The Precious Mirror of Romance
The Precious Mirror of Romance, or the 風月寶鑑, is actually not all that hard to interpret.
As we saw yesterday, the mirror consisted of stark reality on the backside and pure fantasy on the front:
賈瑞接了鏡子，想道：「這道士倒有意思。我何不照一照試試？」想畢，拿起那「寶鑑」來向反面一照，只見一個骷髏兒立在裡面。賈瑞忙掩了，罵那道士：「混帳！如何嚇我！我倒再照照正面是什麼。」想著，便將正面一照，只見鳳姐站在裡面，點手兒叫他。
Jia Rui picked up the mirror. “That sure was an odd priest,” he thought. “Why don’t I take a look and see what happens?”
He picked up the Precious Mirror and turned it to the back side. What he saw was a skeleton standing upright.
Jia Rui quickly covered up the mirror. “What nonsense!” he cursed. “He’s just trying to frighten me. Well, I suppose I should take a look to see what’s on the front.”
With that thought, he picked the mirror up again and turned it to the front side. He saw Wang Xifeng standing there, beckoning him to go to her with her finger.
