Wang Xifeng The Godfather: Part Two
The purpose of yesterday’s short segment of the novel is clear. It’s to establish Wang Xifeng’s total dominance.
Wang Xifeng here wields power that you simply don’t see in Chines fiction from this era, or from any other era for that matter. She’s playing the role of family patriarch, even though she’s not actually a blood member of the family.
Wang Xifeng is part of the Jia family because of her strained marriage with Jia Lian. We’ve seen some hints of the strain in their relationship in recent posts. For example, in this post Ping’er is described as “心腹通房大丫頭,” which directly implies that she is not only a senior maid to Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng, but that she is also Jia Lian’s concubine.
However, because of her relationship to her aunt Lady Wang, Wang Xifeng has managed to gain control of the family finances. And, as a result, she is so powerful and well respected that even the men treat her with the utmost respect.
That’s what we saw in yesterday’s translation post.
Jia Rong is about as distant a relative as possible. Jia Rong is actually part of the Ningguo Mansion, which is the house across the street. The relationship between the Ningguo and Rongguo Mansions go back 4 generations, which I believe technically makes Jia Rong a distant cousin of Jia Lian. Both houses theoretically have different hierarchical structures.
And yet Jia Rong comes to beg a favor of Wang Xifeng - and is pleased when she finally relents and gives him whatever thing it is that he wants.
The most telling quote of all is this one, which you might have skipped over:
也沒見我們王家的東西都是好的？你們那裡放著那些好東西，只別看見我的東西才罷，一見了就想拿了去。
You make it sound like everything the Wang family has is priceless! Your house is filled with fine treasures, and yet the moment you see something of mine you simply must have it!
It should strike you as strange that Wang Xifeng here talks about “everything the Wang family has.” Technically (and legally) speaking, she belongs to the Jia family, not the other way around. However, in reality, the Jia family belongs to the Wang family.
This is a very important thing to point out, and is the sort of subtle clue you won’t get from most conventional translations of Dream of the Red Chamber. Wang Xifeng and her aunt, Lady Wang, have basically taken over the administration of the Wang family in a way that is absolutely fascinating, and is completely at odds with the way things were supposed to work in Chinese households in the mid-18th century.
So what does this mean for the story as a whole?
As I’ve mentioned before, Xue Baochai is technically part of the Wang family. Her mother is Lady Wang’s sister, and, therefore, is another aunt of Wang Xifeng.
The three Wang women now have every reason to want Xue Baochai to marry Jia Baoyu in the end. This would likely cement their role in managing the Jia household.
You see - the men of the Jia household are largely corrupt and useless. Jia Zheng, Jia She, Jia Lian, and all the rest have no chance at passing the imperial examination and keeping the family running. All hopes rest on Jia Baoyu, which, naturally, means that he will be the most powerful influence in the family in the future.
It also means that Cao Xueqin was a genius when he made Jia Baoyu such a reluctant “hero.” The old Chinese romance tradition, or the 才子佳人 style of fiction, dictated that the male hero would be a studious young man who had to work hard to pass the exam and win the respect of the family of his bride-to-be. Jia Baoyu is the complete opposite of this. He’s a playboy led along largely by his sexual instincts, and would much rather lay around composing poetry all day and forget about the Confucian traditions and the test.
And, in the end, Jia Baoyu is the prize to be won in Dream of the Red Chamber. The entire 才子佳人 tradition is flipped on its head. And things are set up so that Xue Baochai will be his natural match - since, after all, Xue Baochai is part of the incredibly powerful Wang women.
You can think of that statement by Wang Xifeng as a kind of Freudian slip. She knows full well that she’s the one who is in control. Technically, everything belongs to the Jia family. However, she knows that it’s the Wang family that controls the Jia family in the end.
And, as you can clearly see, Lin Daiyu doesn’t stand a chance in the face of the political and economic power of the Wangs.