"The banquet is opened with tortoise shells and the mattresses are decorated with hibiscus" means: the preciousness and splendor of the banquet and the splendor and luxury of the hibiscus tent.
hawksbill turtle: reptile, turtle family, an auspicious and precious animal. It means the banquet is luxurious.
Hibiscus: refers to a tent made of silk dyed with hibiscus flowers, and generally refers to a gorgeous tent. It shows that it is very luxurious and extravagant.
These two sentences originate from Li Bai's "Dairing of Wine" in the Tang Dynasty: "In the tortoise-shell banquet, I am drunk in my arms, but there is nothing in the hibiscus tent."
Translation: At the luxurious banquet, You fall into my arms and your eyes are dancing with drunkenness. What can I do to you in the hibiscus tent?
Chapter 62 of "Dream of Red Mansions" by Cao Xueqin of the Qing Dynasty: As soon as he entered the garden, several maids came to him and went to the red fragrance garden together. I saw a tortoiseshell banquet and hibiscus mattresses. Everyone laughed and said, "The birthday boy is all here." The four seats above insisted that four of him sit on them, but four of them refused.
Extended information
"A Dream of Red Mansions", also known as "The Story of the Stone", is listed as the first of the four classic Chinese classics. The novel takes the rise and fall of the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue as the background, and takes the wealthy young master Jia Baoyu as the perspective. It depicts the various life styles of a group of boudoir beauties who behave and know better than men, and shows the true beauty and harmony of human nature. Tragic beauty can be said to be an epic that shows female beauty from all angles.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" comprehensively and profoundly reflects the characteristics of the era of prosperity and decline of feudal society. What it describes is not a love story with "flowers and candles in the bridal chamber and titles on the gold medal list"; it describes the love and marriage tragedy between feudal aristocratic young men Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai.
The great social significance of the novel is that it does not describe this love tragedy in isolation, but takes this love and marriage tragedy as the center and writes about the representative characters of Jia, Wang, Shi and Xue at that time. The rise and fall of four major families.
With the Jia family as the center, it reveals all the darkness and evil in the late feudal society, as well as its insurmountable internal contradictions, and makes a powerful statement against the decadent feudal ruling class and the impending collapse of the feudal system. Criticism makes readers have a premonition that it will inevitably lead to destruction. At the same time, the novel also expresses new hazy ideals by praising aristocratic rebels.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" is a human love novel with world influence. It is universally recognized as the pinnacle of Chinese classical novels, an encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society, and a master of traditional culture.
In the process of the development of Chinese literature, the outstanding realist creative achievements of "A Dream of Red Mansions" have provided rich artistic experience to future generations of writers. Until modern Chinese literature, there are also obvious influences from "A Dream of Red Mansions" and have achieved A work of definite achievement. There have been countless poems, lyrics, operas, novels, and movies based on the theme of "Dream of Red Mansions".
For two hundred years, the research on "A Dream of Red Mansions" has been uninterrupted, and a large number of research works have been produced, which has become a specialized knowledge - "Redology", which is a rare phenomenon in the history of Chinese literature. .
Baidu Encyclopedia--Dream of Red Mansions