The appearance of A Dream of Red Mansions in the literary world marks the maturity of China's novel art. In art, she is not only comparable to the most brilliant works in China's long-standing poems and songs, but also worthy of being juxtaposed with the first-class novels in world literature. The following is the relevant information compiled by Bian Xiao, hoping to help everyone.
A Brief Introduction to A Dream of Red Mansions
A Dream of Red Mansions, the first of China's classical Four Great Classical Novels, is a novel written by Cao Xueqin, a writer in Qing Dynasty, also known as The Story of the Stone, Jinyuyuan and Re-evaluation of the Story of the Stone by Hongyan Zhai. There are two editions of this book: 120 "Cost" and 80 "Fat Edition". The first eighty chapters of the new edition of Tongshu were collected according to Fat Book, and the last forty chapters were collected according to Cheng Shu, with the signature "Cao Xueqin, Anonymous, Cheng Weiyuan, Finishing". A Dream of Red Mansions is an earthly novel with world influence. It is recognized as the pinnacle of China's classical novels, an encyclopedia of feudal society in China and a master of traditional culture. The novel takes the rise and fall of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue as the background, the family affairs of Jia's family and the leisure of boudoir as the main line, and the love and marriage stories of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the main line, depicting the beauty of humanity and tragedy of lovers centered on Jia Baoyu and Jinling Twelve Chai. Through family tragedy, daughter tragedy and the protagonist's life tragedy, the crisis of the last days of feudalism is revealed.
Artistic Achievements of A Dream of Red Mansions
Since the publication of A Dream of Red Mansions, contemporaries have already issued the admiration of "vivid writing for thousands of years"; There are many valuable comments on the artistic innovation and uniqueness of this novel by Zhi Yanzhai. When he prefaced it, Qi made comments such as "One voice, two songs, two letters in one hand" and "Note that he wrote this, with a wave of his hand", which profoundly revealed the wonder of the novel's artistic skills. When summing up the historical development of China's novels, Lu Xun even said that "since the publication of A Dream of Red Mansions, traditional thinking and writing methods have been broken", which he spoke highly of. A Dream of Red Mansions is indeed a treasure house of art, full of weather and magnificent scenery. Whether it is her whole or details, it can be fascinating and inspiring. Since the 1980s, exploring the artistic experience of this masterpiece and summarizing its artistic achievements have become an enduring hot spot in the study of A Dream of Red Mansions, which generally involves the following aspects.
1. Generally speaking, the greatest artistic feature of A Dream of Red Mansions is that it is as rich, complex and natural as life itself.
A Dream of Red Mansions is a novel based on the writer's personal life experience, but it is not an autobiographical record of the writer. From life to art, it has undergone great refinement, transformation, addition, deletion and fiction. The so-called "ten years of hard work is unusual." Although the novel is about "boudoir story" and the true feelings of children, it has unfolded an extremely broad and rich picture of life. From aristocratic families, imperial palaces, official temples, street idlers and even rural villagers, writers have to spend a lot of time assembling and splicing life scenes! The reputation of A Dream of Red Mansions as an encyclopedia is only a figurative statement, praising and describing the richness and subtlety of life. In fact, artistic creation has its special hardships. Everything must be cast by the writer's feelings and nourished by the soul. The so-called "every word is like blood." All kinds of social and cultural landscapes presented in the novel are full of the writer's blood and tears and life experience. However, it is such a painstaking book with blood and tears. Reading is like flowing water, effortless, and you can't feel the traces of artificial axes. It seems that everything is like this. The author just picked it up and recorded it. No wonder some people read the novel, want to go to the old site and investigate the facts, and regard it as the author's self-narrative, or an allusion to someone or something in history, so that textual research is endless. This rare phenomenon in the history of literature is not only related to the reader's own reasons, but also to the particularity of A Dream of Red Mansions, including her unique and unpretentious artistic characteristics.
Seemingly plain and mellow, "if it is fine, it is excellent, if it is true" can be said to be the basic feature of the artistic character of A Dream of Red Mansions, which shows a superb artistic realm and great demeanor. Here, truth and falsehood, emptiness and reality, peace and strangeness are organically unified, and there are truth in falsehood, strangeness in mediocrity and truth in truth, which is difficult to distinguish.
Secondly, in connection with the above general characteristics, the artistic structure and narrative viewpoint of A Dream of Red Mansions are also ingeniously integrated.
The structure of the novel is characterized by its integrity and organic nature. "The structure of a beautiful garden is natural", and it is entirely appropriate for people to transfer this praise to the Grand View Garden for novels. The Grand View Garden is an artificial garden with clever management and natural agility. Writers admire nature, but they don't reject ingenuity. The novel itself is like a carefully constructed and natural social grand view garden.
1. The special significance of the first five chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions in the artistic structure of the whole book. The first five chapters are not only an introduction to the development of the whole story, but also a microcosm of the whole tragedy. Almost all important people planted seeds here and formed embryos. It is both a part of the book and relatively independent. The events in the first five chapters have summarized and prompted the whole book, and are also very cohesive and general. For example, the goddess of mending heaven left the myth that the stone entered the WTO at the first beginning, metaphorically expressing the background of "the end of the world" and the character of "stubborn stone" and expressing her creative intention through the words of the stone; Zhu Jiang and Shen Ying have the benefit of nectar in heaven, which paves the way for the return of tears on earth. The second time, Leng Zixing gave a speech about Guo Rongfu, "Let readers have a Fu Rong in their hearts" (Fat Review). Another example is the fifth love love love, which is novel and surprising, profound in meaning and full of rhyme. "The Trial" and "Wen Qu" outline the characters of the main characters and foretell their fate. In short, the first five chapters are overtures, and the themes and melodies of all the characters have been played, only to be enriched, confirmed and completed by the following movements. I understood the mystery of the first five times, as if I had mastered the master key to open this art palace.
2. The structural framework of the book is generally considered to be the tragedy of love and marriage between Baoyu, Daiyu and Baochai, and the process of the aristocratic family represented by Jiafu from prosperity to decline; Because of Wang Xifeng's important position and full personality, some researchers regard her as the main clue throughout the book. The official story of the novel should be written to the sixth time, coming from a small family thousands of miles away, and then entering the positive description of "Granny Liu entered Guo Rongfu". Since the sixth cycle, some researchers have divided the book into four paragraphs and some into five paragraphs. No matter how it is divided, it generally follows the trend of Jia from prosperity to decline, marked by several major events, and divided into several units according to the ups and downs of the plot. It can be seen that the writer's brushwork first focuses on a number of major figures including Baoyu, Daiyu, Baochai, Xifeng and Ke Qing, as well as environmental descriptions such as Rong Ning Er Fu and Daguan Garden. Secondly, it focuses on the increasingly complex emotional process between Bao Dai and the conflict between Yu Bao and Jia Zheng's rebellious son strict father and its intensification; Then, the contradictions among many daughters inside and outside the Grand View Garden, including Xiangyun, Miaoyu, Qingwen, Pinger, Yuanyang, Xiangling, Youer and Jiafu, are described extensively. Starting from the fifty-fifth chapter, the book style changed greatly, and Jia Jiadao declined greatly. After seventy chapters, more and more sad, more and more sad, more and more decadent. Although the book has not been finished, the general trend of the third spring has gone, and the fragrance has disappeared, and the tree has fallen away. Because the writer has the overall situation in mind, although the book is ups and downs and swaying, it is a complete work of art.
3, "the grass snake gray line, the volt line is thousands of miles", taking the lead and moving the whole body. This is also a view that people agree with. Every plot and even detail of the novel is not isolated, but exists as an organic part of the whole. For example, when granny Liu entered Guo Rongfu, she fell into "two advances" and "three advances". The first sentence of Xi Chun's appearance was "Shave your head and become a nun", which took care of the final destination of this "Houmen Embroidery Mother" who eventually "lies alone beside the ancient Buddha". Jia Baoyu doesn't like reading, hanging out with pagans, and making friends with actresses. As a result, he bears the blame. However, his nature remained unchanged after being beaten, and his grandmother sheltered him from wandering in the garden, further developing his free personality and becoming the reason for his immorality. It can be said that any paragraph extracted from the book is in danger of breaking blood. And every life scene can be observed from many angles and get a lot of meaning. For example, returning to the province in January is not only a happy event of flowers, but also a great tragedy of separation of flesh and blood. For another example, with a few palace flowers as a lead, all the rooms are strung together, and almost twelve women are drawn out; In order to find a teacup, the scene was moved from Tubi Villa, where the whole family enjoyed the moon, to the water side of the concave crystal pavilion with only two couplets. Interpolation is so clever and transformation is so natural that people follow the author unconsciously. In this way, the novel combines characters and events with the pen of darkness and the words of trees instead of flowers.
4. Different from the classical novels in the past, the narrative viewpoint of A Dream of Red Mansions has the advantages of both the first person and the third person, which can not only enhance the realism of personal experience, but also describe the world without limit. The author pretends that this book is written by "stone" and sometimes makes it appear in the book instead of the role of "I". The first-person narration of the stone shows that the reader is the witness of the story, more often because the stone has become a psychic treasure jade in the protagonist, and he can observe and understand the surrounding things and start the free narration of the third person. Sometimes it is described from the point of view of a character in the book, and when necessary, "the author knows everything" is not excluded. In short, the narrative angle is flexible and changeable. Related to this, the novel designed two treasures, Fu and Zhen, to reconcile "truth and falsehood", aiming at tracing the true story and avoiding it with "false words". The main part of the novel is a fiction that hides the true story, and the key points, such as the southern tour and the property raid, are awakened by the "true" incident. It can be seen that taking stone as the narrator, the subtle relationship between stone and protagonist is fictionalized, and a "true story" that has experienced a dream is written through two clues of truth and falsehood, which not only embodies the typical generalization of artistic creation, but also is a unique structural form and narrative way created by the author to avoid the trouble of writing.
Thirdly, many characters with distinctive personalities and rich connotations have been created.
The achievements of A Dream of Red Mansions in characterization can be said to be unprecedented. Until today, it is difficult to cite any work that can reach such a level. This is not just numbers. A Dream of Red Mansions has created dozens and hundreds of characters, and it is a long gallery of characters, or the whole image system. As far as artistic charm is concerned, the artistic vitality of all kinds of characters in the book is vigorous and timeless.
1, the first is the study of the protagonist. Jia Baoyu is a very novel and unique figure, very kind and sensible. He has both a breakthrough novel concept and a secular spirit. There are many unique features in Jia Baoyu's character: he loves red; Seeing a daughter is refreshing, but seeing a man is disgusting. As a spiritual prisoner of the aristocratic family, he was imprisoned in a deep garden with high walls. The narrowness of life aroused the wings of free thought. He not only chews the dribs and drabs of joys and sorrows around him, but also worries about his unpredictable love, struggles to pursue all kinds of mysteries of life that are difficult to solve, and suffers from pains and misfortunes that ordinary people still don't realize. Like a fool who disturbed the feudal order, he denounced the traitor Lu Wei and pursued pure love boldly and persistently. Sometimes calling for nature, longing for returning to nature, meditation and enlightenment. The writer shows the complex process of this contradictory movement in a measured and vivid way, so that each party has its own subject and time, sometimes hidden and sometimes present, and the opposites complement each other, thus producing a strong personality synergy. Jia Baoyu is such an inexhaustible aesthetic object.
2. The female image around the protagonist is also a topic that researchers often pay attention to. Its first sequence is Twelve Women in Jinling, which is not only the main volume, but also has very important characters in the supplementary volume and supplementary volume. These female images also have distinctive personality characteristics and rich and profound personality connotations. First of all, it is a great thing to write about a group of young women with similar age and living environment, distinctive personality and different colors inside and outside the Grand View Garden. In fact, they are all "idle people with money", and there is nothing earth-shattering in the boudoir, but they are just "small talents and slightly good". However, people will never confuse them. Generally speaking, Xue Baochai's overall impression is "cold", Daiyu "sad", Xiangyun "extravagant", Xifeng "spicy", Tan Chun "sensitive", Ying Chun "timid", Yuan Chun "expensive", Miaoyu "clean", Xiangling "bitter" and Jingui "tough". But as far as every character is concerned, his character world is very complicated and rich.
Xue Baochai is a famous "cold beauty". The "cold" of a cold beauty is Leng Yan's elegance; It is calm and rational; Sometimes it's cold and cold. From appearance to heart, from self-denial to being human everywhere, it embodies a high level of cultivation. Her clothes are elegant, her makeup is elegant, her life is simple, and she is silent and dignified, showing a dignified and closed personality. The "cold pill" she ate was meaningful, and using cold to control heat showed that she was restrained and depressed about her inner feelings. Her innocence was swallowed up by the world, and her love was covered by the ethics of the nobility. Sometimes, this calmness reaches the point of indifference, numbness and loss of sympathy. Leng Xiang and the cold eventually led to the snow burying the golden hairpin. Cold beauty has never won the childlike innocence of "idiot", and can only hold a grudge for life in a loveless marriage and a lonely life. This character, which is characterized by "coldness", contains rich social contents.
Lin Daiyu, known as "the beauty of illness", is sad all day. "Are these two bends like a frown? I pluck my eyebrows ",the illness of posture and the sadness of mentality are superimposed into one, and endless tears are the fountain of the soul, which is transformed from the" sea of drinking poison to quench thirst "drunk in previous lives. People saw that she was sick, homesick and worried about falling flowers and falling willows, but her own loneliness and the bleak prospect of love plunged her into the abyss of unavoidable anxiety. In this sensitive and sad girl's spiritual world, there are anti-secular self-esteem and dust-free loneliness, persistent pursuit of life and passionate yearning for love, which are more sober self-awareness and personality requirements than other women in A Dream of Red Mansions. The so-called "Lin Daiyu type" should not only pay attention to her sentimental external impression, but also see the rich cultural connotation of this character and observe her personality traits of surpassing the crowd to become the first heroine in A Dream of Red Mansions.
The magnificence of Xiangyun is fascinating. She's open-minded, quick-talking, burning deer and sleeping? P is more famous. However, the shadow hanging over the whole family and society followed her, and the optimistic and open-minded Miss Yun also had her own troubles and worries. In the end, we have to obey fate. Chai, Dai and Xiang can be said to be the most important female images in the book. A deep, a lonely, a bold. All three are beautiful, but they are very different.
Spicy should be the overall feeling of Xifeng's image. The spicy taste of "Feng Chili" is also very complicated and a comprehensive aesthetic effect, which is difficult to be standardized by a logical concept. People can appreciate it from different angles, such as the majesty of war determination, penetrating insight, determination not to go backward, surprise banter and so on. Sometimes it is horribly spicy and creepy; Sometimes it's surprisingly hot. Xifeng can't get rid of the spicy characteristics, whether she does good or bad things, or muddles along, which always gives people a sense of freshness and movement. Xifeng is not only brilliant, but also has a strong desire for self-realization. When it is particularly prominent, it is really proud of the male-centered society; When its organs fail, it is chilling to trample on the personal dignity and even the right to life of others, especially women. The two are intertwined, forming a spectacle with spicy characteristics of China's female character. The image of Xifeng has high aesthetic value.
The characters described in China's traditional operas and novels are often greatly exaggerated, even incarnated into certain qualities, such as loyalty, treachery, intelligence and recklessness. A Dream of Red Mansions shows not a single normative personality, but a fleshy realistic personality. Lu Xun said that "the characters written in a dream of red mansions are all real" and "the good guys are completely good and the bad guys are completely bad in previous novels". This is a high evaluation of the characterization of A Dream of Red Mansions.
3. The character system in A Dream of Red Mansions is full of dialectical factors, which greatly expands the capacity of life in the mutual connection and contrast of images. Almost all kinds of characters can be arranged and combined in a variety of ways, which can be used as a sequence or contrast to set off, see unity in change and show individuality in contrast. For example, Jia Fu's Four Seasons of Spring, Two Yous in a Dream of Red Mansions, Dai and Chai, Baoyu and Jia Huan, Xue Pan and Baochai, Tanchun and Jia Huan, Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou, Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Xing, Xifeng and Li Wan, Mrs. Jia and Grandma Liu, and Lai Da, Zhang Daoshi and Wang Yi are too numerous to mention. As long as you choose a certain perspective, you can find its comparability. The diversity of artistic images is dazzling, but there is a rhythm hidden in it. At the same time, contrast and contrast exist in many directions. Of course, Chai and Dai are a contrast, but Baochai and her brother Xue Pan are also a contrast, one is reasonable and the other is willful. Baochai and her sister-in-law Xia Jingui are another contrast. Jingui's arrogance is burning her sister-in-law's peace and self-esteem. Jia Huan and Tan Chun were born of one mother, one vulgar and one elegant; Baoyu and Jia Huan are brothers, one has feelings for things that are not affectionate, and the other has no feelings for people who are affectionate. Noble grandfathers and grandmothers Liu, Lai Da who made a fortune, and Jiao Da who had a bad back all showed their own characteristics in different contrasts. As for "sunny weather, just like attacking hairpin", it is both a contrast and an overall correspondence.
The composition of the image system is an important aesthetic issue of the novel, and the achievement of A Dream of Red Mansions in this respect also marks the maturity of the novel art.
The study of characters can be said to be one of the most successful aspects in the study of A Dream of Red Mansions. Almost every character in the novel has a discussion, especially the important characters have a thorough analysis. Most commentators adopt an objective and realistic attitude and dialectical comparison method, which greatly improves the research level.
Fourth, A Dream of Red Mansions created a first-class literary language that is far ahead of the previous generation and is still a model.
The language of A Dream of Red Mansions is plain and simple, with brilliant literary talent, or "the text is shallow, but the meaning is deep", which has implicit beauty. The artistic features of language are also related to the overall features of books.
1. The beauty of the language of A Dream of Red Mansions lies in the whole, not in a certain section. It is difficult to cite a place to illustrate its achievements in language art. The best way is to read the whole book. And its expressive force is not presented on the surface of the text, but contained in it. It makes Baodai's love extremely charming, but she can't find gorgeous words and patterns all the time. The screenwriter only uses ordinary and simple spoken language to write, but expresses the "children's true feelings" with twists and turns. Many grand and lively scenes and characters are not piled up by gorgeous words. In his comments, Zhi Yanzhai often praised A Dream of Red Mansions as unconventional in this respect, and there was no overused writing style by predecessors. And it is often used to make people understand and mobilize the imagination of readers to make up for it. Of course, there are many clear words and beautiful sentences in the novel, and there are also some carefully crafted words that meet the needs of specific occasions and are very refined.
2. A Dream of Red Mansions is a classical vernacular novel based on Beijing dialect, but it is more life-oriented, literary and national than the famous vernacular novels in the past. The language in A Dream of Red Mansions is basically vernacular, with occasional plain classical Chinese, but it doesn't feel stiff and inflexible, and it is rarely bureaucratic, flexible and fluent. When writing, literature and art, when white, white and harmonious. A Dream of Red Mansions is very magnificent in transforming the language of life into the essence of literary language. Common sayings, dialect words, social idioms, idioms and two-part allegorical sayings in life can all be domesticated and become literary words. Some words are even original by the author. Many subtle epigrams, such as "psychosexuality", "Yan Lu", the word-of-mouth protection symbols of the four proverbs and the lyrics of each sentence, are neither household names nor common sayings, but have become new classics and proverbs that people are familiar with since the publication of A Dream of Red Mansions. A Dream of Red Mansions is not without dialects and dialects, and critics have also argued about the Beijing dialect of Wu dialect. Because of the author's proper choice, refinement and application, readers in China can understand and appreciate its charm, which just shows that the author has learned dialects and become a family. In a word, the language of A Dream of Red Mansions is more vivid and literary than previous novels. As a standard literary language, it has always been cited as a model by various authoritative Chinese dictionaries.
3. Special attention should be paid to the achievements of A Dream of Red Mansions in the language of characters and the art of dialogue. Generally, it comes down to the personality of language, and the so-called "hearing its voice is like seeing its person". A Dream of Red Mansions has written hundreds of people. To do this, it is necessary to write "one hundred people speak". The characters in the book have complicated logistics and different personalities. Screenwriters should put themselves in their shoes, observe the details and describe the "endorsements" of hundreds of local people. What a good skill! What's more, as far as each role is concerned, it is impossible for a writer to realize the individuality of the role language by a program or a tone. The language of the same person is ever-changing because of different time, occasion and mentality. In the novel's dialogue skills, there is also an occasion for people to talk, which is not the alternation of DC-style verbal warfare and Confucianism, but the complicated communication way of many people. A Dream of Red Mansions can take care of everyone on the whole, and it is difficult to distinguish people with similar identities and styles. Legend has it that Cao Xueqin is "good at talking, playing elegant games, touching the environment and giving birth to spring, and listening to his strange talk all day long tirelessly because his books are wonderful and incisive" (Qing? Yu Rui "jujube window idle pen"). Apart from hard training, this writer's language talent is amazing.
Fifth, expound the poetry and philosophy in A Dream of Red Mansions.
From the perspective of narrative literature, the story written in A Dream of Red Mansions is unremarkable and almost trivial, but it is so readable. This is largely because the writer's rich life feelings are integrated into it, and poetry and philosophy are hidden in the deep layer of the novel.
Open many chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions, such as reading music, burying flowers, flapping butterflies, painting flowers, getting drunk, begging for plums, painting sunny days, and even falling fans, grating heads, watching games and fighting grass. , can make people infected with a poetic feeling. How many poets and painters draw inspiration and themes from it. This is also a rare phenomenon in the history of literature. The poems in A Dream of Red Mansions are not limited to a considerable number of poems and rhymes, nor to some melodious fragments. It not only refers to the application of poetic ideas and techniques in novel creation, but also refers to the influence and infiltration of the writer's poetic temperament on the artistic quality of novels. Whether it is natural or life's spring, summer, autumn and winter, rain or shine, it seems to have a spirit and charm. The writer's joy, anger, sadness, joy, sadness and sorrow, bitterness and sorrow are always surging. Although the novel is not a lyric poem, it can be full of lyricism. Cao Xueqin's talent and accomplishment as a poet left a deep mark in A Dream of Red Mansions. China's lyrical literature with a long history nourishes the novel art of A Dream of Red Mansions.
It is not enough to have true feelings. A Dream of Red Mansions is the only one of China's classical novels that reaches philosophical depth. The most unbearable thing in traditional novel art is explicit preaching. Even some works containing excellent realistic content have never gone beyond the level of moral and ethical thinking, and have risen to the height of philosophical thinking on the value and purpose of life. Only A Dream of Red Mansions sublimates its thoughts to the philosophical level with its doubts about the rationality of reality, calm concern about the destination of life and persistent pursuit of the value of life. This kind of thinking and exploration naturally penetrates into the artistic whole of the work through the spiritual course of the characters, instead of stiffly piecing together external ideas and life images. This infiltration is of course reflected in the character fate and some warnings of the main characters in the book, and even in the artistic conception, plot arrangement and detailed description of the book, it is almost everywhere. The treatment of prosperity and decline, heat and cold, happiness and sadness, movement and quietness, gathering and dispersion in the book all runs through philosophical connotations such as prosperity and decline, extreme bliss and sadness, meditation, and sometimes accompanied by cold in heat and hidden sorrow in joy. The reading endurance of A Dream of Red Mansions is closely related to the philosophical thinking of deep texture.
There are still many commentators who have discussed the extensive and ingenious application of object features and metaphors in A Dream of Red Mansions, pointing out that the reason is not only that it is inconvenient to say that it is harmful to nature, but also related to the suspense of the novel and the metaphor of poetry. Generally speaking, the background of myth and fantasy experience have the function of concealment and foretelling; In short, eating cold fragrant pills and eating grapefruit for bergamot are all related to the character and fate. Lots of poems, riddles, wine lists, flower names, etc. , is the image portrayal of everyone's personality and destination, both appropriate and implicit. Even the names of characters are very particular, homophonic, moral, causal, seemingly random, but in fact there are many sustenance.
Sixth, many people are prepared, and art is integrated into one furnace.