Chapter 49 Writing Skills in A Dream of Red Mansions

I really didn't expect that the article about it was so difficult to write!I read this great literary work from the beginning again. Before going to bed, after dinner, or when I was doing other things, I was always thinking about it in my mind, and I still couldn't pick up a clue to write.The reason is also very simple: this book is about the history of the rise and fall of the four major families Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and the main part is the decline and decline.The social phenomena and economic relations reflected in the story are so intricate; the characters, life, and even gardens, living rooms, clothing, and utensils described are so profound and detailed, which is really all-encompassing and magnificent.

Although when I was with my friends on weekdays, I used to pick up one of them casually and chat happily endlessly, but when I wanted to choose a topic to describe in depth, I felt that I was really like Grandma Liu who entered the Grand View Garden. , dizzy, dizzy, overwhelmed.Moreover, this book is familiar to almost everyone among the older generation of intellectuals; in the past two hundred years, especially after liberation, there have been many profound and incisive articles written by critics and writers. No matter which aspect I write from, there will be no new meaning.However, as a favorite reader, as a person who is engaged in writing and hopes to learn from the classics of the motherland, if we only focus on the writing skills of the country, and just choose one of the many skills to talk about it briefly, then, Among the many commemorative articles in which a hundred flowers bloom, being a dandelion in the corner may set off the exotic and famous flowers in the flower garden, making them more bright and fragrant!

In the first chapter of Zhiyanzhai, under the main text "if separation and reunion, sorrow and joy, prosperity and decline meet", he wrote: Reflecting tapes, there are hidden and visible, there is positive and there is leap, and even the grass snake gray line, the sound is transmitted in the empty valley, one blow and two sounds, the plank road is built brightly, the old warehouse is dark, the clouds, dragons, fog and rain, two mountains confront each other, the clouds support the moon, and the back is covered with powder, There are many strange things in the book, and there are many secrets in the book... This shows that although the stories are all based on the real life that the author has heard and seen, without the author's careful structure, it is impossible to become a novel. A complete, vivid and ups and downs of literary works.

Zhi Yanzhai's comments include "seamless mechanism", "multi-talented pen and ink", "ten years of hard work and extraordinary", etc., which also refer to the author's writing skills. In fact, there are too many books to describe the skills of talking about it, and it is almost impossible to talk about it in detail except for adding comments to the full text.Moreover, all kinds of techniques are not without intersection. Now let's take the "two mountains confronting each other" to talk about my experience. For example: In the big feudal family like Rongning and Ningfu, the ruling and ruled classes, the ruling and accomplice classes, monitor and guard against each other, as if facing a big enemy.Between each other, whenever there is an opportunity, they will add harsh and vicious comments to each other, so that readers can see clearly the nature, psychology and behavior of both parties. For example: Sister Feng and her housekeepers and grandmas, In the sharp friction of daily life, there are bound to be many slanders.In the sixteenth chapter, Sister Feng told Jia Lian that she assisted in Qin Keqing's funeral with a smile on her face:

If they made a mistake, they would make jokes and jokes, but if they were a little bit wrong, they would complain about "pointing and cursing"; "I don't help my son" are all tricks; besides, I am young and do not oppress others, so I have to put me in the eyes...In the sixty-fifth chapter, Jia Lian's little boy Xing'er, to Jia Lian's The new favorite, Second Sister You, said something different. He criticized Sister Feng and said: Vicious in the face, sharp in the mouth... It's because he can't see anyone as well as him for a while, and he just blindly coaxes the old lady and the wife to like them.He said that one is one, and two is two, no one dared to stop him, and he wished to save money and pile it up into mountains, so that the old ladies and wives would say that he would live a good life.Little did he know that he had suffered a lot from his servant, so he pleased him.If there is a good thing, he doesn't wait for others to say it, he grabs the tip first.If something bad happened, or he himself made a mistake, he shrank his head and pushed it on others; he was still poking the fire beside him... I told my grandma: It would be better not to see him for the rest of my life! "Sweet mouth and bitter heart", "two-faced and three-knife", "a smile on the top, but a stumbling block on the bottom of the foot", "it's a pot of fire, but a knife in the dark": he has it all...they quoted each other Those idioms can be said to be descriptive, and it can also be seen that the ruler's accomplices are gnashing their teeth at the ruler behind the mask of rules and etiquette, and their swords are at war.Therefore, Ping'er, who is loyal to Sister Feng but not without grievances, said this to the housekeeper and daughter-in-law in the fifty-five chapters:

Do not know yet!If the second grandma was a little worse, you grandmas would have been cured a long time ago... Everyone said that he is powerful, and you are all afraid of him, but I know that he is not afraid of you in his heart... Let me give another example: In a feudal society like Li, not only Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue "the four families are all connected and related, one hurts and the other prospers", but individual slaves, for their own interests, treat the master's Interests are also extremely concerned, side-splitting, observing words and expressions, saying what one's master can't say, and finding out things that one's master can't find out, such as Ying'er and Zijuan, who are close friends of Baochai and Daiyu Maids, who their young ladies marry and where they marry have a great relationship with their own life and future.The love between Daiyu and Baoyu is as clear as fire in Zijuan's heart, because Baodai and Baoyu are relatively innocent, "sitting and lying do not avoid, laughing and laughing carelessly", Zijuan has seen through Daiyu's mind, "a sincere heart For the sake of the girl, she "worried for several years" for her, she thought about it, and risked scaring Baoyu to "kill half of her", and told him a big lie that "my sister is going back to Suzhou".Afterwards, she herself confessed to Baoyu the reason for her "anxiety":

You know, I'm not from the Lin family, I'm also in the same group as Xiren Yuanyang, and I was entrusted to Miss Lin, but he is very close to me, ten times better than the one he brought from Suzhou. , the two of us are inseparable.Now I worry in my heart that if he is going to go, I must go with him.I am a family here, if I don't go, I will let down our usual love; if I go, I will abandon my family: so I am puzzled, so I tell you this lie to ask you... Later when Aunt Xue said to Daiyu A joke, when it was time to suggest that she should be allocated to Baoyu, Zijuan immediately grasped this sentence, "Running over quickly and laughing: "Since my aunt has this idea, why don't you tell the old lady?" What I said to Second Sister You in the sixty-five chapters, I thought that "as soon as the old lady speaks, there is no doubt about it", but it turned out to be contrary to her wishes. Aunt Xue had already mentioned to Mrs. Wang that "Jin Suo is a monk. Yes, only those who have jade in the future can get married" (Chapter 28), and Baochai's "steadiness and peace" won the hearts of Jiamu and other servants. Therefore, in the eighty-fourth Back home, as soon as Baoyu's marriage was mentioned, Sister Feng only said: "A'Baoyu' and a'Golden Lock', how did the old lady forget?" It is already in the chest.

Aunt Xue was enthusiastic about the marriage between Baochai and Baoyu. Even Baochai herself was not ruthless towards Baoyu, but because she had always been deep and steady, she seemed to be "unaware" of everything. Only then did he reveal his deep meaning.In the eighth chapter, she faced Baoyu alone for the first time. After greeting the old lady and the other sisters, she immediately said: "Everyone said that this piece of jade of yours has never been carefully appreciated. I'd like to take a look today." She "moved closer", held the psychic jade on her palm and looked back and forth, and after reading the inscription on it twice, she turned back meaningfully and asked Ying'er what she was doing. In a daze here?cited:

Ying'er also smiled and said: "I heard these two sentences, it seems to be a pair with the two sentences on the girl's collar." When Baoyu saw the golden lock, read the inscription on it, and admitted that the eight characters really matched his, Ying'er wanted to further explain the relationship between the golden lock and Baoyu: Of course the bottom line is not finished, and the deep Baochai will inevitably divert his words, but this half sentence has already handed Baoyu a "memorandum", and Baoyu has already heard the "Talk of Gold and Jade"! Baoyu didn't often go to Baochai's place, and Ying'er and Baoyu didn't have many opportunities to meet each other, but this clever girl never missed a chance to instill in Baoyu the advantages of being a girl. On the day when she contacted Baoyu, when Baoyu said: "... Minger's elder sister Bao is married, you must follow her" and "Minger, I don't know which one is good enough to accept your two masters." , she laughed:

Appearance is second. He also said: "I tell you, you are not allowed to tell him", leaving Baochai's identity. Ying'er's anxiety and concern, as well as the way she expresses her anxiety and concern, are in contrast to Zijuan. Now let’s talk about how Cao Xueqin created the two completely different images of Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. In the author's writing, the two girls, Chai and Dai, are often compared and compared by others.In the fifth chapter, as soon as Xue Baochai arrived at Rongguo Mansion, the author summarized the comparison between Chai and Dai: It is said that Daiyu is inferior.But that Baochai behaved open-minded, and when she followed her orders, she was no more arrogant than Daiyu, and her eyes were clean, so she won the hearts of servants; even the little girls were more close to Baochai... The author uses countless descriptions of facts to accumulate the factors that Xue Baochai and Jia Baoyu's "golden marriage" finally succeeded, and Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu's mutual love eventually became a tragedy.The comments in the book on the comparison between Chai and Dai come from various angles. For example, from the perspective of Xinger, a servant outside the two gates who has never had contact with them, it is:

The wife's daughter, surnamed Lin; one is the concubine's daughter, surnamed Xue; these two girls are both beautiful, and both are literate... and from the girls who know their personalities, they have different.In the twenty-seventh chapter, Baochai heard Xiaohong and Zhui'er whispering in the Dicui Pavilion. When Baochai pretended to look for Daiyu to cover up the incident, Xiaohong worried and said: It's fine if Miss Bao hears about it; but Miss Lin has a love of Kebo in her mouth and a delicate heart. Once he hears it, what if he reveals it? In the sixty-seventh chapter, Baochai gave Jia Huan some earthen ceremonies, "Aunt Zhao liked it very much" and thought: It looks really good now! ... If that Lin girl, she doesn't look at us girls, how can she still give us something? As for Xiren, who is most concerned about Baoyu's lifelong affairs, but does not understand the spiritual foundation of Baodai's love, in the thirty-two chapters, when Baoyu contradicted Xiangyun who advised him to pay attention to his career and economics, she quickly explained: Guan Ren couldn't bear it, he gave a "cough", picked up his feet and left... Fortunately, it was Miss Bao, and if it was Miss Lin, what would happen, how would she cry!Speaking of these words, Miss Bao is respected... She is really cultivated and magnanimous.Who would have thought that this person would have a quarrel with him instead.Seeing that Miss Lin ignored him in a fit of anger, he didn't know how much she would pay in the end. In the fifty-fifth chapter, when Sister Feng and Ping'er talked about who can help the housekeeper, she said: ...Besides, Miss Lin and Miss Bao are good people, but they are both relatives, and it's not easy to take care of our housework.What's more, one is a beauty lamp, which will be broken when the wind blows; Contrast, and finally make a conclusion with Jia Mu's comparison, casting the tragedy of Bao Dai's love.In the ninetieth chapter, when talking about Baoyu's marriage, Jia's mother said: The girl matched him for this idea; besides, girl Lin is so weak, she might not have a long life.Only Bao girl is the best. In contrast: even if Bao Dai and Daiyu agree in love, their death spoils it; even if Jia Mu starts to "love" Daiyu; In 2010, the old lady said as soon as she spoke, there is nothing wrong with it”; even Sister Feng, Aunt Xue, Baochai, etc., kept teasing Lin Daiyu about her marriage with Baoyu. ", eventually became "false words"!The head of a feudal family is good at ruthlessly selecting a daughter-in-law who is competent to protect the interests of his family! Now let's see how Cao Xueqin described Lin Daiyu's "eccentricity": Lin Daiyu's words, manners, and dealing with people, the example of "lonely self-promise" shown is too fascinating, so there is no need to bother Xu.Here is just a re-examination: Lin Daiyu has lived in Jia's house for so many years, who has she taken the initiative to visit?Who did you have a longer conversation with?We can easily see that this proud and infatuated Lin Daiyu is only focused on her love object - Baoyu, and she doesn't care about all other people and everything. Throughout the book, it is only described that the two of them are always together, and that Lin Daiyu always has endless "blaming" quarrels and conversations with Baoyu.After she entered the Rongguo Mansion, she was ordered to visit two uncles; when she lived in Jiamu's place, she would eat at Jiamu's place with everyone, including Baoyu, or go to Mrs. Wang's place. After leaving, she only visited Baochai once, and that time was related to Baoyu's first visit to Baochai.Let's see that Daiyu got up early that day, Daiyu and Baoyu followed Jia Mu to Dongfu to watch a play for a long time, and it was snowing outside again, so she followed Baoyu closely to see Baochai regardless of her fatigue. Use "It's not a coincidence that I came" to cover up (Chapter Eight).After dinner, she still asked "Can you go?" before leaving with Baoyu.Later, she negotiated with Baoyu and decided that one would live in the Xiaoxiang Pavilion and the other would live in the Yihong Courtyard, just as Baoyu said: "The two of us are close, and both are quiet." The two of them come and go frequently. When Baoyu went out for a day, Daiyu was bored.She often subconsciously "walks to Yihong Courtyard".After Baoyu was beaten, on the first day when "the sun was just setting and the ground was still very hot", "two eyes were swollen like walnuts", she secretly came to visit Baoyu.Early the next morning, I was "independently under the shade of flowers, ... looking at Yihong Courtyard from a distance", until Zijuan came to persuade: "The cough is better, and you don't take medicine anymore? ... I got up early in the morning and stood on this tidal ground for half a day, so it's time to go back and rest." Then she felt that her legs were sore from standing, so she stayed there for a long time, and helped Zicuckoo go back (Chapter 35).As for where the other sisters lived, Lin Daiyu only went for a walk sometimes for the sake of reciting poems and forming associations.Baochai wanted to get close to her so much, and often came to see her, and she only visited Hengwuyuan three times in a few years: one time, because Daiyu said a few words of consolation during the order, Baochai told her to "" Come with me, I have a question for you" (Chapter 42).The second time was after Aunt Xue's "love words to comfort the idiot", Daiyu recognized Aunt Xue as her mother. When Jia's mother was away, Aunt Xue was entrusted to live in the Xiaoxiang Pavilion. Went to have breakfast at Hengwu Courtyard (Chapter 59).The third time was when Xue Baochai moved out of the Grand View Garden, and Daiyu went to see her off (Chapter 78).Two or three times, Daiyu only mentioned one sentence between herself and the girl, without any content of the story.Not only is she often invited to visit people—such as going to comfort Yingchun in the seventy-third chapter—sometimes she still refuses to go even if she is invited, for example, in the thirty-sixth chapter, Baochai invited her to go with her. Ou Xiangxie went to see Xichun, but she declined, saying, "I still have to take a bath" (but then met Xiangyun on the road and invited her to the Yihong Courtyard to congratulate Xiren, and she went again).In the sixty-fourth chapter, Tanchun invited her to see Sister Feng's illness together, but she didn't wait.As for Daiyu's conversations with people, except for Baoyu, there are really very few.Mother Jia is the closest elder, who controls her "lifetime" She is very powerful, and she is "loved and loved" for her, but she didn't see that Lin Daiyu often went to Chenghuan to sit with her, to talk with the old lady, and other people were not in her heart.Although she had a long conversation with Baochai, it was the result of Baochai's visit to comfort her when she was ill (Chapter 45).She is an exception to Xiangling and Xiangyun; in the forty-eighth chapter, Xiangling came to her to learn poetry, and she was very happy to talk to Xiangling about her evaluation of ancient poets and the art of poetry .And in the seventy-sixth chapter, when she was "feeling for the scenery, she went to lean on the fence and shed tears", Shi Xiangyun invited her to the Tubi Hall to enjoy the moon couplets, and the two talked while writing poems, almost passing away all night.Among the female companions, both Xiangling and Xiangyun were orphans with both parents lost. Lin Daiyu couldn't help feeling sympathy and sympathy for them. If you look at Lin Daiyu's actions and friendships in isolation, she doesn't really show her "eccentricity", but when you compare it with Baochai, Baochai looks like a wishful pearl spinning all over the plate!She is always attentive and considerate.In the forty-five chapters, it is clearly mentioned: "I visited Mrs. Jia Muwang's place twice during the day, and I couldn't help sitting with her, and I also gossip from time to time at the sisters' place in the garden when I am free."When she meets people in trouble, she lends a helping hand everywhere, and when she finds a problem, she donates money to help others solve the problem. She sends bird's nest to Daiyu; Yun is the host of the poetry club; she wraps her own clothes for Jin Chuaner; she entrusts her shop clerk to go to the shop to ask for ginseng, and to dispense medicine for Sister Feng... All these and so on show that Xue Baochai cleverly and naturally used her own " The "behavior" of open-mindedness, the "character" of "duanfang", the "appearance" of "beautiful", and the wealth of her family's "pearls like earth and gold like iron" have won the favor of everyone from Jiamu to Aunt Zhao. , and even won Lin Daiyu's admiration, thus confiding in her heart.Zhiyanzhai approved the twenty-second episode of Jia Mu's birthday celebration for Baochai, saying: However, it is impossible for people to write about Baochai deliberately.This method is used throughout this book to deceive many people who have seen it. Yu Guyun did not write it but wrote it. In the whole book, there are only four birthday texts deliberately described: Baochai's, Fengjie's, Baoyu's and Jiamu's own.On Baoyu's birthday, Jia's mother was not at home.The birthdays of Baochai and Sister Feng were all celebrated by Jiamu for them.Judging from Zhi Yanzhai's comments, there are many words in the book that "write without writing"!Baochai said in the thirty-fifth chapter: What a coincidence, old lady. If you look for it from the words "write without writing", Baochai has said many other words of flattery in the past few years before this word of flattery to the old lady, and has also done a lot of effort to flatter the old lady. At the same time, it can be seen that Lin Daiyu, who is naive and eccentric, not only has never done this kind of kung fu, but also has never said any flattering words to the old lady! The above is a glimpse of the writing skills I am thinking of now. In the end, this kind of comparison should be regarded as "two mountains confronting each other" or other secret methods. I am willing to get the guidance and corrections of comrades. (This article was originally published in the November 1963 issue of "People's Literature".)