"A Dream of Red Mansions", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are collectively known as the four great masterpieces of Chinese classical literature. Among them, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is also known as "The Story of the Stone" and "The Twelve Hairpins of Jinling" "Golden Jade Fate" and so on. There are deep-seated reasons why it is known as the first of the four great classics.
1. "A Dream of Red Mansions" is the culmination of Chinese traditional culture
The novel "A Dream of Red Mansions" takes the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the main clue. The description of the rise and fall of the four great families of Wang and Xue profoundly and extensively displays the colorful worldly customs and customs and culture. It is an encyclopedia of feudal society and a master of traditional Chinese culture. It is said that in his early years, Cao Xueqin experienced the life of a dandy while weaving in Jiangning, Nanjing. As a child, he traveled to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changzhou, Yangzhou and other places many times, which broadened Cao Xueqin's horizons and made him particularly fond of Jiangnan scenery.
Soon after the Cao family was convicted and ransacked, Cao Xueqin became impoverished. Until his later years, he "read it for ten years, added and deleted it five times" and wrote the masterpiece "A Dream of Red Mansions". Through Dream of Red Mansions, we can not only gain in-depth knowledge about history, philosophy, religion, ethics, poetry, garden architecture, myths and legends, medical health care, etc., but also learn about traditional Chinese culture such as tea ceremony, weaving, opera, food, etc. . These factors are not copied mechanically by the author, but are completely mixed with the creation of the characters and the ups and downs of the storyline, and are perfectly integrated.
2. "Dream of Red Mansions" has extremely high artistic achievements and literary value
"Dream of Red Mansions" "the main theme talks about love and records the actual events", and has achieved very good artistic effects. The unique writing style of "the truth is hidden and lies are told" is even more fascinating. The essence of the art of fiction lies in the depiction of vivid and distinct characters. In the vast sea of ??ancient Chinese novels, there are many successfully created lifelike images. However, in one work, so many characters are created, which is neither repeated nor confused. The image is unparalleled by any work at home or abroad, both ancient and modern.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" is good at mobilizing all artistic means to shape the characters, such as portrait description, mentality analysis, action description, scenery contrast, environment rendering, the use of poetry and the homophony of character names, hints, metaphors, Irony, etc. Among them, Cao Xueqin is best at the artistic technique of "the grass snake is gray and the pulse is thousands of miles away", as well as the various writing techniques such as "one blow, two echoes, echoing in the empty valley, writing without writing", etc. The author uses Superb and masterful...
The author not only inherited and promoted national literature, but also added his own hard creation to write such a masterpiece. It is a sublimation of the ancient Chinese novel art skills and a traditional novel. The deepening of the theme is the main reason why "A Dream of Red Mansions" has the highest achievement and representative status of worldly novels. Since the publication of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Chinese novels have entered a broader space for development, injecting new vitality into the history of Chinese novels.
3. It not only carries forward the tradition but does not fall into the cliché
No literary work can escape the background of the era in which it was born. The same is true for "A Dream of Red Mansions". It was directly or indirectly influenced by The influence of "Jin Ping Mei", "Lin Lanxiang", "Gui Lian Meng", "Lin'er Bao" and the novels about gifted scholars and beauties that were popular in the late Qing Dynasty. Cao Xueqin learned lessons from the negative side of the novels about gifted scholars and beauties, so that his creations were not limited to the cliched plots, but also absorbed the best essence of novels about gifted scholars and beauties. Therefore, the young ladies in the Grand View Garden all have the charm of gifted scholars and beauties.
The book depicts beauties such as Daiyu Baochai and so on. Lin Daiyu is a talented and sentimental girl, an aloof and aloof aristocratic lady. Cao Xueqin depicts her with great brushstrokes. The image of a peerless beauty who is weak to Liu Fufeng. Xue Baochai, on the other hand, is a typical lady under feudal ethics. She is stable and generous in appearance but good at calculation in heart. Jia Baoyu is portrayed as a wealthy young man with a "face like the moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival and a complexion like the flowers of spring dawn". He has not loved reading since he was a child and likes to hang out with his daughters. He is very different from the talents in ordinary novels.
4. The "Redology" of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is its own school and has a profound influence in history
The study of "A Dream of Red Mansions" has been going on for more than two hundred years. Generally speaking, Generally speaking, it is divided into old redology, new redology and modern redology. It can also be said that there is old in the new, a mixture of the old and the new. The so-called old red school refers to the Dianping school and the Suoyin school. Dianping is a special traditional form of criticism of ancient Chinese novels. It plays the role of guiding reading and has the ability to spread novels. The function of theory played an important role in the development of ancient Chinese novels. Suoyin is just a boring guess of some literati. New Redology refers to the textual research of "Dream of Red Mansions" by Hu Shi and others. He concluded that "Dream of Red Mansions" is the family affairs and autobiography of the author Cao Xueqin.
Huang Zunxian once commented on "A Dream of Red Mansions": "A Dream of Red Mansions" is the first good novel in history, and it should compete with the sun and the moon for glory, and it will never be worn out by the ages. Wang Guowei once said: "A Dream of Red Mansions" is the opposite of a comedy, it is a tragedy through and through. Cai Yuanpei once expressed his own point of view: "A Dream of Red Mansions" reveals the mistakes of the Qing Dynasty and mourns the death of the Ming Dynasty. Mr. Hu Shi said that the book "A Dream of Red Mansions" is Cao Xueqin's autobiography.
To sum up: The book "A Dream of Red Mansions" outlines a broad picture of life in feudal society. It is an encyclopedia of ancient Chinese society. It has a high degree of literary, ideological and outstanding artistic achievements. It is A great realist masterpiece, it is well deserved to be called the first of the four masterpieces of Chinese classical literature.