Chapter 6 The first floor "Red Mansion" culture (3)

"Red", for us, is the first of the seven colors, and it is the representative color of beauty, joy, festiveness and prosperity.It also represents flowers, representing girls. New Year's Eve!Thousands of households put up Spring Festival couplets, which is a piece of red.Married, birthday celebration, clothes and furnishings, a piece of red.No matter when and where, as long as there are auspicious and festive events, red must be the main color, and people get joy and beauty from it.Perhaps because the Han people especially value red, the Republic of China was established after the Revolution of 1911. The national flags representing the five major ethnic groups were five-colored to mark the five ethnic groups: red, yellow, blue, white and black—Han, Man, Mongolia, and Tibet.

Flowers are the essence of the advanced evolution and development of plants, showing the splendor of nature.Flowers come in various colors, but everyone says "red flowers and green leaves".Li Houzhu's "Meeting and Joy" famous line: "Lin Hua thanked Chunhong!" Why didn't he say "Thank Chunbai"?The poet of the Song Dynasty said: "When you know the Dongfeng side in a leisurely way, it will always be spring if it is full of purples and reds!" You may argue: Isn't this also a purple?You should know that red is the true color, and purple is just a variation (variegated color) of red.

This shows that the aesthetic vision of the Chinese people regards "red" as the most beautiful color in the world①. Flowers are the essence of plants, so what is the essence of animals?It is very clear that "man is the spirit of all things"!Man is a miracle of the creation of the universe, and he has unique spirituality.Among people, women are the most beautiful, and young girls are the most beautiful.So "red" belongs to women, which is really logical.Therefore, "red makeup", "red sleeves", "red skirt", "red face", "red pink"... are all pronouns and praises for women.Yan Jidao, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote in a poem "Linjiang Fairy": "Brows are green with beautiful makeup, and red with shame." This "red" is wonderful and has a double meaning.

Speaking of this, I just want to wake up: red building, red building, everyone will say red building, but ask him, why is this building not "red"?It may not be possible to answer. People in the past loved to quote Bai Juyi's "Rich Girl in the Red Chamber" as an explanation, but I like to quote Wei Zhuang's poems in the late Tang Dynasty, which are much more interesting than Bai Juyi's poems—— Who is the master of Chang'an's spring scenery? Since ancient times, it has always belonged to the Red Mansion Girl. The beauty is vulnerable, so she goes to the red building secretly.

Only by understanding these cultural connections can we understand the original purpose of Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions" and his literary ingenuity. Well, Wei Zhuang's good sentence is leading to another word "love". What is "love"?There is no need to look up "definition" and "definition" in the dictionary.This character was created from "heart" and "green".The heart in Chinese language is different from the "heart" in Western medicine. It is concerned with emotions, and emotions are an important part of human spirituality.Moreover, all the characters from "green" express the most essential meaning: "fine" is the essence of rice, but also the essence of people; "eye" is the essence of eyes; "clear" is the essence of water; "qing" is the essence of water; "It is the essence of the day; "Qian" and "Pretty" also express the beauty born of the spirit.Then, I might as well give a new definition to "love": "Love is the essence of human spirituality."

In Chinese literature, "feeling" is the inner heart. Compared with external things and external environment, in modern terms, it is slightly different from subjective and objective.But in Xueqin's book, "love" especially refers to people's feelings for people, which is a bit like the "interpersonal relationship" nowadays. Among the terms used in the field of Chinese novels, there is one called "romantic novels".This was originally compared to titles such as "telling history", "monsters", "legends", etc., but later generations narrowed it down and interpreted "romance" like Western "love novels".

So, is the so-called "talking about love" written by Xueqin the "love between men and women"?Isn't it "Bao and Dai love tragedy"?How is this questionable? Answer: No, no. I would like to draw your attention: when Lu Xun created it in the 1920s, he devoted the entire twenty-fourth chapter to it, and its title was not only not "Love Story", but it was not even "Romance"—it used " Human novels!" What is the reason for this?Please understand deeply. When talking about "red" earlier, it has been mentioned that the tea and wine that Baoyu drank in the illusion are "a cave of thousands of reds" and "a cup of thousands of colors". Liu E wrote it a hundred years ago, and it has already been explained in the preface: Xueqin's great pain The deep sorrow is crying for "Qianhong", and mourning for "Wanyan".Mr. Liu is an amazing person with a clear eye and a wise heart.

That being the case, Xueqin's motivation and purpose in writing the book is definitely not just for the "little tragedy" of "love" between a man and a woman (also in Lu Xun's words), but for "women in the world" (Jin Shengtan's style) also) wept bitterly, shed tears for their misfortune, lamented for their fate. This is the highest level of broad and lofty affection that human beings have.Only when you understand it can you understand it. At this point, some people may ask: Since you put forward the "three cardinal principles", are they isolated from each other?Or are they related?If it is the former, it seems meaningless and tasteless; if it is the latter, what is the connection?

I would like to answer: Of course they are interrelated.Just imagine, this is the essence of the three outstanding things in the world, that is, the essence of ore, the flower of plants, and the spirit of animals.The three are interrelated.Good flowers also use "jade" as an example, such as "Yaohua", "Qihua" and "Qionglin Yushu".In Southern Song Dynasty Jiang Kui's poems chanting plum blossoms compared plum petals to "Ziyu" - Mei Lanfang's "Ziyuxuan" by a master of Beijing opera, which is the meaning.Therefore, since human beings are the spirits of all things, they can also appreciate the essence of things and the flowers of plants the most. If they see their destruction, they will feel infinite sorrow and pity. "Jade broken into pieces and pearls sinking", "water flowing and flowers falling", this is the greatest sadness of people (we Chinese)!

"All the flowers are fragrant and filthy", "Flowers fall into the water and flow red", "Flowers fall and flowers fall in spring", "A field of flowers flies away and the spring is gone, and the wind blows thousands of points to make people more worried", "There is no other way for flowers to fall"... Xueqin's is the most wonderful masterpiece of genius written with the purpose of the interrelationship of the three. This is why the culture of "Red Mansion" represents Chinese culture. Chinese culture see "Red Mansion"

--intercede" Everyone remembers, a "Red Mansion", "the main purpose is to talk about love".This is self-prosecuted by the author Cao Xueqin, and we cannot make another article without it.So let’s talk about the word “love” first. But the question immediately arises: "love" can be talked about, but what I want to listen to today is about Chinese culture, so is "love" the biggest and most important theme of Chinese culture? (I haven't seen anyone who has ever said and written this.) Well, this question brings us to the core of our discussion. If you want to cite classics that are representative of Chinese culture as evidence, there is a sentence in the "top of the Six Classics" called "The Sage's Love Sees the Words".This is very meaningful, and this sentence is enough for us to talk about a "semester". This sentence alone reveals the three "bright spots" and the relationship between them: human-feeling-ci. These three sum up the main connotation of Chinese culture. First, the definitions of the three must be roughly explained. A sage is also a member of a person, so he is called a sage because he has moral knowledge, which is enough to set an example for eternity.Human, as the old saying goes: "Man is the spirit of all things." Today's science still recognizes and uses the word "spirit" and classifies humans as "primates" in zoology.What is spirit?The ancients also said: "Man is the heart of heaven and earth." It can be seen that this "heart" and that "spirit" are the same thing, so it is also called "spirit". What does the mind do and what does it do?It "rules" thoughts and feelings, comprehension and expression.Thinking is rational consideration; feeling is the vibration of emotion; both are "published" and "communicated" by spoken words and written texts. This is: People have emotions, and emotions must be expressed, and expressions are carried by words.