What Chapter 9 Is All About
Chapter 9 really should frustrate you.
Though I imagine that most modern readers will be puzzled by the references to homosexuality, that’s not really the big problem in this chapter. Instead, the problem is that we can see that the men in the Jia family are extremely reluctant to actually solve problems.
The problem here isn’t just that Jia Dairu, the teacher, wound up giving the students meaningless homework to handle while he went home to do something else:
No - the real problem here is that nobody with any kind of responsibility actually wants to do anything.
In theory, Jia Qiang probably could have quelled the bickering by simply intervening when he had the chance:
However, for one reason or another, Jia Qiang decided that his loyalty to Xue Pan was more important than settling a foolish disagreement in the classroom. Not only did he decide to do nothing, but he went as far as to stir up Mingyan, a young servant who he must have known was liable to start up trouble:
In the end, it’s pretty clear that Jin Rong should have been to blame. He started everything with his insults, he’s the one who bludgeoned Qin Zhong, and he was certainly trying to throw around weight and authority that he didn’t actually have.
However, the internal corruption of the Jia family stands out when everybody listens to Li Gui in the end.
You could argue that this whole episode is a metaphor for the state of Qing Dynasty politcs in the 18th century. In this case, nobody seems interested in actually discovering the truth or solving the real problem. Instead, everybody wants to do whatever they can to clean up the mess, keep everything quiet, and save face as far and wide as possible.