Japan is China's neighbor with water, and the cultural exchanges between the two countries are frequent, and Japan has also been influenced by many Chinese. China has "Dream of the Red Chamber", Japan has "The Tale of Genji", many Japanese people compare "The Tale of Genji" to the Japanese version of "Dream of the Red Chamber", and the status of this book in Japan is indeed very high. But in fact, not all readers agree with this view, and some even think that it is an epic touch of porcelain.
The Tale of Genji does have similarities with the Red Chamber, which depicts aristocratic life in the Heian period, and also alludes to imperial power and political struggles at that time, and was written earlier than the Red Chamber. But netizens think that other than that, they are all slot points. In terms of intention, "The Tale of Genji" is shorter than "Dream of the Red Chamber", and the Genji prince in the book is an amorous man, but the author seems to be full of admiration for the Genji prince, as if it is a great honor for a girl from any family to be looked up to by the prince. On the contrary, the prince himself was cowardly, and even in one part of it, he slept with a girl, woke up and found that it was not good-looking and fled. This plot is placed in modern times, and it is true that it will be criticized. Some netizens therefore believe that this is just a macho novel in which several men discuss women.
More netizens mentioned that the character of the source-style Gongzi was placed in "Dream of the Red Chamber", that is, a character similar to Jia Lian, "but pleasant appearance, happy singing and dancing, endless laughter, cloud and rain, hate can not do the beauty of the world for me to have fun when the film is interesting." Such a character is just a male brother who likes to look for flowers and ask willows and has a temper, and he can't say how much connotation and depth.
Of course, some netizens believe that the evaluation of literary works cannot be separated from the times, after all, the times have limitations. This novel was written much earlier than "Dream of the Red Chamber", and the natural "inferior root" should be more obvious, of course, this is the limitation of the times, not deliberately done by the author. The value of this book is that it is a novel written by a rare female writer at that time. The Heian era in which this book is located is the marriage system, in the context of the feudal era at that time, it is considered a graceful thing for a man to look for flowers and ask for flowers and willows, and the woman can also commit herself to many people at the same time. From today's point of view, of course, it is not appropriate, but it was not the case in that era. Like the Red Chamber, the culture of food, clothing, housing, and transportation described in the book is also very worthy of study, and the social value and cultural value of this book are as high.
It is also very normal that the ideas of the two novels differ. The Tale of Genji is set in an era of the transition from matrilineal aristocratic clans to patriarchal societies, while Dream of the Red Chamber is the final peak of Confucian patriarchy and an era of collapse. This can also explain why modern women feel uncomfortable when reading "The Tale of Genji", but this work was not originally written to criticize, and it is too harsh to look at it with modern eyes.
The Tale of Genji also has many connections with ancient mainland literature. The book quotes a lot of Bai Juyi's poems, and it is quite familiar when reading. There are different opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of these two books, but in the end they are typical representatives of the cultures of the two countries.