Author: Angelababy
There are 23 couplets and a large number of plaques in A Dream of Red Mansions, which are distinctive in form and play a great role in shaping characters and typical environment.
Keywords: "A Dream of Red Mansions" couplet board
A dream of red mansions is characterized by poetry and rhyme. In these poems and rhymes, there is a common folk literature genre-antithetical couplets, and the matching plaques. These conjunctions and expressions appear in such a masterpiece, which are not only conjunctions and expressions in the folklore sense, but also have special functions. The form and function of couplets in A Dream of Red Mansions will be discussed below.
Look at the couplets and plaques in A Dream of Red Mansions from the form.
Couplets refer to couplets hung, pasted or carved on pilaster. There are 23 couplets in A Dream of Red Mansions. These 23 couplets are mostly concentrated in two places: the dreamland (the fifth time, "Jia Baoyu wandered in the dreamland, and the police fantasy fairy played a dream of red mansions"); The 116th session of "Realizing the Fairy Family in the Miraculous Fantasy, Sending Kindness to the Hometown with Filial Piety" was translated into "True as a Blessed Land") and the 17th session of "The Grand View Garden has no mistakes, Guo Rongfu returns to the province to celebrate the Lantern Festival"), with seven pairs respectively, accounting for more than half of the total.
Most of these 23 couplets are 14, that is, the upper and lower couplets are 7 words each, so there are 17 pairs. There are also 10 couplets, and there are five couplets each, so there are only two pairs. The above two sentence patterns are either antithetical sentences based on five laws or antithetical sentences based on seven laws. In addition, there are 22 pairs of couplets, each pair of 1 1 is divided into two paragraphs, the upper four paragraphs and the lower seven paragraphs. There are also four such pairs, which can be found in Fantasia, Yuan Fei Ci and Jia Ancestral Hall. This sentence pattern either evolved from parallel prose. There are no couplets with more complicated sentences in A Dream of Red Mansions.
There are as many as 44 names of couplets in the Chinese Dictionary of Popular Literature (hereinafter referred to as the Dictionary), and of course there are many repetitions with different names but the same substance. In addition, it only includes all the names, not the classification made on the same basis. Now, let me explain the terms and names related to the 23 couplets of A Dream of Red Mansions.
"Dui", like "Dui", refers to couplets with similar or related contents (that is, only one side). Judging from the relationship between the 23 couplets in A Dream of Red Mansions, almost all of them belong to this pair of "pairs".
The dictionary introduces "description couplets", which refers to couplets that describe or describe something, scenery, people, express some meaning or express some thoughts and feelings. The couplets in the Grand View Garden of A Dream of Red Mansions can be classified into this category.
The dictionary refers to "aphorisms and epigrams", that is, couplets composed of aphorisms and epigrams, which are often written in the study, bedroom and before the case to sharpen ambition, strengthen self-cultivation and guide actions (there is also the word "aphorism" in the couplet "Conghua"), such as exploring the spring and autumn couplets: "Clouds are idle, rocks are wild." The antithetical couplets in Dreamland are also like this.
There is a kind of couplet embedded in the dictionary, which is composed of historical allusions. There are many such couplets in the 23 couplets of A Dream of Red Mansions. Let's analyze them below.
In the dictionary, "double" and "hidden" are actually a kind of couplet, that is, a pun contains two meanings. In the second time of A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Yucun saw a pun in Zhitong Temple: "I forgot to put my hand behind me, and no way back was in front of me". In addition, in the third couplet of Rong Xitang, "the pearl shines on the seat and the sun shines on the front of the hall", "the pearl" and "the bone" refer to the magnificence of costumes, and the second refers to the beauty of words, the appearance of wind chimes and the elegance of poems inside.
Among the 23 couplets in A Dream of Red Mansions, there are no ingenious works such as inlaying, numeral couplets, compound couplets, overlapping couplets, thimble couplets, homophonic couplets and literary couplets in the dictionary.
Liang Zhangju's Poems on Couplets in Qing Dynasty divided the couplets collected since the Five Dynasties into ten items: stories, coping styles, temples, scenic spots, aphorisms, anecdotes, couplets, sets of sentences and miscellaneous affixes. Among them, Ying Zhi is of great benefit to the interpretation of couplets in A Dream of Red Mansions. (A Dream of Red Mansions "Grand View Garden" involves many correspondences, which will be discussed later. ) in a dream of red mansions Jia ancestral hall triple can also be included in the title of "temple sacrifice". As far as "scenic spots" are concerned, "Grand View Garden Topic Pair" also has something in common with it.
There are couplets and banners. There is a "banner" in the dictionary, also called "horizontal batch", which is a couplet term. Refers to horizontally written words, accompanied by vertically written couplets. Except for elegiac couplets, which are generally not approved horizontally, other couplets are commonly used. Banners summarize the contents of couplets at many heights. However, there are also many building names used for cross-examination. In addition, "Writing and Appreciation of Couplets" mentioned that "from the format point of view, closely combined with the characteristics of real life, there are two doorframes and a lintel in the middle, which are correspondingly composed of three parts: the upper couplet, the lower couplet and the banner".
Throughout A Dream of Red Mansions, the number of plaques mentioned greatly exceeds the number of couplets. The reason is that in the seventeenth session, "The Grand View Garden got a positive score, and Guo Rongfu returned to the province to celebrate the Lantern Festival" and in the eighteenth session, "The emperor's kindness is more important than the princess's parents, and Baoyu is talented", many of them only wrote the amount, but did not match it. In addition, from the public to Baoyu and then to Yuan Fei, different amounts were engraved in the same place. Of course, what the diners said verbally was not affirmed, which is beyond the scope of discussion. One more thing, it is mentioned in the dictionary that "but there are many buildings with their names", and there is such an example in A Dream of Red Mansions, and sometimes horizontal comments as summary couplets and plaques as building names appear at the same time, such as "Hongyi Kuai Green" giving the name "Hongyi Garden" and "Zhi Heng Qingfen" giving the name "Wu Heng".
There are four other places where there is no amount link. Three of them, in Qin Keqing's room, are accompanied by Tang Bohu's "Haitang Spring Sleeping", which is "tender and cold because of spring cold, and the aroma is wine"; In Autumn Zhai, Mi Xiangyang's "misty rain map" is matched with "misty rain life"; The first building in Ningguo Mansion is "Everything is bright and knowledgeable, and people's understanding is an article" with a "burning thistle map". These three pictures are images of associative words and also serve as banners. The other is in a "fantasy", "nothing to do with this", and there is no matching banner.
Due to the matching of couplets and foreheads, we will only talk about the plaques matched with couplets below. There are Taixu Dreamland, Zhitong Temple, Rongxi Hall, Evil Sea Love, Misfortune Division, Qin Fang, Youlaiyi (Xiaoxiang Pavilion), Apricot Curtain in Sight (Huange Mountain Villa, Daoxiang Village), Lanfeng Huilu, Zhi Heng Qingfen (Wu Hengting Courtyard), Grand View Garden (Gu Ensi I) and Ou Xiangxie. Among them, Taixu Dreamland, Zhitong Temple, Rongxitang, Misfortune Division, Xiaoxiang Pavilion, Huange Mountain Villa, Daoxiang Village, Garden, Grand View Garden, Lotus Champs, Zhenru Mansion and Jiashi Ancestral Hall have the same composition, and they are all building names (Taixu Dreamland, Misfortune Division and Zhenru Mansion are all illusory places, slightly different).
Second, look at the couplets and plaques in A Dream of Red Mansions from the function.
The function here mainly refers to their functions in creating a typical environment and depicting characters' personalities, so let's talk about it in combination with the "emotion theory" in Hegel's aesthetics.
"Emotion-inducing theory" mainly demonstrates the dialectical relationship between personality and environment. There are four key terms in Emotion Theory: 1. The "general world situation" is the "general background of individual figures with life in art" and "all phenomena of spiritual reality are linked together", that is, "the situation of education, science, religion, finance, justice, family life and other similar phenomena"; 2. "Universal power", that is, "the creed or ideal of ethics, religion and law prevailing in a specific era", that is, "idea"; 3. "Situation" is a "special" opportunity to uncover conflicts, trigger actions and show personality; 4. "Emotion" is "the basic rational content that exists in people's self and permeates all their moods". Hegel believes that the "universal world situation" is reflected in the objective "situation"; "Almighty power" is embodied in subjective "emotion". [ 1]
A Dream of Red Mansions has two environments: transcendental and realistic.
The "general world situation" represented by the transcendental world in A Dream of Red Mansions is a celestial situation with its own unchanging order. This "general situation of the world" is embodied as an objective "situation". The "love" here refers to a karma between the stone left by the goddess to mend the sky and the crimson pearl fairy grass, and then the celestial world put down a large number of romantic enemies to help the crimson pearl "return tears." "Cosmic power" is embodied in seven consecutive couplets. These seven couplets are:
The fifth round of "Jia Baoyu sleepwalks in a dreamland, and the police fantasy fairy song plays a dream of red mansions" has four links: 1. "False time is true, it is true and false, and it doesn't matter", which is criticized as "dreamland" horizontally; 2. "thick soil and high sky, you can't sigh the ancient and modern feelings; Looking for an object to get married, it is difficult to repay the poor debts ",and horizontally approved" Love Day in the Sea "; 3. "Spring hates autumn and worries about self-immolation, who is the beauty of the moon", and horizontally criticizes the "unfortunate department"; 4. "It has nothing to do with it."
In Chapter 116, "Realizing Fairy Fate in Psychic Fantasy, Sending Kindness to My Hometown with Filial Piety", there are three couplets (corresponding to the previous three couplets): 1. "False to truth is not as good as false to truth, and there are mistakes without principles", which was criticized horizontally as "true as a blessed land"; 2. "In the past and in the future, it is said that the wise can break; Cause and effect, we should know that relatives and friends don't meet ",and criticize" blessing good and evil "horizontally; 3. "Laughter and sadness are false, and greed and desire are always due to delusion".
Before and after the comparison, it is obvious that "true as a blessed land" is a subversion of "illusory land", "fortunately vicious" is an exhortation to "love the sea and love the sky" and "seduction" is a hint to "unlucky secretary".
The "concepts" contained in these seven couplets are some concepts in Buddhism and Taoism popular in ancient China society, such as karma, past lives, truth or not, and so on. This "concept" (that is, "cosmic power") is embodied in subjective "emotion". Most of the characters in A Dream of Red Mansions do not have this kind of "emotion".
A Dream of Red Mansions has two worlds: the transcendental world and the real world. Immortals beyond the realm of experience know secrets and do not know personnel; People in the real world know nothing about their own destiny. They are not the concrete result of this "universal power". Only Jia Baoyu is an exception. On the one hand, he experienced all kinds of happiness and sadness in the Grand View Garden. On the one hand, I went to the celestial world twice, saw these seven couplets, heard the tune of A Dream of Red Mansions, and even saw the fate of people around me. The first time he entered the celestial world, he was in a daze, and the second time he realized the machine contained in the couplet. He shuttled back and forth between the transcendental world and the real world, reflecting on the real world with the "truth" and "love debt causality" of the transcendental world; It also confirms the "idea" of the transcendental world-seven links with various experiences in the real world. So he obeyed this "omnipotent power" and took a name before becoming a monk. It can be said that the "idea" conveyed by the author through the transcendental world has been fully implemented in Jia Baoyu. This is also the process of "universal power" concretizing into "emotion". And those seven couplets fully explained this "idea".
In addition, Xue Baochai is also worth mentioning. When I visited Granny Liu's Grand View Garden, I mentioned that Xue Baochai's boudoir was like a simple "snow cave". After the Jia family changed, even Wang Xifeng was no longer clever, but Xue Baochai was able to live a meticulous life and won the favor of the Jia family. Besides, Xue Baochai used to watch The West Chamber and so on, and she could feel the goodness in it, but she gave up as an adult. Although she is not like Jia Baoyu, her own "love" can also be said to be the concrete result of those seven couplets.
The "general trend of the world" shown in the real world of A Dream of Red Mansions is the background of material life and cultural life in Qing Dynasty. In the 23 couplets, except for 7 pairs of transcendental worlds, the other 16 pairs, together with other literary forms in the book, reproduce the face of that particular era. This "general situation of the world" is embodied as an objective "situation". The "love" here is the story of the rise and fall of Jia, Wang, Shi and Xue. The typical environment is dominated by peace and honor, and the Grand View Garden is the main courtyard. The "omnipotence" here is a set of patriarchal etiquette of feudal families, and it is also a set of norms in blood relationship and interpersonal relationship. The triple of Jia's ancestral hall embodies this "universal power" and helps to form a "universal world situation". This triple is:
1. Liver and brain wipe the ground, Zhao surname depends on the grace of self-restraint; Fame and fortune are all over the world, and one hundred generations have tasted it.
2. Unlimited merits and bright future; Fame and fortune, endless cross-criticism: Xinghui Fu Bi.
3. Children and grandchildren inherit the property; So far, Li Shu has missed Rong Ning. Horizontal recognition: be cautious and pursue distance.
Yuan Fei inscribed the plaque "Gu Ensiyi" in the main hall, and Li Anyun said: "Heaven and earth are merciful and compassionate, and they feel the same throughout their lives; Ancient and modern Kyushu national glory. " This is nothing more than this category.
The first couplet of "Rong Xitang" in the main hall of Fu Rong reads: "The sun shines on the seat, and the smoke shines in front of the hall." Among them, the words "Zhu Ji" and "Grain Rain" are puns (as mentioned above), pointing out the extraordinary of Jia Fu.
"The world is clear, everything is learned, people experience and articles are learned" should be the philosophy of people's entry into WTO.
Of the 16 couplets in the world, except for the above six pairs, the other nine pairs are all in the Grand View Garden. Together with the nine couplets of the Grand View Garden, which was seen in Yuzhitang, Jia Yucun, and "I forgot to put my hand behind my back, and there is no turning back now" and the one in Qin Keqing's room, "The tender cold locks my dreams because of Joan Hinton, and the fragrance attacks people", on the one hand, it is a touch to the real scene of the Grand View Garden. After the completion of the Grand View Garden project, why did Jia Zheng and other diners question the plaque? "It is a difficult thing to ask the imperial concubine for a title. But if the imperial concubine doesn't see the scenery in person, it's hard to hang up. If you wait until the imperial concubine is lucky, ask questions again. If there is a big scene, a number of pavilions, no words, not colorful. " We can see the halo of the plaque. At this point, we can completely feel the words of couplets. For example, there is a couplet on the pavilion in Qin Fang, which says, "Borrow three flowers to bypass the embankment, and the flowers will smell on the other shore", so I don't need to go into details. On the other hand, we should return to "universal power" and concretize it into subjective "emotion".
The "emotion" of the characters in the Grand View Garden is manifested in the agreement with the above-mentioned "meaning" higher than the world.
Jia Baoyu is the most extreme author. But he is not a passive resistance person. He worships everything with his talent. The seventeenth time, "The Grand View Garden takes an appropriate examination, and Guo Rongfu returns to the province to celebrate the Lantern Festival" is entirely Jia Baoyu's personal exhibition. He did not forget "should be made", and his words were elegant and his words were solemn. When titled "A winding path leads to a secluded place", he mentioned that "the new version is not as good as the old one, and it is better to engrave the ancient than to engrave the present". When Jia Zheng wrote the word "Xie Yu" in Ouyang Xiu's sentence, Baoyu thought that "this place is not only a provincial villa, but also a system. It seems impolite to use these words ",and then he drafted the word" Qin Fang ". He criticized the legacy of Qi Shui and Suiyuan Ruins, changed the title of Feng Lion and published Shangshu? Yi Ji's "90% Xiao Shao, Phoenix comes to the instrument", which is intended to be linked with "Baoding tea is still green, and the window chess is still cold." Outside Fenmen, he refuted the proposal of "Xinghua Village", and made sentences with Tang Yin's "Red Apricot Hanging Wine Flag" and Xu Hun's "Chai Men Rice Flower Scent" in the late Tang Dynasty, and came up with "apricot curtain in sight" and "Taoxiang Village". It is also titled "New green roses add songs to live in, and clouds protect Qin pickers". "Happy Song" compiles "The Book of Songs"? Nan Zhou? Ge Gu's Preface to Poetry points out that this poem is "the virtue after praising the emperor". This coincides with Yuan Fei's motherhood. Picking Qin is a book of songs? Truffles? Dish water "dish water, thin its Qin". Dishui is the water of Pangong, and Pangong is the palace of learning. Later, the champion of the senior high school entrance examination was called "entering Pan" or "picking Qin". The second couplet can coincide with the protection of Jia's poetic homeland, and also implies Li Wan's concern for Jia Lan. Many diners wrote the title of "Lanfeng Club Record" in the later Wu Hengyuan, and what they said about the two customs offices was correct. Baoyu changed his forehead to "Zhi Heng Qingfen", but instead he said, "Poems about cardamom are still gorgeous, and dreams are also fragrant." The Collection of Notes compiled by Zhi Yi Qing Fen refers to the deeds of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Li Furen. At this point, Jia Baoyu is knowledgeable.
But when Jia Baoyu understood the machine, he changed his temperament, conformed to the "cosmic forces" in the world, such as the purpose of the ancestral hall and the jubilee hall couplets, and began the "official career economy." After he became famous, he converted to the "idea" of the celestial world, that is, he became a monk.
Lin Daiyu is different from Jia Baoyu. From the moment she entered Jia's house, she knew to be careful step by step. It can be seen that she still needs to use that kind of "omnipotent power" to debug. However, due to her "dust-free" temperament, her debugging can't be complete and almost ineffective. The combination of Xiaoxiang Pavilion, tea, chess, green and cool all set off her bleak situation.
Unlike Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai is the embodiment of the "concept" in the celestial world and can completely adapt to the "concept" in the world. She can be said to be at ease in Jiafu. The first sentence of Wu Hengyuan praises his poetic talent, and the last sentence praises his temperament. There is a saying in Song's "Spring Festival Evening Garden", "It's time to spend". Xue Baochai can "sleep enough" and "dream sweet" when she is in trouble, which shows that her calmness is to be humiliated.
Li Wan completely conforms to the secular "concept" and is a widow and meticulous, so it is natural to give her a happy ending.
On the other hand, Tanchun has a strong will. She is not arrogant and playful like Baoyu, so she should take everything seriously. The "misty rain picture" in Qiu Shuangzhai and the couplet "misty clouds idle bones, spring stone wild career" are just a satire on her.
The above lists several figures directly related to couplets in the Grand View Garden to illustrate the role of couplets in shaping characters and creating a typical environment in A Dream of Red Mansions.
Couplets and plaques in A Dream of Red Mansions, as the styles of folk literature, have entered the creation of literati, which are superior in form and function.