In Chapter 21 of "Dream of Red Mansions", Baoyu is angry with Xiren, "He doesn't go out much, and he doesn't mess around with sisters, girls, etc. He is bored, and he just reads books to relieve his boredom." . The book he opened casually was Zhuangzi's "Outer Chapter" 烠箧》.

There is no spare pen in Red Mansions. There are so many texts in the "Nanhua Sutra", but the author only asked Baoyu to read "Outer Chapters". "烠箧" must have a profound meaning. If you understand the profound meaning and combine it with the chapter 22 "Listening to the Wen Baoyu's Enlightenment of Zen", you can understand why Baoyu became a monk in the end. "External Chapter" "The Treasure Box" tells Baoyu and also tells us: gathering treasures to gather in strange places is the beginning of chaos.

The meaning of "蠠箧" means to pry open the box, which is extended to mean a thief. "External Chapter﹒" "The Robbery" tells us a very simple truth: where thieves come from.

Let’s look at the original text first:

Therefore, if you reject the sage and abandon the knowledge, the big thieves will stop; if you burn the jade and destroy the pearl, the petty thieves will not be able to afford it; if you burn the talisman and break the seal, the people will be simple and humble; Fighting and breaking the balance, but the people do not fight; destroying the holy laws of the world, but the people can discuss with them. Promote the chaos of the six laws, smash the yu harp, plug the ears of Gu Kuang, but the founder of the world has his wisdom; destroy the article, scatter the five talents, glue away the eyes of Zhu, but the founder of the world has his wisdom; destroy the hook Abandoning the rules and grasping the rope, the first man in the world had his own ingenuity.

Because people like to collect rare treasures and hide them in boxes, this gives thieves guidance: as long as they look for tightly packed boxes, they can quickly find the treasures. If everyone does not pay attention to the treasures, and even destroys the treasures, thieves will have no treasures to steal, and they will naturally disappear.

Treasure refers not only to objects, but also to people, that is, people who are held in high esteem, such as Jia Baoyu, who is regarded as the darling of Jia's mother.

Because he was highly praised by Jia's mother, Jia Baoyu became the treasure of the entire Jia family, which also became Jia Baoyu's original sin. Because he was a sparkling treasure, he aroused jealousy and even hurt. There were so many pairs of eyes staring at him in the dark. For example, Aunt Zhao, Jia Huan, mother and son poisoned him.

In addition, because Jia Baoyu was held up to a high place, and the chickens and dogs ascended to heaven, the people around him were also held up to high places, so Yihongyuan became the target of public criticism, and was jealous of the wives.

So, collecting treasures is the beginning of chaos.

Baoyu doesn’t understand this truth yet, but he will understand it in the future. When he realizes how many people have lost their lives because of him, he will understand the true meaning of the article he once read. Baoyu continues Zhuangzi, indicating that he has realized that prosperity will charm the mind.

After reading "The Box", Baoyu "was very interesting, and while he was drunk, he couldn't help but pick up his pen" and continued:

The flowers were burned and the musk deer was scattered, and the founder of the boudoir held his advice. That's right; the fairy beauty of Baochai and the spiritual orifice of gray jade have lost their affection, and the beauty and evil of the boudoir have begun to resemble each other. If he accepts his advice, there will be no fear of participating in business; if he kills his immortal beauty, he will have no love; if his spiritual orifice is reduced to ashes, he will have no emotion of talent or thought. The hairpins, jade, flowers, and musk deer all spread their arms and burrowed into their tunnels, so they were confused and entangled in the world.

The paragraph that Baoyu continued is like a beginner's imitation of a good work, copying the sentence structure completely, like writing an eight-part essay, filling in new words in the inherent format.

However, Baoyu’s imitation creation is still remarkable. He not only imitated the form, but also imitated the meaning, and started from the things around him, giving the imitation a connotation worth remembering.

As mentioned earlier, Baoyu read Zhuangzi because he was angry with Xiren. After reading Zhuangzi, his resentment against Xi Ren had not dissipated. So, from Xi Ren, he thought of She Yue who was "definitely another Xi Ren", and then thought of Baochai and Daiyu.

At this moment, these four people occupied almost all of his life. The astonishing fragrance of flowers, the musk of the Musk Moon, the fairy posture of Baochai, and the spiritual orifice of Daiyu made his life colorful. At the same time, they also used these characteristics to weave a big web that made him confused and fascinated. , like falling into a maze.

In addition, Baoyu also realized that if the characteristics of each of them that made him confused and fascinated were removed, they would return to the nature of women: there is no difference between beauty and ugliness, only the nature of persuasion.

It can be seen from this continuation that Baoyu is indeed a person with extremely high understanding. It’s not that he doesn’t know that hanging around inside is like playing with things and losing one’s ambition. He also understands that beneath the surface, the nature of people is ordinary and unremarkable. He also knows that if you indulge in the prosperity of appearance, you will lose your mind and fall into a maze.

Having such a profound understanding, but still remaining stubborn, shows that Baoyu is indeed escaping, unwilling to face reality, and would rather sink deeper and deeper into the maze.

Of course, the more you avoid it now, the more regret you will have when you wake up later. The regret for knowingly committing a crime is even deeper. Enlightenment of Taoism first, then Zen, paving the way for Baoyu to become a monk in the future.

In the next twenty-second chapter, due to a suggestion from Baochai, Baoyu realized the meaning of Zen from the text. The plot of this chapter plays a very important role in Baoyu's life transformation. It fully shows that Baoyu's future as a monk was not a temporary move, but the result of long-term preparation.

There are two chapters, one for Taoism and one for Zen, and they are coherent. What is the purpose? The author is telling us: in his writing, Buddhism and Taoism are interdependent and complementary to each other. Buddhism and Taoism are basically connected in mysteries. Baoyu's enlightenment is also the enlightenment of Zen.

The story of "A Dream of Red Mansions" was introduced by the monks and Taoists. They organically connected illusion and reality to form a complete story. There are not many opportunities for the monks and Taoists to appear, but their role is very important. In the 80 chapters of the text, the mangy-headed monk incarnated as Miao Miao visited the Zhen family, Lin family and Xue family respectively, gave advice to the Zhen and Lin families, and gave the Xue family the words "Haifang" and "Haifang"; the lame Taoist incarnation of Miao Miao The people saved Zhen Shiyin and Liu Xianglian. The two also appeared in Jia's mansion together and rescued Jia Baoyu and Wang Xifeng whose lives were hanging by a thread.

These two, one represents Buddha and the other represents Tao, seem to be two unrelated schools, but they are doing the same thing through division of labor and cooperation: "Go to the next world to save the world." "Take off a few", "After three tribulations, we will gather together and go to Taixu Illusion Realm to cancel our account."

This is the purpose of the author Mr. Cao Xueqin setting up the two immortals of Buddhism and Taoism: in his writing, there is no obvious boundary between Buddhism and Taoism. They all play the role of salvation and help destined people escape from the world.

In order to strengthen this purpose, the author also deliberately set up an empty Taoist who leads from Tao to Buddha. Taoist Kongkong was originally a Taoist. After seeing the story engraved on the stone, "because he saw color in the sky, emotions arose from color, emotions were conveyed into color, and he realized that he was empty, he changed his name to the Love Monk."

From the Tao to the Buddha is not to break away from the Tao and run towards the Buddha, but to realize Zen on the basis of the Tao. Jia Baoyu's journey is similar to this. Therefore, the author used two consecutive chapters to write about Baoyu's enlightenment and Zen enlightenment. Baoyu not only realized Taoism through the process of reading Zhuangzi and continuing Zhuangzi, but also realized Zen through the process of "coming and going naked without any care". In the end, Buddhism and Taoism were combined to "realize the emptiness of self-color" and achieve complete enlightenment.

This is the deep meaning of the author writing about Baoyu reading Zhuangzi and continuing Zhuangzi. On the one hand, it shows that Baoyu is indeed a person with extremely high understanding and is not stubborn; on the other hand, it pave the way for him to become a monk and become a monk. The ending of becoming a monk is not abrupt, it is also the inevitable process of Baoyu’s growth