Tumuerhe Red Chamber Literature Lectures

Author: Tu Mo Re Zhe
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2007-01-01
Features: First and foremost, it must be clarified: Dream of the Red Chamber is a novel, not a historical record. Novel creation has its own general principles, and Dream of the Red Chamber, of course, is no exception. How the author's creative impulse arose, how the theme was determined, how the materials were collected, and how the techniques were planned—all can be analyzed and judged according to the general principles of literary creation. There is no literary creation activity outside these principles. Today, in the study of Dream of the Red Chamber, whether in textual research, cryptanalysis, commentary, or exploration, none of the schools investigate the literary creative process of Dream of the Red Chamber. Instead, they adopt the absurd and illogical method of forcing a fit, portraying Cao Xueqin as an all-powerful genius, embellishing Dream of the Red Chamber as a work invented out of thin air, and depicting the creative process as a senseless farce, sliding into the of "Cao Studies" and sinking into the mire of subjectivism. Based on the general principles of literary creation, this paper analyzes the creative process of Dream of the Red Chamber and attempts to reveal the truth behind its birth, truly restoring the status of "scholarship" to the study of Dream of the Red Chamber.
I. The Creative Impulse Behind Dream of the Red Chamber
Any successful work must begin with a strong creative impulse in the author's heart, a passion that becomes irresistible and gives rise to the cries from the soul: "I must write, I must write, I must write immediately." Hugo's Les Misérables, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman and Remembrance of What Must Not Be Forgotten all exemplify this. The author of Dream of the Red Chamber must have had the same creative impulse at the outset. At the beginning of Dream of the Red Chamber, in the "Author's Self-Introduction," it is revealed that the author "after having experienced a series of dreams" was in a state of "more guilt than regret, with no hope for redemption." He wanted to record his past life, "relying on the favor of heaven and the virtue of his ancestors," his days of "fine robes and luxurious living," his ingratitude to his parents and teachers, and his failure to achieve anything in life, "half a lifetime of misfortune and despair," as a warning to all people. The creative impulse of the author of Dream of the Red Chamber stemmed from an "experience of a dream," which plunged him into a desperate state of "no hope for redemption." This "dream" was the complete collapse of Hong Sheng's dream of a "official career and economic prosperity." In the autumn of the 28th year of the Kangxi reign, Hong Sheng was arrested and imprisoned by the court for performing The Palace of Eternal Life during a national mourning, stripped of his title as a "student of the Imperial Academy," and completely cut off from the path to officialdom. After his release, Hong Sheng felt "more guilty than regretful" and, in a state of anger and helplessness, ran to Pan Mountain in the suburbs of the capital, spending "ten days" meditating in the Qinggou Temple. Hong Sheng's creative impulse must have arisen during his meditation on Pan Mountain. Pan Mountain has Pan Gu Temple, which is said to be the place where Pan Gu opened the "Great Wilderness" from chaos; Pan Mountain has many large stones, and the "Wind-Responsive Stone" near Qinggou Temple is said to be a stone discarded by Nuwa when she failed to repair the sky. At this time, in his state of despair, Hong Sheng compared himself to this stubborn stone and conceived the idea of writing Dream of the Red Chamber based on his own experiences, which should be the most reasonable judgment of the creative impulse behind Dream of the Red Chamber.
II. The Creative Theme of Dream of the Red Chamber
In the study of Dream of the Red Chamber, there is no doubt about the work's theme, which is considered to have three layers: "love," "hatred," and "emptiness." However, as to why the work established these three themes, it seems that no scholar has yet been able to explain it clearly. After Hong Sheng developed the creative impulse for Dream of the Red Chamber on Pan Mountain, he first had to clarify the creative theme—that is, what he wanted to write and what kind of emotion he wanted to express. Establishing the theme of "hatred" was without question, as the creative impulse arose from "hatred." What to hate? Whom to hate? First, he hated the "Nuwa" who discarded the stone for repairing the sky, that is, he hated the court that stripped him of his title and prospects; second, he hated his own "busyness in the dust of the world, achieving nothing," his idleness and incompetence during his days of "fine robes and luxurious living," which led to his current poverty and despair, "with no hope for the country or the family." Why did Hong Sheng establish the theme of "love"? This was determined by Hong Sheng's life experiences with emotions. Hong Sheng had two intelligent and beautiful younger sisters, as well as many "delicate as frost tubes, beautiful as cloud scrolls" younger cousins. From the poems Hong Sheng wrote about them, it can be seen that they were all talented women and had been composing poems together since childhood. Their fates were tragic; both of Hong Sheng's younger sisters died young due to unhappy marriages. Hong Sheng's wife, Huang Hui, styled Lanzhi, was his closest younger cousin, having grown up together since childhood. Their relationship in the early part of their lives was deeply intertwined, and in the later part, they supported each other through hardship and poverty, spending their lives in tears for Hong Sheng. Hong Sheng's twelve younger cousins were all beautiful and intelligent, famous poets of their time, and yet, in that specific historical period, they all met the tragic fate of "a thousand reds weeping together." In the creation of Dream of the Red Chamber, "suddenly remembering all the women of that time," portraying "women of the inner chambers vividly present," was a natural occurrence. Why did Hong Sheng also establish the theme of "emptiness" and write "a vast white land, truly clean"? This was determined by the real-life experiences of Hong Sheng's family. Hong Sheng was born in Hangzhou, a "land of flowers and willows, a region of gentleness and wealth." The Hong family was a "prominent family in the southeast" that had experienced over a hundred years of prosperity. In the early Qing Dynasty, due to the change of dynasties, the Hong family inevitably declined. The family placed its hope for revival on Hong Sheng, but Hong Sheng, due to his own "madness," completely cut off his path to officialdom and, at the same time, completely cut off the hope of the Hong family for revival in the new dynasty. In fact, before Hong Sheng's death, his family members were scattered, and their wealth had collapsed, leaving behind a vast, desolate land. Hong Sheng's establishment of the theme of "emptiness" in Dream of the Red Chamber was inevitable.
III. The Creative Technique of Dream of the Red Chamber
Hong Sheng's masterpiece is The Palace of Eternal Life. The Palace of Eternal Life was written before the 27th year of the Kangxi reign and was Hong Sheng's work from his youth. The Palace of Eternal Life was poured into by Hong Sheng's ten years of effort and was revised three times. Hong Sheng was proud of The Palace of Eternal Life throughout his life. The creative technique of Dream of the Red Chamber consciously or unconsciously inherited the plot and structure of The Palace of Eternal Life, which was only natural. First, on the surface, it adopted a creative method that intertwined dreams and realism. The protagonists of The Palace of Eternal Life were the "Immortal Kong Sheng" and "Immortal Peng Lai" from the "Penglai Fairyland," while the protagonists of Dream of the Red Chamber were the "Divine Ying Attendant" and "Scarlet Pearl Immortal" from the "Great Void Illusory Realm." The fate of the characters in The Palace of Eternal Life was arranged and manipulated by the "Immortal of the Great Mists," the "Immortal of the Vast Mists," and the "Immortal Jing Huan," while the fate of the characters in Dream of the Red Chamber was arranged and manipulated by the "Immortal of the Vast Mists," the "Immortal of the Vast Mists," and the "Immortal Jing Huan." The life stories of the female protagonists in The Palace of Eternal Life were recorded in the "Palace Concubines Register" and "Imperial Consorts Chronicle," while those in Dream of the Red Chamber were recorded in the "Register of the Ill-Fated." Second, in terms of content, it adopted a pure and innocent technique of depicting triangular love relationships, known as "intoxicated love." The protagonist of The Palace of Eternal Life, Emperor Minghuang, had a triangular love relationship with the Empress and the concubine Mei, with his love wavering between them until it became loyal after making a secret vow in the "Palace of Eternal Life." The protagonist of Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu, had a triangular love relationship with the older sister and the younger sister, often forgetting the younger sister when he saw the older sister, and becoming steadfast after confessing their feelings in the "Gardens of Perfect Joy." The Palace of Eternal Life avoided any "impure" scenes, writing the pure love between Li and Yang; Dream of the Red Chamber, in contrast, focused on "intoxicated love," excluding "skin-deep lust," and wrote the heart-to-heart connection between Bao and Dai.
IV. The Creative Materials of Dream of the Red Chamber
The basic creative materials of Dream of the Red Chamber are undoubtedly the real life of Hong Sheng and his family. The decline of the Jia family in the book is the decline of the Hong family; the emotional life of Baoyu in the book is the emotional entanglement of Hong Sheng with his wife, younger sisters, and younger cousins; the rebellious nature of Baoyu in the book, who rejects the path of "official career and economic prosperity," is a true portrayal of Hong Sheng's own experiences; the "Gardens of Perfect Joy," the paradise of the children in the book, was created based on the back garden of the Hong family, which was granted by the Song Dynasty emperors and named after the reign title of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, "Gardens of Perfect Joy."
Dream of the Red Chamber is, after all, a novel, and it inevitably absorbed some other materials seen and heard by the author during the creative process. From the literary works we can see today, the materials absorbed by Dream of the Red Chamber are all directly related to Hong Sheng's life experiences. In the figure of Miaoyu, there is the shadow of Chen Miaochang. Miaoyu's name, status, and emotions are all related to Chen Miaochang. The story of Chen Miaochang was widely circulated in Suzhou and Hangzhou in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and Hong Sheng must have been very familiar with it. In Daiyu, there is the shadow of Feng Xiaqing. The story of Feng Xiaqing is one of the most famous legends in Hangzhou. Xiaqing was a talented and beautiful courtesan born in Huaiyang, who was taken as a concubine by Feng Sheng of Hangzhou at the age of sixteen. Due to the cruelty and jealousy of her senior wife, Xiaqing was forced to live separately on a remote island in West Lake, where she died of depression at the age of eighteen. The poems left by Xiaqing and Daiyu have a similar artistic effect, and the burning of Xiaqing's poems and Daiyu's breaking of her heart are also related. Daiyu's burial of flowers was clearly copied from the story of Tang Yin burying flowers, and the "Lament for Buried Flowers" is a copy of Tang Yin's poem, not only in content but also in many phrases. According to the Chronicle of Hong Sheng, Hong Sheng, in his later years, went to Suzhou's Peach Blossom Valley to pay his respects at Tang Yin's tomb. In Peach Blossom Valley, Hong Sheng compared his own fate to Tang Yin's and was deeply moved, composing four poems in which he wrote, "Who will mourn the spring breeze on the Xiling road?" "Liu Qilang" refers to Liu Zhiqing of the Song Dynasty, whose story is recorded in the Stories of Qingping Mountain Hall published by the Hong family. Hong Sheng compared himself to "Liu Qilang," lamenting that no one would mourn him in the future, which was exactly the same sentiment as Daiyu's lamenting, "Who will mourn me when I am buried?"
V. The Creative Process of Dream of the Red Chamber
From the 28th year of the Kangxi reign to Hong Sheng's death, over fifteen years, Hong Sheng seemed to have never stopped writing Dream of the Red Chamber. During this time, he revised the work several times, but it is impossible to trace them. However, from the several aliases of Dream of the Red Chamber recorded in the book, it seems to reflect several stages of Hong Sheng's creation.
In the autumn of the 28th year of the Kangxi reign, after suffering a major blow in life, Hong Sheng, under a large stone on Pan Mountain in the suburbs of the capital, began to the creation of a work, mainly portraying himself as a "stubborn stone" that could not repair the sky, writing his "hatred" and "regret" for being "hopeless for the country and the family." At this time, the title of the work should have been The Story of the Stone.
In the 30th year of the Kangxi reign, Hong Sheng returned to his hometown of Hangzhou. Reflecting on his homeland, he inevitably turned to writing "love." From the story of the "Three-Life Stone" in Hangzhou's Tianzhu Temple, he also gave birth to the images of "Shen Ying" and "Jiang Zhu," and the concept of "returning tears." At this time, the title of the work should have been changed to The Record of the Passionate Monk.
In the 38th year of the Kangxi reign, Hong Sheng's parents had already passed away, and two of his younger sisters and one younger brother had also died young. The Hong family, a "prominent family in the southeast" that had experienced over a hundred years of prosperity, had completely collapsed. The family placed its hope for revival on Hong Sheng, but Hong Sheng, due to his own "madness," completely cut off his path to officialdom and, at the same time, completely cut off the hope of the Hong family for revival in the new dynasty. In fact, before Hong Sheng's death, his family members were scattered, and their wealth had collapsed, leaving behind a vast, desolate land. Hong Sheng's establishment of the theme of "emptiness" in Dream of the Red Chamber was inevitable.
After this, until his death by drowning in the 43rd year of the Kangxi reign, Hong Sheng's nihilistic ideas became increasingly severe. During this period, his son Zhen began to seek official status, and his grandson gradually grew up. Young talents in Hangzhou also began to study under Hong Sheng. To teach the young people and prevent them from following his own "madness" in his youth, renaming the work to The Precious Mirror of Wind and Moon was perhaps a reasonable explanation.
In the 43rd year of the Kangxi reign, Hong Sheng was invited by Cao Yin to perform The Palace of Eternal Life for three days at the Jiangning Imperial Textile Factory. According to the poem Cao Yin wrote for Hong Sheng, Hong Sheng brought his "draft" to Cao's mansion. Cao Yin read the "draft" and saw that it contained the words, "Satisfying years of madness, fearful of old age's writing." It is not difficult to see that Hong Sheng's "draft" was not the manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber? Hong Sheng drowned on his way home and died two years later. Cao Yin also died of illness, and soon after, the Cao family was confiscated. Who would then take the trouble to publish Hong Sheng's "draft"? When it reached Cao Xueqin, he probably felt that the content of the book was similar to his own family, so he revised and edited Hong Sheng's "draft" and renamed it The Twelve Beauties of Jinling, which was then copied and circulated. The "Xueqin once had The Precious Mirror of Wind and Moon" refers to the "draft" left by Hong Sheng. The work titled The Twelve Beauties of Jinling did not survive, and what remains today are only the works titled The Story of the Stone and Dream of the Red Chamber, which may be because Cao Xueqin made little changes, basically preserving the original form of Hong Sheng's work.