Liu Mengxi, a famous scholar, once pointed out that the title of A Dream of Red Mansions is still a mystery. He said in the second part of chapter 8 of A Dream of Red Mansions and One Hundred Years in China: The third mystery is that before the first publication of A Dream of Red Mansions, when explaining the origin of the story, four titles were listed, and each name was listed. Why does the author list four titles at a time? Which title does the author prefer? People who study A Dream of Red Mansions want to find out. However, although many articles have been published in this field, they are far from knowledgeable. It can be said that the theoretical basis of this series of titles has not been fully understood so far.
For the first time in A Dream of Red Mansions, the author once said four titles in Zhen's "Psychics in Dreams" and "coquettish Family". The following are the four titles and their paragraphs in turn:
1, "Stone"-this is the first time to open the book. The author says: After experiencing some dreams, he concealed the truth, so he wrote this "Stone Story" with "Psychism": "A book is also. Therefore, it is called "true Yin Shi".
2, "Love Monk Record"-Zhen dreamily realized that he had a romantic life for the first time. After hearing this, he thought for a long time, and revisited the Story of the Stone, because he saw that although there were some words accusing rape and condemning evil, this was not the purpose of cursing the world when he was hurt. Even when you were a benevolent minister, you were a good father and a dutiful son. Because it didn't interfere with the times, Fang copied it from beginning to end and the legend came out. Since then, the empty Taoist priest has changed his name to Love Monk because he sees color from color and transmits color from color to color, and changed The Story of the Stone to Love Monk Record.
3. "A romantic mirror"-Meixi, Donglukong titled "A romantic mirror".
4. Twelve Women in Jinling-Later, Cao Xueqin read in Mourning the Hongxuan for ten years, added and deleted it five times, compiled it into a catalogue and divided it into chapters, so it was named Twelve Women in Jinling.
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In addition to the above four titles, there is also a title "Dream of Red Mansions" printed on the cover of the book you have seen so far. In the wedge of Jiaxuben, the title of this book is mentioned, that is, there is a sentence "Give Wu Yufeng a Dream of Red Mansions".
Some people say that the name of A Dream of Red Mansions, whether called Stone, A Dream of Red Mansions or other titles, has no influence on the important value and historical position of A Dream of Red Mansions. Indifference disagrees with this view. The title of a book is a high-level summary of the theme of the article, the eye and the soul of the book. There is no best, only better, so one of the five titles must be the most suitable. As far as these five topics are concerned, I am inclined to Dream of Red Mansions like most people. In my opinion, in the previous theme, the story of the stone is the self-explanation of the recorded stone; Yue Feng Bao Jian refrains from inciting romantic feelings; "Love Monks" refers to Baoyu's lover becoming a monk; Jinyuyuan records the marriage between Jinsuo and Baoyu. Twelve Women in Jinling refers to the story of twelve heroines in the book. Generally speaking, it's too realistic, with no artistic conception at all, which is not the author's writing style at all. Only the fifth time of A Dream of Red Mansions can be enjoyed infinitely. JOE said in this ordinary example that the theme of A Dream of Red Mansions is that there are many titles, and A Dream of Red Mansions is the general name. Indifferently, this empty finger is enough to accommodate other real fingers, and it also adds a bit of charm. The specific reasons are as follows:
First of all, explain the meaning of "red chamber". In ancient times, red represented "daughter", that is, female; The building is a boudoir mansion; The red chamber refers to a woman who lives in a boudoir, especially the wife of an official family. There is a criticism: "The so-called' good educated youth buried bones are people who hide their faces in the red chamber' is also true. The author is so bitter. " Jia Baoyu's fifth dreamland in the novel is the clue of the whole Dream of Red Mansions. The fifth time, "Sleepwalking in Dreamland refers to twelve women, drinking fairy mash and playing a dream of red mansions" wrote:
When Baoyu saw that it was a fairy, the fairy smiled and said, "Come on. & lt A Dream of Red Mansions; Twelve immortals song. Would you like to go with me? Then, twelve more people came to Baoyu's wine room. "。 What lyrics and songs do you want to play? Warning Magic Road: "Just make a new system & gt performed 12 times. The dancers agreed, so they knocked on sandalwood, pressed Silver, and listened to his song: Open the HarmonyOS System ... Square Song, and the policeman said, "This song is not a legendary song of the whole world, but it will eventually have a lifelong network, and it is also limited by the nine palaces in the north and south." This person, or a sentimental thing, will occasionally become a song. If you are not a middleman, you don't know the secret. I'm not familiar with this piece of music. "It's like chewing wax to listen to its songs without reading the manuscript first." After that, I asked Meidochan to come with the> manuscript and give it to Baoyu. Baoyu took it, looked at it and listened to its song:
& lt& lt〈 Introduction to A Dream of Red Mansions & gt Open the HarmonyOS system, who is the lover? It's all about romantic feelings Take this day, when you are sad and lonely, try to send away your ignorance. So, in the end, execute this & gt. This chapter mentions A Dream of Red Mansions many times, which is a high summary of the author's central idea and main content. It is understandable that the novel chooses this topic indifferently.
Second, red chamber and Zhu chamber are synonyms. In ancient times, "Red Mansion" refers to the gorgeous buildings where women of rich and powerful families live. For example, there is a saying in Bai Juyi's "Qin Zhongyin's Proposal" that "a rich girl in a red chamber is embroidered with gold thread". Du Fu is known as "the wine in Zhumen stinks and the road freezes the bones". Literally, the red chamber, that is, Zhumen, is synonymous with wealthy families, and the author borrowed this word from the book.
In addition, the author also used a lot of space to tell a story about "Zhu Lou Meng last night"! In the fifty-second chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, "Qiao Pinger covers his shrimp bracelet, and Yongqing Wen supplements his gold fur when he is ill." Bao Qin said with a smile, "When I was eight years old, I went to the West Sea with my father to buy foreign goods, but there was a real girl who was only fifteen years old, and her face was like the beauty in that western painting, and she could write China poems." Bao Qin read aloud:
Zhu Loumeng last night, singing in the water town tonight.
Island clouds steam the sea, and misty clouds meet the jungle.
There is no such thing as the moon, and love goes from shallow to deep.
Han Nan's spring is vivid in his mind, so he doesn't care.
Hearing this, all the people said, "It's hard for him! Better than us in China. " Zhu Loumeng last night, singing in the water town tonight. Here, Qin Xue boldly expressed his feelings with the help of a foreign girl! Zhu was the national surname of the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, the five elements belonged to water, and the name of the country came from the word "water", so it was changed to "water country". The meaning of the whole sentence is easy to see. "The rule of the Ming dynasty has passed, and people are empty, just like a dream. What greeted us today was a kingdom established by the Qing Dynasty, which declared that the world belonged to it. 」
Third, red chamber and brothel are antonyms. The original meaning of "brothel" is a building decorated with blue paint, usually a gorgeous house. Mainly refers to the residence of the emperor, sometimes as a synonym for wealthy families. . During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhiyou wrote a poem: "Brothel is short cut, but the high gate is closed." Brothel was used in Taiping Yu Lan, Jin Shu and many poems in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, because gorgeous houses are associated with gorgeous and luxurious life, unconsciously, the meaning of brothels has been biased and it has begun to be associated with prostitutes. After the Tang Dynasty, the meaning of partial reference came from behind, and brothel became the special reference of the place of fireworks. Compared with the words of Pingkang, Beili, Xingyuan and Zhangtai, they are just a little more vivid and elegant. The earliest name of a brothel comes from the poem "Picking Mulberry on Wanshan Mountain" written by Liu Miao of Nanliang, which contains the content that "prostitutes are too worried to leave brothels". And Du Mu's "dream of Yangzhou for ten years, win the reputation of brothel" is even more popular.
It can be seen that in the era when the author wrote this book, although the ancient meaning of brothel has been replaced by the meaning at that time, because of this, the author literally changed the color from blue to red, implying the ancient meaning of brothel, that is, the palace, that is, the feudal dynasty. A Dream of Red Mansions refers to the dream of a dynasty, which, after all, has a profound empty meaning.
Fourth, it is also the most important point that the author thinks, and it is also a point that others have not put forward. Indifferently, although the time when the story happened is never stated in the works, we can infer from the plot that it was either written in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties or written by the author mixing the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but it will never be written by other dynasties. However, as we all know, the capitals of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were the Forbidden City, which is now the Forbidden City. The overall architectural tone of the Forbidden City is red. That is to say, although the author clearly wrote the fate of women in the red chamber, in fact, the author alluded to the historical fate of the feudal dynasty at that time.
In fact, the author uses a lot of argots throughout, just to avoid the words of the times. For example, there are many people's most familiar names, and everyone knows that indifference is not listed. Indifferent, judging from the title, the author also used this technique. In a word, the author only put forward the concept of "Dream of Red Mansions" in the book, but didn't take it as the topic at first, just to "hide people's eyes and ears and borrow the theory of channeling". However, the author's good intentions were finally understood by later generations, and finally the title of A Dream of Red Mansions that the author wanted to use but was useless was generalized. I thought that if the author had knowledge underground, he would be satisfied in the grave.