Karmic Justice

Jia Yucun gets it wrong

Jun 17, 2025

∙ Paid

We caught a glimpse of the cosmic world of Cao Xueqin yesterday in a way that is quite fascinating.

Jia Yucun decided to make a big show of demonstrating Xue Pan’s cosmic innocence. He and his clerk conspired to have Xue Pan declared dead due to a mysterious illness, allowing Xue Pan to go into hiding. And then, to cover things up, Jia Yucun agreed to convene a fake “spirit writing” (扶鸞) session in order to show that Feng Yuan’s ghost (魂魄) confirmed that cosmic justice had indeed been served.

I don’t think Cao Xueqin could really get any more cynical than this.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Dream of the Red Chamber to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.