Teacher Yang sneered, “If you want to explain it this way, then the logical errors after chapter 80 can also be explained this way. How then are you proving that it was written by two different people?”
Zhang Ye shook his hand and said, “That’s different. It’s completely different in concept. The logical errors after the eightieth is not something you can explain away by modifying a few words or paragraphs. That involves the entire book’s layout. It involves an error with the core thinking process. We will find it very hard to believe that Cao Xueqin’s original intent of causing the Jia family to be ‘left the landscape desolate and bare’. Yet, he suddenly changed to allow the Jia family to be revived. Grandmother Jia was originally a loving grandmother, but the author suddenly changed her into a heartless family elder. Jia Baoyu was originally ‘for uselessness the world’s prize he might bear; his gracelessness in history has no peer’, but the author suddenly made him want to bring glory to his ancestors. We find it even harder to believe that Cao Xueqin went from a person who had seen through the ephemeral nature of life, to suddenly a person who was passionate about fame and glory!”
Zhang Ye’s mincing of words with the parallel sentences made those Redologists speechless!
Zhang Ye said, “When people write their theses, they will go back and change some minor details. They can also change some text. They would adjust some typographical errors, but will you change the core idea of your theses and central point of view? Impossible! So using this to explain it away doesn’t make sense either!”
He really managed to explain it!
And his explanation was reasonable!
Teacher Yang’s face was a bit sunken. Meng Dongguo’s eyes also turned cold. Once again, they never expected Zhang Ye to not talk using the book’s content once again when explaining this unsolvable errors. He had changed perspectives once again, and had managed to explain it using the logical workflow of an author!
What eloquence!
What articulation!
Yan Yu squinted his eyes. “Then how do you explain the problem with Grandmother Jia? I don’t understand why you would single out my question.”
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “If I were an ordinary reader, or an ordinary researcher, the problem with Grandmother Jia’s age could be explained this way. The author did not edit it in time, and everyone would definitely be able to accept this explanation. There would then be no need to come up with more superfluous explanations, but, I can’t do that. This is because my role now is that of a teacher. I have to be rigorous in academia. The reason why I singled out the problem with Grandmother Jia is because her situation is more special. It cannot be explained using the same generalizations as before. If I were to lecture in that manner, then that would be me being irresponsible to my students!”
“Special?”
“What’s special about it?”
“It feels the same?”
“That’s right. Grandmother Jia’s problem is just with her birthdate and age?”
The Peking University students began talking about it.
Zhang Ye began to speak in detail. “If no one mentioned it, I was not planning on talking about it, but since we are on the topic, I’ll briefly talk about it. About Grandmother Jia’s birthday problem, is it Chapter 71’s ‘third day of the eighth month’? Or is it Chapter 62’s ‘the fifteenth of the first month is Aunt Xing’s birthday and also Cousin Chai’s’? These two original texts are conflicting. However, according to my research, according to matching with Baochai’s birthday, I deduce that chapter 62’s ‘the fifteenth of the first month’ is a birthday that will agree with the plot. The other reason is because of Grandmother Jia’s words in chapter 39. “Now, old kinswoman,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘and what would your age be?’ ‘Seventy-five this year’, said Grannie Liu. Grandmother Jia turned round to the others present. ‘That’s several years older than me. Fancy still being so fit and lively! Heaven only knows what I shall be like at that age!’ This also indicates that Grandmother Jia’s birthday does not exceed 74 years of age, but Chapter 71’s words were ‘the third day of the eighth month was Grandmother Jia’s eightieth birthday’!”
Everyone recalled it!