Responsibility? What’s That?
As usual, the aiuthor’s commentary in chapter 16 of Dream of the Red Chamber is pretty subtle. Cao Xueqin doesn’t usually come out and say what he thinks about the way his characters are acting. Instead, he will hint at or allude to underlying problems that only become apparently when you think carefully.
For example, there’s this business of the leading men in the Jia family paying no attention to their responsibilities as they construct the massive garden.
Jia Zheng is a pretty good example of this:
賈政不慣於俗務，只憑賈赦、賈珍、賈璉、賴大、賴升、林之孝、吳新登、詹光、程日興等幾人安插擺佈。
Jia Zheng wasn’t accustomed to handling worldly affairs. And so he left everything to Jia She, Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Lai Da, Lai Sheng, Lin Zhixiao, Wu Xindeng, Zhan Guang, Cheng Rixing, and a few others, letting them handle things as they saw fit.
