The Coming Disaster
Cao Xueqin has an odd habit of trying to draw no attention at all to some of his most significant passages.
We saw one yesterday, though you probably didn’t realize it at the time:
The issue here comes in this part, where the Emperor rewards the Jia family for taking such good care of Jia Yuanchun:
龍顏甚悅，又發內帑綵緞金銀等物，以賜賈政及各椒房等員
The Emperor was extremely pleased. He sent gifts of silks, brocades, gold, silver, and so on from his personal treasury to reward Jia Zheng and the various members of Jia Yuanchun’s family.
So what’s the problem with this?
The problem lies in the concept of a 內帑, or the Empror’s own personal purse.
Now, this might strike you as a more intimate act of grace, as if he were trying to tie himself closer to the Jia family. And I can see how members of the Jia family would also interpret things this way.
However, by avoiding using the state funds (probably something like 國庫), the Emperor is basically making the Jia family subservient to his own whims. The Jia family is quickly turning into a family that is entirely dependent on the grace and favor of the current reigning Emperor, which is extremely dangerous.
This is dangerous because there was a concept at the time of collective guilt. In other words, if anything were to happen to Jia Yuanchun for any reason, her entire family would be at risk because of this personal patronage.
As I’ve noted before, this really points at the fundamental issue that the Jia family faces. Since none of the males in the family have successfully passed the imperial exams, the family has no way to guarantee that it can continue the way of life it has been accustomed to. And, if Jia Baoyu continues to not take the imperial examinations seriously, disaster is indeed inevitable.