I was a jade horse in the golden palace, and I was a stove rope bed. I am disappointed that you laughed at the decline of my family. How do you know I see through the world? I hid my pride and wrote cynically, and every word shed blood and tears. Ten years is unusual! Comment on the front and back, and look at it in this world, really, illusory and sad.
This poem was written by Cao Xueqin, who happened to experience the ups and downs of the Cao family, from "clothing makes the people rich and strong" to "the people are poor and the people are strong" This different life change prompted him to have a deep and painful memory of his past experience when writing A Dream of Red Mansions.
About Cao Xueqin:
Novelist of Qing Dynasty, author of A Dream of Red Mansions. The word Meng Ruan,No. Xueqin,No. Qinpu, a native of Western Qin. My ancestral home is Liaoyang. The ancestors were originally Han Chinese, but later they entered the flag register, which is the Zhengbai flag. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Cao Jiacheng became a member of the "Ministry of Internal Affairs" who managed the palace chores. Cao was setting up a military service, and officials transferred salt to Zhejiang and Zhejiang to make the salt law. Since Cao's son Cao (that is, his great-grandfather), the Cao family has served as Jiangning Weaving for more than 60 years. Kangxi visited the South six times and lived in the Weaving Department of Cao Shi during his tenure. Cao's wife is Kangxi's nanny. Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin, was the capital of Kangxi. The Cao family had a special relationship with the emperor and belonged to the highest ruling class.
Cao Yin has a good literary accomplishment. He is a famous bibliophile and sculptor. He works in both poetry and drama. Cao Xueqin was born in Nanjing and lived a prosperous life in his youth. In the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Cao Xueqin's father Cao was accused of "dereliction of duty", "harassing a post station" and "losing money" and was dismissed. The following year, the Cao family moved back to Beijing from Nanjing. Around the first year of Qianlong (1736), Caojiajia Road recovered slightly, but it soon declined completely. In his later years, he lived in the western suburbs of Beijing, living in poverty and relying on friends to help him sell paintings for a living. He is uninhibited, likes drinking, versatile and good at painting. "The poetic style is strange", and the poetic style is close to the Tang Dynasty poet Li He. He is strong-willed, aloof and unyielding, and hates evil. In a poor and difficult environment, he "read a book for ten years, adding and deleting it five times" and insisted on writing the novel A Dream of Red Mansions. After his death, he left the first 80 manuscripts of A Dream of Red Mansions (which had been copied before his death), and there may be some residual manuscripts after 80, but they have been lost and failed to circulate. Forty times after this biography, it is generally considered as a continuation of Gao E.
Cao Xueqin (about 17 15 ~ 1763), famous for his dreams, was born in a noble family and experienced the rise and fall of a feudal rich family. The luxurious life in his youth made him familiar with the various human feelings of aristocratic families and feudal ruling classes. Poverty in his later years made him observe life more clearly and profoundly, and saw the corruption and evil of the exploiting class clearly. With such a foundation to know and understand life, plus his progressive ideology, good artistic accomplishment, serious creative attitude and correct creative methods, it is possible for him to create A Dream of Red Mansions, a masterpiece recognized as the peak of China's classical novel creation. The book * * *120th chapter, the first 80 chapters are written by Cao Xueqin, and the last 40 chapters are all considered to be written by Gao E. Although Gao E's sequel is different from the first 80 chapters in terms of ideological height and artistic achievements, it basically conforms to Cao Xueqin's original intention, making the story of the book intact and widely circulated among readers.
A Dream of Red Mansions tells the story of a feudal aristocratic family from prosperity to decline. The love and marriage tragedy of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai is the center of this story. The genius of the author lies in that he didn't show this love tragedy superficially and simply, but explored the social roots of this love tragedy from the ideological character of the characters and the relationship between people, thus fully exposing the cruelty and hypocrisy of feudalism and the decay and evil of the feudal ruling class. The theme of the work is not limited to the personal love tragedy itself, but around the central event, many complicated contradictions and struggles have been launched, depicting an extremely broad picture of social life, indicating that the whole feudal society has been riddled with holes. Deeply and sharply criticized the feudal social system, political bureaucracy, marriage system and ethical relations, sharply accused feudalism of cruelty and dehumanization, and boldly and sharply predicted the historical fate of the inevitable demise of feudal society and feudal ruling class. In China, A Dream of Red Mansions was appraised as an encyclopedia for analyzing feudal society.
A Dream of Red Mansions has created a large number of immortal typical images such as Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Wang Xifeng, Yuanyang, Qingwen, Jia Zheng, Jia She, Jia Zhen and Jia Lian. Jia Baoyu was a rebel of the feudal aristocracy. He lived in a decadent and hypocritical feudal family, from suspicion of hatred to desertion, completely divorced from the feudal ruling class. His opposition to feudal lifestyle and his boredom and indifference to aristocratic life are the highest manifestations of his anti-feudal rebellious character. A prominent feature of Jia Baoyu's personality is that he despises and hates feudal secular men, sympathizes with and cares for women who are oppressed and ravaged by feudalism, and shows obvious democratic thoughts. The anti-feudal significance of Jia Baoyu's character is also highlighted in the pursuit of sincere love. Baodai's love tragedy is actually a social tragedy.
Lin Daiyu is a feudal rebel with the same interests as Jia Baoyu. In her body, to some extent, it reflects the unfortunate fate of women in feudal society, their courage to resist and their passionate pursuit of free love. But her character has the reserve and fragility of a noble lady. Baoyu and Daiyu are the two favorite central figures of the author. Contrary to Baochai, Baochai is an image shaped according to feudal orthodoxy. During the decline of feudal system, she was also a tragic image.
With the feelings of justice, sympathy and cherish, the author also created a large number of maid images such as Qingwen and Yuanyang. Most of them are kind and pure, have ideals, dare to resist, and resolutely and boldly pursue a happy life. The successful shaping of the images of these bottom maids is a further manifestation of the author's democratic thought, which is of great progressive significance at that time.
The author of the book also truly and profoundly depicts the ugly faces of representatives of feudal ruling forces such as Jia She, Jia Lian, Jia Zhen and Wang Xifeng. On them, it embodies the characteristics of the exploiting class, such as debauchery, shameless, greedy, vicious and insidious. Among them, "the mouth is bitter, and it is double-edged, laughing at it and walking at the foot; Wang Xifeng, "Ming is a pot of fire, while darkness is a knife", left the deepest impression on the readers, and is a famous typical image with distinctive features in China Novel Gallery.
The artistic achievement of A Dream of Red Mansions is enormous, which is first reflected in the shaping of typical images. Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin are mostly heroes, and the struggle stories of these characters themselves have exciting power. A Dream of Red Mansions explores the souls of characters, describes the mental outlook of different characters and shapes different models. In addition, it also portrays characters with the theme of daily life and love. A Dream of Red Mansions is a vivid description of daily life scenes, which is skillfully combined with characterization. Language has reached the point of perfection. All these have had a far-reaching impact on the novel creation of later generations. A Dream of Red Mansions has high aesthetic value in poetry, drama, painting, architecture, gardens and many other aspects.