Chapter 9 Four Levels of "Qin Learning" Exploration

The book "The Death of Qin Keqing", which compiled my research results, was launched by Huayi Publishing House in May 1994. As soon as the first edition of 5,000 volumes was released, articles arguing with me appeared one after another. Shanghai Chen Zhao Mr. Wang published a long article in the second issue of "Red Mansion" magazine of the Guizhou Provincial Red Society in 1994. The same point of view can also be found in the book "The Mystery of a Dream of Red Mansions" edited by him for the Shanghai Red Mansion Society and published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House ( In the "Questions and Answers" written by the first edition in January 1994); at the same time, the "Shuangta" supplement of Shanxi "Taiyuan Daily" published Mr. Liang Guizhi's "The Space and Limits of Exploring the Lost ", the subtitle of which is "Exploring the Research Thoughts of 'Hong Xue' by Liu Xinwu and Wang Xianghao

Reading his article, we can see that his "remembering" was mainly due to reading an article of mine "Zhen Shiyin's real surname is Qin?" (this article has been included in the book "The Death of Qin Keqing"); I only hate the few articles, but never dislike too many. There are too many issues worthy of our debate. I said in an article recently: "Because of the incompleteness of the manuscript and the confusion of the author's life experience, It has left us deep-seated regrets, and also made us in the melancholy of "flowers bloom, easy to see and fall, but hard to find", a passion for "seeking the fall" that can never be suppressed. We keep guessing riddles, and in the guessing, we continue to derive Perhaps the greatness of creating new mysteries lies in this—it provides us with an almost infinite space for exploration, and tests and improves our aesthetic ability from generation to generation! "

The image of Zhongqin Keqing and the various questions surrounding this mysterious image are the most fascinating "red mysteries", although Mr. Chen Zhao described my research as "formation of his so-called 'Qin "" and said "Since Comrade Liu Xinwu is a famous writer, and his views are quite novel and attractive, his articles have attracted wide attention and had a certain influence in society. But in the field of "Red Studies", few people Agree with his opinion." However, I have to admit that the existing texts about Qin Keqing in my proposal are "full of contradictions and full of flaws", "this question is undoubtedly reasonable and instructive"; Mr. Liang Guizhi also talked about After a series of questioning of my point of view, he said: "I know Comrade Liu Xinwu will not give up his 'Qin Xue' position easily. I'm afraid it has become a kind of 'faith' of Comrade Liu Xinwu." They When both of them mentioned "Qin Xue", they were both "excusing the words with irony", but I firmly believe that this branch of "Hong Xue" - "Qin Xue" will eventually be affirmed and prosper.To say that my point of view is only "has had a certain influence", I am afraid that the word "Zeng" is a bit hasty; to say that "in the field of 'red studies', very few people agree with" my point of view, in terms of the current situation, this may be the case, However, the degree of agreement with an academic point of view does not explain many problems; if you read the preface written by Mr. Zhou Ruchang in my book "The Death of Qin Keqing", you will know that "my way is not alone" even at present.

I really cherish the different views of Comrades Chen Zhao, Liang Guizhi, etc. "Qin Learning" must develop and deepen in frank and sharp discussions. It's a serious matter, everyone cheers up, don't be humbled by me. Everyone has their own ideas, and everyone is equal!" I am not in a hurry to defend Mr. Liang and Mr. Chen Er's doubts and criticisms one by one. I want to eliminate the misunderstanding between us first. This is what I hope all people who are concerned about this discussion will understand. Strictly speaking, my research on the image of Qin Keqing and related issues does not completely belong to the "Exploration of Lost Learning", that is to say, "Qin Learning" should not only "Exploring the Lost", but also involve "Cao Learning" , "versionology", "textology" and even "creative psychology", it is actually a "marginal subject" among the branches of "redology"; but for the convenience of discussion, we will include it The "space" of "exploring the lost".

As far as I am concerned, the exploration space of "Qin Studies" has four levels. The first level is the "text" (or "text").As we all know, Qin Keqing died in the thirteenth chapter of the first eighty existing chapters, and is the only character in the "Twelve Beauties of Jinling" who "has a beginning and an end" in the recognized manuscript written by Cao Xueqin himself; It is this "hairpin", whose appearance is both clear and vague in the existing texts, its origin is both explained and full of doubts, its character is unified in its behavior but seriously inconsistent with its origin, and the text describing its cause of death is even more contradictory. Full of loopholes.Fortunately, we learned from Zhiyanzhai's comments that such a text was formed because Cao Xueqin accepted Zhiyanzhai's suggestion, and for non-artistic reasons, as many as four or five double-sided texts were deleted and hidden. Qin Keqing's real cause of death, and it can be inferred that there are some revisions in the undeleted text, and there may be places that have to be "patched" because of this.Therefore, the first level of exploration of "Qin Xue" is to explore: what is the unedited text like?In this level of exploration, there is a very important premise, that is, Cao Xueqin's modification of the text related to Qin Keqing is due to non-artistic reasons, not purely artistic adjustments.I don't agree with the view that the above-mentioned contradictions and confusions in Qin Keqing's image are caused by Cao Xueqin's lack of artistic adjustments when he evolved it from the old draft of "Fengyue Baojian".Apparently, Qin Keqing’s image in the text that was once written is quite complete and unified. The contradictions and confusion in the current text are not only due to non-artistic considerations (avoiding “literary prison”), but also because of the deletion at the end of the eighth chapter. The "addition" (i.e. "patch") about her origin in "Yangshengtang" was added; this is the crux.In a nutshell, the first level of exploration of "Qin Xue" is to explore "in the original text, is Qin Keqing's background humble?" My conclusion is negative.and made corresponding inferences.

The second level is Cao Xueqin's idea.From the existing texts about Qin Keqing, we can not only explore the once-existing texts about Qin Keqing, but also explore his previous ideas on how to deal with this character. Review), but it may not have been explicitly written by him.That is to say, we can not only explore how Cao Xueqin once wrote about Qin Keqing, but also further study what he once planned; my research on the poems before the seventh chapter of the Jiaxu edition belongs to this level of exploration.I think that in this Huiqian poem "who lives in the south of the Yangtze River with the surname Benqin" (there is also a quotation "I was named Yu when I was not married, and my surname is Benqin when I came here" also appeared in Zhipi), which at least shows that in Cao Xueqin's artistic conception, There was once an arrangement about Qin Keqing's real background.From the comparative description of Qin Keqing's death and Jia Yuanchun's promotion and the overall investigation of the whole book, I found that in Cao Xueqin's artistic conception, there are Qin Keqing and Jia Yuanchun as two wings of misfortune and fortune, pulling the rise and fall of Jia's prosperity. Ku, a strong desire to arrange the development of the plot in this way, but in the text he wrote later, this idea was not fully demonstrated.I call the text that he has clearly written "explicit text", and the ideas that he leaked in the written text but failed to fully display are called "hidden text". The exploration of this "explicit text" Lost and the search for lost texts are related but not at the same level. Therefore, the "space and limit of search for lost texts" are naturally different.I hope that those who argue with me in the future must first distinguish between these two layers of "space".

The third level is why Cao Xueqin wrote and conceived in this way.This enters into the study of creative psychology.We all know that it is definitely not Cao Xueqin's autobiography and family history. Of course, the Jia family in the book cannot be equated with the Cao family painting; (Of course, such works may also obtain quite high aesthetic value, such as Kafka's "When the Great Wall was Built").It is not difficult for us to reach such a consensus: it is not a documentary work about the ups and downs of the Jia family, but it has actually cast too many authors' "true history" of the Cao family and its related social relations in Kang, Yong, The vicissitudes of life in the Three Dynasties.Therefore, we are entering the "Qin

In the third level of "learning", explore how the Cao family fell into power struggles among the royal families during the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties. The white land is so clean", so it is necessary to deepen the understanding of Cao Xueqin's conception and description of Qin Keqing, as well as the formation of his creative psychology of adjusting, deleting, and adding relevant content. Of course, this level of research also enters the The space of "Cao Xue". For example, I think that in the original text written by Cao Xueqin, Qin Keqing was positioned as the descendant of "a righteous and loyal old prince who was hidden by the Jia family" (note that I said "Similar" but not necessarily "Yizhong Old Prince" one), one of the bases is that the Cao family hid a pair of golden lions for Yongzheng's political opponent "Seth Hei" during the Yongzheng Dynasty. The husband was very disapproving of this. He said: Hiding the golden lion would lead to great disasters, let alone human beings? Therefore, hiding the prince's daughter is "absolutely impossible in real life"; I think he under the word "absolutely" It's too absolute. As he said, the Qing Dynasty's Clan Mansion would register all members of the clan. Even the retiring clan would be given a red belt and included in the yellow book, but Kangxi fifty-two In April of 2010, in the text of the order to investigate the "withdrawal" and the retreat of the clan to be included in the "Jade Document" so as not to be annihilated, there is such a statement: "The abandoned son of Jueluo, the clan, is now recorded in the blue file. According to the clan mansion, the regulations are very strict, and they are afraid of not reporting, and it is not possible to make a decision." He also cited an example: "When the former internal minister, Jueluo Tada, was the minister of the Shangsi Academy, due to many factors, he would abandon the son born to his concubine. Yi Zuoling Zheng Te heard about it, begged and adopted him, and he Dasui gave it to him..." It can be seen that the regulations are regulations, even if the emperor personally made it, there is no guarantee that there will be some reasons that secretly disobey it. I am sorry Qin Keqing's true identity is inferred from the descendants of the clan hidden by Jia's family. It is based on the reasonable analysis that the Cao family might have made this matter at that time, because no one can deny that the Cao family was among the princes who had befriended in the Kangxi Dynasty. However, there was no later Emperor Yongzheng, but there were several major political enemies of Yongzheng. These political enemies "bad things" and naturally implicated the Cao family. The Cao family wished that they could defeat Yongzheng. Feeling that "the general trend is over", trying to curry favor with Yongzheng, but also secretly contacting those "bad things" but not completely wiped out and their party members, it is also natural to invest in politics from several aspects. I hope that as relevant Further discovery of the archives of the Cao family shows that the life prototypes of the two important characters, Qin Keqing and Jia Yuanchun, can be revealed, even if it is the dragon claw in the cloud and the phoenix tail in the fog.

The fourth level is the humanistic environment of Cao Xueqin's creation.It is not a political historical novel. Cao Xueqin expressly declared that he would write this book "without interfering with the current world". He also tried hard to get rid of political writing and focus on the feelings of "suddenly thinking about all the women of that day". , and in terms of specific textual control, he downplayed the characteristics of the dynasty, the differences between Manchu and Han, and the north and south, making the style of this great work extremely poetic but not "epic".However, the creation of this book is marked with an extremely vivid and profound imprint of the times, which shows how the writer's humanistic environment restricts his creation, and how the writer transcends this restriction. In the case of the "literary prison" with a dense network of crimes, such a magnificent and great masterpiece was woven with the words that flowed out from the depths of the soul.The image of Qin Keqing fully reflects the author's superhuman wisdom dedicated to art in a difficult and dangerous human environment, the setbacks he suffered, and the huge mystery left to us, as well as the "mystery" derived from it. Come the charm.I recently wrote an article "The Emperor in "A Dream of Red Mansions", pointing out that the emperor in "Dream of Red Mansions" cannot be equated with Cao Xueqin's life, and any Qing emperor before that, because the emperor in the book, There was a Supreme Emperor above him. Before Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there was no such situation. By the time Qianlong became the Supreme Emperor, Cao Xueqin had been dead for more than 30 years.But this is only one aspect of the matter. On the other hand, from the description of the hidden existence of the emperor in the film, you can find that it is actually an abbreviation for Cao Xueqin's three emperors, Kang, Yong, and Qian. The emperors of the three dynasties who had a direct impact on the ups and downs of the Cao family are typified through the kindness and power of an emperor to the Jia family in the book.Exploring the complex relationship between the emperors of the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties and the Cao family is one of the keys to understand the text about Qin Keqing's death. For example, why Qin Keqing's funeral can be so presumptuous The land is extravagant, and the eunuch in charge of the palace will "sit in a big sedan chair, hold an umbrella and ring a gong, and come to offer sacrifices in person". Of course, this is not casually conceived and written. Behind this ink, there is a political projection, so "Qin Xue "The space of " must be extended to the research on the power struggle of the three dynasties of Kang, Yong, and Qian, and the space for exploring the lost, of course, has been greatly expanded.

I feel that a large part of the reason for Mr. Chen Zhao and Mr. Liang Guizhi's criticism of my "Qin Xue" views is that I confuse my explorations in the above four levels, so I feel confused. , It's hard to argue.Now I will clarify the four levels of "Qin Xue" exploration one by one, and I can almost eliminate some misunderstandings, so that people who argue with me can express different opinions under a clear premise, and those who have similar opinions to me will not be able to discuss it in the future. It is also easier to discuss with them. As for the significance of the study of "Qin Studies", I have already emphasized it in several articles, so I won't repeat it here.

Looking forward to more criticism and discussion!