Chapter 18 The Influence of "Dream of Red Mansions" on "A Dream in the Garden"

In the twenty-third chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, "The Story of the West Chamber, the Wonderful Words and the Jokes, and the Peony Pavilion, the Beautiful Songs Police the Heart", it is written that Daiyu and Baoyu watched together in the Grand View Garden, and at the same time they buried the fallen flowers on the ground.It was the late spring and March, and Daiyu walked alone through the Lixiangyuan, and happened to hear a girl from the opera troupe inside singing the aphorisms in Peony Pavilion's "Garden Tour": It turned out to be colorful Like this, it's all in ruins

Good days and beautiful days Who's home for pleasure Daiyu didn't feel "heartache and shaking", "deliriously drunk", and later "heartache and tears in her eyes". This paragraph describes the shock Daiyu suffered in her soul when she listened to the music.In terms of the development of the theme of the whole book, this time also occupies an important position, because it is the first time Daiyu wakes up to the warning signs that life is impermanent and prosperity is easy to rest.With the foreshadowing of this episode, there is the twenty-seventh chapter of Daiyu's self-element "The Song of Burying Flowers", which further points to Daiyu's fate of "returning her soul to leave the hateful sky".

Cao Xueqin is used to imply the love between Baoyu and Daiyu, and to allude to Daiyu's premature death.It is one of the important narrative skills to use opera interludes to promote the plot of the novel and strengthen the theme of the novel.Of course, the interspersed operas in Chinese novels did not start from there, and there are many operas interspersed in them.However, most of the operas in the novel are decorative and do not necessarily have a significant relationship with the theme of the novel.However, the traditional opera is integrated with the text of the novel, which not only enriches the plot of the novel, but more importantly, hints at the fate of the main characters in the novel.

Beginning with the fifth chapter "Jia Baoyu's Imaginary Journey into the Realm of the Void", the twelve tunes of Jing Huan Xiangu are like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, singing the tragic ending of the twelve golden hairpins at the beginning.These twelve pieces of music are like the general outline of the novel, laying the groundwork for the important plots of the future development of the story.In the eighteenth Yuanchun return to the province, four operas were selected: "Luxury Banquet", "Qiqiao", "Xianyuan", and "Lihun". Zhiyanzhai believes that the four events in these four operas are the book of Tongbu These four plays are taken from "A Handful of Snow", "Handan Dream" and "Handan Dream", alluding to the rise and fall of Jia's mansion and the rise and fall of the characters respectively. "Leaving the Soul" is the repertoire of the play, which appears for the first time in the book, and it echoes the 23 chapters of "Entering the Garden". "Leaving the Soul" narrates the premature death of Du Liniang and the death of Daiyu who was hiding in secret.It’s no wonder that in the twenty-third chapter, when Daiyu heard the aphorisms in Lixiangyuan, her heart ached and her eyes shed tears, because Crimson Pearl Immortal Grass realized that she would die with all the flowers in the end, and her fate was irreversible. , issued a helpless lament.

On the one hand, Cao Xueqin used the plots in the operas to enhance the dramatic effect of the novel, and on the other hand, he used the beautiful poems in the operas to set off the lyrical sentiment of the novels.This method of using drama to point questions is a supreme artistic achievement in Cao Xueqin's novel techniques. This play also occupies a decisive and important position in the novel "A Dream in the Garden".Regardless of the theme, plot, characters, and atmosphere of the novel, they complement each other.Even the rhythm of the novel, the author tried to compare it with the melody of Kunqu opera in "A Dream in the Garden".The story of the novel tells the story of Lan Tianyu, a performer on the banks of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, who marries an old general and enjoys all the glory and wealth.After arriving in Taiwan, the general passed away, and the status of Lantian jade declined.

The story begins, General Qian's wife, Lan Tianyu, went to the residence of General Dou in Taipei for a banquet.Mrs. Dou is Mrs. Qian's sister when she performed in the Qinhuai River.Now life is luxurious, the banquet is grand, and there are also a cappella sideshows in the meeting.What a guest sang was the Kunqu opera of "A Dream in the Garden".The climax of the story focuses on Mrs. Qian's Lantian jade, hearing the Kunqu opera "A Dream in the Garden", and the inner shock.Just like Daiyu listening to the music in the 23rd chapter, Lantianyu also began to "shake her heart" and "be mesmerized".And the Kunqu opera libretto quoted in the novel also contains the aphorisms in "You Garden" quoted in Chapter 23.

The Kunqu Opera "A Dream in the Garden" is also closely related to the ups and downs of Lan Tianyu's life.First of all, General Qian married her as his wife because he was overwhelmed by Lantian Yuqing's singing "A Dream in the Garden" because of her talent.But the more important point is that at an a cappella party in Nanjing, when Mrs. Qian Lantianyu sang "A Dream in the Garden", she found out that her lover Zheng Yanqing and Staff Officer Zheng had an affair with her sister Yue Yuehong.In a fit of rage, Lan Tianyu lost her voice.A few years later, in the Tianmu Dou mansion in Taipei, because of hearing "A Dream in the Garden", she was touched by the scene and experienced the most painful experience in her life again psychologically, and lost her voice again.This memory in the novel uses the technique of "stream of consciousness" to present Mrs. Qian's "heartache and longing" passion in conjunction with the music and plot development of Kunqu Opera, and present it in a stripped-down manner.This is completely different from the objective description of Daiyu listening to the music in the twenty-third chapter, "fascinated".However, as far as the technique of "using drama to point questions" is concerned, "A Dream in the Garden" undoubtedly inherits the tradition.The novel also mentions several other Beijing operas, such as "The Drunken Concubine" and "Luo Shen", alluding to Mrs. Qian's life experience and secrets of Lantian Yu from different angles.

In fact, the theme of "A Dream in the Garden" is similar to that, which is to express the traditional Chinese Buddhist and Taoist philosophy that the world is impermanent and life is like a dream.That is to say, the two lines on the couplet in the illusory world: true and false Inaction, everywhere, and nothing