Chapter 25 Fifth Floor "Red Mansion" Aesthetics (3)

Here, let me review the "summary" of the speeches made at the Jinan Conference in 1981, in order to discuss its source, because without discussing the source, it will not be possible to flow smoothly. Moreover, the views from more than ten years ago, if I bring them up again today, will not be able to flow smoothly. It can correct the omissions or inadequacies of the past.What I was saying was— Mr. Lu Xun made the greatest contribution to "Red Studies". His expositions in his novel research monographs and lectures are all fundamental and programmatic important summaries and summaries.For research, we must learn from and comprehend the insights of the master.Mr. said:

As for the value mentioned, it can be seen that it is really rare in Chinese novels.The main point is that it dares to describe truthfully without concealment. It is very different from previous novels where good people are completely good and bad people are completely bad. Therefore, the characters described in it are all real people.In short, since Ziyou came out, the traditional thinking and writing methods have been broken. ——The charm and lingering of its articles are the second thing. I think that this passage alone would be enough to write a long dissertation if some real and in-depth research is done. Mr. Wang raised many questions and expressed his own views here.The husband pointed out that after fighting Cao Xueqin, the traditional ideas and traditional writing methods of the previous novels have been eclipsed, which is an eternal theory.Mr. Cao Xueqin has explained that Cao Xueqin's art is unique and has epoch-making significance.

What does Mr. Lu Xun mean by tradition?It refers to the "tradition" of "Speaking of a good person is completely good..."—it can also be said to be Chen Chen Xiangyin's bad habits.It takes great courage and ability to break this habit, so it is especially valuable. The word "tradition", when juxtaposed with "innovation", naturally becomes a pair of contrasts, and tradition should not be maintained.Therefore, when many people mention "tradition", they understand it as an opposite that rejects innovation. "Tradition" is indeed the thing to knock down sometimes.

Today I would like to talk about a few traditional issues, but this word has a special meaning in my mind at this moment, and it should not be confused with the above-mentioned meaning.I use this term to refer to the unique and excellent cultural traditions, literary and artistic traditions of our Chinese nation.Not only can this tradition not be overthrown, but it must be maintained and carried forward.The interruption of any stage of it will be a great disaster for our nation. How did this tradition come into being?It is created, accumulated, integrated, and cast by countless literary and artistic masters from generation to generation in the history of our nation.It is absolutely different from Chen Chen Xiangyin, who is self-proclaimed, but constantly creates and accumulates, constantly improves and enriches.It also absorbs and digests foreign nutrients, but never replaces its own tradition with others' tradition.So it is national.When I talk about tradition now, I mean tradition in this sense.

Cao Xueqin, a master of art, is a rare genius who is best at inheriting tradition and best at enriching tradition. There have also been commentators who have explored the influence Cao Xueqin received from his predecessors based on the titles, titles, and allusions quoted in the novel to explain his inheritance of tradition, which is correct.For example, ah, "Hui Zhen Ji", and so on.It should be remembered that we should not be limited to "collecting essays and dictionaries", but should look at the spiritual lifeblood of our literary and artistic tradition from a broad perspective.No matter how it is innovated, absorbed, enriched, and elevated, it always belongs to China, to the Chinese nation, and is by no means any other temperament or "family number".

What I mean is to explain: first, we must correctly understand Mr. Lu Xun’s original words; second, there is a saying that Cao Xueqin’s art is different because of the “influence of Western literature” and so on. The essence of his thought is nothing more than "The moon is also the circle of a foreign country" or something like that. Cao Xueqin is good at inheriting traditions, and has one great characteristic. He has applied almost every aspect of the essence of our national art to the art of novels. The first is poetry.This does not mean that there are many verses in the book, there are many scenes of poetry clubs, etc., but it refers to the quality, technique, and state of poetry, which are applied in the novel.Although there were not many of these in his previous chapter novels; it is only here that he has given full play to the role of poetry in novels.Look at the scenes he wrote about the rainy night at the autumn window, the raindrops on the bamboo shoots, the green umbrella and the red light. Where is it a novel, it is all poetry!This is still a "coordination" between the chapter and the main text, which is not surprising. The most surprising thing is the chapter "Hu Yongyi used tiger and wolf medicine indiscriminately". Is there any poem in it?It can surprise you quite a bit—he wrote about getting up at night in the winter boudoir, turning the fire to warm tea, and outside, the cold moon was bright and the wind was piercing. All kinds of scenes are not novels, they are all poems!The richness of the poetic and painting environment makes you feel as if you are in the environment, as if you are seeing the situation with your own eyes.Have you encountered that poetic richness in other novels?His novels are "poetic" novels.

In my opinion, Cao Xueqin's art is not only poetry, but also prose, poetry, painting, music, singing and dancing, and architecture...he uses them all.What he writes is by no means a dry "text", which contains the spiritual meaning of all aspects of our national art tradition.This is a magnificent artistic miracle that no one else has ever experienced! I have listed so many types of art (it is too much to go into detail), but I have not mentioned movies.In the Qianlong era, there was no such thing, right? Strange to say, Cao Xueqin seems to understand movies. This is really incredible, but it is true.His "stage" or "picture" is not a rigid frame, and the activities of the characters are not "performed" by puppetry.He really uses different angles, different distances, different "parts", different "close-up shots"... to express.This is not a movie, what is it?

Cao Xueqin has a high-performance "photography (movie) camera" in his hand - but he lived more than 200 years ago. Think about it, how is this possible? However, facts are facts after all, and I can't tell the truth, so I ask experts to study and answer.I just use this to explain that when Cao Xueqin wrote about people, he wrote with "multi-angle" or "wide-angle" expressions, without the low-level technique of "single one".He wrote about the "subject" of Rongguo Mansion and the "master" of Jia Baoyu, which best represent what I call "movie technique".

You can see how he wrote Rongfu: he wrote about Leng Zixing's "introducer" who "watched coldly", he wrote about relatives, he wrote about the scene of "the gate", he wrote about his wife's accompanying room going out of the house to send flowers, he wrote about Zhao I begged to see the housekeeper's young mistress, he wrote about the accountant, he wrote about the servants, he wrote about the long room and second room, he wrote about the concubine and the concubine, he wrote about the maidservants at all levels, and he even wrote about all kinds of conflicts and struggles in the kitchen! ——And all of these constitute the most complete Rongfu as a whole.You can see how "wide-angle" he is. He is unbelievably "shooting" the "movie images" of Rongguo Mansion from every corner, every level, and every "coordinate".

The same is true of his writing about Jia Baoyu.He wrote about Leng Zixing's "introduction", he wrote about Daiyu listening to his mother at home, he wrote about Daiyu's first meeting in his eyes, he wrote "there are words to prove ()", he wrote the commentary of Jinghuan Fairy, and he wrote about Qin Zhong. The impression in his eyes, he wrote the estimation in the heart of Third Sister You... He even wrote the "evaluation" of Second Master Bao by the wives of Fu Qiufang's family!Xueqin never "states" herself, he only expresses himself from the eyes, hearts, and mouths of multiple people-this is the characteristic of "multi-angle" film art, isn't it right?

Because there are no good words, let me just make up, I call this artistic feature "multiple strokes for one use".It is a match made in heaven with the "multi-use in one stroke" I said a long time ago.One stroke is multi-purpose, which means that Xueqin is very good at echoing ups and downs, and ingeniously arranges; when writing here, she is looking there, waving her hand to see her, and her voice is so exquisite and transparent.When you look at one place, you think he is writing "this" - which is not bad; but when you look back and look back, you realize that he has another role, sometimes two. (and even more).If you don't understand this point, you will see it as simple and superficial.This is the important reason why one of the manuscript's previous comments said, "According to the article in this chapter, it is solid, but if you haven't read the next thirty chapters, you still can't see the beauty of this article".This is another major feature of Xueqin's art.Cao Xueqin's novels use multiple strokes in one stroke, and multiple strokes in one stroke, all using these two techniques.I don't know how many geniuses like him exist in the world throughout the ages.