I have long felt the connection between A Dream of Red Mansions and the cultural atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty. The late Ming Dynasty is a unique era in China's history. Its gold powder is flashy but weak inside. It is extremely indulgent but hypocritical. It is full of color and emptiness theory but satisfied with mediocre happiness. It complains about the irrationality of Neo-Confucianism but stifles the vitality of real people. This is another extremely feminine era, and its endless sadness and morbid attachment to history and reality is absurdly peaceful. Under the influence of this cultural atmosphere, firstly, Kunqu opera with the musical feature of "Shuimo Opera" was produced, and then, A Dream of Red Mansions was produced as the biography of "the first prostitute in the world in ancient and modern times".
the most important feature of the cultural atmosphere in the late Ming dynasty is "obscenity". Not only a large number of sex novels and erotic pictures are produced in the workshop, but also the music that best reflects the collective unconsciousness of the people is enough to support this conclusion. The music of the whole nation in the late Ming Dynasty was Kunqu opera, and Kunqu opera was a typical "lewd voice". Its exquisite beauty and brutal temperance in melody have reached the highest level of "obscenity": "psychosexuality". However, whether it is Kunqu Opera or A Dream of Red Mansions, their psychosexuality is not freedom, but indulgence. In the face of social tyranny and moral suffocation, they are powerless to change, and they can't change. They only indulge their own desires and sink in the indulgence of desire.
In the fifth episode of Dream of Red Mansions, the warning magic way says: "How many rich families in the world have romantic green windows and embroidered pavilions, all of which are disgraced by the slutty wan ku and the wandering women. What is even more hateful is that since ancient times, many frivolous prodigals have been decorated with' lewdness without lewdness' and committed crimes with' affection without lewdness', which are all decorated with words that do not cover up ugliness. Lust is lewd, and knowing is more lewd. Therefore, the meeting of Wushan, the joy of sex and rain, are all caused by both liking its color and falling in love with its feelings. The one I love you is the first prostitute in the world. " This passage is the foundation of A Dream of Red Mansions and the ultimate ideal to be expressed by the author. It is true that, from this passage alone, it can be said that there are still some humanistic ideas in A Dream of Red Mansions. However, what did Jia Baoyu, who was chosen by the police fairy, take to practice his ideal? This "good son" who is relaxed when he sees his daughter and feels foul and smelly when he sees a man, the ideal daughter country he hopes for is actually based on an extremely shameless mentality.
Jia Baoyu once used chivalrous language to praise women, but in the final analysis, his emphasis on women is just the externalization of extreme narcissism. He said that women are made of water, men are made of mud, and he naturally excluded himself. Seeing a woman who has no chance to sing opera with him at all, his pan-love doctrine has risen again. This so-called "young official painting is crazy and out of the office" is also true. After meeting Aron's two sisters-in-law, he was also obsessed with it:
Nai smiled and asked Aron, "Who are you wearing red today?" Aron said, "Those are my two sisters-in-law." Baoyu heard this and praised it twice. Aroma said, "Why sigh? I know what's in your heart. I think it's because he deserves red." Baoyu said with a smile, "No, it's not. Who dares to wear something that doesn't deserve to wear red? I wish he was in our house because I saw him really well.
It should be admitted that Jia Baoyu's idea is in line with the natural desire of human nature. However, should we also care about the natural desire of a man who relies on his father's father's father's shadow to humiliate a girl? Does his behavior produce sex beyond marriage or make women become slaves to their desire? Xiren had already seen it clearly:
Xiren sneered, "I'm a slave. Can't even my relatives be slaves? I have to choose a really good girl to come to your house."
Jia Baoyu is a node in the discourse power system of Jiafu. He doesn't have enough power to dissolve power and liberate himself and others, so his pursuit of women can only be reduced to handmaiden and concubine. Jia Baoyu has absolute power in the Grand View Garden. However, this power is not rooted in his own strength, not from his passionate impulse, and there is no greatness at all. Nietzsche believes that nobles have "greed for conquest and great love" (see Will to Power). Therefore, the noble love must be lasting but not exclusive. However, we can't infer from a person's "greed for love" that he is a nobleman. Jia Baoyu is different from other playboys only because he has established a theoretical system, which can provide a poetic explanation for the pseudo-aristocrats to play with women. Just as a modern intellectual and a gaudy woman pay more attention to the individual than to the society, and to human nature than to history, the distance between their lives is extremely far away-A Dream of Red Mansions is just a gaudy woman.
It must be pointed out that Jia Baoyu is not the only narcissist in A Dream of Red Mansions. The whole spirit of A Dream of Red Mansions is claustrophobic and narcissistic. The author specially set up a peach blossom garden "Grand View Garden" to escape from the secular world, content with self-deception and quiet feelings. Even Lin Daiyu, who is quite unique in A Dream of Red Mansions, let's see how moved she is by The Peony Pavilion:
"It turns out that all the flowers are blooming everywhere, so it seems that they are all given to the broken well." Lin Daiyu was very emotional when she heard this, so she stopped to listen carefully and sang, "What a beautiful day it is, who will be happy?" After listening to these two sentences, I nodded and sighed, thinking to myself, "It turns out that there are good articles in the play, but it's a pity that the world only knows how to watch the play, and may not be able to appreciate the fun." ..... Just listen to sing: "It's as beautiful as a flower for you as soon as possible, like water passing by ..." Lin Daiyu was moved by these two sentences. When I heard the words "You feel sorry for yourself in the secluded boudoir", I was so intoxicated that I couldn't stand, so I squatted down on a mountain stone and chewed the taste of the words "as beautiful as a flower, as fleeting as water". Suddenly, I remembered that there was a sentence in the poem of the ancients the day before yesterday, and there was another sentence in the poem, "Flowing water fades away in spring, and it's heaven and earth", and the sentence "Flowing water is red and carefree" in The West Chamber I just saw, all of which came to my mind for a moment and got together. After careful consideration, I feel heartache and tears in my eyes.
The extreme narcissism of the characters in the book is actually mostly due to the author's extreme inferiority complex. Because what he relies on to become a noble consciously is only the position and money in his family, and he has no strong vitality enough to support himself, so he has to feel sorry for himself.
It should be admitted that A Dream of Red Mansions has made some progress in resisting the feudal morality. So far, no force has harmed people's spirit more than feudal morality. Because the essence of morality is to deny life and people's natural desires. For the revaluation of all values, we should first start with morality. This is what is worthy of recognition in A Dream of Red Mansions. The resistance of A Dream of Red Mansions to morality is not only manifested in the rejection of secular morality such as "everything is well known and everything is learned, but also in the escape of utilitarian morality such as" learning written martial arts, goods and emperors ".More importantly, it resists the whole moral system by flaunting" obscenity ". This cannot but be attributed to the influence of the cultural atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty on A Dream of Red Mansions.
There have been four periods of personality liberation in the history of China, the first was the pre-Qin, the second was the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the third was the late Ming Dynasty, and the fourth was the May 4th Movement. The liberation of personality in the late Ming Dynasty is the most unique and sad. Its liberation does not depend on strong academic support, nor on the brilliance of the vitality of heroic groups, but on the spontaneous demands of the rising citizen class. This liberation has no tragedy, no loftiness, only weak narcissism and indulgent indulgence. A Dream of Red Mansions regards this unproductive revolution as a dream, cherishes it and regrets it, and has won so much sympathy in the past 3 years, which shows how much China traditional culture needs a philosophy of advocating strength to supplement it. (