Ye Xiaoluan, a talented woman in Ming Dynasty, died of what?

When it comes to talented women in the history of China, I'm afraid most people will think of Li Qingzhao. Ye Xiaoluan, who was only 16 years old when she died in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty, was the most famous talented woman among the literati. Ye Xiaoluan herself is very talented, and the stories around her are more legendary. She is famous not so much for her talent as for her interpretation after her death.

For people in the late Ming Dynasty, Ye Xiaoluan's name spread widely, which was attributed to the literary critic Jin Shengtan to some extent. Many classic works we see now, especially novels and essays, are commented by Jin Shengtan. But in the late Ming Dynasty, Jin Shengtan's fortune-telling skill and reputation far exceeded his literary criticism.

Ye Xiaoluan lived during the reign of Zhu Youxiao and Chongzhen Zhu Youjian in the Ming Dynasty, and the domestic troubles and foreign invasion in the Ming Dynasty had declined. Although Emperor Chongzhen made great efforts to govern the country after he came to power, except eunuchs, redressing false and wrongful cases and practicing strict economy, for the last emperor of this tragedy, the property left by his ancestors was too thin.

The imperial political parties fought endlessly, and the people suffered from drought and plague; There is a constant peasant uprising inside, and there is an increasingly powerful post-Jin outside. In such a turbulent situation, people "don't ask ordinary people to ask ghosts and gods." Jin Shengtan traveled all over the country, claiming that there were 30 female apprentices in the underworld. Fufu fortune-telling can often tell the master's mind, and there are many believers.

Ye Xiaoluan herself died young, and her parents asked Jin Shengtan for help. Jin Shengtan wrote a well-written reply to Ye Xiaoluan's parents, which was passed down as a much-told story by the literati at that time. Jin Shengtan said that "Ye Xiaoluan" was originally a book about a waitress in the Moon Palace, which made Ye Xiaoluan, who was already famous locally, famous in the south of the Yangtze River.

What kind of talented woman is Ye Xiaoluan? For modern people, it may be better understood by a famous novel character, that is, Lin Daiyu in A Dream of Red Mansions.

Ye Xiaoluan was adopted in a menstrual home since she was a child. He is sentimental and very good at writing graceful poems. In her poems, the sentence "Spring grass is green every year, and my heart is broken" is considered to be the source of Cao Xueqin's style of writing Lin Daiyu's poems.

Ye Xiaoluan's parents were very famous at that time. They were both of noble birth. Her mother, Shen Yixiu, described it in her memoirs after her death: "As the saying goes,' Gui Han is clear and dew is wet'." Children should say,' Maple trees are cold and red.' I like being agile, because the wind has catkins. Sad husband! Is it a sign of longevity? "。

It can be seen that in Shen Yixiu's view, although her daughter is smart, she has already shown signs that "deep affection is not long, but intellectual injury is over".

This is very similar to Lin Daiyu. Although Lin Daiyu's poems are beautiful, they often reveal a sad mood that hurts spring and grieves autumn. Ye Xiaoluan's personal collection of poems "Coming Back to Life" recorded more than 200 poems, prefaces, poems and other essays, all of which revealed sadness.

When Jin Shengtan sent his blessing and answered Ye's question, "Have you ever been crazy?" He replied, "Give up pearls to collect Han jade, and donate powder boxes to bury the soul of flowers." It is Ye Xiaoluan's delusion to throw away the pearls and jade in the jewelry box and bury the flowers, which is also the representative behavior of Lin Daiyu's delusion in A Dream of Red Mansions.

This is also one of the evidences that many people think that Ye Xiaoluan is the prototype of Lin Daiyu. Although Cao Xueqin was separated from Ye Xiaoluan by a century, Cao Xueqin grew up in the south of the Yangtze River and probably heard of this talented woman in the late Ming Dynasty. Jin Shengtan's story about Ye Xiaoluan's love for the world is also likely to be used for reference by him.

But Ye Xiaoluan's family is much more legendary than Lin Daiyu's, or Ye Xiaoluan's family is Lin Daiyu. Ye Xiaoluan's foster mother, Zhang Qianqian, was very talented, but she died of depression because her child died and she was separated from her husband for a long time. Her sister Ye heard that her sister died young and died of grief. Mother Shen Yixiu lost her beloved daughter one after another, and she also died with her child's memory.

Even my father Ye, after his wife and daughter passed away one after another, was depressed all day, and finally fled into an empty net with his three sons.

It can be said that Ye Xiaoluan's family was originally a typical literati family, which was sentimental. Coupled with the social unrest in the late Ming Dynasty, the country broke down and the family died. Although this family staged a realistic version of Lin Daiyu, it made people cry.