Because of a "Dream of the Red Chamber", a set of cultural system "Red Studies" was born. This kind of phenomenon in the literary world is probably only comparable to Shakespeare's "shakespeare" in ancient and modern China and abroad. In fact, not only the birthplace of "red science" has a red society in Beijing, but also similar societies in other parts of China.
Researchers of red studies are all over the world, passing on the torch, and there is no shortage of heirs. Whether it is a professional analysis of a special topic published paper or a small talk after tea and dinner, a variety of research methods emerge in an endless stream. It can be said that "Red Studies" is the only explicit science that can compete with "Shakespeare", and both are international.
Cao Xueqin and Shakespeare have a lot in common, such as their birth year is also a mystery. In addition, the copyrights of these two people have also been questioned, and many people feel that there is someone else who wrote the amazing work. What is even more interesting is that there are not many portraits of these two Chinese and foreign literary giants, and there is no consensus.
Regarding the famous book "Dream of the Red Chamber", the world's analysis of this book has been very thorough. However, regarding Cao Xueqin, there are not many friends who know him.
Since 1921, Hu Shi broke a public case that had plagued the literary world for many years and awarded the copyright of "Dream of the Red Chamber" to Cao Xueqin, and in the following hundred years people recognized the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" as Mr. Cao. Although all the information about Mr. Cao has been excavated by modern people, people still know very little about what happened to Cao Xueqin.
What kind of experience made him write this amazing work? And the realistic questions left by this "Dream of the Red Chamber", does Mr. Cao Xueqin himself have an answer?
It is no wonder that a generation of great people once said something like this: "The Red Chamber has been written for hundreds of years, but so many scholars who have studied "Red Studies" have not been able to solve the problem until now, which shows how profound this problem is." In fact, Mencius has long given us the best way to analyze the Dream of the Red Chamber, that is: "Praise his poems, read his books, do not know his people, can you?" ”
Since we want to analyze Dream of the Red Chamber, we must work Cao Xueqin's life deeds, but unfortunately, Mr. Cao Xueqin is too mysterious to leave us too many records. Many red scholars have spent their lives delving into everything about Cao Xueqin, wanting to thoroughly understand this strange person who wrote "Dream of the Red Chamber". Even their research on Cao Xueqin himself even exceeded that of his writings. From this, another discipline was also derived, that is, "Cao Xue".
In the opening chapter of "Dream of the Red Chamber", we can see such words: "Later, Cao Xueqin read it in the Mourning Red Xuan for ten years, adding and deleting five times." From this sentence, we can draw the conclusion that Mr. Cao Xueqin has added, deleted, and read the book many times in his lifetime. However, is Mr. Cao Xueqin the author of the book? This passage does not make it clear. In Cheng Weiyuan's "Cheng Jia Ben", there is also such a record: "The original name of the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" is "Stone Record", the authors are different, it is unknown who it came from, but the book records that Mr. Xueqin has deleted and changed it. ”
From this text, we can get the same message, that is, Mr. Cao Xueqin is not necessarily the author. Supporting this view is also the modern red scholar Du Shijie, according to his theory, Cao Xueqin is a person who is fabricated. Cao Xueqin, that is, the harmonic sound of "copying diligence". This statement is more constructive, but because it is too shocking, few scholars agree with this statement.
From the existing literature, we can learn about the life of Mr. Cao Xueqin is very limited. First of all, Mr. Cao Xueqin is from Nanjing, which is not controversial. Mr. Cao's grandfather and father were re-elected to Jiangning Weaving, which is a well-known "fat difference". Nourished by this "fat difference", the Cao family's natural family is well-off, although it has not reached the level of wealth that can rival the country, but the cao family's wealth is also unimaginable to ordinary people.
The so-called "rich but not more than three generations", perhaps because the status of the Cao family was red-eyed, or the "fat difference" of the Cao family was impeached, and the Cao family was raided in the fifth year of Yongzheng, and since then the family has fallen. After coming to the capital with her family, Cao Xueqin's life became very simple. Just like the fallen students in history, Cao Xueqin, who fell in the family road, although she had a stomach full of ink, she had no chance of a career, and three meals a day became a problem. However, Mr. Cao Xueqin is a dashing nature, and he still lingers in the tavern every day, and sells paintings on credit without silver, and sells paintings to pay off debts on the day of repayment. On a Chinese New Year's Eve night, Cao Xueqin, who had not yet lived to be fifty years old, drove to Hexi.
Perhaps, we know enough about this, because if we really study it, we will find that the life of Mr. Cao Xueqin is simply full of mysteries. In fact, those mysteries surrounding Mr. Cao Xueqin's life have little practical significance in carefully studying them. After all, even if we know the answer, we can't find Mr. Cao's creative inspiration from it. Moreover, it is still doubtful whether Cao Xueqin is the author of the Red Chamber.
Resources:
["Dream of the Red Chamber", "Jujube Window Idle Pen", "Dream of the Red Chamber" Examination (Revised Draft)】