Since the establishment of Cao Xueqin as the novel's author, its autobiographical aspects have come to the fore. Among these, the novel is particularly notable for its grand use of poetry. The novel also vividly depicts Chinese material culture, such as medicine, cuisine, tea culture, festivities, proverbs, mythology, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, filial piety, opera, music, architecture, funeral rites, painting, classic literature and the Four Books. One remarked that the novel is a remarkable example of the "dialectic of dream and reality, art and life, passion and enlightenment, nostalgia and knowledge." Later scholars echoed the philosophical aspects of love and its transcendent power as depicted in the novel. It is suggested that the novel is both a realistic reflection and a fictional or "dream" version of Cao's own family.Įarly Chinese critics identified its two major themes as those of romantic love, and of the transitoriness of earthly material values, as outlined in Buddhist and Taoist philosophies. Though Not-real was once Real, the Real is never unreal.Īs one critic points out, the couplet signifies "not a hard and fast division between truth and falsity, reality and illusion, but the impossibility of making such distinctions in any world, fictional or actual." This theme is further reflected in the name of the main family, Jia (賈, pronounced jiǎ), which is a homophone with the character jiǎ 假, meaning false or fictitious this is mirrored the surname of the other main family, Zhen (甄, pronounced zhēn), a homophone for the word "real" (真). When Fiction departs and Truth appears, Truth prevails This couplet is later reiterated, however this time as: Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real. Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true The opening chapter of the novel describes a great stone archway and on either side a couplet is inscribed: A commentary on the novel by writer Jiang Shunyi, dated 1869 At this moment, how can he not be enlightened? Finally, there is a time when one feels that everything he does is futile.
However, the experiences of prosperity and decline, coming together and dispersing are too common how can his mind be like wood and stone, without being moved by all this? In the beginning there is a profusion of intimate feelings, which is followed by tears and lamentations.
The most sagacious and wise is certainly not submerged in considerations of loss and gain. A man in his life experiences several decades of winter and summer. Honglou meng is a book about enlightenment. Home Dream of the Red Chamber Wikipedia: Themes
0 kommentar(er)
