There is no Red Chamber with Red Chamber —— Reading A Dream of Red Mansions by Bai Xianyong

One of China's best novels, if commented in the Chinese circle, I think it will probably be A Dream of Red Mansions.

? If I have to choose the best writer among the living writers who write Chinese characters, my inner answer is Bai Xianyong.

? If I were the best writer in my mind and met the best novel in the history of China, what would it be like? Fortunately, "Bai Xianyong at the age of 80 met Cao Xueqin at the age of 300" and finally launched this two-volume "Bai Xianyong Reading a Dream of Red Mansions". A Dream of Red Mansions is the love of Mr. Bai's life, and once called it "the best book in the world", which I deeply agree with. However, all the masterpieces that can last forever have one thing in common, that is, people of different ages can read different things. Four Great Classical Novels read three other books repeatedly when he was young. When I was a teenager, I read a vivid story: "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" read the ranking of military commanders and the coup of counselors; The Water Margin is about pleasure, enmity and brotherhood. What The Journey to the West read is, after suffering, it turns out to be a positive result. After that, I became a parent and then went back to read those three books. What I saw in the Three Kingdoms was Liu Bei's perseverance, Zhuge's persistence, and Meng De's "how many people say how many people are kings"; What you see in the water margin is the last resort to force Liangshan, the hidden rules in the loyalty hall; What you see in Journey to the West is the loneliness on the road to growth and the disillusionment of teenagers' dreams. But only A Dream of Red Mansions, when it was first opened, was thirty years old, showing the world. At that time, I thought I had learned it in nine cases out of ten. It was not until I read this book by Mr. Bai this year that I got some new knowledge about A Dream of Red Mansions. It is no exaggeration to say that if Four Great Classical Novels is the peak in the history of China literature, then A Dream of Red Mansions is Mount Everest.

Numerous famous writers have commented on A Dream of Red Mansions since its publication. A book breeds two kinds of knowledge, one is a dream of red mansions and the other is Cao's dream. Compared with previous celebrities, Mr. Bai Xianyong, as a writer, made detailed comments on this book from the perspective of writing. His views are indeed unique and even controversial.

The first controversy is that Mr. Bai thinks that the last forty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions are not sequels, but should be written by Zuo Zongtang. This sentence alone is simply a hornet's nest of redology. Mr. Bai's works have no less than 8 points on Douban. Because of this view, the score of this book is only more than 7 points. However, as the saying goes, literati despise artists. The key is whether you can tell the truth about yourself. Mr. Bai's basis here is that, first, most of the foreshadowing of the first 80 times is well collected later. It is very common that the grey line of grass snake in A Dream of Red Mansions is thousands of miles away, and it may be used only 70 or 80 times. The ending arrangements of Jia Sichun, Baochai Daiyu, Miaoyu Qiaojie and Xiren Qingwen in the last forty chapters are the same as those in the first eighty chapters. Of course, there are also inconsistencies, such as the fate of Xiangling and the death of Qin Keqing. Maybe Zuo Zongtang died before he could revise the manuscript. But on the whole, it is still comparable to the last one. Second, the characters are comparable to the first 80 rounds. Baochai's speech was as angry as the words used in the previous speech, and the personalities of Jia Mu and Jia Zheng remained almost unchanged. It's hard to imagine that this was written by a second author, unless Gao E copied Tsao Gong's manuscript. Third, it is also an important basis that some plots in the last forty chapters are really well written. Both the death of Daiyu and the marriage of Xiren were written by Cao Gong himself, and it is impossible for a second person to have such pen power. However, since the last forty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions were written, there have been endless arguments. Mr. Bai believes that the first eighty chapters were indeed written by Zuo Zongtang, and the last forty chapters are said to have been lost, but they may have been collected by Cheng Weiyuan later, edited and deleted, and eventually became a masterpiece of 120 chapters. Therefore, although there are traces of axe chisel in close reading, it is not far from Tso's original intention in general. Personally, I think this view is more reliable.

The second point of view is to analyze the overall structure of A Dream of Red Mansions from the perspective of a writer. I used to think that a dream of red mansions was a love novel, but now it seems not. There are two main lines in the book, one is that Jia Fu turned from prosperity to decline, and the other is Jia Baoyu's ultimate enlightenment. Cao Gong first constructed a virtual Jiafu, and then constructed a virtual dreamland in this virtual story, which seems to be a virtual fantasy. As a result, he read this book for the last time and wrote that an empty Taoist gave this "stone" to Cao Xueqin, and the whole book suddenly entered a particularly real world from a particularly illusory realm. The so-called truth is also true. People not only don't know whether the book is true or not, but also meet people. Another place that is very remarkable in structure is the foreshadowing in A Dream of Red Mansions. Except for the most famous Baoyu dreamland, the list of twelve women coincides with the fate of these women in the Grand View Garden. There are also several hints about the fate of the whole Jia family in the book, such as four scenes of Yuan Fei's mothering, lantern riddles in Jia's house during the Lantern Festival, Daiyu burying flowers, Miaoyu listening to the piano, Baoyu writing a sacrifice to Wen Qing, but actually sacrificing Daiyu, etc., all suggesting the fate of the characters in the book. That's all, Tsao Gong still thinks it's not enough. I also used some details to write this fate. For example, a pair of gold locks indicates that Baochai eventually became the guardian of Jia's family. Xichun, as the only person who saw through everything from the beginning, was qualified to spend the whole Grand View Garden as an outsider, and hinted that Xichun finally escaped into an empty net. As I said before, this was originally a virtual story under a mythical framework. It is precisely because of Cao Gong's ingenious pen that these fateful things are so real. Reading China's classical novels, although we can often read some stories about the fate of the characters in the book, it is unique to write such an ingenious Dream of Red Mansions.

The third point of Mr. Bai's book is the design of the characters in the book, which is also the genius of the book A Dream of Red Mansions. In Mr. Bai's original words, "When you are familiar with it, cover your name with paper and just look at the dialogue, you can guess who the speaker is." Few people in A Dream of Red Mansions describe a person from the perspective of God. It must have been written by one person or several people. People with different identities look at the same person and see different contents. This kind of writing has been used in other classical novels, but it can be said that it is rare to write a dream of red mansions. Amazingly, Cao Gong can also outline a person's character through some objects, which is really kung fu. For example, it is not enough to write about Baochai, but also to write about what Baochai uses. The medicine she takes is called pill, and the house she lives in is clean and simple like a snow cave. The name Xue actually implies the meaning of being as cold as ice, which vividly interprets a very reasonable image of a good family. It can only be such a person, so that the Jia family will decline and Baoyu will become a monk, and the whole family will not fall apart. Such a person's design, coupled with such a plot, is perfectly coordinated and will be particularly real to read. You will never give birth to the feeling that "Kong Ming is smarter than the demon".

? Another technique of describing characters can only be used by experts. Mr. Bai called it a mirror image. A protagonist has a mirror image corresponding to it, and one aspect of the protagonist can often be found in this mirror image. Take Baoyu as an example. Baoyu has three basic characteristics of China people: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. So he has three fates: the fate of Buddhism, the fate of Taoism and the fate of Confucianism. His Buddhist origin is of course Miaoyu. Miaoyu is a person with special aura in the whole book. He doesn't appear many times, but he lives in the town every time he appears. Miaoyu has too many karma. She has brought her family with her since she was a child. She wants to practice and can also tell fortune. In the whole Jia family, Miaoyu is lofty (this is different from Daiyu's defensive lofty, Miaoyu is really lofty). The whole Jia family despises everyone, except Baoyu and Xichun. I associate with Xichun because she can see that Xichun is the one who has seen through everything. Xichun is good at painting and has painted the Grand View Garden, which shows that she is a person outside the painting, but she is actually a person outside the painting. Miaoyu calls himself an outsider to Baoyu, and Baoyu calls himself an insider. But even Miao Yu, a person who disdains secular practice, can't escape the fate of writing for her in the dreamland. She is cold and reclusive. She can count the fate of others, but she can't count her own. Finally, she was robbed and died by robbers, and outsiders still fell into the world of mortals. In Baoyu's eyes, all beings are equal, and he treats others kindly. In the end, he became a monk and became a positive result, and his wife became a positive result. Therefore, Miaoyu is the mirror image of Baoyu on the Buddha's edge, and she saw Baoyu's own way to eventually become a monk.

Baoyu's mirror in Daoyuan is Daiyu, the only person in the Grand View Garden who understands Baoyu Daoyuan. She knows that Baoyu disdains the harmony of Confucianism, fame and fortune, and yearns for purity and inaction. She only hopes that the life in front of him will continue like this forever. Baoyu's real spiritual home can be found in Daiyu. Even better, Cao Gong gave Daiyu a mirror image, that is Qingwen. Maid Qingwen, like Daiyu, never advised Baoyu to become famous. Both of them are very affectionate, but both of them are dignified women at heart. The ending of the two people in the book is the most wonderful paragraph in the book. One is the death of Qingwen and the other is the death of Daiyu. Before they died, both of them were full of bitterness, but Qingwen bit off her nails and Daiyu burned the manuscript. Both of them made a final struggle in their own way. There is also evidence that Qingwen is a mirror image of Daiyu, that is, after Qingwen's death, Baoyu wrote a poem "Lotus" according to the meter of Lisao (Cao Gong is a true man) to show his respect for Qingwen. It turns out that there is a saying: "in the red account, the child is affectionate; In Huangtuling, my daughter is unlucky. " As a result, Daiyu felt bad and made Baoyu change. As a result, I didn't expect Baoyu to change it to "under the screen window, I missed it;" In Huangtuling, darkness wins. " Daiyu's face changed. Why? Because silk is the material of Daiyu's window screen, Zuo Zongtang set up a stage dozens of times ago, and asked Grandmother Jia to replace Daiyu's window screen with this material when she was playing in the Grand View Garden. Under the screen, it is Daiyu's bed. Qingwen is Baoyu's maid, so it is impossible to call Qingwen "Qing", so this Qing refers to Daiyu, and the result is prophecy. But at this time, Daiyu was not dead, so why did she write a eulogy that seemed to be a sacrifice to Qingwen, but actually a sacrifice to Daiyu? That's because when Daiyu died, Baoyu lost his jade, and the whole person was in a daze. It was impossible to write such a thing. After reading Mr. Bai's comments, I really feel that Cao Gong is thoughtful and meticulous. I also testified from the side. Even if Zuo Zongtang didn't write the last forty chapters, it will be inextricably linked with Zuo Zongtang. Otherwise, it is really impossible for another person to pick up such a delicate plot setting.

? Finally, let's talk about Confucianism, which is a common destiny. Don't say A Dream of Red Mansions is great, because it is not limited to the secular world at all. Zuo Zongtang here divided Baoyu's common fate into two parts, men and women sharing the same fate. The mirror image is Jiang Yuhan, and it is Hua Xiren who shares the same fate with women. Baoyu doesn't value many men in this book. It seems that the only person who gives gifts to each other is Jiang Yuhan. Jiang gave Baoyu a green scarf from King Jing, and Baoyu gave a red scarf from Aroma. Inadvertently, he helped Xiren and Jiang Yuhan exchange tokens. Most of the books were predicted at once. In the last time, Baoyu became a monk, leaving the Jia family and Baochai's flesh and blood, and Jiang Yuhan and Xiren finally got married, which is equivalent to the two sides of his common destiny becoming one. Xiren is a mirror image of Baochai, who is his common wife being married by Ming media. As mentioned earlier, one of the two main lines of A Dream of Red Mansions is Baoyu's detachment from becoming a monk. Abandon the Confucian body, leave the Taoist body, and finally achieve the Buddha body. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism correspond to the lives of ordinary people in China. When they were young, everyone actively wanted to join the WTO. When people reach middle age, they become a little pessimistic after vicissitudes of life, so they have the idea of Taoist purity and inaction. When they are old, they will die, they will see through the world of mortals, and they will have a Buddhist mentality. Cao wrote about Baoyu, but in fact he wrote about every ordinary China person. Read here already feel this book unfathomable, but Zuo Zongtang has details. Look at the names of three mirror images of Baoyu, Miaoyu, Daiyu and Jiang Yuhan, each with a jade character. Otherwise, how could Mr. Bai say that anyone with jade in his name in the book is incredible? Even Zhen Baoyu, who looked almost exactly like Jia Baoyu later, had the same appearance but a completely different heart. One is Jia Baoyu who hates fame, and the other is Zhen Baoyu who is obsessed with officialdom. "It's true and false, and it's true when it's false." Jia's surname is not necessarily false, and Zhen's surname is not necessarily true. Speaking of the exquisite naming in the book, there is another interesting place. Jia's, Yingchun and Hechun, together, are "original sighs". As for the four girls' personal maids, Yuan Chun made no mention of them. It is Si Qi who welcomes Spring, Shi Shu who visits Spring, and Hua Xiu who cherishes Spring. I think the word Qin should be in the name of the maid before marriage, and "Yuan Yingtan" is opposite to calligraphy and painting.

? Mr. Bai's fourth point of view is the version dispute of A Dream of Red Mansions. One of the charms of this book is that Cao Gong died without leaving a final version, resulting in many versions, and scholars of all schools support the version they admire. Compared with Geng, Cheng Yiben, which Mr. Bai admires, really makes people feel that Mr. Bai is a little far-fetched, but it still makes sense in some places. Whenever you read, you should not only read the plot in the book, but also look at the environment of the times in which the author himself lives. A Dream of Red Mansions was written in the Qianlong period, when China's classical culture reached its peak, and then quickly turned from prosperity to decline, just like Jia's flowers in the book one after another, and the result was that "if you go, the tower will collapse". After several efforts, Jia Fu turned from prosperity to decline. Zuo Gong didn't live to see the Opium War, nor did he see with his own eyes how the traditional culture he loved in China declined rapidly at that time. A Dream of Red Mansions is about Jia family and Cao family. Who can say that this book is actually like a prophecy written for the Chinese nation?

? Other aspects, such as poetry, drama, food, clothing, housing and transportation, Mr. Bai did not go into too much detail. After all, previous generations of Redology scholars have studied it very carefully. As for the fact that some people in the book are relatives of the Cao family, Mr. Bai only touched on pen and ink, and Cao scholars have studied it for many years. Mr. Bai mentioned many times in his book that Zuo Gong was a man of great compassion. There are hundreds of famous people with surnames in a book. There are no pure bad guys, not only princes and nobles, but also servant girls, and the bottom of society still has the brilliance of human nature. And he himself experienced the tragedy of robbing the rich to help the poor, but you wrote in your book that Jia was robbed, but you couldn't read a trace of resentment and hostility. Cao Gong never gave up human nature in his heart, and it was because of such a great man that he wrote such a great work.

? After reading this book, Bai Xianyong elaborated A Dream of Red Mansions, and his understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions can be said to be by going up one flight of stairs. Looking back on the words I wrote when I first finished reading this book two years ago, I can understand why this book enjoys a long history among literati for nearly 300 years. I have never seen a dream of red mansions, and I may not come again. Hundreds of years later, even if there is another Cao Xueqin who is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and songs, and drama and Chu Ci, it is difficult to have another Cao Xueqin who has experienced the decline of family wealth and the cold world. Even if there is another Cao Xueqin who has experienced the ups and downs of the world and is a pedant, it is difficult to have a great talent who has just grown up in the heyday of culture and is compassionate at the same time. In a sense, after the Red Chamber, there is no Red Chamber.