First of all, it briefly introduces the definition and classification of poetry in A Dream of Red Mansions.
A Dream of Red Mansions is an encyclopedia of multi-style writing, which brings together many excellent poems and prose works. What people usually call "Poetry of a Dream of Red Mansions" is the abbreviation of "Poetry Qufu", and it also includes all kinds of verse genres other than "Poetry Qufu", including poems, words, songs, ballads, poems, proverbs, praises and couplets in a broad sense. In a narrow sense, it simply refers to poetry and songs. The title of this article is for the convenience of discussion, narrowly defined as poetry. According to the rough classification statistics, * * * has 8 1 poem, including 4 poems of five, 26 poems of seven, 9 poems of pentatonic rhythm, 37 poems of heptatonic rhythm, 2 arranged poems, 2 songs and Yuefu poems of 1 poem. 18; Song18; Fu 1 article. If we also include songs, folk songs, proverbs and other genres, there are 207 poems.
These poems do not exist independently. Cai Yijiang commented on the poems and songs of A Dream of Red Mansions: "The poems and songs of A Dream of Red Mansions are an integral part of the description of stories and characters. The poetry of A Dream of Red Mansions is not only the embellishment of plot development, but also closely combined with the development of characters and stories, which is itself the object of expression. " [1] Zhou even mentioned in his book Cao Xueqin: "In the past, poems in novels were mostly' appendages' in nature, coming from the tone of others or storytellers. In A Dream of Red Mansions, poetry has officially become an organic part of the novel, and it is naturally one of the purposes to use poetry to help portray the character. " [2] It can be seen that poetry is an important channel to interpret A Dream of Red Mansions. According to Mr. Zhou Lei's statistics, there are about four poems that show the origin of the book and state the original intention; About 25 poems deepen the theme and express the views of the characters; There are about 130 poems depicting typical images and suggesting the fate of characters, about 29 poems depicting typical environments and setting off the atmosphere of stories, and about 14 poems unfolding stories and running through the artistic structure; About seven poems explain the historical background and reflect the social fashion. [3] Mr. Zhou Lei's classification can be described as exquisite, which fully proves that the poetry of A Dream of Red Mansions has rich constructive functions. Why does poetry have such a special and far-reaching role here? This "poet's language" itself has a full aesthetic orientation. According to Zhou's language, "Poetry should be concise, needless to say what can be omitted, and narrative can jump. The advantages of The Poet's Language lie in its implicit taste and outstanding image. The innate advantages and Cao Xueqin's genius deployment make the poems of A Dream of Red Mansions have all-round functions. A Dream of Red Mansions has the largest number of poems and the highest quality. It is this 130 poem that shapes typical images and hides the fate of the characters. Among them, there are more than a dozen sets of widely read poems, and each set of poems praises the main characters in the novel, such as: The Judgment of Twelve Women in Jinling (14), Song of a Dream of Red Mansions (14), Spring Lantern Mystery (10), Ode to Bai Haitang (. Hong Mei Fu (4), riddles (3), nostalgic poems (10), wine orders (3), flower names signing wine orders (8), catkin words (5) and so on. This paper naturally discusses the poems of A Dream of Red Mansions around these poems. From the author's point of view, these poems can be divided into two categories: one is that the characters write their own poems; Second, the author stands on an objective standpoint or comments poems through the "third eye" of the characters. For example, "The Trial of Atlas" and "Dream of Red Mansions" were written by the author in a third-person tone, saying goodbye to Twelve Chai and Baoyu in Jinling respectively.
These two kinds of poems play an irreplaceable role in poetizing the characters, or accurately conform to the ideological interests, cultural attainments, personality characteristics and social status of different characters, and also subtly reflect the experiences and endings of the characters. At the same time, some poems use the writing style of Lu language, such as metaphor, fable and fatalism, which implies the tragic fate of characters and makes their images mysterious.
Second, reflection: poetry and characterization
Throughout A Dream of Red Mansions, poetry can be said to be the soul of the novel. If many poems circulated in it are removed, the article will lose its soul. Mr. Lu Xun once said, "Since the publication of A Dream of Red Mansions, the traditional thinking and writing methods have been broken", which means that A Dream of Red Mansions integrates the verse literature of poetry with the narrative literature of novels, thus fully unifying poetry and realism. The Grand View Garden is the kingdom of poetry, and a group of daughters centered on Baoyu are the daughters of poetry. Although Baoyu is a man, he is feminine. They recite poems, write poems, write poems and complete poems ... Poetry has become a symbol of their lives. The "poem" here, from a cultural point of view, is a symbol of freedom relative to authoritarian ethics. Baoyu and Daiyu's poetic life refers to their life of resisting tyranny and pursuing individual freedom. Finally, the decline of the Grand View Garden, the kingdom of poetry, is also the decline of freedom, which is the tragedy of the fate of many children, that is, the tragedy of poetry. The ingenious use of poetry is the key to the poeticization of characters.
1. The objective comment poem reflects the poeticization of the characters.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, many critical poems are viewed by the author from an objective standpoint or through the "third eye" of the characters. Some focus on improving the story structure, while others focus on building characters. As far as the latter is concerned, for example, the two poems "Xijiang Moon", which evaluated Baoyu for the third time in the novel, were all evaluated by the author himself, and Baoyu and Daiyu hit it off as soon as they met. This is the case.
(Xijiangyue) Looking for sorrow and hatred for no reason, sometimes it seems crazy. Even if you are born with good skin, your stomach is rough. Poor and ignorant, stupid and afraid of reading articles. Behavior is far away and perverse, which is a slander on the world.
Wealth does not know happiness, poverty is miserable, and disappointing. The world is incompetent first, unparalleled in ancient and modern times. Words are grandiose and flattering, but this modeling effect is not good.
The artistic conception of the word itself is not beautiful, but it is outside the image of a "stupid" aristocratic son. As the protagonist of the novel, Jia Baoyu lives in a comfortable environment, surrounded by pearls, beautiful maids and beautiful children, and leads a luxurious life. As a rule, there should be no "sorrow and hate", and Jia Baoyu is just "looking for sorrow and hate". Because he despises all fame and fortune, "doesn't know the world", hates people who go in and out of officialdom, such as Jia Yucun, and disdains interacting with them, so he scolds stereotyped writing. These behaviors can't be tolerated by that society, and he can't feel his ideal breathing space. It is this kind of behavior that has been denounced by the class represented by his father Jia Zheng.
2. The poems written by the characters reflect the unique personality of the characters.
If we judge the characters from the perspective of the author or others and judge the subjective images of the main characters, we can say that the poems written by the characters can best reflect the different personalities of the characters. Poetry is a panacea full of vitality in the Grand View Garden. They set up the "Haitang Poetry Society", in which all parties drank and wrote poems, Bao Dai expressed their feelings with poems, exchanged poems with each other, Xiangling studied poems, and Daiyu taught poems ... The whole text centered on poetry creation. It is not easy to describe a group of clever and talented children writing poems and lyrics. It is bound to be doubly difficult to write personal works in a poetic way, reflecting each character's different personality, cultivation, hobbies and aspirations. But in the author's pen, Daiyu's romantic and chic, Baochai's subtle and vigorous, Xiangyun's fresh and free and easy ... all have their own personalities, which do not give way to each other. When poetry endows a character with certain characteristics, it takes into account his behavior and his connection with his life experience. For example, when Daiyu wrote Peach Blossom, Baoyu knew who wrote it. Bao Qin said he wrote it himself, but Baoyu didn't believe it. He said, "This tone is hardly like Wu Heng's body." He also said, "My sister will never allow her to have such a funeral speech. Although my sister has this talent, she can't compare with my sister Lin. She once made this mourning sound after leaving the funeral. " These words show that when the author imitates the poems written by the characters in the novel, he already has everyone's "tone" in his mind. "The manuscript of the alley" and "Wu Heng's style" are absolutely different. Take Baochai and Daiyu as examples to make an analysis.
Third, conclusion: the role of poetry in the novel.
According to the statistics of 1982, there are 495 males and 480 females in A Dream of Red Mansions, totaling 975. [4] There are at least forty or fifty vivid descriptions. Cao Xueqin's poems, supplemented by poems, have played a role that other narrative languages cannot complete. First of all, as far as the authors and story characters are concerned, they are all children of aristocratic and bureaucratic families, which are different from ordinary people and have elegant taste in literary attainments. Poetry, as aristocratic literature, is destined to be given to him as a voice. Secondly, Cao Xueqin's thoughts of compassion and cynicism can't be expressed boldly and directly under the background of cultural autocracy in Qing Dynasty, and this graceful metaphor in poetry just provides a secret way for Cao Xueqin to express his dissatisfaction with society. Thirdly, the disillusionment of life in A Dream of Red Mansions is compatible with the ethereal atmosphere that poetry can create. Poetry is not only a dispensable factor in A Dream of Red Mansions, but also an organic part of the novel, the essence and charm of the novel. Without the elements of poetry, it is impossible for the daughters of Grand View Garden to express their various personalities and their tragic fate poetically. Cao Xueqin combined the metaphor of poetry with the fact of narration, making A Dream of Red Mansions a poetic and realistic classic like A Dream of Red Mansions.
Precautions:
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[1] by Cai Yijiang. Cai Yijiang's Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions, Unity Press, 2004.
[2] Zhou. Cao Xueqin, Writers Publishing House, 1964.
[3] Liu Genglu. Analysis of Poems in A Dream of Red Mansions, Jilin Literature and History Publishing House, 1999, p. 4.
[4] Zhu Zhu. Description of a Dream of Red Mansions, Tianjin: Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, 1997, p. 2.