Reading notes for the first ten chapters of Dream of Red Mansions
Chapter 1
When Nuwa was smelting stones to mend the sky, there was only one stone left. Use it and abandon it at the foot of Qinggeng Peak on Wuji Cliff in Dahuang Mountain. This stone has become spiritual, it can be as big or small as you want, and it can come and go at will. It is often sad and self-pitying because it is not chosen to mend the sky. The monk Mang Mang and the Taoist priest Miaomiao saw its cuteness, so they took it with them to a prosperous country, a family of poems, rituals and hairpins, a prosperous place of flowers and willows, and a land of wealth and gentleness. I don't know how long later, Taoist Kongkong passed by this place and saw his experience engraved on the stone. He copied it from beginning to end and gave it to Cao Xueqin to read over, add or delete, and separate chapters. The following is what is carved on the stone. There is a Gourd Temple outside Changmen in Gusu. The local official Zhen Shi lived in seclusion next to the temple. He took pity on the poor scholar Jia Yucun who lived in the temple and gave him money to take the exam. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Zhen's daughter Yinglian was kidnapped; soon after, a fire broke out in the Calabash Temple; Zhen's house was burned down again. Zhen took his wife to seek refuge with his father-in-law, but was looked down upon and became a monk with a lame Taoist priest.
Jia Yu was a Jinshi in the village and served as county magistrate. He was dismissed for being greedy for money and went to the Yanzheng Lin Ruhai family to teach Lin Daiyu, Lin's daughter, to study. Revolutionary personnel returned to the capital. Jiayu Village asked Lin Ruhai to ask for help from the Rongguo Mansion of the Yue Family: Lin's mother-in-law, Jia Mu, lost her mother because of Daiyu and wanted to take Daiyu to her. Lin then asked Jia Yucun to send Daiyu to Beijing. Jiayu Village and Rongguofu joint clan. With the help of Lin Ruhai's brother Jia Zheng, he was appointed to Jinling Yingtian Mansion.
When Daiyu entered the Rongguo Mansion, in addition to her grandmother, she also met her eldest aunt, Mrs. Wang Xifeng, the wife of Jia She's son Jia Lian, and Jia Baoyu, who was born to welcome spring, Tanchun, Xichun and jade. When Baoyu and Dai met for the first time, they felt like they had known each other. However, Baoyu smashed his psychic jade when he saw his cousin Daiyu, who was as beautiful as a fairy, causing an unhappiness. Jia Yucun tried the case in Yingtian Mansion, and Yinglian was abducted. The buyer is Xue Pan, the son of Mrs. Wang’s sister Aunt Xue from the Huangshang family. Although Xue Pan beat the original buyer to death in order to fight for Yinglian, Jia Yucun arbitrarily judged the case and let Xue Pan go. Xue Pan, his mother and sister Xue Baochai also went to live in Rongguo Mansion.
The plum blossoms in Ningguo Mansion were in full bloom, and Jia Zhen’s wife, Youshi, invited Jia Mu and others to enjoy them. Jia Baoyu took a nap and lived in the bedroom of Jia Zhen's daughter-in-law Qin Keqing. He sleepwalked in the illusion of Taixu. He saw the "Twelve Hairpins of Jinling" album, listened to the performance of "A Dream of Red Mansions" and had sex with the fairy Keqing Yunyu. When he woke up, he was attacked by the maid due to a wet dream. People discovered that the two had a relationship. Wang Gou'er, a descendant of a Beijing official, has been reduced to farming in the countryside. Because his ancestors once joined Mrs. Wang and Sister Feng's natal family, he asked his mother-in-law, Grandma Liu, to go to Rongguo Mansion to find Mrs. Wang to catch the autumn wind. Wang Xifeng received him and gave him twenty taels of silver. Xue Baochai once received a golden lock from a leprosy-headed monk to cure his illness, and he has been wearing it ever since. Daiyu tabooed the idea of ??a good match between gold and jade, and often secretly ridiculed Baochai and warned Baoyu. Jia Zhen's father, Jia Jing, gave up his secular career and left home to seek immortality and learn Taoism. On his birthday, Jia Zhen held a banquet at home to celebrate. Because Lin Ruhai was ill, Jia Lian took Daiyu to Suzhou. His younger brother Jia Rui molested Sister Feng and was teased to death by Sister Feng.
When Qin Keqing died of illness, Jia Zhen indulged in luxury. Not only did she choose high-quality things, but she also spent thousands of taels of silver to donate dragon ban to her son so that the funeral could be beautiful. On the way to the funeral, Sister Feng coveted three thousand taels of silver to break up her lover, causing a young man and woman to commit suicide out of hatred.
After Lin Ruhai died, Daiyu had to live in Rong Mansion. A desolate feeling of being dependent on others enveloped her, she often cried secretly, and her body became even sicker.
Jia Zheng’s eldest daughter Yuan Chun was canonized as a concubine, and the emperor granted permission to visit the bride. In order to welcome this grand ceremony, the Rongguo Mansion built an extremely luxurious Grand View Garden, and hired female actresses, nuns, and Taoist priests. Miaoyu, who was born in a noble family and became a Buddhist monk due to illness, also entered the Rongguo Mansion. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Yuanchun went back to her parents' house for a while and asked Baoyu and her sisters to submit poems. Daiyu wanted to show off her talent, but was ordered to compose only one song. Xiren said angrily that he wanted to leave Baoyu. Baoyu, who was deeply regretful, begged Xiren not to leave. Xiren took the opportunity to persuade Baoyu to study and do business. Baoyu and Daiyu were childhood sweethearts, and their love was endless. And because of Xue Baochai or other trivial matters. The two often quarreled, and their emotions deepened as they continued to quarrel.
Baochai was singing an opera on his birthday, and Xiaodan looked like Daiyu. Shi Xiangyun, the granddaughter of Jia Mu’s natal family, quickly said that Baoyu was afraid that Daiyu would be angry and would stop her. As a result, both of them were angry with Baoyu. Yuanchun was afraid that the Grand View Garden would be idle. Then he let Baoyu and the sisters move in. After entering the garden, Baoyu hung out with these girls all day long; the book boy stole books such as "The Romance of the West Chamber" into the garden, and Baoyu and Daiyu admired them together. This is a classic.
Chapter 2
Only after reading "A Dream of Red Mansions" recently did I understand its beauty.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" is based on the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue, and revolves around the life path of Jia Baoyu, who is related to the family interests of the Jia family. A battle between the feudal road and the rebels. Fierce struggle is the main plot line, with the tragedy of the rebel pair Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu as the main content. Through the vivid description of the decline of the feudal family represented by the Jia family, it profoundly exposes and criticizes the darkness and decadence of feudal society. , further pointed out that feudal society has reached the end of "the end of fortune and power" and is heading towards the historical trend of destruction.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" takes the upper-class aristocratic society as the central picture, and extremely realistically and vividly describes the entire life of China's late feudal society in the first half of the 18th century. The book is grand in scale, rigorous in structure, vivid in characters, and beautiful in language. In addition, it also has some obvious artistic features, which are worthy of taste and appreciation by future generations. The author makes full use of all the excellent traditional techniques of our country's calligraphy, painting, poetry, poetry, music and other types of literature and art to show a tragedy of social life. For example, Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu read to the west chamber, Daiyu buried flowers, Baochai fluttered at butterflies, Qingwen patched her fur, Baoqin stood in the snow, Daiyu burned manuscripts, etc., which are also reflected in the character creation, such as Lin Daiyu's floating The figure, the poetic eyebrows, the intelligent look, the thoughtful smile, the moving sobs, the refined taste, the unrestrained literary talent? All of these were cultivated by the author with the rich artistic quality of our country's excellent traditional culture, thus making her There is always a special charm full of poetry and painting in the fragrance of the twelve hairpins, and the fragrance of oriental culture is floating around.
Cao Xueqin truly reproduces the complexity of the characters in "A Dream of Red Mansions", making us read as if the characters in the work are as real and credible as the characters in life. Jia Baoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions" is "indescribable" A wise man cannot be said to be foolish, he cannot be said to be good, he cannot be said to be evil, he cannot be said to be upright, he cannot be said to be a bastard, he cannot be said to be a bastard, he cannot be said to be smart and talented, and he cannot be said to be mediocre and ordinary." It makes people comment. Not only Jia Baoyu but also Lin Daiyu, the protagonists who entrusted the author's personality, spirit and ideal beauty, are like this. Even a notorious figure like Wang Xifeng did not write her as "all bad", but as "hateful". There is some "cuteness" intertwined in it, thus showing various contradictory and complex actual situations, forming a "charming reality" of the character.
The author is good at expressing the art of daily life through those seemingly ordinary things. The description reveals the unusual aesthetic significance it contains, and even some unwritten and unrecorded social habits and details are concretely and vividly described in Dream of Red Mansions.
The outstanding achievements of "A Dream of Red Mansions" in terms of ideological content and artistic skills have not only become "the unconquerable pinnacle of Chinese novel literature" domestically. It has also been valued and studied by scholars from many countries internationally. French critics praised: "Cao Xueqin has Proust's keen vision, Tolstoy's sympathy, Musset's intelligence and humor, and Balzac's insight and reproduction of the top-to-bottom aspects of the entire society. Ability. ?