Jia Baoyu in A Dream of Red Mansions is an image of a rebel within a feudal aristocratic class and a newcomer on the eve of the collapse of feudal society, which has almost become the knowledge of the vast number of Redology researchers and enthusiasts today. When we reread A Dream of Red Mansions against the background of emancipating men's minds, we will find that Cao Xueqin's portrayal of Jia Baoyu reveals the subversion of traditional male gender roles everywhere. It is no exaggeration to say that Cao Xueqin is a writer with a preliminary sense of gender equality and men's emancipation of mind. Although limited by his time, he may not know what gender roles are all about. However, Jia Baoyu, a figure he created, embodies many ideas that men believe in emancipating their minds. This rebel image of the feudal aristocracy is also a rebel of gender roles in traditional society. Let's try to pay attention to the image of Baoyu from the perspective of men's liberation.

The ideal man under the concept of Confucian culture should be: cultivate one's integrity, rule the country and level the world. Jia Baoyu is a figure who has high hopes from his family. The expectations of Jia Zheng and others for Baoyu are naturally "deep and refined", rising to the top, and honoring their ancestors. However, Jia Baoyu despised fame and fortune all his life and hated the so-called "official career economy" the most. This "lack of initiative" runs counter to the requirements of traditional social gender roles for men. In Jia Baoyu's place, as opposed to fame, it is "romantic poetry wine", in which he enjoys himself.

In the fifth time, Baoyu followed Qin's family to find a place to take a nap, and went to the house first. He saw a painting and a couplet hanging, which was "Burning Chenopodium", painted by Liu Xiang who studied hard, and the couplet was "All things are learned, and human feelings are learned." Baoyu quickly said, "Get out, get out!" I hate fame to this extent. If anyone advises him to take the road of economy, he will call it "asshole talk", which also shows his temperament.

2. Jia Baoyu subverted the gender role requirement of "men stay away from women"

In the traditional social gender role norms, boys were taught from childhood that they are different from girls, and they should keep their distance from women. If a "mature" man hangs out with women all day, he will be regarded as "worthless" and indulge in being affectionate with his children.

Jia Baoyu ignores all this. He hangs out with girls all day, which is actually the main content of his life. In Shi Xiangyun's words, it is: "Your adult family is only in our group". And xiren also said in thirty-four times: "he is good at making trouble in our team." Therefore, Grandmother Jia said, "It must have been a girl who miscarried."

men should have men's things to do, and what things are naturally seeking fame. But Jia Baoyu is interested in what girls do. This may be due to his awareness of gender equality.

One of the important components of traditional male social gender roles is male hegemonism, which is the "authority" that is superior to women. In the era when Jia Baoyu lived, men were the masters of society and women were slaves, despised and enslaved.

Baoyu has the respect for women required by men's liberation. He once said, "It turns out that man is the spirit of all things, and all the beautiful scenery of mountains, rivers, the sun and the moon is only for his daughter, and men with beards are just scum." He even thinks that "men are flesh and blood made of mud, and women are flesh and blood made of water". The world of men is like the city of abalone, while the world of women is like the room of Zhilan.

His concept of equality in communication with women and his love for women are shown in many details. On the 21st time, Baoyu washed his face with the water that Xiangyun washed his face, which is absolutely not allowed by the traditional image of "big man". For women with low social status, Baoyu also doesn't have the concept of being superior as a man or a "master". For example, Qingwen loves to eat steamed buns with bean curd skin, so he deliberately leaves them for her and covers her hands when it is cold. Another example is that in the twentieth time, Baoyu made a grate for the musk moon; Another example is Fang Er combing her hair. Baoyu "hastily ordered her to change her makeup, and also ordered her to shave off the short hair around her to expose her blue scalp". These details can be seen in his delicate care for women.

3. Jia Baoyu challenged the role orientation of "masculine man".

The traditional gender roles in China have clearly defined the differences between men and women, and the masculine man corresponds to the feminine woman. In order to create this different gender image, men and women have differences in the content of childhood games, but Jia Baoyu wants to break this difference. The sixty-second time, Xiangling and others fought grass. "It happened that Baoyu saw them fighting grass and found some flowers and plants to play." This kind of girls' game, I'm afraid that only Baoyu, a male, will be keen to participate in Rong Ning's second government.

The love of beauty has always been a woman's patent, and men's love of beauty will be regarded as "girlish" and be despised. But Jia Baoyu likes to wear exquisite embroidered bags and beautiful clothes. Look at the appearance description of Jia Baoyu's first appearance in the third episode: "The face is like the Mid-Autumn Festival, the color is like the flower of spring dawn, the eyebrows are like ink paintings, the face is like peach petals, and the eyes are like eyes. If you laugh when you are angry, you will be angry and affectionate. " It's a feminine template. As for liking to eat girls' rouge, it is even more feminine to the extreme.

The "Baoyu burying flowers" is full of femininity, which can also be said to be full of "androgyny": Baoyu "dug a hole with the branches of the husband and wife Hui and Bing Di Ling just now, first caught some fallen flowers to pave the way, reconciled these diamonds, and then covered some fallen flowers, and buried them with earth." This move is a replica of Lin Daiyu's funeral.

Jia Baoyu is recognized as an affectionate son, and this affection is exactly what men's masculine image does not allow, and it is another betrayal of traditional men's gender roles. As for Jia Baoyu's love of crying, because it can best reflect the androgyny concept of men's liberation, I will talk about it later.

4. Jia Baoyu ignored the gender modeling of "men who are mature and prudent"

Until today, men who are mature and prudent are still "ideal men" under the requirements of gender roles.

But Baoyu's "slandering monks and ruining Taoism" means "speaking regardless of taboos", which is free and casual.

5. Baoyu rebelled against the "friendship between gentlemen"

Under the traditional social gender role, the profound friendship between men was restrained. Confucian culture pays attention to "a friendship between gentlemen is as light as water".

Based on the concept of men's liberation, this avoidance of intimate friendship between men is rooted in the masculine image of men, who are considered to be extremely strong and can bear all the heavy yoke alone. And affectionate, sweet and intimate communication will make men look too "affectionate" and damage their image as "tough guys", so intimate friendship like that between women is forbidden in the men's world. In addition, the distance between men also stems from "homophobia", that is, fear that men who have too close contacts will be considered gay partners by others.

Men's liberators believe that "homophobia" hinders men's unity and friendship, so it should be broken. Just as feminists advocate the establishment of deep "sisterhood" between women, so do men's liberators advocate the establishment of the same deep "brotherhood" between men.

Jia Baoyu never wanted to play a "tough guy". He subverted this ideal male image and also subverted homophobia.

Baoyu and Qin Zhong's "brotherhood" can be described as profound. When Yuan Chun was awarded the title of Jin, "Ningrong and other places were so busy recently and everyone was so proud. He was the only one, and he never cared. Therefore, everyone ridiculed him for being more and more stupid. " Why not? Because Qin Zhong's father died, and Qin Zhong is also dying. He has close ties with Jiang Yuhan, Liu Xianglian and others, highlighting his friendship with the same sex.

In fact, the effect of "homophobia" put forward by male liberators has already been shown in A Dream of Red Mansions. For example, when Baoyu and Qin Zhong admired each other for the seventh time, they "can't blame the classmate for being suspicious".

In fact, Jia Baoyu's relationship with the same sex is only at the level of friendship, not homosexuality. Therefore, it is different from Xue Pan's "arousing the interest of Longyang", even from Qin Zhong's and Xiang Lian's "winking and handing out secret signals", and even different from Jia Lian's "temporarily choosing handsome young pages to make a fire". Throughout the book A Dream of Red Mansions, although there are many descriptions of homosexual sex, even those highly suggestive statements in the fifteenth chapter seem to have only layers of suggestive homosexual sex games, rather than real homosexual relations.

Jia Baoyu's crying and androgynous temperament

In A Dream of Red Mansions, except for Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu shed the most tears. Lin Daiyu's crying can be understood from the feminine side of women, while Jia Baoyu's crying will be rejected because it does not meet the requirements of men's social gender roles. A Dream of Red Mansions wrote that Liu Xianglian became a monk. Xue Pan went to look for it, but he didn't find it. He came back and said, "I'm not afraid of your jokes. I couldn't find him, and I cried." It can be seen that men crying is really a "joke".

In traditional society, the ideal man is strong, and "men don't flick when they are in tears" is the most direct embodiment of social requirements for us. Male liberalism questioned the orientation of this gender role, saying that crying is a natural reflection of physiology and a process of self-healing. Men's nervous system is the same as that of women. Why can't we cry when we feel sad? Men can shed tears when they have them.

In the first 8 chapters, Baoyu's crying was explicitly mentioned for 19 times, and all of them were exaggerated, which is unique among men in the book. Baoyu's crying is incredible to many people around him, and Xifeng calls it "mother-in-law" But if we carefully study why he is crying, we will find that the law is very obvious.

Jia Baoyu cried for the first time in the third time. When he heard that Lin Daiyu didn't have jade either, he "suddenly fell into a delusion, took off the jade, and threw it away ... Baoyu cried with tears all over his face:' There are no sisters at home, but I have it, so I said it's boring; Now that there is no such a fairy-like sister, it is not a good thing. " "At the end of the day, this is because the girls cry, cry because of Lin Daiyu, because they are different from these" people made of water ",and they cry because they are dissatisfied.

I cried for the second time in the eleventh time. When I heard Qin's story that he "might not make it to the New Year", "the tears came down unconsciously." Xi-feng said, "Brother Bao, you are such a mother-in-law."

The third time I cried, I said, "After Qin Zhong died, Baoyu wept bitterly." It is reasonable to cry because of death. It is clear in the book that Baoyu cried because of it only twice, that is, Qin Keqing and Qin Zhong, while the former belongs to the pure woman in Baoyu's eyes, and the latter is his close friend. Once again, crying related to death is to dream of Qingwen's death and wake up crying. When Jia Jingzhi, who belongs to the rank of "smelly man", died, everyone wept bitterly, but he didn't mention Baoyu. On the day of the funeral, "the old lady was still not well, so she left Baoyu to serve at home", which shows that there was another chance to cry for "talk.an excellent job".

From this, we can see that Baoyu's tears are mostly for women, and mostly for things that are not worth crying. Of course, among them, it was Lin Daiyu who made him cry the most:

On the 22nd time, she cried because of her petulance.

on the 28th time, Daiyu "unconsciously shed tears".

On the 29th time, I cried again because of Daiyu; In the same time, because they heard "it's not that enemies don't get together", they both "burst into tears" respectively.

for the thirtieth time, "Baoyu had infinite worries in his heart, and at the same time he made a mistake and was regretting himself; I saw Daiyu poke him again, but I couldn't say it, sighing and crying, so I felt something myself, and I couldn't help crying. "

In the fifty-seventh episode, Zi Juan bluffed Baoyu that Daiyu was going back to the Lins' home in the south of the Yangtze River, and Baoyu was "like a thunderbolt on his head", "dull, sweaty, and purple all over his face", but he couldn't cry, just in a daze. Back in the room, "my eyes are straight up, and the body fluid is flowing out of the mouth, and I don't feel it." Until "seeing Zijuan, Fang sighed and cried." This is a good cry, crying and making noise. When I go to sleep at night, I often "wake up from my dream, either crying that Daiyu has gone or someone has come to meet me."

on the sixty-fourth visit, Baoyu saw Daiyu with tears on her face and feeling sick, thinking about her feelings, and worried that she would make a mistake, "tears had already rolled down her face".

If it is understandable to shed tears because of Daiyu, who has a crush on me, then by the 43rd time, when I entered the water temple and saw the clay statue, I felt "stunned" and "unconsciously shed tears". There is only one explanation for crying for clay sculpture. Baoyu really regards the clay sculpture as a goddess of Luo, and it is a young woman who will cry like this.

on the 19th time, xiren told Baoyu that she was leaving, and Baoyu's face was covered with tears.

on the 44th time, I felt sorry for Pinger's fate, and "I became sad again, so I couldn't help crying."

In the 57th episode of "Hui Zijuan tries to help jade with her love words, and menstruation loves to comfort her infatuation with her love words", firstly, she worries that Zijuan is cold and "reaches out and touches him", but Zijuan is telling him "don't touch him. It' s disrespectful to be a sophomore in a year. " "When he said this, he got up and went into the other room with a needle and thread." "(Baoyu) lost his soul for a moment, and his heart didn't know anything. He just sat on a rock and lost his mind, and he didn't feel tears."

In the 58th time, I chose my husband for the sake of the fruitless branches and cigarettes of the apricot tree, which was also "just sighing for the apricot".

By the time Second Sister You died, "Baoyu had already come and cried with her".

Mrs. Wang drove Qingwen, Fangguan and others away. "Isn't it sad that she fell down on the bed and began to cry?"

I went to see Qingwen, who was ill in bed and "reached out and gently pulled him up with tears".

Xue Pan married, but Baoyu was "worried" about Xiangling, which provoked Xiangling to treat him coldly. "When Baoyu saw him like this, he was so disappointed that he stood for a long time, thinking about the past and thinking about it, and he didn't feel tears."

To sum up, Baoyu only cries for his daughter, and often cries for the distance between himself and the girls. His crying is not weakness, for example, when he got into a ball in the ninth school, he not only didn't cry, but also was very masculine. Therefore, crying has become an important means for Cao Xueqin to shape Jia Baoyu's character here.

We also need to note that the crying of Baoyu written by Cao Xueqin is mostly a very feminine way of crying, such as "rolling down tears", "dripping tears" and "sighing with tears", which is consistent with Jia Baoyu's overall image and reflects his characteristics as a "dual" image.

In the sequel, Gao E clearly realized Cao Xueqin's use of "crying", so he also wrote Baoyu's crying 19 times in these 4 chapters, which is equal to the total number of the first 8 chapters. Among them, there are both the true meaning of Cao Weng and some exaggerated failures. The truth is that most of the crying is for women, which makes them cry almost all over the twelve women in Jinling; The failure lies in Gao E's writing of crying, mostly "burst into tears", "cried her eyes out" and "cried the Tao", etc., which is too simple and damages Baoyu's character image to a certain extent.

We can see that crying for Lin Daiyu is still an important theme, but obviously crying is not "level". Knowing that Lin Daiyu was dead could have been a more wonderful crying scene, but Gao E wrote, "Baoyu couldn't help crying and fell on the bed.". After crying, it is a "long cry", and the phrase "Baoyu is always sad and tears" means crying for a long time. When I went to the natural and unrestrained pavilion to see the wood of Lin Daiyu's pavilion, "Baoyu was crying to death."