Lin Daiyu is jade. Marrying Lin Daiyu to Jia Baoyu is like mending jade with jade, making the Imperial Seal, with its four complete corners, whole.
Xue Baochai is gold. Marrying Xue Baochai to Jia Baoyu, though said to be a match of gold and jade, is actually like a jade shard, missing a corner, patched up with gold out of necessity.
Zhen Shiyin, Jia Yucun.
Many understand this as "true events are hidden, false words remain."
But they fail to realize that this sentence can also be interpreted as "true stone hidden, false jade remains."
The Ming Dynasty had no true Imperial Seal. The real one had already become stone and hidden away. Only a replica existed, that is, the fake (Jia) Baoyu.
This is like singing two songs with one throat.
The first time Jiang Ling watched "Illusion," it was like her first time watching "Dream of the Red Chamber," lost in a fog, utterly bewildered.
She only saw a few men fighting and scheming over a woman who had been dead for years.
She failed to see the countless clues and metaphors hidden beneath the grievances and affections.
Just like in "Dream of the Red Chamber," on the surface, it's about the eating, drinking, talking, and laughing of young ladies and lords from four great families. In reality, Jia, Wang, Xue, Shi, phonetically, sound like "home gone, blood history."
Therefore, to understand "Illusion," one needs not only a profound foundation in traditional literature but also a lot of time for research and decryption, word by word.
With today's fast-paced life, everyone is busy making money. Who has the leisure time to delve into this anymore?
It's fortunate that Jiang Ling, in her previous life, while acting, had to diligently study traditional literature to portray an ancient talented woman. Coupled with the system's reminder that this film was a classic masterpiece,
she was able to discover its intricacies after watching it seven or eight times.
Otherwise, even if she watched it a hundred more times, she wouldn't have grasped anything significant.
Jiang Ling roughly estimated that "Illusion" possessed about twenty to thirty percent of the power of "Dream of the Red Chamber."
For something as vast, profound, and boundless as "Dream of the Red Chamber," this twenty to thirty percent is enough for audiences and scholars to research for over a decade.
Putting down the script, Jiang Ling sighed deeply, "This script is written so well. The screenwriter is truly a genius!"
This person must have had a deep understanding of traditional culture, penetrating to the very bone, or they couldn't have written such a marvelous script.
It's just that people like him are becoming increasingly rare.
In Jiang Ling's opinion, a truly great drama not only needs an exciting story but must also be rooted in traditional culture to have sufficient depth and interest.
Let's not mention "Dream of the Red Chamber" or Jin Yong's martial arts novels.
Consider, before Jiang Ling's transmigration, the hugely popular "The Untamed." Many only saw the brotherhood between WangXian, overlooking the traditional culture embedded in the work.
For instance, why did Lan Wangji love to eat loquats?
Because loquats hold a special symbolic meaning in traditional culture. "Zhi of Xiang Ji Xuan" wrote, "There is a loquat tree in the courtyard, planted by my own wife in the year she died; it now stands tall like a canopy."
Therefore, loquats carry the meaning of mourning for a deceased wife. This serves as a foreshadowing for "asking for spirits for thirteen years, waiting for someone who will not return."
What seems like an unintentional detail already reveals love-sickness etched into the bone.
And the name Lan Jingyi, "Jing" in ancient Chinese is a homophone for "shadow," and "Yi" means demeanor.
It implies that the straightforward and lively Lan Jingyi carries the shadow of someone, someone whom even three thousand family rules cannot restrain.
"Is it good?"
Sister Sa flipped through the script and scratched her head, "How come I can't see where it's good?"
Jiang Ling smiled, "This film is like a cup of clear tea; you need to savor it slowly to taste its flavor. If you scan it so quickly, you naturally won't see anything."