■ Exhibition site. New Express reporter Xia Shiyan /Photo
■ Qing Dynasty, Qi Qi painted "Red Chamber Dream Atlas", Psychic Stone and Daizhu Immortal Grass, Collection of the National Museum of China.
■ Manuscript of Hu Shibao's "Examination of the Dream of the Red Chamber" (partial), May 3, 1922 , 11th year of the Republic of China (May 3, 1922). In 1921, Hu Shi published "Examination of the Dream of the Red Chamber", marking the birth of the "New Red Science". ■ New Express reporter Pan Weiqian/Photo
Officer: Where did you say this book came from? Although it is absurd to say, it is very interesting to play carefully.
Many years ago, some people did not understand the affairs of the world, but wrote pearls of articles; the families were either addicted or super-booked Chinese words, a thousand times, seeing their own honor and humiliation and thirst.
From "Dream of the Red Chamber" to "Dream of the Red Chamber Culture", our feelings for it and the scope of our attention to it have long been not limited to the "book" itself. Inside and outside the book, sorrow and joy are separated, and the experience has been integrated into the blood of national culture.
■ Collector's Weekly reporter Pan Weiqian
1 From "Glass World" to "Rafters" The exhibition hall also presents a special lingnan perspective
On September 29, 2021, the "Dream of the Red Chamber" Cultural Exhibition opened at the Guangdong Provincial Museum, with a huge number of exhibits of 413 pieces/sets, from the scene of "Glass World" to "Mao Rafters", starting from the background of the creation of "Dream of the Red Chamber", the content of the work and the influence on future generations, and gradually analyzing the "cultural phenomena that appeared around it".
"We hope to use 'Dream of the Red Chamber' as a guide to bring a multi-faceted understanding of Chinese culture to the audience in southern Guangdong and promote national classics." With this exhibition, we 'return to the Red Chamber'. "Dream of the Red Chamber" is a raft that can help us cross to the other side of traditional culture. Of course, one day, we may be able to 'land on the raft', but this raft, without a doubt, is now an important way for us to enter the study of traditional culture. ”
Mr. Xiang Qian, a research expert from the National Museum of China and the curator of the previous "Standing in the Ancient World - Dream of the Red Chamber" Cultural Exhibition" recently introduced this to reporters at the exhibition site of the Guangdong Provincial Museum.
The "Dream of the Red Chamber" Cultural Exhibition" is the "Guangdong Imported Version" of the "Guangdong Imported Version" of the "Standing In ancient times - "Dream of the Red Chamber" Cultural Exhibition" held at the National Expo at the end of 2019, and it is also the "first stop" after this exhibition leaves Beijing.
The style of "Nanyue First Station" is stunning, the dreamy mirror superposition design in the prologue hall, with a frame of Qing Dynasty painters who cherish gold and mourning jade, the artistic conception of "Dream of the Red Chamber", has become a punching point for the audience to pick up the mobile phone to take pictures, and the author would like to call it "too illusory 'mirror'". Above the wall of the exhibition hall, the Qing Dynasty Sun Wengong's heavy color "Dream of the Red Chamber" collected by the Lushun Museum is carefully selected, and the pre-exhibits echo secretly, which is a rich Easter egg hidden in the exhibition, depending on whether you can decipher it one by one. The specially added "Panorama of the Dream of the Red Chamber" and the "Relationship Map of the Characters of the Dream of the Red Chamber" can help people unravel the "mess" that has been haunting since middle school, for example, "who is who's aunt, who is who's the maid, the east or west side of the male protagonist lives in the female lead".
What is even more eye-catching is the Lingnan perspective of the Red Chamber. In addition to retaining most of the representative exhibits of the Previous National Expo, more than 50 pieces/sets of Lingnan special exhibits have been added, "combined with the precious cultural relics and Cantonese opera and other resources of the Guangdong Provincial Museum and the Guangzhou Liwan District Museum, it shows the audience the impact of the Dream of the Red Chamber on Guangdong," said Ms. Duan Xiaohong, curator of the exhibition at the Guangdong Provincial Museum.
2 Ancient texts and cultural relics, calligraphy and painting, scholars' manuscripts, various exhibits talk about "culture"
A dream in the Red Chamber, remembered in the stone. The opening chapter of the exhibition is a page of The Gai qi album, which depicts the Psychic Stone and the Daizhu Immortal Grass. The stubborn stone has become a peak, and the source should not be lost: it is a vast expanse, a desolate mountain, a nonsense cliff.
Dahuangshan led the first part of the exhibition, "A Cultural Peak", in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" from Yue Bo. The peak is not a flying peak, and the reason why the Red Chamber can be built high is because it has a deep cultural soil. "There is an identity between the history of world literature and the history of Chinese literature, which lies in the fact that there are two kinds of origins, one is the origin of mythology, and the other is the origin of epic poetry, which is the beginning of romanticism and realism, respectively, and the Dream of the Red Chamber is precisely the combination of these two. The cultural context of the Dream of the Red Chamber, which is embraced by the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Dream of the Red Chamber, shows the path of the wind and currents from the ancient books and rare books such as "Shijing", "Chu Ci" and "Zhuangzi" to "Peony Pavilion" and "XiXiangJi".
Who is Cao Xueqin? "There is no material to make up for the heavens", is it Jia Baoyu or himself? The second part, "The Background of Classic Creation", introduces the fate of Cao Xueqin and her family, from the background of the creation of the imperial court and the enjoyment of bells and ding, to the creation background of being raided and the door withering, and experiencing the rise and fall of China's feudal society in various fields such as politics, economy, ideology, culture, and art.
What does the Grand View Garden look like? What does Wang Xifeng wear? The third part, "Immortal Literary and Art Works", shows the social changes, food, clothing, housing, customs and customs, architectural culture, calligraphy and painting art and other aspects involved in "Dream of the Red Chamber", and tastes the elegant life in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
In particular, it is worth mentioning that a large number of perfectly preserved Ming and Qing costumes, passing through the "too illusory 'mirror'", vivid and brilliant objects, like "divine concubines and fairies" swaying into the audience's eyes. Wearing a "wisp of gold and butterflies wearing a flower big red satin narrow jacket, a multicolored carved silk stone green and silver rat coat, under the emerald sprinkling flower crepe skirt", the similar style in the window, reminiscent of Wang Xifeng; and the "soft smoke Luo" that can be touched by hand, according to the curator Duan Xiaohong, is the "high-end customization" that Yue Bo specially ordered to the Guangzhou Plant Dyeing Technology Research Association for this exhibition. "That soft smoke Luo only has four colors, the same rain over azure, the same autumn fragrance, the same pine green, the same is silver red", as Jia Mu explained to Dai Yu Fengjie on the spot, "If you make an account, paste the window drawer, and look at it from a distance, it is like smoke, so it is called 'Soft Smoke Luo'."" In the past, Aunt Xue listened to her and said that she had never seen it, but now, we can touch it with our own hands in the exhibition hall.
The way culture is disseminated is so diverse, which is the charm of the Red Chamber since ancient times. How did the Qing Dynasty paint the Red Chamber? How do foreigners solve the Red Chamber? How do Hu Shi and Rong Geng talk about the Red Chamber? The fourth part, "Widespread Cultural Dissemination", shows that since the advent of "Dream of the Red Chamber", a large number of various manuscripts, prints, various sequels, imitations, and translations that have been circulated overseas and many countries have emerged. The fifth part, "Profound Cultural Influences", shows the important achievements of the research on "Red Studies", which is a popular xianxue, and various artistic creations triggered by "Dream of the Red Chamber". Since Hu Shi and other scholars studied "Dream of the Red Chamber" in a modern academic paradigm, red science began to be born out of the "old red science" in the Qing Dynasty, which was only based on the study of inscriptions, commentaries, and suoyin, and became a serious science, known as the new red science, together with oracle bone and Dunhuang studies, and called the three major Chinese xianxue.
3 If you look at the world with "Dream of the Red Chamber", you know the world law
Therefore, when a book becomes a "science"; when a work of huanghuang hundred and two times is presented in a three-dimensional way in contemporary space, from "Dream of the Red Chamber" to "Dream of the Red Chamber Culture", it becomes a research category that transcends the ontology.
From the author himself, to the book, to the arranger, to the reader and the researcher, and to the collective memory radiated and reflected by this tradition and classical culture, all become part of the culture. In the exhibition hall, Cao Xia's tombstone rubbings (displayed on the exhibition board), "Painting Album of Cao Xia, a Planter of Celery", the "Inscribed Wall Poem" of the Zhengbaiqi Old House in Xiangshan, Beijing, and the "Qinxi Book Box" that was previously exhibited at the National Expo, are still controversial in the academic circles on the issue of their authenticity, but "we do not discuss this issue in terms of truth and falsity many times, it is a cultural phenomenon, and it is precisely because of these people or these mysteries that there will be these things." Presenting them as a phenomenon was also one of the original intentions of our curatorial work at that time. We don't talk too much about the question of truth and falsehood, nor do we overturn some things or identify some problems, but just show it all as a cultural phenomenon. This cultural phenomenon can only be seen in 'red studies'," Xiang Qian said.
It's openness.
Liang Qichao said: "In the novel of Yanfu, "Dream of the Red Chamber" stands for thousands of years, and Yu has no teeth. Yu Pingbo said: "If you read "Dream of the Red Chamber" with the world law, you don't know the "Dream of the Red Chamber"; if you look at the world with the "Dream of the Red Chamber", you know the world law. ”
This is richness.
When asked about the experience of the citizens who watched the exhibition, there were those who spoke bluntly to help their own researchers, some sighed at the luxury of objects, and some people who recalled the deceased in front of the ancient vinyl records, "A thousand audiences have a thousand ways to read the dream of the Red Chamber."
This is pluralism.
Perhaps from the past to the present, no Chinese novel can be so richly interpreted. To be so open to inclusion and use.
Why?
The details of Cao Xueqin's personal life are so complex and vague; the plot and volume of "Dream of the Red Chamber" are so complex and huge, why are there still so many people lingering in it, changing with each passing day, every time there is a new sense, emotional?
Baoyu was "unloving", in the past, the Great Desolate Mountain was a nonsense cliff, under the "Green Terrier Peak", I don't know what kind of "love root" was deeply planted, so that it transformed into a body, and experienced a dream of the Red Chamber; Mr. Cao Xueqin said that he himself saw this "false village dialect", but he was only "happy to be with comrades two or three, full of wine and dinner, under the rainy sunset lamp window, the same loneliness, and there is no need for Mr. Adult to taste the title."
Probably because "the same dream came from", and thus "saw their own delusions".