This summer, when Cao Xueqin lived in Xiangshan and wrote A Dream of Red Mansions, I visited Cao Shi's former residence. Cao Xueqin's former residence has Jinshan in the east, Xiangshan reclining Buddha Temple in the north and Luxiangfeng in the west. It is surrounded by green trees and many places of interest in Beijing Botanical Garden. As early as August 1986, I visited the newly opened "Former Residence of Cao Xueqin". At that time, it was a large residential village in Xiangshan area. This village still uses the village name established in the Qing Dynasty: Zhengbaiqi. 197 1 year, the inscription was found in the old house of No.39 Zhengbaiqi, Xiangshan, Beijing. According to the investigation and textual research of "China Cao Xueqin Research Association" and A Dream of Red Mansions, it is preliminarily confirmed that this is Cao Xueqin's former residence when he wrote A Dream of Red Mansions, and the first Cao Xueqin memorial hall in China was established here. The museum officially opened in April, 1984, and the fans of Dream of Red Mansions have a sacred place to place their hopes and miss Cao Xueqin, a soul of china.
Now, strolling in Beijing Botanical Garden, Cao Xueqin's former residence has become the only relic of Zhengbaiqi Village in that year, and it has also become a scenic spot in Beijing Botanical Garden. Cao Xueqin's friends during the creation of A Dream of Red Mansions: Duncheng, Dunmin, Zhang Yiquan, etc. You can find the real scene here. Approaching the former residence, the first thing you see is a boulder lying in the middle of the path. The "Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall" inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong is engraved with gold-plated characters and shines in the sun. Behind the boulder, a small thatched rafter door in the Qing dynasty country style stands in the middle, with a small wooden plaque with the words "Huangye Village" hanging on it, which is antique and has a unique charm. At that time, Cao Xueqin lived a life of "choking in the cold winter and breaking the carpet in the snowy night". Duncheng wrote, "Don't beat the cymbals of diners, and don't knock on the doors of the rich. "The leftover cup is cold, so it is better to write a book called Huangye Village and encourage him to write a Dream of Red Mansions. Duncheng's poems left a reliable basis for the artistic conception of today's "Yellow Leaf Village"! This poem was strangled and lying on the ground in the path of "Huangye Village". The statue of Cao Weng stands in the bamboo forest in front of the village. With a slightly sad and thoughtful look, it seems that he is conceiving the plot of A Dream of Red Mansions, or is he telling that Cao Xueqin's living environment has plummeted from "prosperity and burning eyebrows" to the bottom of life, living in the western suburbs of poverty and desolation? Turning around the bamboo forest, three ancient pagodas came into view: two in the west, flourishing, like giant umbrellas supporting the sky, towering tall and straight; The one in the east is the legendary "crooked-necked ancient pagoda tree".
The ancient pagoda tree with crooked neck in front of the door,
Small bridge flowing wild celery hemp.
This is the scenery of Cao Weng's former residence mentioned in the folklore around Xiangshan, which has been strongly confirmed here.
Love makes pen and ink romantic and the western suburbs quiet.
The mountains and rivers outside the door are paintings, and the flowers and birds in front of the hall are songs.
Zhang Yiquan's violin creek lay man
The poems by Zhang Yiquan, Cao Xueqin's good friend, strongly prove the geographical location and talent of Cao Xueqin's former residence.
It was this small door when I first went there 25 years ago. The Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong is engraved on the wall on the left side of the small door. Scholars of A Dream of Red Mansions still carefully avoid the reliability and questioning debate of "former residence". Entering the courtyard gate and bypassing the screen wall, 12 The old house of the Qing Dynasty two or three hundred years ago appears in front of you. Seven are in the east and five are in the west. It is said that the "wind-resistant pavilion" where the poems on the wall were found is the study where Cao Xueqin wrote A Dream of Red Mansions. 1986 when I visited the former residence for the first time, I was lucky enough to enter the "wind-resistant pavilion" and felt the creative environment of Cao Xueqin's "Mao rafter rope bed tile changing furnace". The three old houses next to "Wind-resistant Xuan", that is, the place where Cao Weng lived in that year, collected some old-fashioned furniture of Qing Dynasty collected in Xishan area, including lying cabinets, carved fans, pier boxes, eight immortals kang tables, Qing Dynasty porcelain and so on. , showing people the living conditions of Manchu banners more than 200 years ago. The relic directly related to Cao Xueqin is a carved fan engraved with patterns such as "Three Friends in the Cold Year" and "Flying Clouds and Hundred Bats". "Hongyiyuan" in A Dream of Red Mansions is described in this way. Those old houses are full of stains and traces, recording the vicissitudes of history and the marks of hundreds of years of wind and rain. "The whole family eats porridge and drinks on credit", "Watching the Western Hills every day and eating until dusk" (Duncheng poem), the century-old house tells you the real situation of Cao Xueqin's poor life in his later years. Other rooms are exhibition rooms, with Cao Xueqin's life and creative environment in Xishan as the theme, including the great discoveries of Cao Xueqin's life experience in the past 200 years, Cao Xueqin's activities in this area, and the inspiration and influence of Xishan area on the creation of A Dream of Red Mansions. There are fragments of Xi Xuan's wall poems, books used by Cao Xueqin, and a double-hook copy of Cao Xueqin's manuscript "Collection of Waste Art Rooms" written for the disabled to make a living. These three cultural relics prove each other, especially the handwriting on them, which eloquently proves the authenticity and reliability of Cao Xueqin's former residence. The calligraphy works of Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin and the objects related to A Dream of Red Mansions are the important contents of the exhibition. A bronze bust of Cao Xueqin was placed in a conspicuous position in the exhibition room, and his deep and worried eyes seemed to be talking to visitors who had transcended time and space. ...
Behind the house of "Wind-resistant Xuan" is a spacious yard. Under the bamboo, a black bronze statue of Cao Xueqin stands in the courtyard. It seems that Cao Xueqin is preparing for writing, or is life forcing him to prepare for the door? This courtyard was expanded after the demolition of Zhengbaiqi village. Two rows of houses around display the achievements of studying A Dream of Red Mansions, activities related to A Dream of Red Mansions, and the silhouette of TV drama A Dream of Red Mansions actor Chen Sheng coming to the memorial hall.
For more than 20 years, Beijing Botanical Garden has planted pines, bamboos and various exotic flowers and grasses on the undulating hillside around Cao Weng's former residence. The former residence is among colorful trees, and the soul-like "crooked neck ancient locust" of Xueqin has witnessed the vicissitudes of life for more than 200 years.
Hundreds of meters away from the former residence, it is the Xiangshan Sleeping Buddha Temple. Xiangshan reclining Buddha Temple has also become a scenic spot in the Botanical Garden. The descriptions of temples in A Dream of Red Mansions all have the shadow of the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, including red walls, cypresses, pines and cypresses, yellow tiles, colonnades and ancient temples. Here you can find the prototype of the temple scenery description in the works. There is a cherry ditch on the right side of the reclining Buddha Temple, which is the place that the author often goes when he creates A Dream of Red Mansions. It is said that the "marriage between wood and stone" symbolizing Baodai's love in A Dream of Red Mansions was inspired by the scene of "pine on the stone" in the cherry ditch. Strolling through the Reclining Buddha Temple and Cherry Valley and looking for the trace of Cao Xueqin will make you feel deeply. ...
The Xiangshan area in Beijing has beautiful scenery and outstanding people. Cao Xueqin was both sad and angry. It is in this hot land that he gave birth to and contributed a wonderful literary work, A Dream of Red Mansions, to the Chinese nation and the world with unparalleled talent.
According to the research of Redology, Cao Xueqin left Jiangning Weaving Department, where she lived for 13 years, with her grandmother Li and her mother on February 24th in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), and left Nanjing in the following year to live in the Cao family's old house outside Chongwenmen, Beijing. It is full of the breath of the lower class, not only a distribution center for agricultural and sideline products, but also a gathering place for vendors, farmers, vagrants and beggars, street heroes and even monks and nuns. After experiencing great changes in life, Cao Xueqin felt that the world was cold and had a more sober and profound understanding of the darkness and decay of the feudal system. Cao Xueqin lived in this living environment for fifteen or sixteen years, and his experience and understanding of society and life have undergone profound changes compared with Jiangnan. During this period, Cao Xueqin spent two years managing the daily affairs of the school in the official school "Right-wing Zongxue" specially set up for royal children in Shihu Hutong, Xidan, Beijing, where he met two brothers, Dunmin and Duncheng, who were imperial children studying here. They had similar experiences with the Cao family, and the two brothers became Cao Xueqin's best confidants in his bumpy later life.