Keywords: A Dream of Red Mansions; Times; Culture; The tragedy of life
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There is a saying in the western proverb: "A thousand people have a thousand Hamlets." Then, if there are 1000 people in China, there will be 1000 Dream of Red Mansions. Up to now, Lu Xun, Wang Guowei and Yu Yingshi are the most profound people who have talked about A Dream of Red Mansions in literature. Lu Xun called this book "sorrow and fog spread all over Hualin, but only Baoyu was understood by breathing", and added: "Baoyu in my eyes is more dead; It is very distressing to prove that you are loved by many people, because there are many unfortunate people in the world. Only those who hate others will gloat, and there will be few joys and few obstacles in life. " Wang Guowei regards A Dream of Red Mansions as an existential tragedy, which is not political, national or historical, but philosophical, cosmic and literary. It is a tragedy formed by the relationship between people, and there is nothing for everyone to escape. Yu Yingshi divided the world of A Dream of Red Mansions into two worlds, and the Grand View Garden was purely an imaginary ideal world. The conflict between this ideal world and the turbid reality constitutes the theme of the novel, which is finally swallowed up by the darkness of the real world. Even today, how to treat this novel is still a matter of opinion. "I dare not say a dream of red mansions, but I'm afraid I can't understand its taste." In my opinion, the tragic spirit of A Dream of Red Mansions is as powerful as the Greek tragedies Prometheus Bound and Oedipus the King.
The theme of A Dream of Red Mansions describes the rise and fall of the "four big families". It is particularly noteworthy that although Cao Xueqin described the daily life scene of an aristocratic family, few ups and downs occurred in an instant. But it has a constant and very secret torture. Everything happens in the most ordinary trifles of life. You are crying in your heart, but people think you are laughing happily; You fidget and search hard, but people think you are idle; When you are a little out of line, people will rush to persuade you to get back on track. This is a kind of slow weathering and corrosion damage. This is a common destruction, and sometimes even the victims themselves don't realize it. Therefore, Lin Daiyu sighed: "Flowers are flying all over the sky, and who has pity when the fragrance disappears?" The "wind knife and frost sword" and "360 days a year" of that era constantly destroyed the elite of life and the germination of ideas. However, people are used to it, used to it, and don't feel that tragedies happen all the time around them. Who can shed tears of sympathy for these poor "fallen flowers" like Bao Dai in the grand view garden of Qingquan Pavilion? Faced with such a social situation, Daiyu could only give a "silent cry" and tears flowed into her heart; Baoyu had to be possessed, exposing his "weird" appearance and venting the surging tide in his chest; Tanchun, like those chickens with black eyes, felt the kinship of flesh and blood and complained indignantly: "In our family, everyone knows how happy we are when they look at us, but they don't know that the troubles that can't be said here are even worse!" Indeed, it is this "unspeakable worry" that hangs over the whole Jia family, this lingering fog of sadness that makes people almost used to breathing. Mr. Lu Xun once said: "There are very few people who perish from the special tragedy of heroes, but many people spend their lives in ordinary tragedies or almost nothing." "What Cao Xueqin focuses on in A Dream of Red Mansions are those" tragedies that are close to nothingness ".
A Dream of Red Mansions takes the love tragedy of young feudal aristocrats Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu as the central clue, and through the development history of Jia, Xue and other families from prosperity to decline, it profoundly reflects the vast social reality of China in the middle of the 18th century, shows all kinds of sharp and complicated contradictions and struggles in feudal society, and exposes the evil nature of the feudal ruling class, thus revealing the historical trend of the inevitable collapse of feudal society. The uniqueness of love in A Dream of Red Mansions is first determined by the uniqueness of its hero and heroine. Secondly, it has different connotations from all previous love stories. Baodai's love tragedy is inevitable. On the one hand, the love tragedy between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu reflects the contradiction between the democratic thought of pursuing individual freedom at first and decadent feudalism. It reflects the most important social problem of that era, is a bloody accusation against feudalism, and is also a reflection and pursuit of new social ideals and life ideals. In Cao Xueqin's works, the unforgettable love between Bao and Dai is not only unrelated to romance, but also has no stereotype of perfect appearance. Even complicated and subtle emotional entanglements show a state of true feelings, which enhances the emotional beauty of readers.
Hegel said that "tragedy is the laurel of art". Turning over the long volume of A Dream of Red Mansions, we can see that its tragedy has triple significance. That is to say, from the superficial meaning of the writing theme, the book writes the tragedy of the times through the rise and fall of Jia family and the love and marriage tragedy of Bao, Dai and Chai. From the deep meaning of the writing theme, it is to write cultural tragedy through the destruction process of several women; Judging from the symbolic significance of the writing theme, it is to write the tragedy of life through the transition process from good to empty.
First, the tragedy of the times in A Dream of Red Mansions
If Wu's The Scholars reflects the spiritual tragedy caused by the ideological bondage of the Qing Dynasty from one side, then Cao Xueqin's description of the rise and fall of feudal aristocratic families fully shows the tragedy of the times caused by the decay and decline of the Qing Dynasty.
One of the reasons for the decline of Jia aristocratic family is the corruption of life. On the one hand, most men in the Jia family are corrupt, immoral and bohemian, which is regarded as a common occurrence in this noble family. Jia Zhen's daughter-in-law's incest, Jia Lian's "keeping mistresses", Jia Forgive's attempt on Yuanyang, and even Wang Xufeng's affair with his nephew Jia Rong, etc., are all the words of old servant Jiao Da's "crawling with ashes, raising a brother-in-law, raising a brother-in-law". On the other hand, personnel disputes and even vicious killings caused by wine and color constantly shake this feudal building. Although many innocent daughters struggled in this evil quagmire, they all ended up with this decadent family, and almost none of them had a good end.
Luxury is the second reason for the decline of this noble family. Not to mention how all kinds of beautiful treasures fill every corner of this family, nor how well-cooked delicacies fill every feast in this family. It's amazing enough to spend money on Qin Keqing's funeral and Jia Yuanchun's mother. Although Xifeng, Tanchun and others think that the family economic crisis is finally coming, no one can turn the tide and help the building down.
"One generation is worse than the next" is the fatal wound of this noble family. When Jia Jing visited Tao, Jia avoided his lewdness, Jia Zheng was pedantic and incompetent, and Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Jia Rong and other dude boys all indulged in debauchery, and so on. The Grand View Garden was everywhere. The decay of the family is hopeless, and only spiritual Jia Baoyu can only breathe this suffocating sad fog painfully. But his incompatibility with feudal tradition will inevitably lead to the tragic ending of Baodai's love. This era will not accommodate them, nor will it succumb to the tragic conflict of the times. As the decadent forces turn from prosperity to decline, the new forces will also move from germination to death. This is the tragedy of that era that A Dream of Red Mansions tells us, and no one can rule it out.
The rebellious character and ideal of life shared by Bao Dai and Bao Dai were incompatible with the society at that time, and the sharp conflict with feudal forces led to this tragedy, thus writing the profundity and inevitability of this tragedy. The love between Bao Dai was doomed to be a tragedy from the beginning, because in Bao Dai's era, if their life prospects were bright, they should not only find a land that could accommodate free love and marriage, but also find a land that could accommodate Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu's life ideals and roads, and a place that could accommodate their rebellion. But it was impossible at that time, which revealed the inevitability of the development of Baodai's love tragedy and revealed that it was not an ordinary tragedy, but a tragedy of an era. In the vast Jia family, no one supports their love and no one stands up for them. It's not because the simple family is not right, not simply because free love violates the feudal marriage system, but because the anti-feudal color contained in this love itself is unacceptable to society. This is where Cao Xueqin is higher than his predecessors and is also a more profound place.
In Cao Xueqin's hands, the theme of love has been enriched and perfected with the social and political content, thus making a comprehensive and profound criticism of feudal society. This is where A Dream of Red Mansions is different from the novels of gifted scholars and beautiful women, and also different from the previous romance novels, which is why A Dream of Red Mansions is so influential and shocking.
From this point of view, at a certain stage of social development, "decay" may sprout "rebirth", but it is impossible to catalyze "rebirth" On the contrary, when the "decadent" power is still quite strong, it will stifle "rebirth". It can be said that the family and marriage life in A Dream of Red Mansions reflects the tragedy of the times from this angle. Throughout the history of China, it is all kinds of corruption that spread in the upper class, which inhibited the development of capitalism, hindered the development of national economy and culture and social progress at that time, and even led to the decline of national strength and dynasty. In this sense, Jia's tragedy is a mirror of the tragedy of the times.
Second,' A Dream of Red Mansions' cultural tragedy
Through the deep meaning of the work, we can see that the tragedies in A Dream of Red Mansions are not all hindered by villains or confused about the future. In the final analysis, it is a character tragedy caused by the deep structure of orthodox culture solidified for thousands of years. China's ethical traditional culture puts people in a high position, such as "the unity of heaven and man". However, the consciousness of "valuing people" in China's traditional culture does not respect individual values and individual free development, but emphasizes individual obligations to clan and country. This kind of "humanism" which lacks personality consciousness will inevitably lead to resignation and self-compression, resulting in a state of neither cold nor hot, neither birth nor death.
The tragedy of "the alliance between wood and stone" and "the relationship between gold and jade" in A Dream of Red Mansions provides the story framework of the alliance between gold and jade, and its significance goes far beyond the story itself. Moreover, its speculative content is rich and profound, extending to the depths of China's history, culture, philosophy and aesthetic feeling, and crystallizing almost all the essence and shortcomings, including almost all the desires and conflicts. In recent years, some researchers have tried to penetrate the surface of novel stories into the deep layer of spiritual symbols, focusing on the abstract and secret relationship between characters. For example, Xue Baochai's "gold" is the nemesis of Lin Daiyu, a man of vegetation, while Jia Baoyu's "stone" has dual nature, which can turn soil into wood and be refined into gold, so there are two potential possibilities: "wood and stone are in alliance" and "golden jade is bound to reason". From the word "wood" represented by Lin Daiyu and the word "gold" represented by Xue Baochai, we can retrieve a series of related images and concepts of China culture: wood is close to water, gold is close to fire, femininity and masculinity, loneliness and liveliness, nothingness and reality, pessimism and optimism. , which embodies China people's different understanding of the nature of the universe and life since ancient times. Lin Xue and his wife are the embodiment of two opposing aesthetic norms, ideal personality and universal spirit. Jia Baoyu's significance lies in the possibility of trying some kind of trade-off. As the undertaker of great spiritual contradiction, Jia Baoyu ..........
You can refer to Zhongzhou Journal Union-Excellent Papers.