Chapter 13 Part One Discussion on the Annotation of "A Dream of Red Mansions" in Section 13 Selected from the Posthumous Works (2)

How to retreat?I not only understand that rhinoceros has the meaning of "right and transparent", "reverse and transparent", and "it is precious to be transparent to the end", but also know that there is a saying in the records that "the shape of a bamboo rhinoceros is large and thick, and it can be confused with the real one", and I understand that the city language of Yuan and Ming zaju said " "Qiao" mostly refers to pretending to be fake, so the name "Dianxi" at that time meant that it meant "fake to the bottom" and "fake to the bottom"?I understood naturally.

There will also be people who disagree with this explanation, thinking that it seems too persuasive.From a partial point of view, it is indeed close to piercing.However, judging from the satirical criticism of Miaoyu's character in this section of the article and the whole book, it is generally correct to say that the names of these two utensils are intended for harmony and understanding.This is also worth looking at pragmatically from another perspective.Since the Qing Dynasty, from Kangxi to Qianlong, "Gegu Yaolun", "Qing Secret Collection", "Zunsheng Eight Notes", "Nigulu", "Changwuzhi", "Museum Yaolan" and other Ming people's talks Variety books are in fashion. "Gezhi Jingyuan" is newly engraved and published, and it is divided into categories to collect more. "Yuanjian Leihan" is not only published in the palace version with large characters, but also in the ancient Xiangzhai towel box.Talking about rhino horn and ivory writing and playing things, in Cao Xueqin's time, was actually familiar to ordinary nobles and literati.Therefore, this kind of words alluding to famous objects is similar to the lantern riddles described in the book. At that time, girls such as Pinger and Yuanyang could solve the riddles.I feel that explaining the obscure name of the second tea set is because modern people are out of touch with that era. (In fact, it is very possible that Miaoyu gave Baoyu the "Green Jade Dou" and "hugging jade belly"!)

Generally speaking, the commentators are not pragmatic enough, not deep enough, and lack proper understanding of this article, so they cannot put the things mentioned in the historical and social background at that time to understand. This section of the article talks about Miaoyu's love of cleanliness and elegance, but on the back there is a subtle and profound meaning that everything is false.The so-called smooth and steady praise and criticism are combined with the things of the time. Two hundred years ago, readers could understand it without paying attention.However, in modern times, due to the extraordinary social changes in the past half century, even the experts and scholars who annotate books and teach books, if they don't put in a lot of effort, it is actually not easy to understand everything mentioned in the book.Although the things described in the book may be in our sights in the Palace Museum (I remember that there was a tall rhinoceros horn cup displayed in the Treasure Museum), if no one points it out, this happens to be what was mentioned on a certain page , and still cannot be transferred to the note.Annotators can neither obtain the necessary knowledge perceptually, nor learn from dictionaries, and it is of course difficult to master it only from subjective guesses.Therefore, it is understandable that the annotation cannot be just right.In order to implement the annotations, the ideal is that someone can use a positive and responsible working attitude, start from practice, be ruthless, learn it down-to-earth, and then make annotations.The second is to adopt a more honest and cautious work attitude. If you don't understand what you don't understand at the moment, you might as well not pay attention to it for the time being.

When it was republished in 1957, the editorial department of the People's Literature Publishing House mentioned it on the front page, and had referred to the unpublished part of my work about annotations and materials.In fact, when correcting these mistakes, not many commenters adopted them, and the original mistakes were still kept, so I tried to bring up two or three things for discussion at that time. The predecessors often said that it is not easy to write a book, but in fact, the work of annotating a book is really easy!He must understand not only language, but also literature, not only society, but also cultural relics.More importantly, these points cannot be regarded as isolated things, they must be integrated into a piece of knowledge.In particular, such a great realistic work, which is rich in content and reflects all aspects of the upper class of society in the eighteenth century, involves a series of customs, customs, systems of names and objects, and many new things from abroad. It is worth taking a more cautious attitude with dim sum!As with much academic research, it appears that walking on two legs could also be used.One is that the publishing department reorganizes some social forces, such as comrades working in the Ming and Qing Art History Group of the Forbidden City, the Museum of Literature and History, the Beijing Library, the Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of History and Languages, as well as correcting the words and sentences of different versions of this book. It is a more prudent way to follow the mass line by correcting the original annotations by category, supplementing the parts that should be noted, and then reprinting.If you want to further advance, you might as well encourage some individuals to try to adopt a newer working method, honestly go to the warehouses of the Forbidden City to study cultural relics for three to five years, and get familiar with all daily-use utensils. You have to learn everything before you can understand it. , to make a good bet!

I heard that there are nearly a thousand students in the Department of Chinese Literature at Peking University. They study "Chu Ci", Yuefu Poems, Tang Poems, and even novels such as "Peking University". The issues are pretty much the same.As far as Zhu Gan and Yu Qi are concerned, because I don’t know the different images of Shang and Zhou lacquer shields, and many different styles of jade Qi, and some Qi with small jade inlaid in the center of bronze manufacturing, I only go around in circles from the ancient and recent works. It is impossible to get a specific and correct impression to correct the mistakes of "Three Ceremonies"!Things that are similar to those mentioned in the book must still be troublesome and hard to understand, so the real problem solving in the future may not be the teacher but the classmates.If each class of graduating students has resumed the previous graduation thesis system, the department can make a plan to make overall arrangements. Someone will make new evidences for famous things in "Chu Ci", someone will make new evidences for "Jijiuzhang" and "Shiming", and someone will Making new notes on Tang poems, someone doing research on cultural relics... In this way, the materials are accumulated and stored in the department. After a decade or so, the teaching situation will inevitably change from the old one!This job is easy to say, but it will naturally be much more difficult than ordinary papers if you do it seriously.Because each item is required to be unambiguous and implemented one by one, even one has to learn to draw and reflect the object with specific images.No matter how smart and industrious a person is, concentrating on one or two years of work may not necessarily yield satisfactory results.But the way is right, you might as well use the postgraduate or teaching assistantship for a few more years after graduation.If we want to do this work in a very practical way, we must admit that the working method must also be changed, that is, we should adopt a new attitude of seeking truth from facts, such as making notes for daily use, going to the exhibition team of the Ming and Qing Dynasties of the Palace Museum and the work teams of various warehouses to learn from experience, Combining literature and cultural relics well, first conducting a pilot investigation and research on 100 articles, and then gradually expanding the scope, can we hope to understand thoroughly, make real notes, and be of real help to readers.Only the knowledge obtained from such practical work can be used to correct old mistakes and enrich with new content.

This kind of fundamental change in learning annotations and working methods in the treasury, we dare not have too much hope for an accomplished expert who understands human language, because the work of document sorting still needs their guidance.For a young and strong student who understands that only through this kind of investigation, research and practice can he hope to make due progress in his work, he will be willing to accept this new task.I believe that after a certain period of time, you will be able to overcome the inevitable difficulties in your work and achieve a very satisfactory harvest!

(Originally published in Guangming Daily, August 6, 1961