Essay on Jia Bayou's Early Life: Causal Relationship to Red Chamber

Q1. What is the Causal Relationship Between Jia Bayou's Previous Life and His life in the Red Chamber?

Being the primary protagonist character in the novel, the early life of Bayou had a causal relationship with his early life and in the red Chamber. For instance, his previous adolescent life and frequent interaction of his mother and grandmother while isolating himself from the father expanded his knowledge on love and romance leading him to the ill-fated love and eventual marriage of his wife Baochai. He was born with a bright emerald in his mouth, Baoyu is the apparent heir to the Rongguo lineage. Being highly intelligent, he distanced himself from his strict father's company and developed hatred for the fawning bureaucrats who were often present at his father's house, making him dislike men's' company (Li, 2004). This move prepared him for his future perception on women and his life relationship in the red Chamber.

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Notably, he perceives men as spiritually and Morally inferior to women. He begins developing Sensitivity and compassion towards women and girls, and he asserts that "girls are pure as water, while men are muddled as mud." He devotes all his time and strength to attend to women and maidservant needs in the clan despite constant reprimands from his father. He laments the women's helpless situation in the family and builds more relationship bonds with his sisters and cousin, all whom he believes are better than men. In the red Chamber, his early passion for women makes him in romanceful worldly affairs. Unfortunately, his attachment to women gets the better of him when he receives affection from his cousin Daiyu, and her death makes him frustrated (Li, 2004). However, at the end including Daiyu's death and the fall of the house of Jia, Baoyu becomes a Buddhist monk and renounces all his worldly assertions.

Q2. Analyze Karma in the Red Chamber from Buddhism Perspective

In Buddhism, Karma entails significant teachings related to human actions. It stipulates how individuals should be held accountable for their actions. Essentially, Karma focuses on how our past actions can influence our future actions. For instance, after the death of Daiyu, Baoyu, denounces all his worldly ties and marries Baochai. Notably, Buddhism incorporates multiple agricultural metaphors to explore how sowing good or bad actions can bear better or bad fruits. The red Chamber is solely focused on realism, romance, fate, and supernatural existence. The eventual fate of Baoyu was already eminent when he overcomes his father's reprimands and declares his love for women.

Therefore, his perceptions concerning girls and maidservants determined his eventual denunciation of worldly affairs. Moreover, being spoiled with her grandmother and mother made him develop increased intimacy his cousins. However, ancient Buddhist documentations populates that not all that people experience arise from their past action; for instance, it may be due to natural events or other unrelated causes. For instance, Li Wan becoming a widow after the death of her husband. Her situation is not as a result of her past actions. This is one assertion that early Buddhism appears to differ somewhat from later Tibetan teachings, which suggests that all the good and bad that happen to individuals are the results of past actions (Li, 2004). While there might be uncertainty, or diverse perceptions, about what Baoyu experienced in his early life some misfortune, there is no doubt that we can find solutions to any negative consequences in the present moment through the Buddhist lessons of mindfulness and action based upon good intentions. Therefore, Baoyu, denouncing world affairs, is attributed to his past perceptions of women that eventually determined his fate.

Q3. Example of Karma in Red Chamber

Examples of Karma in the Red Chamber revolves around such aspect including beyond the life, determination, and moral habits. For the Buddhists, Karma has consequences beyond an individual's current life. For instance, immoral acts of Baoyu's actions, including ill-fated love with his cousin, followed him into his next life leading to adverse consequences, including the death of Lin Daiyu of being heat broken after learning of marriage arrangement of Baoyu and Baochai. The second is on self-determination. It is worth noting that Karma is not an external force, nor a system of reward or punishment dealt out by the gods. The concept is more accurately understood, just like the natural law natural of gravity. Therefore, Buddhists believe that individuals are in control of their ultimate fates.

The concern is that many people are ignorant of the fact, which leads to suffering. The purpose of Buddhism is to take conscious control of our behavior. For instance, Wang Xifeng Baoyu's elder cousin-in-law compliments herself privately; however, she laments why she was conceived in a "wrong womb" since concubine children are disregarded compared to those of first wives. This makes her determine her fate when she marries into a military family on the Southern side away from home. The last instance is individuals' moral habits, which stipulates that everything a person does molds his or her future character. Both moral and immoral characteristics can become developed over time and thus become habitual hence leading to Karma Acquisition. For instance, Li Wan Baoyu's elder sister-in-law and widow of Baoyu's deceased elder brother, Jia Zhu. Her main responsibility was to look after her son Lan and her female cousins (Li, 2004). The story portrays Li Wan, as a young widow in her late twenties, as a mild-mannered woman with no desires, the perfect Confucian ideal of a proper mourning widow. She eventually attains high social status due to the success of her son at the Imperial Exams. However, the novel portrays her as a tragic figure since she wasted her youth preserving the strict values of actions

Reference

Li, Q. (2004). Fictions of Enlightenment: Journey to the West, Tower of Myriad Mirrors, and Dream of the Red Chamber. University of Hawaii Press. Doi.org/10.1017/s0305741000034597