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 fierce battle between the feudal road and the rebels. Struggle is the main line of the plot, 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. It further pointed out that feudal society has reached the end of "the end of fortune and power" and is moving towards the historical trend of destruction.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" takes the upper-class aristocratic society as the center of the picture, and describes the ten characters very realistically and vividly. The whole life of China's feudal society in the late eighth century in the first half of the eighth 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.
Novel 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 the West Chamber, and Daiyu was buried with flowers. , Baochai flutters at butterflies, Qingwen mends her fur, Baoqin stands in the snow, Daiyu burns manuscripts, etc., which are also reflected in the character creation, such as Lin Daiyu's floating figure, poetic eyebrows, intelligent look, deep smile, touching Her sobs, refined taste, and unrestrained literary talent... all of these are cultivated by the author with the rich artistic quality of our country's excellent traditional culture, so that she always has a special charm full of poetry and painting among the twelve hairpins. , exuding the fragrance of oriental culture.
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 "Dream of Red Mansions" "can't be called virtuous, can't be called stupid, can't be called good, can't be called evil, can't be said to be upright, can't be called bastard and scoundrel, can't be called smart and talented, can't be called vulgar and ordinary", which makes people comment. Not only Jia Baoyu, but also Lin Daiyu This is so true for the protagonist who entrusts the author's personality, spirit and ideal beauty. Even a notorious figure like Wang Xifeng did not write her as "all bad", but intertwined some "hateful" elements. "Cute", thereby showing various contradictory and complex actual situations, forming a "charming reality" of the character.
The author is good at revealing the unusual aesthetic significance contained in seemingly ordinary artistic descriptions of daily life, and even some unwritten and unrecorded social habits and details. , there are specific and vivid descriptions in Dream of Red Mansions.