Lu Xun's insights on "Dream of the Red Chamber" are mainly found in the two books "Historical Outline of Chinese Novels" and "Historical Changes in Chinese Novels". The former is based on Lu Xun's lecture notes at Peking University, and the latter is based on the transcript of Lu Xun's lectures at Xi'an University. In these two speeches, "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the focus of the content. Combined with relevant materials, Lu Xun was one of the first scholars to put "Dream of the Red Chamber" on the university podium.
Portrait of Lu Xun
"Qing Zhi Zhi Ren Novel" is the twenty-fourth article of the "History of Chinese Novels", and from the classification point of view, Lu Xun divides "Dream of the Red Chamber" into human love novels. Because it is a handout, there is quite a lot of space devoted to the basic characters and plot.
On the whole, Lu Xun gave a high evaluation to "Dream of the Red Chamber", and he fully affirmed the status of "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the history of Chinese novels, "although the whole book is written, although it is nothing more than sadness and joy, the traces of gathering and dispersing, and the character accidents, get rid of the old cliché, which is very different from the previous love novels."
This kind of detachment is manifested in both ideological interest and artistic expression. As long as the previous novel of Talent and Beauty is compared with "Dream of the Red Chamber", you can have a deep feeling for Lu Xun's statement. In fact, this is also one of Cao Xueqin's creative goals, in which he borrows the mouth of stone and Jia Mu to criticize and ridicule the novels of Caizi Jiaren, indicating that he consciously wants to get rid of the old set of this kind of novel creation and take a new path.
Lu Xun also praised the artistic innovation of "Dream of the Red Chamber". He particularly praised the realism of the book: "The narrative is authentic, and the experience of hearing and hearing is fresh because of the realism, and the world ignores this statement, and every time they want to seek deep meaning, speculate on it, and over time there are many."
A History of chinese Novels
The reason why Lu Xun emphasized the realism of "Dream of the Red Chamber" so much and made such a high evaluation is that the previous novel works focused on legends. In terms of theme, it is either a battle between the heroes of the changing dynasties, or a conquest and battle method of the divine and demonic world, or a contest of rivers and lakes and green forests; in terms of writing, the emphasis is on highlighting the legendary deeds of heroes and strong martial arts. Therefore, the distance from ordinary people is far away. Previously, there were not many realistic works that reflected daily life, and the kind of works based on the author's family history were even rarer, except for a few works such as "Golden Plum Bottle", the artistic achievement was not high enough.
In this context, the emergence of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is undoubtedly an innovation, giving people a refreshing feeling, and its great success has made the realism method valued, and has a profound impact on the creation of novels in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.
Lu Xun's emphasis on the realistic techniques of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is related to his self-legendary view of drawing on the new red science. The introduction of Cao Xueqin's author's statement and the equality of his family and life in the article mainly refers to Hu Shi's "Examination of the Dream of the Red Chamber". To a certain extent, the self-legend proposed by Hu Shi influenced Lu Xun's understanding of the main theme of "Dream of the Red Chamber": "According to the self-statement of this book, it is only truthfully written, without ridicule, alone with itself, and deeply repentant. This is a blessing in common sense, so "Dream of the Red Chamber" is still loved. ”
This understanding is based on the text of the work, drawing on the reasonable factors of self-legend, in line with Cao Xueqin's creative reality, neither seeking too deeply as the Suo Yin school, nor artificially elevating its ideological connotation like some researchers. Generally speaking, Lu Xun's view of the main theme of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is relatively close to yu Pingbo's theory of lamenting his life and repenting of his love scene.
Shen Yinmo excerpted the Dream of the Red Chamber section of the "Historical Outline of chinese Novels"
For the last forty times of Cheng Ben's "Dream of the Red Chamber", Lu Xun's evaluation is also relatively objective and fair. There is neither wholesale denial nor unprincipled touting. First, he gave measured affirmation to the last forty times:
Although the number of the last forty times is only half of the original, the great causes are repeated, and the destruction and death are successive, which is quite consistent with the so-called "eating birds and flying alone and existing in the white land".
(Gao Osprey) in the sense of depression in the snow parsley, occasionally or interchangeably.
Acknowledging that the last forty times are roughly consistent with the first eighty times, retaining the tragic ending, but he also pointed out that this "communication" is "even or", not all, after all, there is still a gap in talent and insight between the authors of the last forty times and the first eighty times, which is mainly manifested in:
The end of the knot vibrates slightly.
Although the continuation of the book is also sad, and Jia Shi finally "Lan Gui Qi Fang", the family business has resumed, it is not like a vast white land, it is really clean.
The Complete Works of Lu Xun
It can be seen that Lu Xun is not satisfied with the "slight vibration" arrangement of the plot at the end of the last forty times. For this phenomenon, he looked for the reasons for this phenomenon from the personal life experience of the author of the sequel, Gao Hu:
However, the mind is not discouraged, and it is completely different from the so-called "people in their twilight years, poor and sick, and gradually revealing the situation of the next life" (the first time of Qi Ben).
As for other sequels to "Dream of the Red Chamber", such as "After the Dream of the Red Chamber", "Dream after the Red Chamber", "Dream of the Dream of the Red Chamber", "Dream of the Red Chamber", etc., Lu Xun's evaluation is very low:
The large rate of inheriting the high osprey to continue the book and make up for its shortcomings, and the reunion is formed.
Lu Xun's Outline of the History of Chinese Novels
These sequels are back in the old cliché of the talented novels, and he also exclaims this:
This shows that the measurement of people is far away, and the reason why Cao Xueqin is out of reach.
In his views on the issues of Cheng Ben's forty times and the sequel to "Dream of the Red Chamber", Lu Xun referred to the research results of Hu Shi, Yu Pingbo and others, and his position was generally consistent with theirs.
In addition, Lu Xun also expressed his own unique views on the reading reception and research criticism of "Dream of the Red Chamber". In general, Lu Xun's discussion of "Dream of the Red Chamber" has the following two characteristics compared with the research of other contemporaries:
Lu Xun gave Xu Shousheng "Novel Old Smelling Money"
The first is a vertical and historical vision. Whether it is to evaluate the status and value of "Dream of the Red Chamber" or to explore its ideological art, Lu Xun always places "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the context of the development and evolution of the entire ancient Chinese novel, and accurately grasps it in comparison with other novel works.
Because it is a general view and a broad field of vision, there will be general knowledge, and Lu Xun has a unique insight into the ideological and artistic inheritance, innovation and evaluation of the status of "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the history of the novel. These insights are based on a careful reading of the text, the actual creation of ancient novels, and the observation of the national characteristics of Chinese novels, which is obviously different from the practice of mechanically applying Western theories.
The second is a horizontal, type of vision. Lu Xun usually interprets "Dream of the Red Chamber" in similar novels such as the novels of Caizi Jiaren, seeking differences in the same place to highlight the uniqueness of the work.
Manuscript of Lu Xun's "Ancient Novel Hook Sinking"
In works such as "Outline of the History of Novels", "History of Chinese Novels", "Changes in the History of Chinese Novels", Lu Xun categorizes "Dream of the Red Chamber" into human love novels and analyzes them as representative works of human love novels. It not only fully affirms the important position of "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the history of Chinese novels, but also sees its inheritance of the tradition of previous generations of novels.