Ji Xiaolan is a romantic wit, brilliant literary talent, and a loyal minister around Emperor Qianlong. However, this is not the real or complete Ji Xiaolan. As a matter of fact, the real Ji Xiaolan in history is just an intellectual who is talented but dare not show it easily. He is a sleek and sophisticated civil servant, and he has never been reused in his life. He is a "sex maniac" and has no choice but to be criticized through food and sex.
Ji Xiaolan's indulgence is mainly manifested in two aspects: food and sex. His hobby is delicious pork, and he can even eat ten plates of pork every meal without rice and noodles. This is quite crazy and shocking. However, compared with the "food" side, Ji Xiaolan's performance in "sex" is even more jaw-dropping, almost "erotic". Let's take a look at some related records in unofficial history's notes in the Qing Dynasty:
The owner of Xiaohengxiang Room said in Volume III of unofficial history Grand View in Qing Dynasty: "Boys don't eat cereal and occasionally eat it, but rice never tastes good. When drinking, there are only ten plates of pork and a pot of tea. "
The second volume of Cai Heng's Book of Insect Sounds said: "Ji Wenda said that the wild monster turned around and ate meat, and no grain of rice could enter. The Japanese ruled several women. Five drums are like one time, once in the house, once at noon, once at dusk and once in bed. An indispensable person. In addition, those who are lucky are often there. "
Zhao Qiang also said in the tenth volume of Miscellaneous Notes, "(Gong) is eighty years old this year and still lustful. He eats dozens of pounds of meat every day and doesn't vomit a grain a day. It's really amazing. "
Sun Jing 'an's Riding in Qixia Pavilion tells a wonderful story about Ji Xiaolan's lewdness: "Hejian Moon Hee, a great scholar. When I was young, I could see in the dark, and I was endowed with a unique talent. If you don't listen to your wife for a day, your skin will crack and you will feel weak. I tried to edit Siku Quanshu and stayed in the inner court. After a few days of marriage, my eyes are red and my cheeks are as red as fire. Pure temple occasionally sees, frightened, asks what's wrong, and is honest with the public. He smiled and ordered two maids to accompany him. The editor went back to his room to rest. He was given by the second maid-in-waiting in the class. Wenda is happy to praise people and call it' the cloud of concubinage'. "
Judging from the above records, it is an indisputable fact that Ji Xiaolan's "lust" has reached a morbid level, even in front of the emperor. It should be noted that these records should be quite true. In Qing Dynasty, unofficial history compiled a book based on a wide range of information in the ruling and opposition parties, which recorded celebrities or old rumors. Most authors have personal experience, and these books are accurate and reliable. Even the records of ear food can be used to prepare a family statement. Because unofficial history disclosed little-known historical events or reflected all aspects of a historical event from many angles, Mr. Lu Xun once praised unofficial history for preserving the truth of history and correcting its shortcomings. Therefore, Ji Xiaolan's above account should be credible. Then, why did a generation of gifted scholars become "perverts" and "perverts"?
On this issue, unofficial history's notes in Qing Dynasty simply reduced it to a simple physiological phenomenon, saying that Ji Xiaolan was a "strange man" who had a special role in this respect. This view is a typical general statement that "one leaf can't see Mount Tai". Personally, I think this is by no means a purely personal physiological phenomenon, but should be a spiritual phenomenon. We must look for the reasons from the depths of Ji Xiaolan's spiritual world, so as to find the most reasonable explanation.
Let's start with Ji Xiaolan's cultural and literary achievements. Ji Xiaolan is a genius, he is a real genius. But throughout his life, he failed to leave a well-known work for future generations, which is extremely disproportionate to his world-famous talent. Ji Xiaolan's world-renowned cultural achievements are mainly two: first, he was ordered to lead the compilation of an encyclopedic masterpiece-Sikuquanshu; Second, in his later years, he wrote an essay "Notes of Yuewei Caotang", which is about "chasing old news and relaxing the years".
Sikuquanshu was compiled by Ji Xiaolan in his official capacity for thirteen years, which almost included the major classics in the history of China before Qianlong and had a far-reaching influence. It seems that Ji Xiaolan really won the trust and reuse of Emperor Qianlong. Actually, it is not. Emperor Qianlong once reprimanded Ji Xiaolan, who interceded for his friends, like this: "I think you have a good literary talent, so I want to promote the superior while reserving the inferior. Why talk about state affairs! " Therefore, in the eyes of Emperor Qianlong, Ji Xiaolan was just an actor's "imperial scholar", not an independent minister at all. During the years of Qianlong and Jiaqing, Ji Xiaolan never entered the military department of the central government or was promoted to a college student. It was only a comfort that he managed to co-chair for a month until his death. According to historical records, Ji Xiaolan was "short-sighted in appearance". The so-called "ugly appearance" means ugly appearance; The so-called "myopia" means short-sightedness. Ji Xiaolan still stutters. He has no charm of "iron teeth and copper teeth" in TV series.
As for Sikuquanshu, many Chinese and foreign scholars have commented that it is a masterpiece of castrating China's ancient culture. In fact, it is the product of strengthening ideological rule in Qing Dynasty. Through this huge project, the Qing court actually carried out a text inventory and cultural cleansing. One of its purposes was to ban all works that criticized foreign rulers, mainly those that praised the Ming Dynasty's opposition to Emperor Yi. Therefore, Ji Xiaolan is engaged in this cause according to Qianlong's letters. You can be said to be an unprecedented great cultural integration undertaking, and it can also be said to be a performance image project of "castrating" China traditional culture.
As for the majestic 24-volume Notes of Yuewei Caotang, although its artistic achievements are quite high, in terms of its content and ideological content, it is just a repetition of some old fatalistic tunes of "karma", without any original ideas and opinions of its own, and even Ji Xiaolan himself has a low evaluation of this pastime. He once wrote a poem, commenting on his Notes on Reading Wei Caotang: "I have been sitting and lying all my life, and there are many clouds on the paper." The library to be built is now old, but it should be said that it is like a ghost. There is no difference between cause and effect. I collected a car full of ghosts and told Luo Minmen's disciples that the official was not Confucian. "
Then, why is Ji Xiaolan, who is talented and strong, but lacks culture, but is dissolute and lewd? Is it because of his lack of talent, or because he knows that he can't surpass the ancients and is too lazy to write? Neither, the fundamental reason is the age he lived in, in countless places. In a word, the high-handed cultural policy and the frequent rise of literary inquisition limited Ji Xiaolan's impulse and possibility to write something of value. At that time, the political climate and the present situation of cultural circles forced Ji Xiaolan to choose wisdom and self-protection.
The Qing Dynasty was the feudal dynasty with the largest number of literary inquisitions and the largest number of banned books destroyed in the history of China, and there were many taboos in writing historical biographies. The literary inquisition in the early Qing Dynasty was quite harsh, and quite a few literary inquisitions happened at the same time when Emperor Qianlong instructed Ji Xiaolan to compile Sikuquanshu. According to statistics, there were more than 100 literary inquisitions in the whole Qianlong period, and 48 times were launched during the compilation of Sikuquanshu, accounting for almost half of the total. The story of Xiao Jian in Qiong Yao's novel Princess Zhu Huan has such a background.
Ji Xiaolan, a literary jester, helped Qianlong castrate China's ancient books. Of course, he knows best what the Manchu emperor really thinks. On the one hand, many works have been banned or tampered with because of political problems; On the other hand, hearing and witnessing the experiences of many contemporary literati who caused trouble because of their words, or lost their official positions, or their whole families were implicated, he could not help but be afraid of the danger of writing. Therefore, Ji Xiaolan can only choose "ostrich policy" to protect itself. From then on, choose caution as one of the writing methods, or simply dare not write anything.
Once upon a time, Ji Xiaolan also had an impassioned stage of "contending for the world by writing, drawing yellow dialogues and thinking all night". Ji Xiaolan, full of ideals, cruel reality and disillusioned dreams, finally chose passive escape helplessly and painfully. However, after Ji Xiaolan's peerless intelligence and strong creative desire are suppressed, he will inevitably seek a new way out, which is the "emotional effect" in psychology. Like many repressed intellectuals under Sima's powerful rule in Wei and Jin Dynasties, Ji Xiaolan found an outlet in his daily life, that is, food and sex.
In addition, as the author discussed earlier, the literati who were "spiritually castrated" like Ji Xiaolan in history are usually more physically developed. The Ji Xiaolan we saw is such a typical example. After he was castrated as a "spiritual eunuch" by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, he quickly slipped into physical indulgence and carnival, even "he was still lustful at the age of 80", trying to vent his excess libido with this carnival above the physical body in order to kill his pride and divert his inner depression and pain. It can be seen that a generation of talents, brilliant, brilliant.