Qin Keqing is written to have died of illness, yet her funeral is full of unsettling signs. When Baoyu hears the news, he spits blood in a fit of anguish. Jia Zhen, weeping, vows to spend "everything he has" on the rites and uses priceless paulownia wood for her coffin. Stranger still, her loyal maid Ruizhu dashes her head against a pillar to die. And in the Tower of Heavenly Fragrance, a 49-day "rite to wash away wrongs" is performed. Zhiyan Zhai leaves eight telling words: "The Tower of Heavenly Fragrance passage was not deleted."
If she truly died of illness, why do these details keep leading us back to the Tower of Heavenly Fragrance? What did Cao Xueqin actually cut?
This episode: full original text narration + deep analysis.
00:00 Intro
00:46 Original Text
06:20 Deep Analysis