Jia Baoyu on Men and Women

Jia Baoyu's unusual character is revealed

Jia Baoyu on Men and Women

We’ve come up to one of those sections that everybody quotes when they talk about Dream of the Red Chamber. However, the connotations here are a bit deeper than you might think. This isn’t Jia Baoyu expressing suppressed transgender desires or anything like that. Instead, this is Jia Baoyu expressing his contempt towards the strict and wooden nature of Confucianism. And, of course, there will be more on that tomorrow.

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Chinese Text

雨村笑道：「果然奇異！只怕這人的來歷不小。」子興冷笑道：「萬人都這樣說，因而他祖母愛如珍寶。那周歲時，政老爺試他將來的志向，便將世上所有的東西擺了無數叫他抓，誰知他一概不取，伸手只把些脂粉釵環抓來玩弄。那政老爺便不喜歡，說將來不過酒色之徒，因此便不甚愛惜。獨那太君還是命根子一般。說來又奇：如今長了十來歲，雖然淘氣異常，但聰明乖覺，百個不及他一個。說起孩子話來也奇。他說：『女兒是水做的骨肉，男子是泥做的骨肉。我見了女兒便清爽，見了男子便覺濁臭逼人！』你道好笑不好笑？將來色鬼無疑了！」

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Translation Notes

來歷 is a deceptively simple phrase. It literally means “origin and history,” but here has a lot more to do with Jia Baoyu’s cosmic backstory than anything else. In our next translation post we’ll show why you can’t just call it “heredity.”

試他將來的志向 refers to a practice called Zhuazhou (抓週) that continues in China to this day. It’s basically a form of fortune telling. The idea is that the child’s natural aptitude will be shown based on what he or she grabs.

脂粉釵環 are all women’s objects. 脂粉 refers to cosmetics in general, 釵 are women’s hairpins, and 環 are bracelets worn by women.

酒色之徒 literally means a disciple of wine and women, and implies someone who seeks nothing but pleasure.

太君 shows up as “mother” in the dictionary, but is actually an honorific for an elderly woman. In this case, it’s clear from the context that this is Jia Baoyu’s grandmother, not his mother.

命根子 means one’s lifeblood, or the thing one cherishes most in life. I’ve simplified this a bit by saying “apple of her eye.”

骨肉 is a little bit difficult to translate. It literally means “bones and flesh.” You could translate this by saying that the essence of girls is water while the essence of boys is mud — but that translation seems a little bit too literal. It’s more simple to just say that one is made of water, while the other is made of mud, without worrying too much about “essence” or “flesh and bone” or whatever.

濁臭逼人 means filthy and smelly to the point of oppressing someone.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

David Hawkes adds in a bit of flavor. “Humph” is Zixing’s response at Yucun saying that Jia Baoyu has “something very unusual” in his “heredity.”

Note, by the way, that “heredity” is not a good translation here of 來歷. This should be something closer to “background,” which is something that Jia Yucun will make evident in our next translation post.

Hawkes translates 周歲 as “the First Twelve-month,” which is a pretty strange translation. I’m not certain that the ritual of laying objects out was always held on the baby’s first birthday.

Yangs

The Yangs mistranslate 來歷 by having Jia Yucun say that he should have a remarkable future. There’s no question that this statement refers to what Jia Yucun believes is in Jia Baoyu’s bloodline, as we’ll see in the next translation post.

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My Translation

“What an amazing thing!” smiled Yucun. “I’m sure he must have an illustrious background.”

“Everyone says the same thing,” replied Zixing with a slight sneer, “and so his grandmother treats him like a priceless treasure. When he was a year old, Master Zheng tested his son’s interests by laying out a bunch of objects in front of him to see which he’d grab first. Everybody was surprised when he ignored everything else and reached out only for the makeup, powder, hairpins, and bracelets.

“Master Zheng was upset, and predicted that his son would be nothing more than a pleasure seeker. He didn’t care at all for the boy after this. Only his grandmother saw him as the apple of her eye.

“Strangely enough, now that he’s about 10 years old, he’s a lot more clever and quick witted than other children his age. Of course, he’s also quite unruly. And the things he says about other children are even stranger. ‘Girls are made of water,’ he says, ‘pure and clear. Boys are made of mud, foul and dull. My soul feels refreshed when I see a girl, but seeing a boy makes me feel absolutely filthy!’ Don’t you think that’s hilarious? He’s destined to be a playboy!”

What do you think about Jia Baoyu’s statement? Let me know in the comments!