Chapter 7 The first floor "Red Mansion" culture (4)

Well, if you want me to define and explain "culture" in the simplest way, this is how I will answer you. ——However, don't forget: this is our Chinese understanding of "culture", which is different from the West.The western definition of "culture" is the development of the advanced power of human beings. Although it also contains the meaning of "evolution", it does not emphasize "literature" and "hua"—and "wen" and "hua" are The biggest feature of the so-called "culture" of China. Confucius said that when it comes to ancient culture, "Qi and Xia are not enough to collect", because the lack of literature is the main problem;So his conclusion is "I follow Zhou".

That is to say, it can be seen that the "literature" of Chinese culture was actually initiated, carried forward, and flourished with the culture of the Zhou Dynasty. With "wen", we can talk about the word "hua". What is "transformation"? ——Isn’t it just “change”? good.But "change" does not mean "transformation". Change is a quick and visible change; transformation is a change that takes time and is not immediately noticeable.For example, "change" is a sudden event; while "subtle influence" is a matter of time and effort, and it is the achievement of "retreat" made by "education" and "influence". (Thus, today's so-called "globalization" and "modernization" and other terms actually do not refer to a sudden mutation, and it is still a problem that needs to be "transformed".)

What I said above is that the center of Chinese culture is "emotion". If you can influence all people in the world with the emotion of truth, kindness and beauty, then that is the original meaning of "culture". That being the case, it is necessary to explain the key point of "love". As mentioned above, the reason why man is different from other things is that he is the spirit of all things, the heart of heaven and earth.This sentence can understand the source of this "love" from the outside of the novel. It is said that Emperor Wa mended the sky and created humans at the same time. According to ancient books and myths, she created humans from loess and water as mud, so Cao Xueqin was able to It sounds absurd to say "daughters are made of water, men are made of mud".Then it was explained that if a stone wants to turn into a "human" and go down to the world, it must first have a "heart" and "spirit". "Spirit" is the first condition for human beings to have human emotions.

Stone can psychic, jade, and human, which is a symbol of material evolution. When material evolution reaches an advanced stage, "heart" and "spirit" are produced, that is, "spirituality" and feelings.I said this is our Chinese "Darwinian Theory of Evolution". Why is it just "talking about love"?At this point, it can be understood. How do you say the word "love"? From the "philology" of our Chinese characters, all characters composed of "green" express the meaning of essence.I once said a passage: the core of rice is called essence, the bright sun is called sunshine, the clarity of water is called clear, the treasure of eyes is called eyes, the flower of grass is called jing, the beauty of women is called pretty, and the handsome of men is called Qian. Therefore, the most precious quality of all people and things is referred to as "essence" by referring to the essence of rice, and the "essence" only refers to the spiritual aspect of people is "emotion".

From this point of view, how important and precious is "love" to people. If you ask why "green" is so valuable?This is roughly using objects as a metaphor: the lower half of the seal script of the word "Qing" is the word "Dan" (not "moon"). Dan and Qing are both the most beautiful and precious treasures of mineral colors in nature. Even our paintings are also "Danqing". The two characters are called, the reason is here.Those who paint landscapes use cinnabar, azurite, and stone green as the top-grade colors, and it is for this reason. If "Qing" is added to "人", it becomes the word "Qian", which is also the beauty of men.And "beautiful" describes women, which is still known today.

Since "emotion" is the treasure of human spirituality, why did Confucius and Mencius focus on benevolence, righteousness and morality, but did not emphasize the role of "emotion"? This connects to the big topic of Chinese culture. In fact, Confucianism and Mencius talked about benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, filial piety, and other social virtues, but the core is all separated from "emotion".For example, there are two possibilities for a filial son to be filial to his parents: one is the "filial piety" born from the concept, and the other is the "filial piety" born from the emotion.

Confucianism seems to be a little afraid of "emotion", because it is easy to indulge and wander, and it is too much to control, and it becomes a disease.But the inner activity is the basis of "literature", and it cannot be said to "eliminate emotion" (such as Buddhism) or "forget emotion" (Taoism, which means transcending emotion), so the word "feeling" and "thinking" are used in a different way. It's more "sensible".Such as "poetry expresses ambition", such as "three hundred poems, summed up in one sentence is thinking", these are the best examples.

From the perspective of literary history, it seems that Han scholars respected virtue and dared not speak of "love"; after the Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties, "love" was no longer "shy" and officially appeared.For example, Tao Yuanming dared to write the Fu "Idle Love", and was ridiculed by later generations as "white jade with slight flaws"!Prince Liang Zhaoming's "Wen Xuan" openly and bluntly listed "love" in the Fu classification. This is a big event. Don't forget that Song Yu's "Dengtuzi Lustful Fu" was selected in the "Qing" Fu , Cao Zijian's "Luo Shen Fu".

This phenomenon seems to emphasize "emotion" on the one hand, but at the same time narrow the original connotation of "emotion" and limit it to the "emotion" between men and women—that is, the so-called "love" today. This also needs to be understood: a literary tradition from "Li Sao" and "Chu Ci" uses "beauty vanilla" to refer to the artistic characteristics of "loyalty to the emperor and love to the virtuous".Since the chanting of "beauty" inevitably involved "love" and caused the influence of later generations.

As long as you know this point, I don't have time to elaborate on it. Then there is the situation of "love" in Tang, Song and the following dynasties, but it is impossible to go into detail.People in the Song Dynasty respected Confucianism, talked about "Confucianism" and "Taoism", but did not talk about "Emotion" studies, there is no such title-what we are talking about today, we might as well give it a new name and call it "Emotion Studies". Around the time of the Ming Dynasty, novelists emerged in large numbers, and the "Study of Love" flourished. For example, Feng Menglong compiled a "History of Love", which had a great influence on Cao Xueqin.Feng searched and analyzed the ancient and modern stories about "love" extensively, and divided them into 24 categories according to the content.That is to say, according to Feng's opinion, "feeling" contains so many different contents, which is a great contribution.This man's insight can be said to have been a major representative since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, who elevated "love" to the pinnacle of everything. This is Hong's play.

For the first time, Mr. Hong blatantly called out: "Feeling gold and stone, return to heaven and earth. Shine the day, pay attention to history: look at the loyalty of ministers and filial piety, always from love."