Chapter 64 Zhou Ruchang commented on "Nightmare in the Red Chamber" (1)

The topic we chose today is for me to come to see Eileen Chang and such a topic. I find this topic very interesting, and it is a very good and attractive topic.Zhang Ailing is a female writer with international reputation, and I admire and respect her very much.But her life's career is creation. Looking at her life, she is from Fengrun, Hebei, but this refers to her ancestral home.Everyone in her family knows that when she was a high-ranking official in the late Qing Dynasty, her family's collection of books is said to be very large.Many of them have not been seen by outsiders, and their family background from generation to generation is beyond the imagination of ordinary people today.

Speaking of bureaucrats in the late Qing Dynasty today, everyone doesn’t like it, especially because of the Sino-French war, her ancestors were responsible for the defeat. I don’t know whether this responsibility should be borne by such people.In short, because of this, his reputation is not very good. He is a scholarly family and a family of officials.When she came here, she lived in Tianjin from the age of two to eight.I am from Tianjin, and I know Tianjin very well, even though I am from the suburbs, I am a village boy, and she lives in the city.Second only to Shanghai, Tianjin is a semi-colonial city. After the defeat of the coalition forces, it was the first to open a commercial port. This is the characteristic of Tianjin.That bustling, that bustling, with a foreign flavor, is such a place.She lived in this place from the age of two to eight, and after she was eight she went to Shanghai.Where is Shanghai?Do you still need me to introduce?The ten-mile foreign market that is bigger than Tianjin, and then Hong Kong and the United States, I don’t need to go into details. I am not introducing her life, her living environment, the environment she studied in, and what kind of people she came into contact with?Do I need to elaborate?She became a writer, and then became a red scientist, so such a book, that is, is our theme today.I don't think this matter itself is a problem of novels or literature. Zhang Ailing also likes it very much, so of course she has to read and learn, and find some skills from Cao Xueqin, the patriarch, to write novels better.Of course, does this still need to be said?There may be such a psychological component at the beginning, but if we look at the problem this way, it is very simple and superficial.And what are we talking about her today?What are you here to listen to me?The bottom line of this big question is that it is a question of Chinese culture.If we don't look at the problem from this perspective, then our talk today is meaningless. , a novel.Bao Dai's love tragedy, everyone cried for Lin Daiyu, Zhang Ailing is a woman, so she probably likes this love story.Is that why we are here today?I think not, absolutely not!Let's get this straight first, okay.

Then, let’s talk about it, my voice is not good today, and I’m still a little hoarse. Let’s go back to this book written by Eileen Chang, let alone her other works.Let’s take this as a topic today. Let me say a few words. Everyone knows this book. Her preface says that from 1963 to 1973, she seems to be saying that life is short.These are not her exact words, I am using my own words, the past has suffered a lot.This is what the ancients said, that is, many years have passed, and what is left is limited.But she was not very old when she said this, unlike me.She said that it took ten years to study this under the circumstances of many hardships in the past, which is considered a feat!It's no small matter, how can it not be a feat to spend a lifetime of energy on it for ten years?well said!But what is she for?Why did you come up with such a name after spending ten years of energy and sacrifice for it?I don't understand it, and I don't like it either.It is very beautiful, and it evokes very beautiful associations, but what a nightmare, I had a nightmare.

Eileen Chang read it from the age of eight. According to her biography, she re-read it every other period without a break in her life. This is enough to become a fan.Then she wrote "Modern Dream of Red Mansions". You can see that the mandarin ducks next to Jia's mother may have their legs beaten, and there are big smoke lamps next to them. Do you know what big smoke is?It is opium.The vernacular is to smoke opium, and then look at Jia Lian's promotion, what kind of promotion?Railway chief.Where did this come from?It turned out that her father was the English secretary of the railway bureau, and she was completely a little girl. The special social phenomenon at that time she watched was imprinted in her mind, instilled in, and grafted into the theme, which was very interesting.We are not trying to make fun of it. At this time, this little girl has already started to use this form to translate, interpret, and get acquainted with it. She has done such a job. Well, this can only say a few words, and then look at it later .

Later, when she was twelve or thirteen years old, she had the feeling that she was looking at it in a daze.When I was twelve or thirteen years old, she said that I saw eighty chapters, one to eighty-one, and used eight words: the sky is dark, and everything is tasteless.From the beginning of the eighty-first chapter, the first time I read it, the taste is wrong.What's going on?It's as if the spiritual realm in front of me has changed, and the sky is dark!Nothing tastes good anymore.Tasteless in every way, not the same tasteless, tasteless in every way!She wrote these eight big characters. At this time, her literary appreciation ability has been greatly matured. She is still a little girl at the age of twelve or thirteen.This is remarkable, the average little girl, at the age of twelve or thirteen, can watch one hundred and twenty chapters, and can discern a watershed there, oops!No, I have this ability, I can't guarantee it.So many people still think that one hundred and twenty chapters are still a whole, seamless, that's great!I won't say much about this, let's still talk about Eileen Chang.

What she read was the 120 chapters of the most common book printed in small characters. Once she saw the Yadong edition printed by the Yadong Library, which was written by Mr. Hu Shi and preface by Chen Duxiu, and read by Wang Yuanfang.This book became a monopoly. Because of the high status of Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu at that time, everyone gradually stopped reading the small-print lithograph I just mentioned.This is our young experience, she is only two years younger than me, so her energy is equal to my experience.We are so familiar that it seems kind.As for you, you may know it today, but it is not so cordial and a little estranged.The evolution of history and the differences of times are all cultures, so we must look at things in this way.

What did I mean by the Yadong Library when I mentioned it just now?She said that I saw a passage in Hu Shi's "Research on a Dream of Red Mansions" that quoted a Qing Dynasty book called "Continued Reading Micro Cottage Notes". Everyone knew that it was the most famous notebook novel written by Ji Xiaolan. Look.Later, there was a "Continued Notes of Weicaotang", I don't know who continued it, did Ji Xiaolan continue it?I've never heard of it, and it's not in his complete works, so I can't tell.What's the story here?There is a book, not the one hundred and twenty chapters of today.It is said that in the end both Ningrong and Rongfu were defeated and poor.Baoyu was reduced to beating watchtowers, that is, knocking clappers and beating watches at night. Shi Xiangyun and Baoyu finally met again and grew old together.Zhang Ailing saw this, oops!She wrote another eight big characters, and she said that when I saw this, it was "shocked by the stone, and the sky rises from the clouds." I mean, look at Zhang Ailing's understanding of our national language, is it simple?not simple!The reason why she was so shocked by that is that she heard such plots, stories, and endings in the old books.It was so different from the one hundred and twenty chapters she had been reading since she was a child, she simply didn't know how to describe it.This girl's mind, that sharpness, that artistic sense, we mean it's amazing, that's why she has literary achievements, artistic achievements, without this it's a different matter, she can do other things.

Speaking of which, what is the content of this book, whose name I don't like?She said frankly: I am a school of textual research. I have been obsessed with this textual research for ten years and wrote this book.What is her proof?Oops, it's so complicated that I can't explain it clearly.I can't tell you on this occasion today, but in a word, it is version verification.What is a version is not really carved in stone, nor is it printed.That is to say, the manuscripts, the eighty chapters of Cao Xueqin's original works left after the Qianlong era, we have no other name, no manuscript study, only version study, we say she is version textual research.She researched the details, the meticulousness, the woman, and the level that ordinary people can't keep up with.No matter how harsh it is, what I said just now was a compliment. If you let me say it, it is not very nice, and it is cumbersome and philosophical.It’s too cumbersome, you can’t see it. On the one hand, it’s extremely detailed, and on the other hand, that monster, its unique school of textual research, is a lot of imagination and play.Oh, this is troublesome. Textual research is a kind of scientific research, and the first thing you need to do is to be rigorous.Such a rigorous textual research, a method of research, and the fine traditions of China, how can you add imagination and play to it?That is to assume, boldly assume, carefully verify.But Zhang Ailing's textual research is indeed the case, this person's mind, that wisdom!On the one hand, she used such detailed research, and on the other hand, what she got from her research is not a conclusion, she got such a result.She used this as the basis, and she thought about it step by step, so what?If you continue to develop and extend it, this will be incredible!But which is your conclusion and which is the truth of your research is unclear.Because the two are mixed together, this is a big feature of her.Then let’s talk about the second feature. Today I can only use this method to let you know what kind of person Zhang Ailing is in my mind and what is its value. I admire it very much. Why?I also have a different opinion. There is no other meaning in saying a few words of discussion. You must not have any frivolous or otherwise meanings to such a person and a person who has passed away.That's immoral, you have to be generous, you have to be kind to others, don't follow that bad atmosphere, can you become a great scholar?How detailed is she, I will give you the simplest example, I can't give you anything else.