Chapter 19 Chapter Eighteen: Cao Xueqin Writes About Herself

Zhang Ailing said "it is creation, not autobiography", which turned out to be completely different from what I expected.The reason is that she didn't understand the concept of "autobiography", so she "separated" it from the creation and "confronted" it.This is one of them. Second, she used her own unique "inferred" "conclusion" to prove that Xueqin's book "is not an autobiography".She's brilliant, but also overly confident. First, the "self-narrative legend" in "Red Studies" has never been put forward and discussed for "creation".

The theory of "self-narrative biography" refers to the fact that Chinese novels have traditionally used historical themes and mainly written about people (ancient people, others) since ancient times.The essence of Chinese novels is "historical theory", which is dressed up with the appearance and decoration of novels-so it is called "Romance".This two-character square is the "view of novels" in Chinese culture, the Chinese people's vision and mentality when reading novels. This is very different from Western fiction and novel. The word "romance" itself is equivalent to the "literary creation" used by people today.

To put it bluntly, there are materials and art—this is different from historical books and biography, and different from stele tablets, travel records and other chronicles.But it is essentially a branch of history, so it is called "outer history", "unofficial history", and "barnyard history" to distinguish (and reflect) from official history and official history. Cao Xueqin's "author's own cloud" also has no such meaning. He clearly stated that he "performed" what he saw and heard (everyone, friends, friends—his own experiences, feelings, joys and sorrows, ideas) into a story!

Fuyan, that is, the same meaning of Yanyi, with a slight change of one word.On the one hand, it is personal experience, and on the other hand, it is the style of "expression"-the "material" and "art", content and technique that everyone is used to today. "Self-legendary" means: What Xueqin wrote was not Zhang San Li Si, but her own family. On this point, in fact, looking at Ms. Zhang's book, the basis is all based on "autobiography", which is clear and conclusive-however, she also expresses her "anti-autobiography" in the sentence!

This great writer, who has learned all over the world, has mixed up the basic concepts of literature and history in such a way!It really surprised me, I can't believe it. ——That's all, let's look at her so-called "creation", what is it? It turns out that she dismantled all the existing whole in a "complex and textual research" style, and used her own arguments to show the additions, deletions, revisions, replacements, and extensions of writing... with a "separation method". Calling this (including some of her conjectures) "creation" and "autobiography" are mutually exclusive. I really didn't expect Eileen Chang to have such a "literary theory".

For example, she believes (Kao Ming) that Tan Yun was originally a human being, and was "produced" only when he had to "replace" Qing Wen. Another example, according to her research, Jin Chuan is Qingwen's "differentiation", so it is also a suicide (I suspected that Qingwen sank herself in the early years and threw herself into the water of Furong Pool, so she must be sacrificed by the pool. This opinion is in my book).She also said that Xiaohong is also Qingwen's "clone"....and so on. It's "creation," she said, so it's not "autobiography."

This logic is amazing. Cao Xueqin's "offline" for this huge literary project that day was decided a long time ago: the hero of the makeup and the hero of the green forest will have 108 representatives, forming a confrontation.The big stone is 12 feet high, specially approved to take care of the main hairpin; the length and width are 24 feet each, 4×24=96, to take care of the deputy hairpins. 96 plus 12 is exactly 108. 108 daughters are listed in the "Love List", with 12 in each row, and 9 rows are exactly 108.For example, according to Ms. Zhang's "expansion", "fen", "increase", "transformation"... so many times of addition and change, where did the 108 predicted by the big stone go?

In fact, the 108 daughters are also "creations". Xueqin created her own "autobiography" (the people in the Qing Dynasty already called it "Zikuang") based on this creation, which is not an "incompatible" literary theory and artistic practice.Is it a "problem". The poem says: Ordinary people are occasionally fascinated for a while, how can autobiography be so meaningful? It's not cool to be entangled in concepts, it's strange to argue in vain.