Because "A Dream of Red Mansions" covers a wide range of topics.
To be specific, there are more than 700 characters in "A Dream of Red Mansions", and they can be found in real life. The characters in it are not completely good people, nor are they completely bad guys. After "Dream of Red Mansions" came out, all the techniques for writing characters were broken.
The food in "A Dream of Red Mansions" can also be a reference for recipes. (How to make duck meat porridge, bird's nest porridge, red rice porridge, almond tea, eggplant and chicken). The clothing is also a beautiful sight (the description of Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu’s clothes when they appear, and Qingwen mending Baoyu’s clothes).
"A Dream of Red Mansions" involves various subjects, such as architecture (Grand View Garden), clothing, folk customs, proverbs, lantern riddles, poems and songs, various small games on the wine table, drinking orders, and Painting, evaluation of poetry (Xiang Ling’s Poetry Study), etc. Extended information
"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 the four major families, with the Jia family as the center, reveals all the darkness and evil in the late feudal society, as well as its insurmountable inner contradictions.
It makes a powerful criticism of the decadent feudal ruling class and the feudal system that is about to collapse, making 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 work with rich connotations. "Good Song" and twelve "Dream of Red Mansions Songs" remind Jia Baoyu of the triple tragedy he experienced. The author places Jia Baoyu and a group of girls with different identities and statuses in the Grand View Garden, a fictional world that is both poetic and real, to show the tragedy of their youthful lives and beauty being destroyed.
What is extremely profound about the work is that the tragedy is not entirely attributed to the cruelty of the evildoers. Part of the tragedy is the direct destruction of feudal forces, such as the tragic ends of characters such as Yuanyang, Qingwen, and Siqi. However, More tragedies are caused by "ordinary morality, ordinary human feelings, and ordinary circumstances" in feudal ethical relationships.
It is a life tragedy caused by the deep structure of orthodox culture accumulated and solidified over thousands of years. The novel depicts a broad historical picture from the palace to the countryside, broadly and profoundly reflecting the complex and profound conflicts in the last days of feudalism, and showing the essential characteristics and inevitable decline of the feudal aristocracy.
What is particularly profound is that the picture of life in the Jia family shown in the novel shows the absurdity of the etiquette and customs that maintain the rank, status, elder and younger, male and female relationships of this aristocratic family, exposing the absurdity of the etiquette and customs. It opens up all kinds of fierce contradictions and struggles within the "veil of tenderness" of feudal families.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Dream of Red Mansions