How was Dream of the Red Chamber written?

Author: Cai Yijiang
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2004-10-01
Features: This book is a new work by the renowned Red Scholar Cai Yijiang. The author explores the issues of Cao Xueqin's birth and death years, the circumstances of the Cao family and Cao Xueqin's personal life, the reality and fiction of Dream of the Red Chamber, its critics, and the of the last forty chapters, comprehensively and deeply analyzing the question of the book's creation. The language of the entire book is witty and natural, with novel and unique perspectives on argumentation, making it an innovative work in the study of the creation of Dream of the Red Chamber. In the process of its circulation, the actual situation was quite similar. Not everyone knows who the author of Dream of the Red Chamber is. Some say they can't figure it out, while others speculate it might be Cao Xueqin. But who was Cao Xueqin? Not many people knew. This understanding came from the early 20th century when the new Red School, led by Hu Shi, began historical research on the family background of the author and learned some about his family, especially his ancestors. To this day, it remains unclear who his father was, and the entire Red School is divided in opinion. Some say he was the son of Cao Yong, some say the son of Cao Yun, and some even propose that Dream of the Red Chamber was not written by Cao Xueqin. So, when was Cao Xueqin born? How old did he live to be? These questions also vary in opinion. In this context, some conventions, lacking sufficient evidence, are formed, which I believe are important conventions. , it is commonly believed that Cao Xueqin must have experienced the luxurious life of Jia Baoyu, and without such life, how could he have written it? This is a common convention. Therefore, Jia Baoyu is seen as the shadow or embodiment of Cao Xueqin, with few directly equating the two. That is, the character of Jia Baoyu is basically the same as Cao Xueqin and the author, and the story depicted in the novel, although concealing the real events, is fundamentally the family history of the Cao family. This is a convention. The second convention is that a work as rich and encyclopedic as Dream of the Red Chamber cannot be written by an author too young, lacking sufficient life experience and wisdom. If someone were to write it in their twenties, people would think it's not enough, and it would be more likely that they write it after turning thirty or thirty-something. In my opinion, this is also a convention. The third convention is that Cao Xueqin wrote Dream of the Red Chamber in a mountain village in the western suburbs of Beijing, known as "writing books in Huangye Village," a line from a poem by Dun Cheng. So, "writing books in Huangye Village." It was widely believed that Dream of the Red Chamber was written in Huangye Village in the western suburbs, but later, he didn't finish writing it and died suddenly. So, Cao Xueqin died without completing Dream of the Red Chamber. I think this is also a convention. The fourth point is that although the last forty chapters of the novel were completed by later authors, they must contain remnants of Cao Xueqin's manuscripts, some outlines, or even just some chapter titles that provided inspiration for completing these forty chapters. In my opinion, this is also a convention. And so on, these are familiar conventions. If they are to be confirmed as such, they must be based on reliable materials. However, in my opinion, these conventions do not stand up to strict scrutiny. The second issue I mentioned is determining Cao Xueqin's birth and death years, which is a key to judging whether he could have experienced the prosperous days of the Cao family. This issue is actually very crucial. Some people are not interested in the question of birth and death years. You, the Red Scholars, can argue about it. Whether he died a year earlier or later, whether he was born a few years earlier or later, what does it matter? And what does it have to do with Dream of the Red Chamber? The relationship is actually very significant. Because of different views, the birth year of Cao Xueqin differs by ten years. Some say he was born ten years earlier, and others say ten years later. However, one major event that happened after Cao Xueqin's birth was the downfall of the Cao family, specifically Cao Yun. His father was confiscated, convicted, and all his property was seized, leading to the family's decline. They moved to Beijing to live. If Cao Xueqin was three or four years old at the time, like in kindergarten, compared to when he was thirteen or fourteen, it would be very different. If he was thirteen or fourteen, he would have memories, especially of his childhood, if he were a smart person. But if he was only three or four years old when the family was confiscated, he would have no chance to experience a luxurious life. Do you think this makes a big difference? I think it does. His birth year is not recorded in history. It is deduced based on the year of his death and his age. If you know the year he died, you can calculate his age and thus his birth year. There are only two records of his age. One is from a poem written by his friend Dun Cheng, who was ten years younger than Cao Xueqin and very young. In the Jia Shen year, which is February 2, 1764, he wrote a poem in memory of Cao Xueqin. In the poem, he wrote about how many years old Cao Xueqin was. The poem was revised, so there are two drafts. One draft says, "Forty years old, too thin to live." Forty years old, so desolate, and so thin, he must have seen him during the funeral and said, "Too thin to live." The second draft says, "Forty years of youth given to the void." Forty years of youth, he died at the age of forty, "given to the void," meaning he went to the underworld. In the two revisions of the poem, the wording was changed significantly, but the opening words "Forty" were not changed. Therefore, Cao Xueqin should have been forty years old. The second material is also from a poem written by another friend of Cao Xueqin, Zhang Yixuan. Zhang Yixuan did not attend Cao Xueqin's funeral, probably because he didn't know about it. Cao Xueqin was not a celebrity or a high official, and he died in the western suburbs. Zhang Yixuan lived in the southeast, so the distance was quite far. He probably learned about it later and wrote a poem titled "Imitating Qinxiu's Residences," "Qinxiu" being the pseudonym of Cao Xueqin. The poem was mourning and lamenting him. At the beginning of the poem, he added a preface, explaining, "He died before turning fifty." His age was less than fifty. These two materials are not contradictory; both say he died before turning fifty. However, one is very specific and certain, forty, while the other is more general and uncertain. Generally speaking, the first material is more reliable and should be used as evidence. Why? Because the relationship between Dun Cheng and Cao Xueqin was quite early, before they lived in the western suburbs, they had interactions. More importantly, when he wrote the eulogy, he knew the exact age of the deceased. In our daily life, you might estimate me, Mr. Cai, to be just over sixty, or some people ask if I've reached seventy. It's always uncertain. Between friends, we might not know much unless someone specifically asks. But when someone dies, it's common to know their age, such as " forty years," which everyone knows. If someone lived to be in their eighties or nineties, that would be known. So, from this perspective, his material is accurate. Some people say, "It's fiction, sometimes people round up to the nearest whole number," so forty doesn't necessarily mean exactly forty, it could be in the forties. This might appear in other poems, but in the eulogy, it says he was clearly in his forties, whether it was forty-three or forty-four, or even forty-five or forty-six, you wouldn't necessarily subtract years and say he lived to be forty. "Forty years of youth" is "forty years of youth," but many people agree with, use, and value Zhang Yixuan's statement, "He died before turning fifty." He said this was a prose phrase, not reaching fifty. Since he didn't reach fifty, you could guess he was in his early forties or late forties. Most people guess he lived to be in his late forties, hoping Cao Xueqin lived longer, so they could better explain that he was already in his teens when the family was confiscated, and thus had some experience. This is the perspective from which they argue, but I believe we should start from the facts. We need to evaluate the credibility of each piece of evidence. In the second year of Yongzheng, by the end of the fifth year, an edict was issued to confiscate the family. If it started in the sixth year of Yongzheng, he would only be four years old in terms of the lunar calendar, around three years old in terms of the solar calendar. At that age, he couldn't understand anything, let alone have memories of a luxurious life. Moreover, by then, Cao Yun's life had already deteriorated significantly. He had to sell things to buy vegetables every day. How could he have experienced a luxurious life when the family was confiscated? There were account books and official documents detailing what was confiscated. By the end of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng and the first year of Qianlong, because the emperor changed, all convicted individuals were pardoned. One official document mentioned that Cao Yun, his father, was convicted directly for "youthful arrogance and suppression," and he had to pay a certain amount of silver. As for his public debts, of course, that was not mentioned, it was in the millions. When the family was confiscated, all their property was confiscated and that was that. The only thing he had to pay back was silver, and the amount was 4332.2 taels. That's not much. In Dream of the Red Chamber, Wang Xifeng once asked an old nun to move 2,000 to 3,000 taels of silver, saying, "Let's send this away." So, 4,000 taels of silver isn't much. Moreover, if you had the money, you had to pay it back, but if you didn't, you couldn't. During the eight years from the confiscation of Cao Yun to the end of Yongzheng and the beginning of Qianlong, he paid back 1,411 taels, leaving a debt of 3,002.2 taels. That is, the money he had to pay back, he paid back less than one-third of it, leaving two-thirds unpaid. By that time, the newly ascended Emperor Qianlong, in his early years, exempted him from the debt, like a student who couldn't afford tuition but was given a scholarship. His family was in extreme poverty, especially in this situation. If he started writing Dream of the Red Chamber at that time, how could it be the modern Dream of the Red Chamber? It was simply impossible. Therefore, my conclusion is that Cao Xueqin could not have experienced a luxurious life. This might sound too bold to some people. Can we still think of ways to make him experience such a life? Without such an experience, this is what I argue. My view differs from the current popular or authoritative views. You can study it or criticize it, but I can only express my own perspective. The third point I want to discuss is that his unfortunate fate forged a great literary talent. Cao Xueqin's misfortunes forged his great literature. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, there was a person whose pen name or alias was "Erzhidao Ren." "Erzhidao Ren" said what? He said, "The loneliness of Pu Liao Zhai," Pu Liao Zhai is Pu Songling who wrote Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. His loneliness, "lonely" is the loneliness of "gū," and "fury" is the fury of "fèn." Loneliness and fury, that is, the accumulation of grievances in one's heart, fury, "using ghosts and foxes to vent it," venting it through ghosts and foxes in the stories, "using ghosts and foxes to vent it," to vent his inner frustrations, "The loneliness of Shi Nai'an, using bandits to vent it," bandits, that is, the 108 heroes of Liangshan, writing about the heroes of Liangshan to vent his inner frustrations, loneliness and fury, "The loneliness of Cao Xueqin, using love stories to vent it," venting it through love stories, "All share a single tear of sorrow," everyone has grievances, frustrations, and anger, which led to the creation of this novel. I think this statement is very profound. You say, what is Cao Xueqin's greatest hatred, his greatest regret? I think it's not just about his life, being able to eat big fish and meat in the past, the best dishes in Dream of the Red Chamber now, you can only eat coarse tea and simple meals, not this, the most important thing is that he feels his environment, his path is blocked, that is, the path for him to make a difference in this life, to achieve great things, is blocked. Why does the novel start with a story about "Nuwa Mending the Sky"? It lists hundreds of thousands of pieces, thirty-six thousand and one, everyone goes to mend the sky, but this piece is not used. You should carefully consider these words, "Who knew this stone, after being tempered," the so-called tempering, actually means learning. In the comments of Zhi Yan Zhai, it is mentioned that one cannot avoid learning. If you are afraid of learning, then the mending stone, after being tempered, has its spiritual nature awakened, and after learning, its spiritual nature is awakened, and troubles come, its spiritual nature is awakened, "Because he saw that all the stones had gone to mend the sky," because all the stones could go to mend the sky, "only he had no talent and was not selected," he was not selected, he had no talent, "so he lamented day and night, feeling ashamed and guilty," "Mending the sky" means governing the country, in the eyes of the ancients, this was the great cause of a man, Tanchun said, "If I were a man, I would have achieved great things in governing the country," in reality, it means becoming an official and doing something for the country, "Being selected" actually means participating in the imperial examination and being selected and employed by the court, only then can you govern the country and achieve great things. In this regard, Zhi Yan Zhai once commented, saying, "He had no talent to mend the sky, he took on a human form in the world," these eight characters are the author's lifelong regret, regret, shame, and regret, lifelong regret. There is another comment that I find particularly interesting, I think it was probably written by his ancestors, he said, "The remaining piece," the remaining piece, it was useless, "then it gave rise to so many stories," so many stories, and wrote the story of Dream of the Red Chamber, "Even if he couldn't take the exam and become an official or achieve great things back then, even if he couldn't mend the sky with this," if he couldn't take the exam and become an official or achieve great things, even if he couldn't mend the sky with this, "he should have learned to mend the earth's," he should have farmed, done some practical work, to mend the earth's, the earth is full of, to do some good things, to make the earth more flat, to make the earth a little flatter, "and not have this ghostly talk," not have this ghostly talk, you can interpret it as absurd words, nonsense, in fact, it is also a story, the story of many ancestors who have become ghosts, would not have this,，，。On the one hand, in the past, if you wanted to take the imperial examination, you couldn't think like today, Cao Xueqin wrote so well, why didn't he take the exam? Could he not pass it? Not good enough at it? This is also mentioned in Dream of the Red Chamber, when talking about Jia Baoyu, that there are two paths, he did not receive systematic training, this systematic training, the training that meets the requirements of the imperial examination, the feudal orthodox literary training did not have, memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics very well, understanding the classics thoroughly, being able to write eight-legged essays, this was the only way to pass the exam, self-taught, he liked what he read, this thing Hu Shi also said he did not receive good literary training, although he was a genius, it can be seen that he did not receive training, self-taught. But in this way, it gave him knowledge of various subjects, especially his philosophy, he knew a little of everything, medicine, architecture, textiles, food, this was very beneficial for writing novels. Another fundamental point is that his family environment and political conditions were not qualified, which we can understand today. We no longer emphasize this when applying for university. I haven't heard of a case where a father committed a serious crime and his son went on to become a top scorer in the exam a few years later. How could that be? This has to be investigated, what the father does. So, this path was blocked for him, from the conditions he prepared, he did not have, he did not receive strict training from a good teacher, objectively speaking, he did not have the hope of being selected in the exam, so this path was blocked for him, he could not go to govern the country, govern the country, do other great things, but if he were to work or farm, Cao Xueqin was not content with it, so he had to write articles, hoping to let people know his talent, and chose to write novels.