Conspiracy theorists believe that Jia Mu wants to take the opportunity to drive away the Xue family. She is fifteen years old, so it's time to propose. Go back to her house and get married. Don't stay here.
If Jia Mu is a narrow-minded old woman who cares about daily necessities, she may really do so. But Jia is the ancestor of Jia family, the old monarch of the imperial court and the soul of Jia poets. What she thinks, says and does has everyone's demeanor, and she won't do such a thing that can't be on the table.
What's more, Jia Fu has just had a royal concubine and just saved his family. Xue's mother and daughter were also received by the imperial concubine. Only a few days later, she couldn't wait to drive her relatives away. Is she trying to ruin Jia Fu's good reputation that "Li Shu still remembers Rongning"?
The grandmother Jia used her own private money to celebrate Baochai's birthday, which really had her intention. She wants to release two signals through this incident: publicly expressing her love for Baochai and being good to Xue Jia.
Jia's private money is only spent on the people she loves. Giving Baochai a birthday is a public expression of her love for Baochai. Living in the name of Jia Mu, I have the right to do whatever I want. Like all the old people in the world, she clearly showed her love and preference. For example, her preference for Baoyu is a well-known fact. For this preference, she can give her first-class maid to Baoyu, or leave Baoyu as a girl in the inner court regardless of outsiders' comments.
Old people's preference for grandchildren is usually manifested in material things. The same is true for Jia Mu, but it is more obvious that Jia Mu will show her preferences to others in a big way, especially through actions rather than words. Jia's preference is not limited to bloodline, but depends on vision. Xue Baoqin, for example, has nothing to do with Jia Mu, but when they first met, Jia Mu showed her preference for Baoqin in an unconventional way: on the one hand, she forced Mrs. Wang to recognize Baoqin as her adopted daughter, on the other hand, she kept Baoqin with her, slept in a bed at night and gave her precious clothes.
Baoyu and Xiangyun both think that this practice of Jia Mu is enough to make Daiyu jealous, because the specifications exceed Daiyu's.
Birthday is also a way for Jia to express his preferences. In eighty articles, she only held two people's birthday parties, and they were all in the form of private money. These two people, one is Wang Xifeng and the other is Xue Baochai.
Birthdays are more obvious propaganda than material preferences, and they are deliberately advertised widely. For example, for Wang Xifeng's birthday, Jia Mu brought together the owners and housewives of the two families, and she took the lead in raising money. The purpose is to let everyone know that Wang Xifeng's hard work is in her eyes and in her heart. I hope everyone will be like her.
Jia said that the whole house was full of "a pair of rich eyes", so he left the two girls at home for a few days and deliberately sent someone to explain not to bully them. Why do you need her to explain? Because the eyes of wealth in the house don't look at the rich and the poor, but at who can enter the eyes of the grandmother. The old lady wants to flatter, and no one dares to bully. Jia mu doesn't care, but she can bully as much as she wants.
Jia himself survived from his great-grandson's wife, knowing that it is not easy to be a director. Wang Xifeng is just a granddaughter. In the course of her work, it is inevitable that some senior women will not buy it, so she needs to publicly express her support for Wang Xifeng.
This is her real intention to celebrate Wang Xifeng's birthday: to support her and repay Wang Xifeng's hard work.
Similarly, Jia Mu gave Xue Baochai a birthday and told her that I like this "steady and peaceful" girl.
The information in the book tells us that the grandmother's birthday for Baochai is not impulsive, but has already made plans and preparations. So, Wang Xifeng, who got the news in advance, specially asked Jia Lian what to do with this birthday party. "Listen to the old lady said yesterday, ask everyone's age and birthday. I heard that Xue Damei is fifteen years old this year. Although it is not the whole birthday, it is also an embarrassing year. The old lady said that she would celebrate her birthday. I think if I really do it for her, it will naturally be different from what I did with Sister Lin in previous years. "
This information also tells us that Daiyu's birthday every year is paid from the public account. Wang Xifeng thought Baochai's birthday present was also paid by the public, so she asked Jia Lian for advice. After all, she and Baochai are cousins, so we should avoid suspicion and not make our own decisions.
I didn't expect Jia to pay for Baochai's birthday in private. Note the difference here: if the birthday is paid by the public, Baochai will be included in the Jia family's population, just as Daiyu is completely managed by the Jia family. If the money is paid by Jia Mu, it has nothing to do with Jia Fu, but Jia Mu's personal friendship.
This is also the wisdom of the old lady: Baochai is different from Daiyu, who is responsible for the daily living expenses, and Baochai does not touch the Jia family. In other words, Jia Fu has the right to manage Daiyu, but not Baochai. This is a border issue, which is why Daiyu was copied instead of Baochai when the Grand View Garden was inspected later.
It is very important to distinguish this boundary, which also reflects the Jia family's respect for the Xue family: public money is collected, and private money is friendship. Merger is subordinate, but friendship is equal. It is precisely because Baochai and Jia Mu have only friendship and no affiliation that she can decide to move out of the Grand View Garden by herself, without being bound by anyone and without anyone's approval.
It is for this reason that when Jia Mu took a fancy to Xue Baoqin, she first asked Mrs. Wang to accept Baoqin as her adopted daughter, so that Baoqin could become a member of the Jia family, and then she could properly keep Baoqin with her. Otherwise, what should I do if I leave other people's children around to eat and sleep together?
It can be seen that grandma's love for Baochai is from the heart, and it is clearly written in the book that "grandma sees Baochai coming and likes her stability and peace." So, taking advantage of Baochai's "15th birthday", a day that is not suitable for joint events but can't be ignored, Grandmother Jia spread this love out so that everyone can understand her mind. Jia Mu's birthday for Baochai also attracted Daiyu to be jealous, which also proved that Jia Mu was expressing her love for Baochai.
It is also a public expression to Aunt Xue that the grandmother gave Baochai her birthday with private money. Xue Jia went to Beijing and was going to Wang Ziteng, but Wang Ziteng was suddenly promoted and transferred from Beijing. Aunt Xue decided to go to Jia Fu temporarily, hoping to restrain and discipline Xue Fan with the help of Jia Zheng's "orderly family style".
If we say that when Xue Jia first entered Jia Fu, Jia Jia's "Please stay here and be close to others" was mostly polite, then after a period of time, she not only had love for Xue Jia, but also became more dependent. Therefore, the Lady Dowager took the opportunity to celebrate Baochai's birthday and publicly showed her kindness to Aunt Xue.
Jia loves to be lively. I hope the more people in the backyard, the better. Even grandma Liu, who suddenly appeared, will stay for a few days and spend money to organize a sightseeing group to visit the Grand View Garden. So from a lively level, she wants someone to play with her.
Of course, not everyone wants to stay long. She also has moral requirements. After getting along for a long time, the indispensable aunt Xue and the steady and peaceful Xue Baochai are good companions. So the eighth time, Baoyu came back from Xue's house drunk, and the grandmother "knew that it was Aunt Xue's, and she liked it even more." This "happiness" fully reflects the grandmother's love for Aunt Xue and Baochai's mother and daughter.
This kind of love is growing day by day, which is in line with the phrase "seeing people for a long time". With the deepening of getting along with each other, Jia Mu became more and more inseparable from Aunt Xue, and more and more people praised Baochai in person. Aunt Xue and Baochai have lived together for many years, never bringing troubles and troubles to the Jia family, but helping them solve many problems.
Yes, the retired Jia family needs the pragmatic Xue family to help solve it, which is why Jia family likes Baochai's "stability and peace". Being steady and practical, I am good at dealing with interpersonal relationships because of peace.
This is the second purpose of Jia Mu's birthday celebration for Baochai: to be nice to the Xue family openly. The relationship between Jia Mu and Aunt Xue started from relatives, and now it has developed into a good personal friendship, just like changing from relatives to friends. She used her private money to celebrate Baochai's birthday and told Aunt Xue: I personally celebrated your daughter's birthday, bypassing your sister, and we only talked about friendship regardless of relatives.
As we know, the Red Chamber is an encyclopedia, which contains the wisdom of the world. Only from the fact that Lady Jia used private money to celebrate Baochai's birthday can we learn the wisdom: no money, no official penny, and no pressure on Mrs. Wang.
Mrs. Wang is the hostess of the family, Aunt Xue is the sister of her family, and her relatives also spent the same money as everyone else. Mrs. Wang will be criticized, just like Aunt Zhao said that Wang Xifeng had moved all the furniture to her parents' house.
Jia mu spends her own money. She can spend money at will and give it to whoever she likes. No one can say for sure, of course, the Xue family, as the beneficiary, will not be under pressure: they are not exposed to the light of the Jia family, but talking about their personal relationship with the Jia family.
If, as conspiracy theorists say, Jia Mu wants to get rid of the Xue family, just ask Wang Xifeng to spend official money on Baochai's birthday, then the Xue family will automatically avoid it.
Therefore, the grandmother Jia used her private money to celebrate Baochai's birthday, which not only achieved the purpose of publicly expressing her love to Baochai and showing kindness to Aunt Xue, but also avoided the negative impact caused by it. This is "all things are learned, and people's understanding is an article." This thing is done happily and watertight, which is typical in interpersonal communication. This incident has also become an important turning point in the communication between Jia and Xue, which indicates that Xue's mother and daughter conquered the whole Jia family represented by Jia, which is also the fundamental reason why they can live in Jia family for a long time.