Why Cao Xueqin values "Big Speech"

Why Cao Xueqin values "Big Speech"

——"Furong's Daughter" study notes

Author: Liu Shangsheng, professor of the College of Literature, Hunan Normal University

Cao Xueqin is a writer who is both good at learning and inheriting tradition, as well as innovative and pioneering spirit. Their learning and creation are often unique and amazing. The "Furong Daughter" that he planned to break through the traditional system of "Ming Zhi Shangshi" on behalf of Jia Baoyu is an example.

Before Baoyu wrote the essay, the work described his creative mentality:

"We must also have a different opinion, let go of our own hands and eyes, and do not follow the mantle of our predecessors, fill in a few words to pretend to the eyes and ears, and we must also shed tears and blood, swallow word by word, and cry word by sentence, rather make the text insufficient and sad, and never let the text be too good to lose sorrow." (Dream of the Red Mansion Research Institute School Annotated Version "Dream of the Red Mansion" 78 times, People's Literature Publishing House, 2022 edition, the same below) clearly emphasizes that in order to express emotions, it is necessary to create "from another opinion", but when writing specifically, he emphasizes learning from predecessors, especially "Shi Chu":

"Why not go far from the Chu people's "Great Words", "Conjuring Spirits", "Leaving the Saucy", "Nine Arguments", "Dead Trees", "Ask Difficulties", "Autumn Water", "Biography of Mr. Adult" and other methods, or miscellaneous single sentences, or occasionally into short links, or use real classics, or set up metaphors, do whatever you want, write and write, joy is a play with text, sorrow is pain in words, and words are exhausted, why should the worldly be confined to every inch."

Here, he lists eight works, as well as the content of learning the method and the goal of "reaching the meaning". Among them, it can be concluded that Qu Yuan and Song Yu are the first four articles, namely Qu Zhi's "Leaving the Saucy", "Conjuring the Spirit" (a word about Song Yuzuo), Song Zhi's "Nine Arguments" and "Dayan Fu". It is worth noting that its order is neither according to the era (before and after Qu Song), nor according to the works of writers (Qu and Song Dynasties), but with Song Yu's "Da Yan Fu" placed at the top of the "Yuan Shi Chu People" chapters. As for how to teach the method, the four "or" words are generally stated. Why did the Duke of Cao say this? Those who have always studied "Hibiscus" have never answered it, leaving a blank. This cannot but be said to be a pity. This article attempts to throw bricks.

First of all, it should be confirmed that the so-called "big words" of the distant master Chu people in the text refer to Song Yu's "Great Yanfu". "Hanshu Art and Literature Records" Yun "Song Yufu Sixteen Articles". Although "Dayan Fu" is not found in Wang Yi's "Chu Ci Zhang Sentences" and Xiao Tong's "Selected Works", but during the Jin and Song dynasties, Song Yu's large and small words and fu have been circulated, and there are many imitations, and Tang people compiled "Gu Wenyuan" Song Yu's works have recorded these two fu, Ming Xie Xie's "Siming Poetry Words" (volume 2), Wang Shizhen's "Yiyuan Ziyan" (volume 2) have commented, which can be seen to have been recognized by people at that time (Wu Guangping's compilation and annotation "Song Yu Collection", foreword and appendix "Song Yu and His Works Commentary Materials", Yuelu Publishing House, 2001 edition). Cao Yin's "Mei Ting Bibliography" records two kinds of Song Ben's "Guwen Yuan", and his grandson Cao Xueqin certainly has the opportunity to read it.

What kind of work is "Da Yanfu", and why did Cao Xueqin become interested in it and be listed as the first of Jia Baoyu's "Distant Master Chu People"?

The original text of "Da Yanfu" in "Gu Wenyuan" is as follows:

King Xiang of Chu and Tang Le, Jing Cha, and Song Yu swim on the platform of Yangyun. WANG Yi; "Those who can speak for the widows take a seat." Wang Yin sighed: "is Tai'a Pi (一作戮) I, bleeding into the sky, the car can't be strong." "To Tangle, it is said: "The strong man is angry (one work dun) is extremely desperate for Tianwei, and the Beidou is Xi Taishan Yi." "The difference in scenery is: "The school sergeant is fierce and resolute, and laughs until he is devastated (一作罘罳). Sawtooth cloud, very big, spit out the tongue for a lifetime. To Song Yu, it is said: "Square land is the car, and the round sky is the cover." Long sword Geng Geng (一作躿介), relying on the heavens (一作外). Wang Yi: "Weiye." Wang Yi: "Annexing the four Yi and drinking the dry rivers and seas." Across Kyushu, there is no room for it. Being big and stuffed, I can't be worried for long. According to the earth and heaven, I can't force (one to do the ability) to look up. (According to the "Guwenyuan" Siku Quanshu, the original text has no punctuation.) ）

The full text is less than 200 words, compared to Song Yu's "Nine Arguments" and "The Conjuring" (?) and other long articles, which seem to be very light. Judging from the content, it is just a big talk, and there is no result. Later, at the beginning of "Xiaoyanfu", it is said that Song Yu was rewarded, which seems to be a supplementary narrative, and the author handles it in this way, so that the two fu events are connected. But Cao Xueqin does not mention "Xiaoyan", and focuses on "Dayan" alone.

Song Yuerfu has always been not highly evaluated except for the author's controversy. Although Ming Xie Hao said that Song Yu's two fus "came from the "Liezi", they all had a trust", but then quoted Prince Zhaoming's "Dayan Poem" as saying, "This ancestor Song Yu is useless, and Gai Yiwen is a play." Wang Shizhen is called "big words" and "small words", which are funny and funny. "In the future, "using literature as a play" and "funny flow" became the basic evaluation of Song Yu's two talents. Song Yuben was a courtier of literary attendants, showing his literary brilliance with extremely exaggerated imaginative words to entertain the king of Chu, and it is not surprising to write such works. But the question is that Baoyu is to mourn the maid Qingwen who was killed and succumbed to death, what does Song Yu's game have to do with Baoyu's pathos? How could it be valued by the Duke of Cao and become the first article of Baoyu's "Distant Master Chu People"?

The author believes that it is necessary to put "Dayan Fu" in the historical context of creation and reinterpret it in order to discover and understand its significance for "Furong".

Is "Big Speech" a pure "game work"? Not also. Mr. Qian Zhongshu once cited the juxtaposition of Chinese and foreign countries, "Either small things and big things, or big things and small things." "Said" Song Yu Erfu, the machine is like this. (Tube Cone Chapter, Book III, vol. 10) The form or this does not seem to have a certain connotation. Mr. You Guoen pointed out: "The beginning of the examination of small words is covered by the pre-Qin dynasty... There are three reasons: the parable of the Taoist, the extravagant speech of the endowment, and the art of the literati. An example of this is found in the Li Ji. Moderation", "Yanzi Chunqiu. Outer Chapter", "Zhuangzi"'s "Getaway", "Theory of Qiwu", "Zeyang", "Outer Object" and Qu Yuan's "Leaving the Sorrow" and "Chapter 9" are many articles. ("Song Yu's Big and Small Words and Talents Examination", in "You Guoen's Academic Papers", China Book Co., 1989 edition) However, the size of what he wrote is mostly the imagination of heaven and earth animals or the divine world, but Song Yu's big words are blunt about personnel, especially war. From Wang Cao Tai'a's "bleeding into the sky", to Tang Le's "strong soldier", Jingcha's "school sergeant" (fighter), to the rendering of Song Yu's long sword with a car cover and the brilliant achievements of "annexing the four Yis" and "crossing Jiuzhou" added by the king of Chu, they are all portraying the image of a brave giant in the flesh. "Long Sword Geng Jie, Relying on the Sky", won the favor of future generations - from Li Bai ("Sima General Song", etc.) to Mao Zedong ("Niannujiao Kunlun" lyrics) with its image of Qiwei and rich imagination. If you consider the difficult situation of the Chu State at that time, King Huai died in Qin, and King Xiang was faint and desolate, "After that, Chu was cut down by the day, and it was destroyed by Qin for decades." ("Shi Ji Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Liebiography"), it is not difficult to understand that Song Yu's endowment, which looks like a game, is actually deeply worried about national affairs. The king of Chu in Fuzhong is not the actual king of Xiang, but the expected king of Youwei, "annexing the four Yi", which is the unified ideal of the warring states fighting and chasing the deer. But the reality is that "things are not seen by the king of Chuxiang". (Liu Xiang's "New Prelude, Miscellaneous Affairs Fifth") The two reflections and ending with an unfinished stroke obviously imply a certain sense of pathos, implying that the effect of alerting the king of Chu has not been achieved. "May the remnants of the Dao be seen at first sight, and the heart of the king will be different from the remnants." (Sima Qian of "Nine Defenses" criticized "(Song Yu and others) are all ancestors Qu Yuan's calm rhetoric, and they dare not speak directly. "In fact, Song Yu is not willing to entertain people." Song Yushi Chu King, standing up for a high body. (Li Bai, "Feeling Four Songs") He has his own persistence and deeds, and his way is "advice", which is the case with "Dayan Fu". Xie Xie said that the two endowments "both have a trust", which should be something to understand.

It should also be pointed out that after abstracting from the size of the physical meaning, the big words have been given value meaning. "Zhuangzi Qi Theory of Things" Yun "big words and flames", Cheng Xuanying Shu said "the husband interprets the big words, and the fire is fierce and the wilderness is blazing". "Li Ji Table Notes": "If a monarch speaks big, he hopes for great profit", and Kong Yingda said that "big words, words that make great things." "On the surface, "Da Yanfu" exaggerates brave giants, but it is a major political and war event related to the survival of the country (Zuo Chuan. Seventeen Years of Chenggong": "The great affairs of the country are worshipped and honored"). If Qu Yuan's "National Death" is a realistic depiction of the crisis of the war in the Chu Kingdom, then "Dayan Fu" is a loud call for heavy voices with "big words" (this "big speech" ancient meaning, "Shangshu Pangeng": "Pi Nai dares to speak loudly and has accumulated virtue. "), with the help of illusory exaggerated imagination (this "big speech" meaning 2) to express the expectation of saving the war and national affairs (this "big words" meaning 3) crisis. Song Yu's famous "big words" really have the magic of killing three birds with one stone.

Perhaps this is the unique value of "Da Yan Fu" that Cao Xueqin knows, and it is also the real reason why Jia Baoyu listed it as the first of the "Distant Master Chu People" when he wrote his words. Although the endowment is short, and Cao Xueqin's self-created body is complex and magnificent, it seems difficult to say. But Cao Xueqin's spirit of learning and creativity shines in this kind of teaching. This is to take both the strength of the body endowed by the "big speech" and the meaning of the word "big speech"; There are references, but more emphasis is placed on "other opinions, self-indulgence". It may even be said that Cao Xueqin wanted to use "Furong Qi" as the "big words" that he personally finalized the first 80 times, that is, the strongest sound work.

Semantically speaking, he wants to make "Furong" a "big word" that embodies the main theme of the novel. "The Legend of the Boudoir Zhao" is the original intention of writing "Dream of the Red Mansion", and "Jinling Twelve Dynasties" is the name he gave to the novel. And Qingwen is the first person to be displayed in the "Twelve Dynasties" booklet, and also the first person to die of the clean daughter of Daguanyuan, "Furong" is the longest and best song Fu Hongwen in the work, the 77th time with "Pretty Girl Hugging the Merry Flow" to tell Baobao Qing's farewell, with the same "Mei Youling" tragedy backdropped, the 78th time with the title of "Foolish Young Master Fabricated Furong", and the same "Sister Words" backdrop, ingenious operation, highlighting the "big words" of the text, that is, the strongest voice status.

In terms of content, he took the "Great Speech" to make his words solemn and heavy on major events. "Da Yan Fu" takes the war related to the survival of the country as a major event, while "Furong Fu" takes the fate of women and the fate of beauty related to the survival of human social development and future ideals as a major event, and cleverly uses classics (such as "Purdah hates Changsha" and "Women are worse than Hano") to deal with current political criticism, and the content is extremely profound and rich.

Aesthetically speaking, he took the "Great Speech" to exaggerate the advantages of creating a sublime image. Furong fairy is a female figure, Chu Ciben is good at describing female beauty, in addition to "Leaving the Saucy", there are also Qu Yuan's "Xiangjun", "Xiang Lady", "Mountain Ghost", Song Yu's "Goddess" and all the fu, while Cao Gong did not mention a word, but highlighted the male "Dayan", because the female beauty he wanted to create was sublime rather than traditional beauty and softness. Although Song Yu wants to create the image of a male brave giant in the flesh, Cao Xueqin wants to create a spiritual saint image that is the most affectionate, from mortal to immortal, and real and imaginary. The two are not related, but their aesthetic qualities are similar. Also taking "heaven" as a reference, the giant's body is brave, "based on the earth and heaven, and cannot be looked upon"; Qingwen's wind and bone personality is "as a lowly, the heart is higher than the sky". Creating the sublime beauty of a woman's independent personality is an important aesthetic innovation of "Hibiscus". Since the myth of ancient Nuwa, sublime beauty has become a man's exclusive discourse, and "Furong" has achieved a breakthrough in female sublime beauty, which is achieved through the teaching and counterattack of "Dayan Fu".

From the point of view, Song Yu's "Big Yanfu" "takes the text as a play" as its expression, and "takes the pain of words" as its inside, truly achieving "words and intentions", which meets Cao Xueqin's aesthetic innovation requirements and is listed as the first of "Distant Master Chu People", which is not difficult to understand. (Liu Shangsheng)

Source: Guangming Net-Literary Review Channel