The crowd did not respond.
It was unknown if they were pondering or shocked.
Zhang Ye laughed. “Everyone should already have a feeling. You can carry on thinking. Ponder over it and listen on to my lecture. The next plot’s unit is Chapter 54. Five times nine is forty-five, and six times nine is fifty-four. Since I said ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ has 108 chapters. Then as the middle divisor at chapter 54, clearly it is an extremely important divisor. And indeed, that is the case. What was written here? It writes about the golden era of the Jia family. It reaches a position that could not be any higher. They celebrate New Year’s Eve and have a feast. They enjoyed all forms of splendor, and what happened after the opera? Just a shout of rewards, and they would take a basket to pour money for the performers. Their riches reach an extreme point. However, great pleasure brings about sadness. A cup will overflow when it’s full. By chapter 55, Cao Xueqin begins to write how the Jia family experiences internal and external difficulties. In the first 54 chapters, it writes about the Jia family’s flourishing growth. In the last 54 chapters, it begins to write about the decline of the Jia family, eventually leading to nothing. Hence, everyone can see that the division is very clear. Cao Xueqin’s textual structure is very strict!”
Yan Yu turned silent. This…
Teacher Yang also pondered with a gloomy expression.
Senior Zhou raised his hands to ask, “Then why is it twelve?”
Zhang Ye laughed. “Why nine times twelve. Why would this constant twelve be used? Actually, it is very obvious. You can understand just from reading the first five chapters. Jia Baoyu dreams of entering the Land of Illusion, where it is led by the Fairy of Disenchantment to the Board of Ill-fated lives. There he secretly read the records. In the records, it recorded the fate of the women in Jinling. Then how were these pages split? I would like to know how many people were there on that list?”
Yao Cui immediately stood up. “There were twelve! Twelve Beauties of Jinling!”
“Yes.” Zhang Ye asked again, “Then what about the secondary records, and what was inside the secondary records?”
Senior Zhou exclaimed, “It was also twelve.”
Zhang Ye said, “Then the Fairy of Disenchantment entertained Jia Baoyu and got the fairies to sing songs. How many songs were there?”
Senior Song blinked her eyes and took over the microphone to answer, “It’s the twelve songs of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’!”
“Yes, then about the performer I previously mentioned, how many of them were there?” Zhang Ye asked again. “Did anyone pay attention to them?”
Many students could not answer for they could not remember. They did not read it in such detail.
However, Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “Twelve. They were collectively called the Twelve Performers of the Red Chamber.”
Zhang Ye smiled. “Yes, see everyone. Cao Xueqin had been using the number twelve throughout the whole book. Together with how chapter 54 being such an important divisor, I believe it’s obvious now? Hence, I cannot accept the 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ currently circulated. This is because Cao Xueqin’s original ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ only has 108 chapters! So, only the first 80 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ were written originally by Cao Xueqin. The last 40 chapters were written by Gao E, or some anonymous writer. And that person continued it unreliably. This is because what follows the first 80 chapters is not supposed to be 40 chapters, but rather 28 chapters!”
With this, those people from the world of literature could not sit still any further!