9. Dream of the Red Chamber
Summary & Analysis of Episodes 21 - 34 from the 2010 Chinese TV Series
21.
Grandma Jia decides to hold a big birthday party for Xifeng. Everyone has to contribute money, it ends up at more than 150 taels of silver. They hire an outside Opera company, saying they are bored with what in-house opera company performs.
The Prince of Beijing had a favorite wife who died, Baoyu went to see him, then went to a Temple of Water Spirits [Narrator: Baoyu generally disliked temples set up by commoners who worshiped ‘spirits they knew nothing about’ – Comment: What is Baoyu thinking? Of course the people know about the Gods they worship - that’s why they built the temples! Yes, some temples are merely businesses run by people who are not devout, is this what Baoyu is saying? But how can you tell if the people who set up the temple truly believe, or not?]
Baoyu prays at the temple for the soul of the maid Golden. [Too little, too late.]
At the party, Grandma Jia insists that everyone toast Xifeng. She drinks too much and heads back home only to find her husband having sex with the cook’s wife. Xifeng goes crazy & attacks the girl & her maid, Patience. Patience tries to kill herself. Her husband, Lian draws his sword and threatens to kill Xifeng, she runs back to the party & begs for aid. Lian follows her and is only stopped by Grandma who says “Summon his father!”. When Grandma hears Xifeng’s story she says “Men are like hungry cats. This sort of thing always happens in families like ours’ [True]. Patience is brought over to Baoyu’s house. She complains to Aroma that it’s the cook’s wife who dragged her into this mess.
Next day: Grandma says to Lian “You already have Xifeng & Patience, why fool around with some other woman?” Lian knows that he was in the wrong & he apologizes. Xifeng was also sorry about attacking Patience. Later they learn the cook’s wife has killed herself. The Cook says he will bring a suit against Lian. [An empty threat]. Lian does pay some money to the cook & he gets a new wife & remains with the Jia family.
The poetry club asks Xifeng to run the club. She guesses they want money, she says that Baoyu’s older brother’s widow (the woman who ran the club the first two meetings) only has an income of 400-500 taels per year. [I don’t believe this, as Baoyu’s mother receives only 140 tales a year]. The Widow has some biting words in reply about how the only thing Xifeng talks about is money [True]. The widow says Patience should be the Prime Wife & Xifeng should be Lian’s Chamber Wife. Xifeng, understanding why they have come, apologizes again to Patience. The Widow pulls rank and tells Xifeng what to do, indicating that even though her husband is dead, she still has superior rank to Xifeng, which tells me that Baoyu’s older brother was born before Lian.
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