The first four poems in The Story of the Stone are: a piece of absurd words and a handful of bitter tears. Dou Yun's author is crazy, who can understand the taste?
A Dream of Red Mansions was written by Cao Xueqin and Gao Ai. Based on the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, this paper tells the story of four big families from glory to decline. It reflects the importance of phenomena and relations in China feudal society: one is glorious and the other is destructive.
The Story of the Stone, also known as A Dream of Red Mansions, is the first classical Four Great Classical Novels in China and a chapter-by-chapter novel by Cao Xueqin, a writer in Qing Dynasty. Only the first 80 manuscripts were circulated in the early period. Cheng Weiyuan collected the last 40 manuscripts and invited Gao E to coordinate the publication of all 120 manuscripts entitled A Dream of Red Mansions. There are also versions such as "Yu Jin Yuan" and "Zhi Yanzhai's Comment on Stone".
A Dream of Red Mansions is an earthly novel with world influence. It is recognized as the pinnacle of China's classical novels, an encyclopedia of feudal society in China and a master of traditional culture.
With the rise and fall of Jia, Wang, Shi and Xue as the background, the family affairs and leisure of Jia's family as the main line, and the love and marriage stories of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the main line, the novel describes the beauty and tragedy of the twelve women in Jinling, praises the rebels who pursue light, foresees the inevitable demise of feudal society through the tragic fate of the rebels, and reveals the desperate crisis of feudal society.
A Dream of Red Mansions has a preliminary democratic thought. He deeply criticized the real society, including the darkness of the court and officialdom, the decay of feudal nobles and their families, the feudal imperial examination system, marriage system, handmaiden system and hierarchy system, and the corresponding social ruling thoughts, namely, Confucianism and social morality of Confucius and Mencius, and put forward vague ideals and propositions with preliminary democratic nature. These ideals and concepts are the tortuous reflection of the budding factors of the growing capitalist economy at that time.
A Dream of Red Mansions encourages itself by "talking about love with great ambition and keeping a record of events", only follows its logic, gets rid of old habits, is fresh and unique, and has achieved extraordinary artistic achievements. In particular, the special brushwork of "the truth is hidden, and the village words are false" has aroused the strong curiosity and prying desire of later readers, and all kinds of speculations about marginal notes are becoming more and more bizarre.