is the incarnation of Li Xiangyu.
As is usually the case with public commentary on Dream of the Red Chamber, we’re a bit too quick to jump into the “clearly” (很明顯) line of reasoning. While it’s certainly possible that Cao Xueqin was thinking of a friend namd Li Xiangyu when he wrote this story, we simply don’t have enough evidence to tie Li Xiangyu together with Lin Daiyu.
Besides, there’s actually a better explanation within the text of Dream of the Red Chamber itself.
Remember that Jia Baoyu proposed the name “Red Fragrance and Green Jade” (紅香綠玉) for one of the buildings in the Grand View Garden back in chapter 17:
賈政道：「依你如何？」寶玉道：「依我題『紅香綠玉』四字，方兩全其美。」賈政搖頭道：「不好，不好！」
“Then what do you suggest?” asked Jia Zheng.
“I propose ‘Red Fragrance and Green Jade,’” said Jia Baoyu. “That would beautifully capture the best of both.”
“That’s awful,” said Jia Zheng, shaking his head. “Simply awful.”
Jia Yuanchun comes along in chapter 18 and changes the name entirely:
又改題：「有鳳來儀」，賜名瀟湘館。「紅香綠玉」，改作「怡紅快綠」，賜名怡紅院。
Jia Yuanchun also changed some of the other inscriptions. She named the building with the inscription “The Phoenix Arrives in Ritual Splendor” the “The Xiaoxiang Building.” She changed the inscription “Red Fragrance and Green Jade” to “Delighting in Red and Rejoicing in Green,” and called the building “The Red Delight Building.”
Now, notice the two characters that Jia Yuanchun took away from the name of this building. These would be 香 and 玉, which makes 香玉 (fragrant jade) when you put them together.
The idea here is that Cao Xueqin is foreshadowing the fact that some sort of imperial intervention will keep Jia Baoyu apart from Lin Daiyu. This relies in part on a color focused interpretation that we’ll come back to later, especially when we discover which character winds up living in each building in the Grand View Garden.
Could all of these interpretations be correct? Of course. And the thing that is most fascinating here is that Cao Xueqin is able to take an otherwise nonsensical story and give it so many layers.