Jia Yucun's Self Deception

How narcissistic can a character get?

Jia Yucun's Self Deception

I had an English teacher in middle school who told us that we needed to “show, not tell” whenever we wrote.

Now, you can go nuts with that if you’re not careful. You kind of do have to tell somebody something in your writing. You can’t just write an endless string of adjectives and have your story go somewhere. You’ve got to steer the ship, after all.

However, I firmly believe that the most recent segment of Dream of the Red Chamber that we covered is a perfect example of what my teacher meant all those years ago. We know a lot about what kind of person Jia Yucun is — and we know about it without having to actually be told about it.

Sure, we know a few vague things about what he looks like. The maid, whose name we haven’t even learned yet, sees some of his features:

猛抬頭見窗內有人，敞巾舊服，雖是貧窘，然生得腰圓背厚，面闊口方，更兼劍眉星眼，直鼻方腮。

As she suddenly raised her head, she noticed that there was a man at the window. His scarf was loose and his robes were tattered. But, as poor as he clearly was, his build was square and solid, his face was firmly set and resolute, he had two eyebrows as sharp as thick swords, piercing eyes that were like stars, a straight nose, and well proportioned cheeks.

So we know he’s not overweight, or incredibly skinny. We know that he’s got a muscular build, and we can assume that it probably was from a combination of a meager diet and occasionally doing manual labor to stay alive.

But that’s not really Jia Yucun. We know the real Jia Yucun because of this line:

雨村見他回頭，便以為這女子心中有意於他，遂狂喜不禁，自謂此女子必是個巨眼英豪，風塵中之知己。

But Yucun saw her look back. He thought for certain that she had developed a secret affection for him in her heart, and he was overjoyed beyond belief. He told himself that this woman must surely have a sharp eye for talent, and concluded that she was truly the soulmate who could recognize his worth despite his poverty.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate.

Back in the glory days, back when I was in middle school, there was a girl in my neighborhood that I liked. She was probably prettier than this maid, actually.

I can remember staring at her during church meetings (just about everybody in the neighborhood attended the same church). I’d glance away if she caught my eyes, of course — but I couldn’t help wondering something similar to what Jia Yucun was thinking here.

My thoughts were focusd not on who this girl was and what her personality was like, but, rather, on whether she liked me. In my imagination, I thought that she may have seen me the way that Jia Yucun thinks this maid might see him: as somebody with great potential, somebody who she was dying to be together with.

Of course, it’s all self-deception. And it brings up an obvious question: is Jia Yucun really in love with the maid, or is he actually in love with himself?