"Dream of the Red Chamber" is an encyclopedia of traditional Chinese culture, and in the more than 200 years since its completion, it has attracted countless researchers. Many factions have formed:
Examination school: examine Cao Xueqin's family background, examine who Li Yanzhai really is, and examine the historical and cultural allusions in "Dream of the Red Chamber";
Suo Yin School: According to the only words in the book, explore the subtle meaning of the Dream of the Red Chamber and find out the real history corresponding to reality;
Critics: Borrow the dream of the Red Chamber and pour out the blocks in your heart;
Regarding the theme of the Dream of the Red Chamber, everyone is also arguing endlessly, and everyone argues from their own perspectives what Cao Xueqin wants to tell us, such as:
Witness: The witness school mainly says that Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber is mainly "the purpose of the love", the true feelings, the most affectionate, the extreme, that is, the so-called love obsession, love species. According to the fat criticism of Li Yanzhai, the Dream of the Red Chamber finally has a "police fantasy love list", and Baoyu is "unsympathetic", that is, he is also full of affection for ruthless things such as grass and trees. Dai Yu is "love feelings" and Bao Chao is "love time".
The Zhengkong Sect: The Zhengkong Sect believes that the Dream of the Red Chamber is an expression of the Buddhist "empty" thought, and the whole book ends with the fall of the Jia family and the Baoyu renunciation, and finally "the white expanse of the earth is really clean". And the book shows the intention of the Buddhist family to be "empty" everywhere, for example, there is a retrospective in the book that is "listening to the Quwen Baoyu Enlightenment Zen Machine". This time, it is written that Bao Yu listened to the song "Red Stripe, Coming and Going Without Worry", Bao Yu listened, and happily clapped his knees and drew circles. At the same time, the plant intentions in the book also point to the idea of "emptiness". For example, bao yu and tanchun's houses are planted next to the plantains, and the literary intention of the plantains represents "emptiness". There are also "dreams", "illusions", "flames", "flowers in the mirror", "moon in the water" and so on in the book, which all point to "emptiness". There are many other character examples in the book that also prove empty thoughts, such as Zhen Shiyin's monasticism, Xi Chun's monasticism, and so on.
Autobiographicalism: The evidence for autobiographicalism comes from Cao Xueqin's confession in the book. "Nothing has been accomplished in this dusty day. Suddenly thinking of all the women of that year, I pushed them one by one, and felt that their deeds and insights were all above me, and I had raised eyebrows, and I had not been as good as the skirts... My sins are unavoidable, but there are people in the boudoir who have been in the past, and they must not protect themselves because of my inadequacy, and then let them perish at the same time." Roughly speaking, the meaning is that these women Cao Xueqin met in her life are very good and special, so she must give the twelve gold noodles a legend. At the same time, combined with Cao Xueqin's background, the autobiographical school also has a certain truth.
Confucianism: There are also many examples of this school, for example, although Jia Baoyu is deviant, he burned many books, but never burned the "Four Books" (Confucian classics), and he also said that except for the "Four Books", the other books are forged by posterity and are not worth reading. This faction also believes that Cao Xueqin wrote this book to warn future generations that they must follow the Confucian tradition and work hard to govern, otherwise even the biggest family business will soon fall. There are two sentences in the book: "Ji Qiu is decadent and depraved from respect" and "the first sin of family affairs is the death of the family". These two sentences mean that the first sin of the Jia family's downfall began with the Ningguo Mansion, and the highest ruler of the Ningguo Mansion should be Jia Jing, and Jia Jing was not responsible for the family at all, but ran to ask for immortals and medicine. More importantly, neglecting the education of his children led to his son Jia Zhen becoming a loser. Therefore, this faction believes that the Dream of the Red Chamber is a cautionary tale.
It seems that what each faction says makes sense, but Cao Xueqin's "full of absurd words", but who can really understand the taste?
01 Dream of the Red Chamber is not
Before we say what Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber is, let's first say that it must not be.
01-1 It's not a romance novel
Many people are keen on Bao Daichao's love triangle, in the end Bao Yu likes Bao Chao or not, Dai Yu did not hear Bao Yu's confession to her, why didn't the author let Bao Yu and Dai Yu be together. People will always relish such topics, after all, love is beautiful, youth is invincible, love is supreme, and it is understandable for everyone to pay attention to these. But Dream of the Red Chamber is really not a romance novel. Cao Xueqin borrowed Jia Mu's mouth and criticized the general talent and beauty novels. Once, Mr. Storyteller went to Jia's house to talk about books, Mr. Storyteller wanted to say a book of "Feng Qiuluan", Jia Mu said, needless to say, "These books are all a set, the left is just some beautiful people, the most uninteresting, the daughter of the people said so bad, also said that it is a beautiful person, there is no even shadow, the opening is the book Xiang Mendi, the father is not Shangshu or the prime minister, giving birth to a young lady must be loved as a treasure, this lady must be knowledgeable and omniscient, it is a superb beauty, only once I saw a handsome man, whether it is a relative or a friend, Then I remembered the great events of my life, my parents forgot, and the poetry also forgot. Ghosts are not ghosts, thieves are not thieves, which point is beautiful." "It is said that the eunuchs and the eunuchs are all young ladies who know the etiquette to read, and even the wives are all knowledgeable and knowledgeable, that is, to return to the old people, naturally so that there are many people in the population, and there are many people who serve the grandmother, the maid, and the lady, how can these books, whenever there is such a thing, there is only a miss and a lady who follows closely." Jia Mu also said, "We are not allowed to talk about these books here, and even the servants do not understand these words." It can be seen that in the eyes of aristocrats like the Jia family, the romance novels of the talented and beautiful cannot be on the table, and the people in the story are not systematic, violating the basic etiquette of the nobility.
In the first time, Cao Xueqin also borrowed a stone mouth to say, "Caizi Jiaren and other books, then a thousand copies of a set, and in the end can not be involved in adultery, so that the paper Pan An, Zi Jian, Xi Zi, Wen Jun, but the author wants to write his own two love poems Yan Endowed, so pretend to draw out the names and surnames of men and women, and will also make a small person mess between them, just like the clown in the play, and the widow who opens her mouth is also the same, not the text is reasonable." Therefore, looking at them one by one, all of them contradicted themselves and were so unreasonable that they were not as good as the women I had seen and heard about in half my life. ”
It can be seen that Cao Xueqin is very opposed to the novel of Caizi Jiaren, and he cannot write his dream of the Red Chamber into such a book.
01-2 It is not a hero return story
Many people regard Baoyu as an anti-feudal, anti-ritual, and heroic figure who pursues love autonomy. They believe that the reason why Bao Dai could not be together was because she was persecuted by the feudal elders, who hindered Bao Dai's free love. Baoyu's final renunciation was a silent rebellion against feudal etiquette.
I think that those who hold this logic are influenced by two aspects, one is that our country has suffered too much suffering in modern times, and most of the reasons for these sufferings are attributed to feudal oppression and aggression by great powers, so people see any obstacles to be reduced to the remnants of feudal ideas, and they need to be anti-feudal and anti-oppression. (This paragraph is really not made up by me blindly, you can look at many books interpreting the Dream of the Red Chamber, nine out of ten are emphasizing that this is an anti-feudal and anti-ritual book)
On the other hand, American Hollywood blockbusters are watched a lot. The general logic of Hollywood blockbusters is a story of the return of a hero. A weak person, slowly called by the mission, fights against a group of demons, and finally returns victoriously, and when he returns, he does not forget to hug the beauty. In this kind of Hollywood story, there must be a heroic character, and in the Dream of the Red Chamber, this heroic character is Bao Dai, who struggles with feudal parents for free love. As if the Dream of the Red Chamber does conform to this logic, in fact, if you look at the Dream of the Red Chamber in this way, it is too simple to see it, the Dream of the Red Chamber as the pinnacle of classical Chinese novels, the encyclopedia of Chinese culture, if it is only this simple logic and intention, then it is too insulting to the intelligence of our people.
As for why the Dream of the Red Chamber is not an anti-feudal novel, the argument is too cumbersome, and it is not the focus of this article, which is omitted here.
01-3 It is not the spokesperson for any school of philosophical thought
In the dream of the Red Chamber, we can see that Confucianism and Taoism stand on three legs, Confucianism provides warmth, Taoism provides spirituality, and Buddhism provides compassion. The three philosophical ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are fully embodied in the Dream of the Red Chamber, and we also said it in the theme school of the Dream of the Red Chamber earlier. Each faction can find many examples in the book, proving that Cao Xueqin is to express the philosophical ideas of this school. Everyone was arguing. So from another point of view, since there are Confucian and Taoist ideas in the dream of the Red Chamber, can it be said that Cao Xueqin did not speak for any of the ideas?
02 Different angles
We have said that so many dream of the Red Chamber is not what it is, so how should we look at the Dream of the Red Chamber, or from which point of view of the Dream of the Red Chamber. Having said so much nonsense, today I introduce a book, the prototype and meaning of "Dream of the Red Chamber". This is a book written by the American sinologist Andy Pu. This book was his doctoral dissertation, and he also became famous with it. Why did I pick a book written by Americans about traditional Chinese culture?
On the one hand, we are in the big cultural tradition of China, and we are not self-aware of the influence of this own culture. It's as if the fish never feels the presence of water unless it leaves the water. We are also influenced by traditional culture without knowing it. On the other hand, we are too much influenced by modern thought, and whatever we do is an anti-feudal hat.
At the same time, we ordinary people do not have enough knowledge to enter the world of ancient people's thought. From the dream of the Red Chamber, we can see that Cao Xueqin is very familiar with the philosophical classics of the pre-Qin Dynasty, and Kong Meng laozhuang has his hands on it, and I am afraid that ordinary people now rarely have this skill. We can't look at this world from the perspective of the ancients, resulting in us modern people seeing the Dream of the Red Chamber as either Bao Daichao's love triangle or Bao Dai's rebellion for freedom.
From the perspective of American scholars, the above problems are completely avoided, Because Mr. Pu Andi is not in it, he has enough sensitivity to Chinese culture to go deep into traditional Chinese culture and see the world from the perspective of the ancient Chinese people; second, he is not affected by anti-feudal ideas; third, he has enough love for traditional Chinese culture, and he also wants to translate the Dream of the Red Chamber into Hebrew. Based on the above three points, we have reason to believe that Mr. Pu Andy can bring us a new perspective on the dream of the Red Chamber.
03 The complexity that exists
03-1 Complementary duality
Because this book is a purely theoretical work, the original version was written in English, and it was translated, and it was very unfriendly to read. So, there are some places that I can only guess. This is also a dilemma of human language, that is, what the author wants to express and the actual performance may be different, and what the reader can receive and what the author wants the reader to receive will be very different, and in the end we can only rely on our own comprehension ability, as the saying goes, "guess", to understand the author's meaning.
We know that there is a grand view garden in the dream of the Red Chamber, and Mr. Pu Andi said in his interpretation of the "Grand View" that the Dream of the Red Chamber has a grand visual concept, that is, "full vision". Since it is "full vision", it is not a vision that is biased towards a corner, it is not a small love, nor is it a representative of a family's thoughts, but all. Then "total vision" can be replaced by one word, that is, philosophical "existence". Interpreting "existence" is the most fundamental difficulty in philosophy, and all philosophers at home and abroad face this difficulty. At this time, we can see Cao Xueqin's ambition, he wants to use literature as a form to present the existence of things.
Mr. Pu Andi believes that Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber shows us the "complementary duality" of existence. This sentence is difficult to understand, let's first look at a picture. This picture is a nuwa fuxi diagram.
Nuwa represents yin, Fuxi represents yang, and the formation of all things is made of yin and yang. Yin and yang are complementary, there is no independent yin, independent yang. Only in this complementarity of yin and yang can things exist.
The first meaning of complementary duality is that the existence of the two poles of things is premised on each other. This complementary duality is the basic structure of the Dream of the Red Chamber. From Jia Baoyu's illusory entry into the world to the final renunciation, from the prosperity and decline of the Jia family, from the reunion and separation of Bao Dai, from the elegance of Miao Yu to the customs of Liu Grandma, and so on. The existence of a thing is based on its opposites, and the two are complementary, not opposites.
The second meaning of complementary duality is that complementary duality is a permanent process of continuous alternation. It is not a linear process of development, but a circular program. Some people think that the development of human society is getting more and more progressive, as if our feelings are indeed like this, but our ancients believed that the rise and fall of success or failure was an infinite cycle. Success must be destroyed, prosperity must be declined, this is the fundamental attribute of the existence of a thing.
The third meaning of complementary duality is the mutual implication of the two poles. That is, there is stillness in movement, and there is movement in stillness. Prosperity contains decay, and decay gives birth to new life. There are a large number of such examples in the dream of the Red Chamber, the presentation of each thing contains the opposite side, in the later chapters, Cao Xueqin presents it to us one by one, which is the so-called grass snake gray line, which is a thousand miles.
Cao Xueqin presents us with what he sees as the real world looks like – complex, changeable, chaotic, and everything exists in the complementarity of the poles.
As an aside, how to judge a literary work is a good work, one of the simplest ways is to see if there are obvious good people and bad people in this work, if there are obvious good people and bad people, it is not a good literary work, because a good literary work should explore the pluralistic and complex side of human nature, and even human beings are not aware of the subconscious, and writers need such sensitivity. If it is simply a face, then this literary character can neither live, nor does the author regard human nature as too simple.
03-2 multiple circumference
Under the basic structure of complementary duality, another angle from which the ancients looked at things was the symbiosis of the five elements. China's number 5 is a representation of a concept of pluralism. For example, there are also five laws, five emperors, five colors, five tastes, five viscera, five grains and so on. The ancients believed that everything was driven by the five elements to promote development and change. This is the basic law of the ancients' understanding of the world, just like Newtonian mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity today.
Mr. Pu Andi believes that the Dream of the Red Chamber is also unfolding in this kind of five-element symbiosis. This symbiosis is uninterrupted, and every element is presented with other elements in a latent state. The mutual transformation of elements is always in flux. At the same time, the basic state of the world is the infinite overlap of the five elements. Like what:
Dai Yu belongs to the "wood", we can look at the logic of Cao Xueqin's arrangement for the attributes of Dai Yu's "wood": Dai Yu surname Lin, double wood. Daiyu's predecessor was a daisy fairy grass, which belonged to the grass and trees, her birthday was in the spring, and her residence was "Xiaoxiangguan", surrounded by plants - bamboo. She had written about the funeral flowers and had infinite sympathy for the falling flowers of spring. "Flowers fall and people die", Daiyu's grass and wood nature is naturally related to the beauty of decay. Dai Yu was born in the spring, spring is the season of stretching, she is a carefree spring girl, enough wayward and love to play a little temper. Spring is also short-lived and fleeting, which also dooms Daiyu's early death.
Baochao belongs to the genus "gold", and there is a "钗" in the name, with gold. She has a golden lock, "gold" in the seasons of autumn, the Lord converges. Baochao's room decoration is also extremely elegant, like a "snow cave", she also takes a medicine called "cold incense pills", and her personality is also introverted and calm. The ancients were most likely to hurt spring and autumn, and the brevity of spring and the slaughter of autumn brought people infinite sadness, which also implied that the fate of Dai Yu and Bao Chao was not good.
Baoyu belongs to the "earth", Baoyu's predecessor is a stone, when he was born, he also contained a jade in his mouth, and the orientation belonged to the middle position, so he could connect with Daiyu, Baochao and other sisters in the garden. He is lazy in temperament and unwilling to learn the knowledge of the people of the world.
Other characters in the Dream of the Red Chamber can be analyzed using this framework, but some of the character characteristics are not obvious, after all, a novel has a master and a secondary, and it is impossible for everyone to portray it very deeply.
The "five elements" analysis here is not far-fetched, but a way for the ancients to see the world, in the complementary duality and the symbiosis of the five elements, the development of things points to infinity. It is difficult for people like us who have been trained in science to accept such logic, but this is the vision of the ancients, and without walking in, we cannot understand the Dream of the Red Chamber very well.
We say that beauty is the expression of the law, the law of the ancients' understanding of the world is the complementary duality and the circumlocution of the five elements, the Dream of the Red Chamber is the framework of this basic framework, and Cao Xueqin uses the cultural resources of ancient China for thousands of years to show us the basic appearance of the existence of people and things.
It also seems to answer the basic question of existence, that is, the existence of anything is only a substitute for the possibility of another existence.