First of all, Wang Guowei put forward the literary values, which are quite special. He was obviously influenced by Schopenhauer's philosophy. He said that the task of literature and art is to describe the pain and relief of life. Wang Guowei said in A Dream of Red Mansions that the task of art is to describe the pain of life and its relief. The purpose of all these fine arts is to help the abundant believers to fight against the bound world and gain temporary peace from this desire for life. He put forward a special concept of literary value. There are two meanings here. Firstly, Wang Guowei's understanding of the essence of life; The second is the understanding of literary value.
He was influenced by Schopenhauer and China's traditional outlook on life. He believes that the essence of human life is desire, and the characteristic of desire is insatiable greed. Once the desire is not satisfied, it will cause pain. Because the desire is not satisfied, the pain is born.
In Wang Guowei's Review of A Dream of Red Mansions. What is the essence of life? It's just that desire is insatiable, but it's congenital deficiency. A state of inadequacy is also painful. According to an experience in our daily life, we can probably appreciate the significance of understanding Wang Guowei. In our daily life, there are always many desires and ideas, but in real life, our desires cannot be realized because they cannot be realized, which is a kind of pain. One of the reasons for this kind of pain is that the desire is not satisfied, but in fact, some small desires can still be realized. Only when one desire is realized, new desires will arise. Then new wishes keep coming, and if they are not satisfied, they will also bring constant pain. How can we get happiness in life? Wang Guowei said that to get rid of this kind of pain, we must work hard and work hard. Hard work is also considered as a kind of pain by most of us.
If a real person's desire is not satisfied, theoretically speaking, if a person's desire is truly satisfied, will he be happy in the future? Actually, it is not. Because once all human desires are satisfied, there will be no new desires, and there will be a sense of boredom. Boredom itself is a kind of pain. So Wang Guowei also said that desire is only one with life and pain. This is Wang Guowei's outlook on life. Then he used this outlook on life to care for A Dream of Red Mansions, so Wang Guowei gained a different understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions.
Let's see how Wang Guowei understands life. Wang Guowei's view of life pain comes directly from Schopenhauer's point of view. At the same time, it also has the roots of China's traditional thought. Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching that I have a big patient because I have a body and I don't have a body. What's my problem? At that time, it was said that since people came into this world, life has been painful. Pain will accompany us. Only when we leave this world will we have no pain.
Zhuangzi also made a more in-depth analysis of the pain of life in The Theory of Everything. Living in this world, in order to survive, will have conflicts with others. This man's life is in conflict with others. Does Wang Guowei think this kind of life is a bit sad? In order to survive, when we are busy all day and have no sense of accomplishment, we are exhausted and can't find a home. Do you think it is cute? Besides, with the passage of time, people will surely get older day by day. Not only will our bodies grow old, but our hearts will also grow old. In Zhuangzi's view, this is probably the biggest kind of sorrow.
Wang Guowei's seemingly negative outlook on life in A Dream of Red Mansions mainly comes from two aspects. One is the western philosophy of life; The other is China's traditional Taoist philosophy of life. Take care of this dream of red mansions with this outlook on life. Yes, unlike most of us, Wang Guowei saw something different in A Dream of Red Mansions. Represented by two figures, one is the image of Wang Xifeng, a strong woman in Grand View Garden. In Wang Guowei's view, Wang Xifeng is a typical representative of life. It can be seen that Wang Xifeng is competitive, playing politics, grasping both money and power, and has a strong greed for power. Although it was brilliant for several years, it was too smart to finally enter an organization, which led to the tragic end of your life.
Then let's look at the "cleverness and tiredness" in the twelfth tune of the fifth cycle of A Dream of Red Mansions, which is actually a portrayal of Wang Xifeng's image and his destination.
Among the many female images in A Dream of Red Mansions, for example, the twelve female Wang Xifeng is a smart person. She can manage a grand view garden with a large population in Nuoda very quickly and properly. It's her cleverness. But cleverness is mistaken by cleverness. Finally, he sent away his life. Finally, life passed like a dream.
The image of Jia Baoyu. Jia Baoyu has a piece of jade in his name. In Wang Guowei's view, the word "jade" just shows that the concept of life influenced by Schopenhauer's philosophy is desire. Life is hard to fill, so it is hard to avoid suffering. We look very coincidental and a little far-fetched. But Jia Baoyu's "jade" is indeed an important image in the whole Dream of Red Mansions.
Wang Meng, a famous contemporary scholar and writer, made such an accurate analysis of the relationship between Jia Baoyu and the inseparable psychic Baoyu in On Jia Baoyu. He said that the psychic Baoyu and Baoyu entered the world of mortals Grand View Garden at the same time. It has become the consistent prop of the novel A Dream of Red Mansions, especially the story of Jia Baoyu. A specific plot factor is a hint, a mysterious transcendence, a sign of blindness and no solution, and a lot has been written around Jia Baoyu. Showing jade, throwing jade, looking for jade, giving jade and getting jade are written in many chapters of the book, which is closely related to Baoyu's love, health and family. So we can say that this jade is an important clue that runs through the history of A Dream of Red Mansions. However, in Wang Guowei's view, this jade is only the representative of the jade of life. This explanation seems very coincidental and far-fetched, but Wang Guowei himself holds such an attitude towards life.
How did Jia Baoyu get the jade? Cao Xueqin pointed out the origin of Baoyu at the beginning of A Dream of Red Mansions. He said it was a piece left by the goddess of mending heaven when she practiced stone. The important content of China's creation myth. Legend has it that one day in ancient times, heaven and earth split, and my aunt refined many stones to make up the sky. In the barren hills and cliffs, the total * * * got 3650 1 stone, while in the goddess mending the sky, 36500 stones were used, and the remaining one was useless and was thrown at the foot of Geng Qingfeng. However, this stone cast by Nu Wa gained spirituality. It comes from itself, but it can be big or small. This enlightenment stone is useful for other stones, but it has not been selected. So I feel like a useless stone. This stone came to the world through the birth of Baoyu. Came to the Grand View Garden. Through such a myth that a goddess fills the sky, Wang Guowei believes that the jade he said was not used by The goddess patching the sky, but became a spiritual treasure. I don't know how long it took, but Jia Baoyu came to earth.
He means that the desire to live is accompanied, in fact, before your life comes. And our existing life is just the discoverer of desire in life. Each of our lives embodies the so-called Schopenhauer's philosophy of life. He said that people's desires are innate, innate. Then the pain is natural. Then this is Wang Guowei's outlook on life on Schopenhauer's thought. So, in fact, let him make a special analysis of Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions. From the images of Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu, we can see that Wang Guowei believes that A Dream of Red Mansions is a book that embodies Schopenhauer's philosophical thoughts in a certain sense. It can be seen that scholars in Wang Guowei's era were greatly influenced by western philosophy. It is different from China's traditional literary works.
As a reaction to life, literature and art should reflect the pain of life. Literature and art have special value. In addition to reflecting the pain of life, he can also put forward unique artistic value in the direction and method of relieving pain in our painful life. He believes that the value of art lies in that it can relieve people's suffering. Therefore, through the analysis of A Dream of Red Mansions, he said that A Dream of Red Mansions not only raised this problem, but also solved it. The essence of this kind of life is pain, because the pain is caused by ourselves, and the way to get rid of it is also caused by ourselves, so we have to ask for it ourselves. He who tied the bell must untie the bell. But in real life, I'm afraid most of us can't do it. Only extraordinary people can gain insight into the world and the nature of life. At the same time, it also points out the ways to relieve the pain.
In the Review of A Dream of Red Mansions, she pointed out the solution through the analysis of Jia Baoyu. And the ultimate destination of life is actually pointing out a way to solve the pain. Is to be born
There are many ways to get rid of the pain of life. Wang Guowei said that sometimes we can become monks; Sometimes by suicide. However, when Wang Guowei analyzed many characters in A Dream of Red Mansions, suicide methods, such as throwing himself into a well, thinking strangely against a wall, visiting Third Sister and Pan Youan, were not the best way to get rid of it. The best way for Wang Guowei to run away from home is to be influenced by Buddhist thought here. There are three images in A Dream of Red Mansions that best represent Wang Guowei's point of view, namely Jia Baoyu and Chunhe.
Wang Guowei has always opposed suicide. He thinks this method is not appropriate. Not only in A Dream of Red Mansions, but also in my own brief talk on education, I also expressed my opposition to this suicide way to understand the pain of life.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu ended up as a monk who started in A Dream of Red Mansions. This is how the plot of A Dream of Red Mansions is written. Finally, it was written that Jia Baoyu, bareheaded and barefoot, wore a cloak of orangutan felt, made four obeisances to his old father and was taken away by a monk. Finally, as can be seen from his portrait, he became a monk.
This is the end of Jia Baoyu. In fact, the first eighty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions before this ending have many hints about this ending. For example, the thirtieth time, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu quarreled, and Lin Daiyu said that I would go home. Baoyu pestered her and said, I'll accompany you when you go home. Lin Daiyu simply said I was dead. Baoyu said, if you do it, I will become a monk. This is very consistent with the ending of writing Jia Baoyu back 120 back. In episode 31, Jia Baoyu also said that he would become a monk. Actually, this sentence can be said to be unfortunate. Finally Jia Baoyu really became a monk. In Wang Guowei's view, this is the best way to get rid of the pain of life. This is the destination of Jia Baoyu's image.
In addition to Jia Baoyu, the fifth time, Cao Xueqin wrote that he who sees through escaped into an empty net and lost his life in vain. He who sees through the world of mortals will also escape into an empty net. Finally, Xichun's judgment was written like this. There is a picture of an ancient temple, in which a beautiful woman sits alone and looks at Buddhist scriptures. There are four sentences of fate in the picture. It can be seen that spring is not long He said that spring is beautiful, but it is short-lived. I changed my old clothes after a meal. Qichun, as the precious daughter of the Jia family, lived a very prosperous life, but one of the clothes she wore afterwards was that of a monk who became a monk. The description of clothing also hints at the future destination of Qichun, a poor embroidery woman who lives alone beside the ancient Buddha in Deng Qing. Finally, Qicun, as the noble daughter of Grand View Garden, became a nun. In Wang Guowei's view, such a destination is the best destination in life. Is to escape into an empty door and see through the world of mortals. This is a kind of literary value put forward by Wang Guowei in the Review of A Dream of Red Mansions. It not only describes the essence of life, but also points out the way out, which is an important content in A Dream of Red Mansions Review.
Wang Guowei put forward the pain of life and the solution in the Review of A Dream of Red Mansions. In addition, in A Dream of Red Mansions, he also put forward the tragic viewpoint. Wang Guowei was influenced by Schopenhauer's thought. He believes that tragedy is one of the most aesthetic categories. His poetry is the pinnacle of all kinds of art, and tragedy is the pinnacle of poetry. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Wang Guowei thinks that China's literature and art show the spirit of our nation. He said that the spirit of our country is also optimistic. Therefore, it represents its spirit. Everything is inseparable from this happy color, which begins with the last enjoyment of sadness, the last end of parting and the last enjoyment of sleepiness. In Wang Guowei's era, China's ancient opera novels were influenced by western literary concepts and began to attract people's attention. In China's traditional literary concept, novels are at the end of the nine schools in the pre-Qin period and are at a disadvantage. Although the concept of novel at that time was fundamentally different from that of China traditional opera novel as a style, it had a negative impact on China's novel creation. In China's traditional culture, due to the influence of traditional ideas, opera is even less valued. China developed into the Yuan Dynasty, and its position in real life was very low, so it was difficult to find its own way to serve the country politically. Therefore, we put a lot of energy into the creation of opera novels, thus promoting the development and prosperity of China opera novels. As two important themes of China literature, traditional Chinese opera novels typically reflect the attitude towards life of our Chinese nation. In many plays and novels, we see that young men and women show their understanding of life through their love lives. At the beginning, the combination between men and women will always encounter many setbacks. But at the end of the play, it always ends in a happy ending. For example, in Wang Shifu's The West Chamber, Zhang Sheng was forced by his parents, and his white identity could not be combined with Cui Yingying. So he went to Beijing to participate in scientific research and suffered various setbacks, but he was finally reunited. This is what Wang Shifu mentioned at the end of The West Chamber. May all lovers in the world be good. Is doomed to miss marriage in previous lives. Another example is the Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. In his dream, Du Liniang pursued Zhang Shengyou's love. Finally, I didn't see the man of my dreams and died. But in the end, he can be resurrected, and in the end, he can be reborn. Finally, it is a happy ending to combine with the beloved Liu Mengmei. This happy ending shows that we in China have an optimistic mood. This feeling of life is reflected in many operas and novels. The happy ending is a typical example.
As Li Zehou said in the History of Ancient China Thought, there are few people in China who are really completely pessimistic. They are always happy to look forward to the future optimistically.
From the perspective of literature and art, from the perspective of aesthetic value, influenced by modern western aesthetic thoughts, tragedy is considered to be the most beautiful. The highest category of literature and art. It also has aesthetic value. From your point of view, China's opera novels do not meet such requirements, but A Dream of Red Mansions is not. This is a complete tragedy. A Dream of Red Mansions has high artistic value in Wang Guowei's eyes.
Wang Guowei said in A Dream of Red Mansions that tragedies can be divided into three types. He said that the first kind of people are those who are hungry and try their best to make friends with them. Tragedy is caused by many reasons. Because people in real life, some bad people always have a hard time with you, which leads to tragedy. Secondly, tragedy is caused by an unknown and blind fate. We can grasp these two tragedies and imagine. But the third kind of tragedy is actually the characters in traditional Chinese opera novels. According to the relationship between social life and family, they want to live such a normal life, but there are no evil people and no blind fate. In real life, he lives according to the relationship between family and society, which is the most reasonable. The result is also a tragedy. The third kind of tragedy is the tragedy among tragedies.
For example, in A Dream of Red Mansions, Baodai's love. In a sense, it is such a tragedy. For Lin Daiyu, Grandmother Jia also likes him very much. But Mrs. Wang likes Xue Baochai. Judging from the relationship between the characters, this is all reasonable. But in the end, Baoyu and Daiyu could not get married. This is different from Wang Shifu's The West Chamber and Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion. No matter how many setbacks, Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying finally came together perfectly. Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei in The Peony Pavilion are also combined. Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, who were in the middle of nowhere, didn't get married in the end. No one can have a happy marriage. A good marriage didn't form, not because some bad guy got in the way. In the grand view garden where they live according to their own identity, everything they do is understandable, and finally such a tragedy has arisen. Therefore, in Wang Guowei's view, A Dream of Red Mansions is a tragedy among tragedies. In other words, this is the most valuable. From this point of view, Wang Guowei's evaluation of A Dream of Red Mansions itself may be open to question, but he thinks that A Dream of Red Mansions is the most valuable work in China's ancient opera novels.
In fact, the beginning of A Dream of Red Mansions has hinted at the tragic ending, and the "Good Song" sung by a lame Taoist suggests that the final ending of the Grand View Garden is doomed. The Grand View Garden is good, but good. The crazy lame Taoist told the truth. Everyone knows that immortals are good, but fame cannot be forgotten. Where there is in ancient and modern times, there is a pile of grass at the end of the wasteland; Everyone knows that immortals are good, but gold and silver can't forget them; In the end, I just hate to get together, but my eyes are closed for a long time ... just say yes and forget. It's actually better. The Grand View Garden will eventually belong to a vast white land. It's really clean Shouting like a building, dizzy like a lamp will go out. This is the last ending in A Dream of Red Mansions, which is a tragedy. Tragedy In Wang Guowei's view, such literary works have the most aesthetic value. This is a very important viewpoint expressed in the Review of A Dream of Red Mansions.
Secondly, Wang Guowei also showed a very important point in A Dream of Red Mansions. In her view, the characteristic of literature and art is to respond to the general through concrete, and the specific response is generally the typical meaning of literature and art. A Dream of Red Mansions has such a typical meaning, which is expressed through the typical images of characters. A Dream of Red Mansions soon became a book of interest to readers after its abortion. It's no use reading all the poems without reading a dream of red mansions. Who is the hero in A Dream of Red Mansions? There are different understandings of this problem. First of all, scholars in Qing dynasty accepted the tradition, mainly by textual research. Especially the characters inside, who is Jia Baoyu? Some people think that Jia Baoyu is a famous genius in Qing Dynasty. He is the son of Nalan Mingzhu, and his position is particularly noble. Others think it is Cao Xueqin's own family affairs. Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin, was a weaver girl in Jiangning. When the Qing emperor went south, he went to Jiangning many times. Therefore, the Grand View Garden is the epitome of Ningzhi Building in Jiangmen. Therefore, it is believed that Jia Baoyu is none other than Cao Xueqin himself. This is an important viewpoint put forward by textual research. But no matter from which angle, it does not conform to the law of literary and artistic creation. Literature and art are fictional, and a writer's views on social life are expressed by portraying characters. So this is a typical literary significance.
In the last part of A Dream of Red Mansions, Wang Guowei criticized the traditional textual research. He said that nature is impersonal, and so is the nature of all mankind. Thus, the typical significance of literature and art is put forward. This is more in line with the essential characteristics of literature and art, which, in our view, plays a very positive role in understanding the significance of literary works.