Chapter 41 Exploration of "Red Mansion" on the eighth floor (1)

What is "exploring lost"?This is a special and important new knowledge for those who want to truly understand the original work of "Red Mansion".Because only 80 of the 108 chapters of the original work have been handed down (only 76 chapters have been verified to be authentic by Xueqin), and the subsequent "30 chapters" have been destroyed and do not exist.The current 120 chapters are "false and complete" books, which are cultural conspiracy and political deceit by Qianlong and Heshen, and have completely tampered with Xueqin's ideological realm. The general situation of the original back, trying to restore the original truth of Xueqin.

The poem says: Those who are interested in discovering the loss at the beginning hope that they will be a fan of usurping the book. The compatibility of spirit, heart, intelligence and performance is nothing new and curious. Preface to "The Story of the Stone" Exploring the Lost It is the middle of June at this moment, and Beijing is extremely hot this year, and it is said that Wu Niu is panting for the moon.I'm not Wu Niu, but I really feel that the moon doesn't give people the meaning of Qingxu Guanghan.What should I do at this time, of course I am miserable.However, for some reason, when I wanted to write a preface to "Exploring the Lost Story of the Stone", I took up the pen happily and was willing to do it.

Research instead of "opening the book" to study the "itself" of the work, but engage in "discovery" that does not "exist"!What's the point?Where is the value?Someone, I guess, would be so hard-pressed.Abandoning the root and chasing the end, extravagant branches, and any other famous words and phrases will be added. I don't know whether the author of "Exploring the Lost" has ever been criticized and satirized with disapproval.If so, I would like to say a few words for him. —The following is my hypothetical reply. If you want to ask what is the truth of Tanyi, please follow the book, and first ask what is the meaning of "Hongxue".

What is "Redology"?It does not use general novelology to study the general knowledge of general novels, not at all.It takes this special novel as a specific object to analyze its specific situation and answer specific questions.If you think you can confuse "red studies" with general novel studies, it just shows that you haven't figured things out clearly. Why did "Redology" come into being?Because of this unprecedented novel, its author, background, text, thoughts, and everything have all suffered rare injustices, its truth and original appearance have been greatly usurped, and readers have been thoroughly deceived. The emergence and task of "Red Learning" is to break the illusion and show the real shape.In the words of Mr. Lu Xun, "sweep up the smoke" and "deny the fake and return the original".If you don't understand the essence of this level, you will naturally not understand the importance of "red learning" and cannot appreciate the arduousness of this kind of work.

In "Red Studies", the purpose of studying Cao Xueqin's life experience is to show the real author, era, and background; In order to show the basic outline and context of the overall spiritual outlook of the original work.The study of Zhiyanzhai is extremely necessary for three aspects. In a key sense, only these four branches are worthy of the real "Red Studies".Even the general study and commentary on the language, implements, customs, systems, etc. in the book "Red Mansions" may not dare to say that it can keep pace with the above four branches. If you are allowed to talk about the preface himself in the preface, then I might as well mention: My personal "red study" work history has been for forty years, and I have done all four major tasks. The most difficult and most important thing is to explore the big branch.An intriguing example: when the revised version of my book "Xin Zheng" was published, the first part was corrected by Mr. Yang Jiyun, who was an old expert who provided materials for "Red Mansion" when Mr. Lu Xun was researching the novel. He read the revised version. Afterwards, he said: "You have naturally contributed a lot to the chapter of 'Historical Records', but the part I am most interested in is the articles after you have deduced the eighty chapters." This can give people a deep thought—— Not to say how well I do, but to say that this kind of work is the most creative and profoundly meaningful in the eyes of knowledgeable people.

Without Tanyi, we will always be blinded by Cheng and Gao Puppet Xu without knowing it, thinking that they have done a good job, done right, meritorious, and not bad...and so on.Without Tanyi, we will never see what this great mind and heart of Cao Xueqin is like, and how unbearably distorted it is!How indignant and heartbroken this kind of strange injustice is! "Red Studies" has been recognized in the world as a "distinguished study" that can stand up to oracle bone studies and Dunhuang studies; it will continue to flourish.But I dare to say that the greatest essence of "Red Studies" (not general novel studies) will be the study of probing the lost.Of this, I have no doubts.

Tanyi is probably the one I talk about the most with young "red friends".Friends who don’t know each other are all over the world, and some of them wrote letters earnestly saying: “You have to finish the work after eighty chapters, otherwise your decades of work will be in vain!” How can they not be deeply moved by this powerful language and intention, showing how strongly they feel about this matter and how knowledgeable they are?Among the correspondents, there are also specialized lost-finding talents, each of whom has excellent insights.In the recent period, I "knew" (or communicated with) Comrade Liang Guizhi again.At that time, he was an outstanding student in the research class of the Chinese Department of Shanxi University. He showed me the results of the exploration, which made me very happy.He is the first young scholar that I have known in decades to concentrate on and systematically explore lost works, and he has achieved outstanding results.

In my opinion, this is a big thing, and it deserves a special mention.It will have a profound impact on the history of "Redology".I am happy for this from the bottom of my heart. The purpose of this preface is not for "I" to "evaluate" whether the specific achievements of "Tan Yi" are right or wrong, gains or losses, etc., etc.Only the most crazy and arrogant people use their self-righteous prejudices as "weights" to weigh other people's opinions. Those who agree with their own opinions are "right", and those who disagree are to be scolded, and the most correct "red theory" in the world His opinions are all his own.Cao Xueqin was already so unlucky during his lifetime, how can we bear to see the "Red School" being disturbed by a bad style of study after his death, so as to increase the strangeness of his ill-fated fate? The author's style of study and writing in "Exploring the Lost" is very mellow and upright, which in itself is a kind of accomplishment and performance of a scholar.His deduction method is a decent way, exploring the lost is not guessing riddles, it is not to make specific "explanations" on individual words and sentences, and use them as "grounds".What he does is not this kind of metaphysical stuff.On the other hand, he can make some choices, make some inventions, and make some progress in inheriting the existing research results.Sometimes his individual expositions seem a little too short, and they should be elaborated to win the trust of readers. into the pen.

Knowledge is valuable for learning.Comrade Liang Guizhi's many advantages and strengths are fundamentally knowledgeable.With knowledge, he can identify this topic and conduct a comprehensive study. This is his first achievement in "Red Learning".As far as he is concerned, he must not be complacent with this, and there will be more and greater contributions in the future.This is also my personal song. This short preface was completed in one go without any pause.Although it is not good, it has to be blamed. It just explains for "Tan Yi": this is not the "end" of the "base", but the "branches" outside the "section" are the roots.