Tumuerhe Red Chamber Literature Lectures

Author: Tu Mo Re
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2007-01-01
Features: First and foremost, it must be made clear that 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 material was collected, and how the creative techniques were planned—all can be analyzed and judged according to the general principles of literary creation. There is no literary creative activity that exists 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 concocted out of thin air, and depicting the creative process of Dream of the Red Chamber as a senseless farce, sliding into the of "Cao Studies" and falling 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 creation, 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 uncontrollable, echoing the cries from the depths of the soul: "I must write, I have to write, I must write immediately." Hugo's Les Misérables, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman and In Memory of What Is Forgotten—all exemplify this. The author of Dream of the Red Chamber must have experienced 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," found himself in a state of "more guilt than regret, with no hope for redemption." He wanted to record the past when he had "the favor of heaven, the virtue of ancestors, the days of fine robes and rich food, the gratitude to parents for education, and the kindness of elder brothers for discipline, only to end up with nothing accomplished in life and a half-life of misfortune." He decided to compile a record to warn the world. The creative impulse of the author of Dream of the Red Chamber stemmed from having experienced "a dream," which plunged him into a state of "no hope for redemption." This "dream" was the complete collapse of Hong Sheng's "official career and economic dreams." 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, with no hope for redemption," and in a fit of anger and helplessness, he ran to Pan Mountain in the suburbs of the capital, spending "ten days" in meditation at Qinggou Temple. Hong Sheng's creative impulse likely arose during his time of 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 is also filled with large rocks, and the "Wind-Responsive Stone" near Qinggou Temple is said to be one of the stones discarded by Nuwa when she failed to repair the sky. At this time, Hong Sheng, in his despair, compared himself to this stubborn stone and conceived the idea of compiling a record of his own experiences for Dream of the Red Chamber. This is the most reasonable judgment of the creative impulse behind Dream of the Red Chamber.
II. The Creative Theme of Dream of the Red Chamber
There is no doubt in the academic world about the theme of Dream of the Red Chamber, which is considered to have three layers: "love," "hatred," and "emptiness." However, no scholar has yet explained clearly why the work was established with these three themes. After Hong Sheng developed the creative impulse for Dream of the Red Chamber on Pan Mountain, he first had to clarify the creative theme—what he wanted to write and what 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 future prospects; second, he hated his own "busyness in the dust of the world, accomplishing nothing" in his days of fine robes and rich food, neglecting his duties, incompetent and unworthy, leading to his current poverty and misfortune, 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 personal emotional experiences. Hong Sheng had two intelligent and beautiful younger sisters, as well as many "peach blossoms and plum blossoms, more beautiful than jade paper" as his cousins. From the poems Hong Sheng wrote about them, it is clear that they were all talented women and had been composing poetry together since childhood. Their fates were all tragic; Hong Sheng's two younger sisters died young due to unhappy marriages. Hong Sheng's wife, Huang Hui, styled Lan Ci, was his own cousin, and they had grown up together since childhood. Their emotional experiences in the first half of their lives were deeply intertwined, and in the second half, they lived together in poverty and hardship, Hong Sheng. Hong Sheng's twelve cousins were all beautiful and intelligent, renowned poets of their time, and in that specific historical period, they all fell victim to 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 quarters vividly present," was a natural occurrence. Why did Hong Sheng also establish the theme of "emptiness" and write "a boundless 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 prosperous and wealthy region," and the Hong family was a southeastern "notable family" 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 pinned their hopes on Hong Sheng to revitalize them, 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's revival in the new dynasty. In fact, before Hong Sheng's death, his family members were scattered, and their wealth had collapsed, truly becoming a boundless white land. Hong Sheng's establishment of the theme of "emptiness" in Dream of the Red Chamber was inevitable.
III. The Creative Techniques of Dream of the Red Chamber
Hong Sheng's masterpiece is the Legend of 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 techniques 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 Immortal World," while the protagonists of Dream of the Red Chamber were the "Divine Ying Attendant" and "Red Pearl Immortal Maiden" from the "Great Void Illusory Realm." The fate of the characters in The Palace of Eternal Life was arranged and manipulated by the "BullOCK Immortal," the "Grand Bodhisattva of the Weaver Maiden," and the "Immortal Maiden of the Moon Palace," while the fate of the characters in Dream of the Red Chamber was arranged and manipulated by the "Vast and Boundless Immortal," the "Infinite Immortal," and the "Immortal Maiden of the Bewildering Dreams." The lives of the female protagonists in The Palace of Eternal Life were recorded in the "Palace Concubine Register" and "Empress and Queen Register," while the lives of the female protagonists 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 "intimate desire" technique for depicting multiple love affairs. The protagonists of The Palace of Eternal Life, Emperor Minghuang and the concubines Yuhuan and Meifei, had a triangular love affair, with their love wavering in the triangle and later becoming loyal after making a secret vow in the "Palace of Eternal Life." The protagonists of Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu and his sisters Baoyao and Linyao, often forgot one sister when they saw the other, and later became steadfast after confessing their hearts in the "Gardens of Perfect Joy." The Palace of Eternal Life avoided any "impure traces," depicting the pure love between Li and Yang; Dream of the Red Chamber, in contrast, focused on "intimate desire," excluding "skin-deep lust," depicting the heart-to-heart connection between Bao and Dai.
IV. The Creative Material of Dream of the Red Chamber
The basic material for the creation of Dream of the Red Chamber is undoubtedly the real life of Hong Sheng and his family. This is without question. The decline of the Jia family in the book is the decline of the Hong family; the emotional life of Jia Baoyu in the book is the emotional entanglement of Hong Sheng with his wife, Huang Hui, his younger sisters, and his cousins; the rebellious nature of Jia Baoyu in the book, who rejects the path of "official career and economic dreams," 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 a garden granted by the Song Dynasty emperors, and "Gardens of Perfect Joy" was the reign title of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. Dream of the Red Chamber is, after all, a novel, and it inevitably absorbed some other materials that the author had seen or heard 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 character of Miaoyu, there is the shadow of Chen Miao Chang. Miaoyu's name, identity, and emotions are all related to Chen Miao Chang. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the story of Chen Miao Chang was widely circulated in Suzhou and Hangzhou, 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 extreme jealousy and cruelty of her senior wife, Xiaqing was forced to live separately on a remote island of 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 is obviously a copy of the story of Tang Yin burying flowers, and the "Elegy on Burying 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 went to Suzhou's Peach Blossom Valley in his later years 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, one of which included the line "Who will mourn the spring wind on the Xiling Road?" "Liu Qi Lang" refers to Liu Xie 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 Qi Lang" and lamented that no one would mourn him in the future, which was exactly the same sentiment as Daiyu's lament in Dream of the Red Chamber that "who will mourn me in the future."
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 working on Dream of the Red Chamber. During this time, he revised the work several times, but these revisions are now unknown. However, from the several aliases of Dream of the Red Chamber recorded in the book, we can see 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, was, mainly writing about himself as a "stubborn stone" who had "no hope for the country or the family," filled with "hatred" and "regret." 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 and, reflecting on his homeland, naturally turned to writing "love." Starting from the story of the "Three-Life Stone" in Hangzhou's Tianzhu Temple, he also created the images of "Shen Ying" and "Jiang Zhu," and the concept of "returning tears." At this time, the name 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, his two younger sisters and one younger brother had also died young, and the southeastern "notable family" of the Hong family had already "fallen into a boundless white land," with the dream of prosperity for generations completely shattered. After moving the remains of his younger sisters and brothers, Hong Sheng was overwhelmed with grief. At this time, the content of the work must have been heavily written with "emptiness and illusion," and the name of the work should have been Dream of the Red Chamber. 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 Hong Zhen began to seek official status, and his grandson gradually grew up. Young talents in Hangzhou also joined Hong Sheng's circle of learners. To teach the young people and prevent them from following the "madness" of his youth, renaming the work to The Precious Mirror of Wind and Moon would have been 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, and Cao Yin read the "draft," seeing that the content recorded was "a wild life in satisfying years, a fearful work in old age." 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 two years later, Cao Yin also died, 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 published. The "Xueqin once had The Precious Mirror of Wind and Moon," referring to the "draft" left by Hong Sheng. The work titled The Twelve Beauties of Jinling has not been passed down, 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 appearance of Hong Sheng's work.