Cao Xueqin wrote Baodai's love with careful design and layout in A Dream of Red Mansions. This work has a complex, huge and exquisite network structure. Baodai's love plays an important role in this structure. It interweaves with some minor stories and plots to form a close whole. From the beginning of this love story, from the third to the seventh time, Daiyu and Baochai successively entered Guo Rongfu, which is the prelude to this story. From the eighth time to the thirty-second time, it is mainly the internal development and conflict of this pair of contradictions between two lovers. The appearance of Baochai has given this contradiction a new and complicated content, and at the same time, it has gradually shown the thoughts and personalities of relevant figures. After thirty-two times, the contradiction of love turned from inside to outside. The author shows its incomparable complexity from the wider space of Jiafu, further highlighting the inevitability of its tragic ending. After the 1980s, there should be a third stage of sharp decline, announcing the final completion of this tragedy and the final outcome of the tragic characters. Unfortunately, the author died before finishing the manuscript (or this part of the manuscript has been lost). This-the work is made by Gao E.
Jia Baoyu, the son of Jia Fu, is an aristocratic family with "the house of poetry and propriety, the house of food" and is the expected heir of this feudal family. But he didn't take the road of feudal family arrangement and became a rebel and a black sheep. In this book, we can see that a seedling with new living matter has grown in the soil full of humus in this family. On the contrary, Jia Baoyu's family and the secular society in which he lived became his classroom to know and cut off the source of evil. There is a poem "Xijiang Moon" in the book, which says, "Being down and out doesn't know worldly things, fools are afraid of reading articles, and acting in a remote and perverse way is afraid of slander."
He became a stubborn stone in this society, and became a "human demon" in the eyes of feudal parents. Feudal parents were full of disappointment and panic about the child.
A prominent aspect of Jia Baoyu's character is his suspicion and criticism of the old traditional feudal culture and Confucian ethics. He once said, "Besides the four books, there are too many fabrications". He criticized the stupidity of "mixed supply to build a temple". He was extremely disgusted with the stereotyped imperial examination system adopted by ordinary scholars at that time. He hates the official career economy and those greedy, greedy bureaucrats who like Jia Yucun. The feudal society flaunted as a model of civil servants and military commanders "remonstrating to death" and "fighting to death" was boldly denounced as "seeking fame and reputation" and "stealing ghosts from the country", but many women who were oppressed and insulted in feudal families were praised and sympathized. In Jia Baoyu's body, the light of China's budding democratic thought that just rose to the horizon in the 18th century is revealed.
Lin Daiyu is the most understanding, sympathetic and supportive of Baoyu among the sisters in Daguan Garden, so she became Baoyu's close friend. They cultivate the seedlings of love on the basis of like-minded. Daiyu never advised Baoyu to care about his career economy and go to school to be an official. From her, we see the noble talents cultivated by our excellent classical cultural traditions. She is not only outstanding in appearance, but also brilliant in poetry and prose, and shines brilliantly in the Grand View Garden. What she loves is not Four Books and Biography of Women, but The West Chamber and Peony Pavilion, which boldly shows her resistance to feudal ethics. These works inspired her and Baoyu to awaken their youth and strive for their happiness and ideals.
Thirty-two years ago, we saw the description of love theme, which was almost the proximity of needle and line and the concentration of pen. Thirty-three times later, although events directly or indirectly related to this theme were also written, such as Baoyu's beating, Chai Dai's investigation, attacks on people's promotion, embroidered Yuanyang's dream of a big red cloud pavilion, Baoyu's dream of shouting "wood and stone marriage" and so on, but this dark line gradually faded down, and it seemed to be interrupted after thirty-eight times.
Cao Xueqin's pen began to write a series of events such as Guo Rongfu's banquet, poems written by girls, and complicated contradictions and struggles in Jia's family. Because thirty-two years ago, he devoted himself to writing the Bao Dai mutual examination, and then built trust on the basis of their consistent ideas. After the "internal" contradiction is solved, Cao Xueqin needs to reveal the typical environment and profound roots of Baodai's love tragedy in a broader space, and write more deeply about the corruption, decay and great decline trend of Jiafu and even the whole secular society. Therefore, it can be said that after thirty-two times, the focus of Baodai's love description shifted from "inside" to "outside".
We can see that in the following chapters, Baodai's misunderstanding and noise are less. In the development of dense love descriptions, Lin Daiyu always lamented who she met in the Grand View Garden. Thirty-five times, in front of Hongyi Courtyard, an endless stream of relatives were inspected. "When Daiyu saw it, she nodded unconsciously, remembering her parents' kindness, and her face was already covered with tears." She remembered Cui Yingying in The West Chamber. When she saw the new Xue Baoqin, she couldn't help sighing where there were relatives. Her fragile heart was almost broken by this heavy heart. In the grand view garden, only the maid Zijuan shared her joys and sorrows. Love tests mang jade. This kind-hearted maid tried Baoyu as a girl, but only she could discuss with Daiyu what was hidden: "... I am really a girl." I have been worried about you all these years. I have no parents or brothers. Who knows that pain is hot? Let the old lady know as soon as possible that it is important to accomplish great things in a difficult season. " But how can we hope that Daiyu will take bolder action? How can we expect Zijuan, a humble maid, to help the girl? But Aunt Xue hypocritically said that it was better to give Sister Lin to Baoyu. At last, Zijuan rushed up and said, "Why didn't you tell the old lady about this idea?" . "However, throughout the first eighty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions (actually including forty chapters of Gao Xu), we have never seen Aunt Xue put her words into action. Why don't you tell the old lady? Then only God knows! Not only did I not say it, but I also didn't forget to say, "The golden lock was given by the monk, saying that jade was needed to match it." This hypocritical concubine, a cheap "caress", actually won Daiyu's naive gratitude and recognized her as "mother" from now on! Fifty-seven Chapters not only shows the hypocrisy of Xue's mother and daughter, the naivety of Daiyu and the enthusiasm of Zijuan, but also is an important chapter in our insight into Daiyu's inner world.
In feudal society, the arranged marriage system of parents' orders and matchmakers' words was widely implemented, and young men and women had no right to dominate the "lifelong events" related to their vital interests. They are isolated in a small world and have no contact with each other. Feudal parents required their children to be familiar with sage books, master stereotyped writing, take the road of imperial examinations and become accomplices and slaves of the ruling class, while for a woman, they were required to be a good wife and mother with "three obedience and four virtues". Their youth is lost in the study of the female needle and the dragon and the phoenix, and decadent books such as Daughter Classic and Woman Biography have become life textbooks they are only allowed to read. The shackles of feudal ethics limited their healthy physical and mental development. It is difficult for our readers today to understand or blame her for being too sentimental, but we must know that this distorted ideological character of this girl is caused by that evil social system.
Now let's look at the second person who describes love and marriage-Xue Baochai, who is originally a redundant person in Baodai's love!
The girls filled in catkin words together, and Daiyu wrote sadly: "The grass and trees know their worries, but their youth is bald." However, Xue Baochai found optimism and hope in the falling catkins. It seems that she sang a completely different style in response to Daiyu's sadness: "Laughter has no roots in youth, and good winds send me to Qingyun." Baochai's success in the Grand View Garden is inseparable from her "good deeds and false deeds". When Xi Feng is courting the old lady, she can say, "I have been here for so many years, and my second sister-in-law is as smart as the old lady." In these thirty-two chapters, we have seen that she made a great slander on Jin Chuaner's tragic death. It can be seen here that when You Sanjie was killed by Feng Jie's poisonous plan, she was ruthless: "This was doomed in a previous life ... so we must let her go!" This girl's soul has been polluted by feudal orthodoxy to a terrible situation!
Xue Baochai, an unexpected guest who suddenly appeared in Baodai's love kingdom, entered the Grand View Garden with the spirit of harmony, optimism and enterprising with the society at that time. This girl has both the rare beauty in the feudal "aristocratic family" and all the vulgarity in the secular society. This girl, who is "open-minded and keeps up with the times" and won the favor of servants, was born in the Xue family, one of the four aristocratic families in Jinling, and was the daughter of a famous minister. Her mother is the founder of Jiafu and the sister of Mrs. Wang, who dominates Baoyu's marriage power. It is precisely because of the marriage of the previous generation that the four families have more political and economic rights of honor and disgrace. The image of Baochai is sometimes confused by Baoyu, a noble son with a certain inferiority complex, so Daiyu has to be alert to allergies. Lin Daiyu, a Suzhou girl from Jiafu, is actually an orphan girl who lives in a sponsor's house. The secular society demands marriage-she has almost nothing and has no effective material strength against a third party. All she has is a girl's sincere heart, a heart that beats with Baoyu. She loves Baoyu passionately, but she must bury this heart deeply as a lady in the boudoir. She needs to be proud of herself and will never allow her status as a young lady to be damaged a little. In this environment of different surnames, everything "should be careful step by step, always care about it, say nothing, don't walk a step, and be afraid of being laughed at", not to mention "fornication" and "elopement" are absolutely not allowed in ethical society. After all, she is still a famous poetic family, and her upbringing makes it impossible for her to resist more boldly. So, what we see is such a contradictory and painful tragic figure! In the eyes of the common people in the Grand View Garden, she is arrogant, which is not good for her.
The seventh time, Zhou Rui's family sent palace flowers. We saw that she was the only one who wanted to ask, "Is it just for me or for all the other girls?" She didn't know that she accidentally got the last two, but she couldn't help sending flowers: "I knew it!" " Others don't pick the rest and don't give it to me! "This is the character of Daiyu that we saw in the overture.
Entering the eighth time, the conflict of love gradually emerged. Baochai was caught by Daiyu when she was chatting with Baoyu when she first entered the Jia family. She just said, "I came at a bad time." This is the first expression of our love for Daiyu in her works, and it is expressed in a strange and suspicious form peculiar to her. She knew that in feudal society, marriage was often formed in response to the word "good luck". She has felt that this girl wearing a golden lock, entering this kingdom that is her own territory in her view, is a great threat to herself!
The ninth time, Baoyu said goodbye to Daiyu when he entered school. Daiyu also asked, "Why don't you say goodbye to your baby sister!" From the eighth to the thirty-second time, we can see that Bao and Dai's love is full of endless troubles, anger and pain. After "The Poems in the Grand View Garden are Just Right", Daiyu was very sad to think that the sachet she made for Baoyu was picked off by the page, but she didn't know that Baoyu was treasured in her close chest. Xiangyun once again inadvertently said that singer Xiao Dan looked like Sister Lin, but it caused a storm of venting his anger on Baoyu. ……
Love always bears the color of its class and times. In the era of A Dream of Red Mansions, like the birth and growth of Daiyu, we can't imagine that a woman like Liu Qiaoer today would proudly sing the voice of the times: "This time I want to find my husband's family." Cao Xueqin, a master of realism, always grasps this typical characterization method.
In chapter 29, the author explained to us: "Baoyu ... was close to Daiyu since childhood, but now he knows something and reads some strange books." None of the beautiful women who are far away from their friends' homes are slightly different from Daiyu. So, I have a long, long worry, but it's hard to say. Therefore, whenever I am happy or angry, I will try my best to secretly test it. "Because you will keep it from me sincerely, I will keep it from you sincerely, and I will only use hypocrisy to test it. In this way, "when two fakes meet, there will always be a truth". During this period, it is trivial and broken, and it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no quarrel.
This is the irrationality of feudal society and its marriage system. The ruling class can allow the most obscene fornication and shameless sexual relations-scandals inside and outside Ningfu and Rongfu, but not pure and reasonable young men and women-to have love like Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu.
In these chapters, we can not only see the description of Baochai's love and her ideological character, but also see the gradual display of Xue Baochai's character. Let us gradually understand the essence of this girl who keeps up with the times and is deeply loved from top to bottom in the description of events in the Grand View Garden. She has a philosophy of life that doesn't match her age: it's none of her business, she doesn't open her mouth and shakes her head when she asks. This girl, who never loves pollen, often eats a kind of "cold fragrant pill". Reason seems to have taken away the girl's enthusiasm too early. She praised xiren in her heart: "Don't blame this girl wrongly. Listen to him, but you know something. " She also "carefully observed his speech, which was deeply loved." Jia gave her a birthday and asked her to play. This girl, who keeps saying that "women are always chaste and quiet", actually ordered two lively plays, The Journey to the West and City Gate, in front of Jia. She also replied to Jia Mu that she likes to eat sweet and rotten things. It turns out that "Baochai knows that the old people in the old lady's family like lively operas and sweet things, so she always tells them what the old lady likes." Jia Fei once again brought the lantern riddles in the palace. In Baochai's view, it was "nothing novel", but "a lot of praise, only saying" hard to guess "" Deliberately think about it, in fact, I guessed at a glance. "In the first part of this exhibition, we can see that she is a person who prematurely lost the simple and secular philistine of a girl and infiltrated her soul. Because of this, she won the favor of many orthodox figures, from Jia Mu and Yuan Fei to Xiren.
Baodai's love is developing in this contradictory factor, and the gloomy cloud gradually hangs over their heads. All kinds of ominous omens seem to tell people its tragic ending: apart from the theory of "golden marriage", another Zhang Daoshi proposed to Baoyu: Qingxu Guan dipped in it, but Baoyu got a golden unicorn just like Shi Xiangyun. I wonder what Cao Xueqin is going to tell us about the change of this love story. Twenty-two times, she said, "When the old lady saw Baochai coming, she was glad that she was safe and peaceful." She is going to celebrate 15 birthday. People say that "nature is different from what I did to Sister Lin a few years ago". Besides, the imperial concubine in the palace gave all the sisters the same gifts as Baoyu and Baochai ... are these coincidences?
Chapter 32 "Telling my heart about Baoyu" is an extremely important chapter in writing Baodai's love, and this chapter is a turning point. It tells us at least the following three points:
1, through the dialogue between xiren and Shi Xiangyun, we know the essence of Xue Baochai's thought and character, and the fundamental reason why Baoyu chose Daiyu and rejected Baochai.
2. I overheard the conversation between xiren, Shi Xiangyun and Baoyu from Daiyu, and heard Baoyu's "self-esteem". She finally got rid of the burden of "uneasy" in the past.
Baodai told each other the truth, but was caught by the attacker. She was shocked. She is "suspicious, afraid, anxious and ashamed", which makes her worry that something incompetent will happen in the future, which is surprising and frightening, but how to deal with it can avoid this ugly disaster. It indicates that she told on Mrs. Wang, feudal parents stopped her, and a series of events in the Grand View Garden were not conducive to Baodai's love. Famous examples include beating Wang Bao, inspecting the Grand View Garden and expelling Qingwen, Siqi and Gong Fang.
When commenting on the writing structure of A Dream of Red Mansions, Zhi Yanzhai often said that "grass snakes turn gray, and the veins are thousands of miles apart." In other words, A Dream of Red Mansions is often written one after another, hidden but not revealed. Sometimes, the clues to the development of events seem to be gone, but they are revealed in far places. The description of Baodai's love is sometimes the same.
The love tragedy between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu is a touching and important event in A Dream of Red Mansions. How to understand Baodai's love tragedy? It should be understood from the following aspects:
1, Bao Dai's love tragedy is the central story in A Dream of Red Mansions. It is the main clue that runs through the book. Taking this as the main line, the book describes the occurrence, maturity and tragic ending of Baodai's love under the background of the rise and fall of Jiafu, and connects other clues such as the unfortunate experiences of many women, which leads the love description to a broad life and fully reveals the subjective and objective factors that cause the love tragedy, thus enriching the love description.
2. Baodi love is a kind of love with new colors. This kind of love, on the one hand, inherits the anti-feudal tradition of the previous generation; On the other hand, it broke through the love expressed by previous writers and took a big step forward. This is mainly manifested in Jia Baoyu's choice of two love objects, Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu, who never advised him to make a name for himself, and the conflict between two thoughts and two life paths, and thus he put forward a new concept of love, that is, love must be based on anti-feudalism, congenial personality and consistent thoughts.
Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu are not only anti-feudal in love, but also have rebellious thoughts in official career, imperial examination and fame and fortune. In fact, there are many ways for Lin Daiyu to deviate from the feudal women. She devoted all her energy to reading and writing poems, which is not her daughter's duty. She memorized The West Chamber, which was regarded as a bad book at that time. More importantly, she took a supportive attitude towards Jia Baoyu, the "evil root scourge" in this feudal family. Not only has she never said those "fucking words" about her career economy to him, but she has also entrusted herself to him for a lifetime. It is precisely because of the rebellion of * * * that their love is deeper; And love led them to a deeper road of rebellion. Xue Baochai is beautiful, good-natured, knowledgeable and good at handling things. Although she has touched Baoyu, her thoughts and personality are incompatible. One is a feudal rebel and the other is a feudal defender, so Jia Baoyu chose Lin Daiyu.
Through Bao Dai's love, the author shows that only love based on anti-feudalism is beautiful love, which is not allowed by feudal society and feudal parents, thus leading to tragedy.
Although Xue Baochai was married, it was a marriage without love, and the so-called "golden marriage" was only a tragic ending. Cao Xueqin's love principle put forward by Bao Dai has the content of democratic thought, and it is not easy to get close to the modern concept of love.
In addition, when dealing with this traditional love theme, Cao Xueqin inherited and developed the anti-feudal tradition of love stories in the previous generation of novels and operas, but broke through the familiar pattern of love at first sight and separation in appearance. For the first time, he clearly stated that love must have the basis of consistent thoughts. Cao Xueqin also broke the traditional thinking and writing of happy endings of love stories. He described the tragic ending of Baodai's love, which was shocking. The description of love in A Dream of Red Mansions is novel and thoughtful.
3. Cao Xueqin wrote the new features of Baodi's love, its complexity, historical limitations and class limitations. Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu yearn for love in thought and place illusions on their parents in action. In love, they didn't get rid of the feudal spiritual burden. This is more obvious in Lin Daiyu, who is willing to form a husband and wife with Jia Baoyu. But when Baoyu expressed his love with the words in The West Chamber, Lin Daiyu regarded it as a demeaning and immoral thing. They yearned for free love ideologically, and could reach a realistic marriage, but they could not break through the restrictions of feudal ethics in action. Their love is sincere and warm, but they can't and dare not express it directly. Their painful and tortuous expression of love reflects their own ideological contradictions and their view of love, and they still have not got rid of the shackles of feudal ethics. Jia Baoyu's love for Lin Daiyu is sincere and single-minded, but he has always loved Xue Baochai. He has an affair with xiren, and he has the idea of being a good wife and a beautiful concubine. Therefore, the feudal class branded Baoyu deeply in this respect.
Baoyu and Daiyu pursue free love, but regard love as the most meaningful thing in life and make it an absolute thing. They are always worried, bored and sad about love. They regard each other as the main meaning of life, so once they lose the hope of love and marriage, they lose the main meaning of life, so they feel that the value of life is limited. Their views and feelings are inseparable from the status, thoughts and feelings of their wealthy class, so their love is full of lingering and sad emotions. Baodai's love reflects the limitations and weaknesses of class from content to emotion, from action to way. So we say that their tragedy is inseparable from their own weakness.
4. Baodi's love tragedy has profound social content. Cao Xueqin does not write love tragedies in isolation, but reveals the social causes of love tragedies from different aspects, especially describes the decline of Jia family, which is the typical environment of Baodai's love tragedy. The contradiction between "marriage of gold and jade" and "alliance of wood and stone" is the contradiction between feudal forces and free love. With the decline of Jia family, the situation is more and more unfavorable to Baodai. Although Jia and others understand Baodai's tendency in love, they look at this problem from the standpoint of their parents. In their view, Baoyu is an unfilial son, and Daiyu's ideological style also violates feudal ethics, which is very strange. If they get married, the consequences are unimaginable. As we know, the Jia family was already financially stretched, and the contradictions within the family became more and more acute. Xue Baochai is the ideal candidate for the head of the family. She not only followed the way of thinking of feudal women, but also was a lady of feudal ethics. Moreover, she is good at getting along with people and has the talent of being a housekeeper. Only she can meet the needs of the Jia family and become the mainstay of saving the decadent situation. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend for parents to choose Baochai for Baoyu. Under such circumstances, Baodai's love is doomed to be a tragic ending. Mr. Wu Zuxiang said: "The author tries to tell the whole story of this tragedy from the extremely complicated and profound relationship and development between the characters' personalities and living environment. "