Ordinary Language
I’ll probably get in trouble for this, but here goes nothing.
I enjoy reading the work of
, who I strongly recommend that you read. In particular, I found this note from the other day interesting:I wrote a pretty lame comment in reply, noting that you can always write something deep and profound even if it uses the most simple language.
The truth is that Dream of the Red Chamber is filled with examples of this. And sometimes it happens in ways that are unexpected.
Cao Xueqin was the master of using innocuous and inornate language to say profound things. He describes this as 假語村言 in the first paragraph of the novel, a phrase that literally translates to “fake languages and rural words,” but is best translated as an idiom meaning “ordinary language:”
我雖不學無文，又何妨用假語村言敷演出來，亦可使閨閣昭傳，復可破一時之悶，醒同人之目，不亦宜乎？
Sure, I may be uneducated and poor at writing – but why can’t I use ordinary language to explain things? Such language would illuminate the stories of those girls, dispel moments of boredom, and might even help others like me to wake up. Isn’t that appropriate?
Now, there are examples all over the book of ordinary Chinese being used. If you’re even just a beginner at the language, you’ll recognize that ordinary Chinese right away. It’s easy to understand, is simple, and doesn’t have anything ornate or fancy about it.
Take this snippet from yesterday’s brief post for example:
他比老太太還受用呢！問他作什麼？沒有他，只怕我還多活兩日兒！
She lives better than Grandmother Jia! Why ask about her? If it weren’t for her, I might actually live for a few more days!
None of these words are particularly difficult. Despite his education, Jia Baoyu isn’t quoting some Confucian text or making some fancy literary reference. He’s speaking the way that people today would speak - and Cao Xueqin is so good at modeling the spoken word that he remembers to add on the dialectical 兒 at the end of 日 (this is a tendency in colloquial northern Chinese).
But it’s not just simple language that Cao Xueqin uses in a profound way. He also uses simple circumstances to get his point across. And it can be pretty easy to miss.
In the story we’ve gone through, which I’ve broken up into several chunks in a way that probably frustrates you, we met yet another minor character. Her surname is Li (李, a common surname), and her title is 奶子.
Now, 奶子 literally translates into “wet nurse,” and apparently refers to the fact that she was Jia Baoyu’s wet nurse when he was a baby. That presents a translation problem I’ve mentioned earlier. I could literally translate it as “Wet Nurse Li,” or use something like “Nannie Li” as David Hawkes does in The Story of the Stone. But it still seems odd for me to talk about the teenage Jia Baoyu wandering around with a wet nurse following him.
I’ve opted to simply not translate 奶子, which probably makes things worse. The truth is that she has the position of being a senior maid, likely because she has a somewhat intimate relationship with Baoyu after being his wet nurse.
Now, when Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu were visiting Xue Baochai at her residence, Nurse / Nanny / Maid Li was in tow. After having a bit to drink, she unexpectedly left early. And it seems this happened because she was directly contradicted by Aunt Xue, who is Xue Baochai’s mother.
Here’s a brief snippet that kind of explains this:
說話時，寶玉已是三杯過去了。李嬤嬤又上來攔阻。寶玉正在個心甜意洽之時，又兼姐妹們說說笑笑，那裡肯不吃？只得屈意央告：「好媽媽，我再吃兩杯就不吃了。」李嬤嬤道：「你可仔細！今兒老爺在家，提防著問你的書！」
…
薛姨媽一面笑著，又說：「別怕，別怕，我的兒！來到這裡，沒好的給你吃，別把這點子東西嚇的存在心裡，倒叫我不安。只管放心吃，有我呢。索性吃了晚飯去，要醉了，就跟著我睡罷。」因命：「再燙些酒來。姨媽陪你吃兩杯，可就吃飯罷。」寶玉聽了，方又鼓起興來。李嬤嬤因吩咐小丫頭：「你們在這裡小心著，我家去換了衣裳就來。」悄悄的回薛姨媽道：「姨太太，別由他盡著吃了。」說著，便家去了。
By now, Jia Baoyu had already drunk three cups of wine. Li came over again to try to stop him.
Baoyu was really enjoying himself now, and he was talking and laughing with the girls. Why would he ever want to stop? And so he plead: “Only two more cups, and then I’ll stop.”
“You’d better look out!” she warned. “Your father’s at home today. Be careful, or he might ask you about your studies!”
…
“Don’t be afraid, my child!” said Aunt Xue to Baoyu, reassuring him. “You’ve come all this way, after all. I might not have good food to give you, but you shouldn’t let this little thing worry you, or you’ll make me feel uneasy. Just eat and drink in peace, and I’ll take care of everything. In fact, you should stay for dinner. And, if you get drunk, you can spend the night here.”
“Heat some more wine up,” she ordered a servant. “I’ll have a few cups with you,” she said to Baoyu, “and then we can have dinner.”
Baoyu felt happy again as soon as he heard this.
Li then instructed the young maids: “Be careful here, all of you. I’m going home to change clothes, and I’ll return.”
She then whispered discreetly to Aunt Xue: “Madam, please don’t let him keep on drinking like this.” And she went home after saying this.
Of course, I’m leaving out some of the nitty gritty details. If you want to know those, check out this post:
The problem, of course, is that Nurse / Nanny / Maid Li can’t just leave like that. She’s clearly upset because what little influence and authority she has over Jia Baoyu has been directly overruled. There’s a problem of face here, and she has clearly concluded that she can no longer remain with the others without losing face.
Naturally, that should mean trouble for her when she returns home.
And yet the other maids help her out:
忽想起跟寶玉的人來，遂問眾人：「李奶子怎麼不見？」眾人不敢直說他家去了，只說：「才進來了，想是有事，又出去了。」
Grandmother Jia then suddenly thought about the people who had come back with Baoyu. “Where was Li?” she asked the other servants.
They didn’t dare say directly that she had gone home. “She came in a moment ago,” they responded. “She must have had something to do, and so she went out again.”
So why do they do this? Is it because they worry about retribution? Is this because they have some sort of natural respect for Li’s position and authority as Jia Baoyu’s former wet nurse?
None of that is clear. What is clear from this example, however, is that Jia Baoyu has been coddled to a great extent because of his status as the heir apparent to the family riches. Aunt Xue, who hopes that her daughter Xue Baochai winds up married to him, is more than happy to indulge his every whim, even when he’s clearly drunk. And no voice of reason can prevent this from happening.
The other thing that is clear is that Jia Baoyu feels trapped and inhibited by his former wet nurse. That’s why he said this about her as he wandered around his home in a drunken state:
問他作什麼？沒有他，只怕我還多活兩日兒！
If it weren’t for her, I might actually live for a few more days!
All of this happens without any direct writing. Cao Xueqin doesn’t need to tell us how Jia Baoyu feels. We can see and infer precisely how Jia Baoyu feels based on his words and his actions. And there’s really no need for the author to explain to us the small power struggle behind the scenes that the former wet nurse engages in. A perceptive reader, one who is willing to read slowly and ask questions, will dig up the struggle on her own.
And all of this happens with simple and unadorned language.
Now, I’m not saying that Fifty Shades of Grey is a masterpiece. I’ve never read it, and likely never will.
However, I am saying that Dream of the Red Chamber is legitimately a literary masterpiece. And one of the reasons why is because it uses simple, ordinary language to say things that are extremely profound.
Now I just hope I don’t get into too much trouble for writing this.