Zhou was born in Tianjin in 19 18. Contemporary famous red scientist. Yenching university graduated from the Graduate School of Western Languages Department and Chinese Department. He has served as a lecturer and professor in yenching university, West China University, Sichuan University and other foreign languages departments. Classical literature editor of People's Literature Publishing House; Consultant and researcher of China Academy of Art; American Luce scholar; Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, USA; Director of China Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification; Director of Yanjing Institute; Honorary President of China Cao Xueqin Research Association. The first batch of recipients of special government allowances. Member of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth China People's Political Consultative Conference, etc.

First, the most controversial figure in the history of redology

In the history of redology, Mr Zhou is the most controversial scholar. In fact, Zhou's character and thoughts are not complicated. His personality and thoughts, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Zhou Yiliang, are called "a scholar after all"-simple, plain and clear, and are often influenced and restricted by the trend of the times and the environment. The controversy lies in his academic views and research methods. His academic viewpoints and methods are not complicated, but he unified two opposing academic thoughts into a whole, which not only showed the high academic realm, but also showed the possibility of academic instrumentalization. Admirable and disgusting. If we do a statistic, people will find that Zhou's criticism far exceeds his praise. His shortcomings and mistakes are so understandable that many "red riddles" on BBS can condescend to comment on him. He doesn't know how to fight back legally, so that people can attack him with the meanest, disdainful and irresponsible language at will. However, Zhou's praise and admiration often come from the person who criticizes him the most fiercely-what kind of affirmation can be compared with his opponent's sincere praise and admiration! Only those who know the difficulty of studying can truly understand Zhou's unattainable empirical realm.

Zhou is a lone ranger on the red altar. His talent, his advance in A Dream of Red Mansions, his poet temperament and scholar temperament make his study of A Dream of Red Mansions follow the following schema: based on literary research, then sublimate literary research into humanistic value interpretation. In the field of literature research, he extensively collected information, analyzed materials and studied the origin of mirrors. The rich materials collected in his New Evidence of a Dream of Red Mansions are first-class in the history of redology. He gave full play to the poet's rich imagination and scholar's erudition, and used poetic language to fly over places that ordinary people could not transition. The poet's talent makes him accustomed to soaring in imagination, which sometimes creates miracles with the help of his academic ability (such as the textual research on Cao Xuan), and sometimes makes people stunned by his forced leap between materials and viewpoints (such as the textual research on Shi Xiangyun).

On the textual research of A Dream of Red Mansions, Hu Shi is, after all, a researcher who focuses on the textual research and historical value of A Dream of Red Mansions, so his methodological statement is: "Make bold assumptions and be careful to verify." Zhou, on the other hand, is a more talented and elegant scholar, so his expression of psychological processes such as imagination and hypothesis in textual research and deductive reasoning methods in formal logic is more literary, literary and poetic. He came up with a word: savvy. When talking about his textual research on "autobiography" and "red inkstone is auspicious clouds", he said: "This kind of textual research depends not so much on knowledge as on understanding."

(P 185) This is the poetic expression of Hu Shi's methodology of "Bold Assumption, Careful Verification", and defines the intellectual level of "Bold Assumption": this is not a general assumption, but an understanding. Understanding represents the advanced form of human wisdom. According to this statement, its self-evident reasoning is: to oppose understanding is obviously to oppose intelligence and ignorance and stupidity.

Since 1954, he has been deaf. Since 1974, his eyesight has dropped sharply, and he cannot read a lot of new achievements in the field of redology. At least from the late 1980s, he knew nothing about the actual situation and significant progress in the field of redology. In recent ten years, his understanding of the Red Chamber mainly comes from his opponents and admirers. This ignorance of the research situation of the Red Chamber further strengthened his lone ranger's intention.

The lone ranger's temperament makes him not afraid of the enemies of the mainstream of redology, and he is willing to be the uncrowned king of redology. He hated the mainstream of Dream of Red Mansions, and never let go of "criticism without naming names" when prefacing other people's academic monographs. The uncrowned king's role in the non-mainstream makes him keen to launch mass wars, and he is more willing to encourage the rash men in the lower culture to attack the mainstream of Redology. Even, he can make a sequel to Cao's poems, confuse the false with the true, and make some accomplished and arrogant textual research experts make a fool of themselves and lose their reputation. He completely shattered the glorious words of "textual research" and "discriminating falsehood" that have inspired countless researchers for half a century, and he made people cast a nihilistic eye on the phenomenon of "textual research on a dream of red mansions".

In the history of A Dream of Red Mansions, Zhou is an arrow-like figure. As early as the 1970s, Zhao Gang said when talking about the style of study in A Dream of Red Mansions: "The current fashion is that few people are willing to mention the contributions of others, but the lack of such contributions will never be forgotten. Zhou's New Evidence of a Dream of Red Mansions is an excellent example. His contribution began to be included in other people's opinions very early, but his mistakes were constantly reviewed. "

Qi Wang once pointed out that Zhou's new certificate of A Dream of Red Mansions (including the old version and the updated version) suffered ten kinds of serious injuries.

It is pointed out that this kind of harm can not be done by ordinary researchers of A Dream of Red Mansions, but only by Rainbow Qi Li, a literary research expert. Wang Qili's writing style may be harsh, even cruel, but his quoting and shaking off literature is really enough to make people sweat. However, this "ten deadly sins" did not hit the key of Zhou's Dream of Red Mansions, just like scratching his boots.

As for Zhou's achievements in studying Red Mansions, his teacher wrote a poem "Yulan Slow", and the second half of the sentence reads: "Yanjing has a lot of talents, so it is necessary to practice hard to write a book. Isointellectual papers, Longmen history, high-density notes. Clearly listen to the praise of philosophers, Xia! The corporal laughed from the teacher and laughed like a fly. "

(P234) Zhou quoted the teacher's praise because he felt that the praise hit the academic extreme: "Writing and exegesis covering academics are the comprehensive spiritual lifeline of China culture, which is indispensable and difficult to master."

(P235) This is also Zhou's self-praise for the new certificate.

Zhou is an iconic figure. His textual research on Cao Xueqin's death year from 65438 to 0947 shows the vitality of a new generation of scholars. New Proof of A Dream of Red Mansions published by 1953

, mainly a monograph on Cao Xue, with a little research on Zhi Yanzhai, origin and edition. The prototype of his Dream of Red Mansions system has appeared. When the revised edition was published from 65438 to 0976, this framework was basically maintained, and the empirical study of a dream of red mansions was further systematized and specialized, which reflected the highest achievement of empirical redology in this period.

In the movement of criticizing Yu, he was regarded as a figure who could give Hu Shi a powerful blow. He wrote a great critical article, but later he was very insincere. After the 1980s, his definition of A Dream of Red Mansions, his review of the history of A Dream of Red Mansions, his textual research on the theory of abundance and Cao Xueqin's portrait, etc., have set off huge waves in the Red Sea again and again. Zhou's name has been closely linked with the history of A Dream of Red Mansions since 1947, which has become a barometer of the history of A Dream of Red Mansions. It can be said that following the footsteps of Zhou's Dream of Red Mansions can help us understand the fate of New Dream of Red Mansions in the history of modern and contemporary redology.

Second, Zhou's' Dream of Red Mansions' framework

Zhou graduated from the Department of Western Languages in yenching university in his early years. 1952, he taught in the Foreign Languages Department of West China University and Sichuan University. It stands to reason that his contact with western culture should be more direct and penetrating. Western classicism and modernism (not to mention post-modernism) did not leave a substantial impact on his study of A Dream of Red Mansions. The source of his system construction is not from western learning, but from the basic framework of A New Dream of Red Mansions established by Hu Shi-the integration of argument and record.

In Textual Research on A Dream of Red Mansions (192 1), Hu Shi established two pillars of A Dream of Red Mansions: argumentation and recording. Empirical research is related to the author, edition and other studies, and fact recording becomes the basic belief of empirical research. In Textual Research of A Dream of Red Mansions and Textual Research of New Data of A Dream of Red Mansions (1928), Hu Shi determined the basic objects of A Dream of Red Mansions: author's textual research and edition textual research. Related to the edition research are the lost text research and the red inkstone research. On the basis of argumentation, Hu Shi introduced the theory of "autobiographical biography", which is in the sense of traditional historical records. Its purpose is to establish a basis for "proving Cao with Jia" and then become the principle of argumentation. The two concepts of "demonstration" and "record" are contradictory in modern scientific thought, but they are unified in traditional interpretation of Confucian classics, and the purpose of demonstration is to serve the purpose of interpretation of Confucian classics. Hu Shi's dream of red mansions framework and academic concept (the integration of demonstration and record) are still in the initial state of creation. Zhou enriched and perfected this framework, making it a huge system, and integrating argumentation and records more comprehensively. Based on the belief of recording, he integrated the research object with physics and chemistry, author, edition, criticism and lost prose, and enriched it into a huge system full of flesh and blood. 1998, Huayi Publishing House reprinted and published six old works of Zhou Hongloumeng.

. Zhou Wei wrote the General Preface for the series, summed up the systematization of these six old works (A Dream of Red Mansions is also his life's), and pointed out that the originality and value of the book A New Proof of A Dream of Red Mansions lie in: First, it established "; Secondly, the combination of Cao Xue and A Dream of Red Mansions shows a fundamental cognition: Cao Xue is the fundamental foundation of A Dream of Red Mansions; Third, comprehensively explain the high-level cultural significance of A Dream of Red Mansions from three aspects: literature, history and philosophy. Cao Xueqin's biography is a supplement to Qin Xue's family background in A Dream of Red Mansions and marks the formal formation of Cao Xue. The true colors of a dream of red mansions is a pioneering exposition of the contract between typology and lipology. On the basis of a basic understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions, The Exploration of A Dream of Red Mansions explores the historical sites such as "Xifu" and "Dongfu" written by Cao Xueqin. A Dream of Red Mansions and China culture focus on self-legend and structural theory. A Dream of Red Mansions explores A Dream of Red Mansions with the structural theory understood by Zhou. The preface holds that these six aspects are the key and essence of redology. This is Zhou's systematic summary of his Dream of Red Mansions, the core of which is the integration of demonstration and record. Zhou gave full play to Hu Shi, Gu Jiegang and Yu Pingbo's method of "mutual testimony between Cao and Jia". Because he advocates positivism, each of his arguments is based on rich literature. And because he worships records, he takes all empirical work as a means to prove records. In the first edition of A Dream of Red Mansions, Zhou launched a clear-cut "mutual testimony between Cao and Jia". In the research of characters, Zhou said: "Cao Xueqin married Xue Baochai first, then Shi Xiangyun." This is the free play of the concept of "mutual testimony between Cao and Jia". He said: "Zhong is Li, the son of his brother-in-law", "Dongping County King is Fu Peng, the king of Pingjun County" and "Beishui God is the eldest grandson of Liu Zi, the adopted grandson of Shenjing County King". The eighth edition of "Hongyan Zhai" said: "Later, the author was Cao Xueqin, and the statement that the novel was a realistic autobiography of his family rose, which was generally established, but some people accepted it, some people accepted it, and some people disagreed, because the novel was a novel after all, not a history. The only purpose of this textual research now is to prove that realism is true with historical materials in a scientific way. " In other words, this book is "the unity of argument and record", and the purpose of unity is to prove "record" with "argument". Although these clear expressions of "mutual testimony between Cao and Jia" were deleted in the revised version of 1976, as a concept, the basic spirit of A Dream of Red Mansions still remains the pillar of the revised version.

From the perspective of textual research of historical documents, Cao can help readers understand the historical background of the story of A Dream of Red Mansions. From the perspective of documentary evidence in historiography, Jia can add the testimony of a contemporary witness to historians. No matter which angle, it is one-dimensional. When it is one-dimensional, both methods have their rationality. The basic methodology of Zhou's New Evidence of a Dream of Red Mansions and even Cao Xue is that the Cao family in history and the Jia family in the novel prove each other and prove each other in both directions. At the same time, the plot of the novel is used to infer history. At this time, history and literature are integrated. This can be regarded as the methodology of Cao Xue.

Third, find the legal basis of the concept of "record"

However, Zhou has his own uniqueness. Different from other members of the "New Dream of Red Mansions" school, Zhou not only devoted himself to the research of "combining demonstration with record", but also devoted himself to the theoretical explanation of this research. Almost on the day when he set foot in A Dream of Red Mansions, he took the traditional purport of Confucian classics as the pillar of his Dream of Red Mansions, and it ran through his life. From then on, he began his nearly 60-year-long process of seeking theoretical basis for the concept of "record".

Zhou said in the article "The True Stone": "Although Cao Xueqin's novels are not chronological diaries, it is understandable that they have been carefully tailored and carefully recorded their lives."

The new evidence of a dream of red mansions published by 1953 is an important practice of combining argumentation with record. Before he made a theoretical statement, Yu and Hu's critical movement violently criticized the tedious textual research, and Lan Ling sharply and profoundly criticized the concept of "record" from the perspective of realism typicality. Since then, Zhou couldn't find a reasonable basis for the concept of "record" from the traditional theory, so he turned his attention to the "red" cultural authority and demonstrated the legitimacy of the concept of "record" by transforming the literary position of Lu Xun and others into the Confucian classic position. However, Lu Xun's literary position is not obscure, but clear and obvious. This makes it impossible for Zhou to stop looking for legal basis in the next few decades.

From the end of 1970s to 1980s and 1990s, all the work of defining Zhou's Dream of Red Mansions revolved around the spirit of "New Dream of Red Mansions" of "the combination of certificate and record". From What is a Dream of Red Mansions (1982), to A Dream of Red Mansions and China Culture (1989), The Art of Red Mansions (1995), and then to The Return of the Native Dream of Red Mansions (1995). His specific strategy is to use celebrity quotations to achieve a "self-evident" effect. The famous people he borrowed are Lu Xun, Ba Jin and Sun Li. However, Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Sun Li and others did not look at autobiographical literature and A Dream of Red Mansions from the Historical Records, so Zhou adopted the method of hiding in the dark and transformed the words of Lu Xun and others into Historical Records. 1979, Zhou gave a lecture entitled "Several Aspects of Dream of Red Mansions" in Hebei University.

Speech. He said: "A Dream of Red Mansions is a comment, an explanation and a textual research. What is the fourth ... In short, there are different kinds of Dream of Red Mansions ... There are many ways to express it, such as writers, dramas and directors, and it is also a Dream of Red Mansions." At this time, Zhou has just emerged from the shock of the Cultural Revolution, and he can still reflect on the textual research of A Dream of Red Mansions. At this time, he noticed the concept of "New Dream of Red Mansions". In this speech, he skillfully replaced "autobiography" with flowers. He took Lu Xun's words out of context and turned Lu Xun's literary position on autobiography into a realistic position. In a typical sense, he talked about the life material of literature, and then said: "Hu Shi advocated that, that is, he saw that Baoyu used the author himself as the material, so he created a reference for an autobiographical biography. No matter whether the reference itself is perfect or not, its main points are good. Mr. Lu Xun accepted and affirmed this ... "

This article can be said to be an important signal of the revival of autobiography around the 1980s.

Through 1982, Zhou published What is a Dream of Red Mansions.

After describing the method of literary criticism called for by people as "sixteen-character mantra", he simply excluded literary research from the scope of A Dream of Red Mansions. He said: "A Dream of Red Mansions is obviously about the knowledge of a dream of red mansions, but I said that the knowledge of studying a dream of red mansions is not necessarily a dream of red mansions. ..... You can't study A Dream of Red Mansions with the general way, method, vision and attitude of studying novels. If the study of A Dream of Red Mansions is exactly the same as the study of The Romance of Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, The Journey to the West, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and The Scholars, there is no need to study A Dream of Red Mansions. For example, what is the character of a certain character, how the writer writes about this person, what is the language, what is the image, etc., which are the scope of general novel research. This is of course very necessary. However, in my opinion, these are not the scope of redology research. " A Dream of Red Mansions is divided into four schools: edition, exploration and lipology. From then on, Zhou began the "grand narrative" process of A Dream of Red Mansions. The article "What is the Dream of a Red Chamber" directly responds to Yu Yingshi's historical view of Dream of Red Mansions. Yu said that "textual criticism of redology is facing a crisis", Zhou said that textual criticism of redology is the vitality of redology, and even textual criticism of redology is redology. The implication is that the literary study you want to return to is not the real Dream of Red Mansions. Such a definition of A Dream of Red Mansions immediately aroused the opposition of a group of researchers, who wrote articles in succession, forming a heated academic discussion. Regrettably, these controversial articles responded to Zhou's extreme views, but did not respond to the same extreme views of Redology that triggered Zhou's extreme views. Theoretically speaking, Zhou's attitude towards literary criticism is the same as that towards Textual Research on a Dream of Red Mansions. Obviously, the focus of attention and discussion is on their extremes. Behind these two extremes, we should pay more attention to their constructive intentions and the academic methods they use to demonstrate.

Zhou's interlocutors are concerned about another aspect, that is, whether A Dream of Red Mansions should include fiction. Zhou's discussion on the internal basis of the possibility of A Dream of Red Mansions was transformed by his interlocutor into the question of "Whose Dream of Red Mansions is this", and an ontological discussion was transformed into a debate on the extension of A Dream of Red Mansions. Zhou only sighed: "How far is this from my original intention?"

On the question of what A Dream of Red Mansions is, Zhou and others can be described as strange bedfellows, who are diametrically opposite. What Zhou is thinking is how to make A Dream of Red Mansions worthy of the word "learning" (and this "learning" is not a general "learning", but a "learning" in the sense of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and "Dunhuang studies")?

On the surface, it seems that the problem of Zhou's interlocutor has been solved, and anyone can enter the palace of A Dream of Red Mansions (this is actually not a problem, but at best it is a question of expressing his position on "academic freedom"), but in essence, Zhou's problem of "How is a Dream of Red Mansions possible" has not been solved, or even made any progress. Besides the textual research of A Dream of Red Mansions, the study of fiction, narratology, mythology and culture is not enough to add an internal basis to how a Dream of Red Mansions is possible.

Zhou's orientation of A Dream of Red Mansions aims at calling for empirical research. Although Zhou deliberately expressed it in an extreme form, his call for empirical research was reasonable and hit the key point of the theory of "Dream of Red Mansions Revolution". At the same time, his question about "Why A Dream of Red Mansions is a science" is also worth pondering by academic circles. What kind of "learning" is a dream of red mansions? Do you study literature or novels, or study knowledge, Chinese studies, culture, and even outstanding knowledge? What is the content of "learning" in A Dream of Red Mansions? If "A Dream of Red Mansions is a novel after all" and "A Dream of Red Mansions is a novel after all", is the word "A Dream of Red Mansions" still necessary? On the other hand, if A Dream of Red Mansions is not an ordinary fiction, what is the internal basis of A Dream of Red Mansions?

However, for Zhou, the definition of "four books" in A Dream of Red Mansions is only to attack the literary return of others. Zhou's more important mission is to carry forward the concept of record and build a large system of record integration.

1984, Zhou Zengwei studied The Art of A Dream of Red Mansions (Revised Edition).

In the preface of the book, it says: "Records refer to the authenticity of records. See Hanshu? Biography of Sima Qian:' Its writing is straightforward, its core is not empty and beautiful, and it does not hide evil, so it is called a record'. It means that good history is true to history. Therefore, the authenticity of behavior, words and art can be unified. From a literary point of view, no one thinks Tai Shigong is' naturalism'. I once said a word:' careful record of life'. That's what it means. Fine cutting at this time refers to what is often called' artistic processing' today. As for the word "Shilu" seen in the works since the Tang and Song Dynasties, it is based on the gang, with the same meaning and no misunderstanding. Lu Xun said that Cao Xueqin dared to describe truthfully, that is to say, his creative spirit is seeking truth, which is the so-called record in ancient times. As for the meaning and usage of the words' realism',' naturalism' and' realism', during the May Fourth Movement, everyone's application examples can fully prove that it is different from today (what people used to understand and say) and has its historical situation. " He continued his ghostwriting work in Lecture Notes of Hebei University 65438-0979, and demonstrated the rationality of the concepts and principles of Historical Records with the basic principles of literary theory.

From 1986 to 1987, Zhou was invited to give lectures at the University of Wisconsin, during which he began to establish the connection between A Dream of Red Mansions and China culture. Zhou said in A Dream of Red Mansions and China Cultural Preface that this book should discuss "three basic points": "What is the essence of a Dream of Red Mansions; What is the core of a dream of red mansions? What is the overall problem of A Dream of Red Mansions? " Specifically, "what is nature" means: "Who wrote Qin Shu? Or write about yourself? ) problem. " In other words, Zhou's first basic point is to solve the problem of the skill of A Dream of Red Mansions, that is, whether this skill is Cao Xueqin's own or others', that is, the old dispute between the "New Dream of Red Mansions" and the old textual research (which has nothing to do with the new textual research), and the dispute between "autobiography" and "biography".

Zhou added that this old controversy now has a new controversy: "Does Baoyu, the protagonist in the book, have a prototype or model? Or the' typical image' invented by the so-called' centralized generalization' method? " From the perspective of literary theory, Zhou's statement is inappropriate. "There is a prototype or model" and "centralized generalization" refer to the same creative phenomenon, and there is no choice of "yes or no". However, what Zhou really wants to discuss is whether Jia Baoyu is a recorded figure or a literary figure. Because the concept of "factual record" not only violates the reality of literary creation, but also violates the essence of reading and interpretation. In contemporary cultural consciousness, the concept of "record" has no place. Therefore, during this period, Zhou devoted himself to expressing the concept of "record" in various ways. In A Dream of Red Mansions and China Culture, he also demonstrated the legitimacy of the concept of "record" by transforming the literary concepts of Ba Jin and others. He used a lot of space to demonstrate the concept of "integration of literature and history"-specifically, to demonstrate that "literature belongs to history"-to prove the authenticity of the concept of Historical Records. But in the end, he had to call A Dream of Red Mansions an autobiographical novel, which showed that he always lacked confidence in the theoretical demonstration of the concept of factual record.

What is the core? What is Jia Baoyu's personality? That is to say, "advocating freedom of marriage" and "anti-feudalism" cannot summarize the significance of A Dream of Red Mansions, and should be interpreted from the perspective of cultural spirit. He analyzed the relationship between Jia Baoyu and China's cultural spirit, and the relationship between his followers and his arrogant personality. This analysis is valuable. However, Zhou's purpose is still to demonstrate the concept of record. He believes that Baoyu's cultural spirit is a record of Cao Xueqin's cultural spirit. He discussed the cultural proposition of infatuation, and then discussed the significance of Qin Xue's infatuation.

What is a Hologram discusses the structure of A Dream of Red Mansions, but Zhou's concept of "structure" is different from that of people. The book fully demonstrates that A Dream of Red Mansions has a "great symmetry" structure.