1. The importance of classic reading and how novels become classics
Since ancient times, everyone has known the importance of classics and has constantly advocated reading them. However, the so-called classics in ancient times mainly refer to the poems and books Yiliyue Chunqiu, the Four Books and the Five Classics, and nothing like novels. Novels, especially novels such as what we now call the Four Great Classics and Dream of Red Mansions, are not only not considered classics, but also have no place of their own in the intellectual genealogy of the entire classics and history collection. It is even difficult to find them on the bookshelf. The writing and dissemination of novels are almost done underground, with only some crooked and bold people writing, distributing and collecting them secretly. For example, characters such as Baoyu, Daiyu, and Baochai. In the twenty-third chapter, Mingyan took Baoyu's fancy and went to "the bookstore to buy a lot of ancient and modern novels, as well as the biography of Feiyan, Hede, Wu Zetian, and Yang Guifei, as well as the legendary novels, so that Baoyu could read them." These books were definitely not visible or found in the study rooms inside and outside Yihongyuan (the outer study room was named Qixiezhai). If they could easily see and find them, Baoyu would not have to wait until the thirty-third chapter to get spanked. In the fortieth chapter, Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden again. The golden mandarin duck announced the tooth sign order three times, and everyone drank and had fun. It was Daiyu's turn, and the mandarin duck said the tooth sign sign: "There is a sky on the left." Daiyu said to her, "What a beautiful day in a good time." Baochai listened and looked back at him. Daiyu was only afraid of punishment and did not argue. Yuanyang said again: "The color of the brocade screen in the middle is pretty." Daiyu said: "There is no matchmaker's notice on the screen window." Among Daiyu's two sentences, the first sentence is from "The Peony Pavilion" and the second sentence is from "The Romance of the West Chamber". Of course, I read it secretly, so Baochai, who was called by the thief to catch the thief, caught him and taught him a lesson. After this lesson, the two became good sisters.
Thirty years in Hedong and forty years in Hexi, the novel slowly turned around. Not only did it quietly enter people's intellectual pedigree, it was also hailed as a masterpiece and classic. "A Dream of Red Mansions" is even called the highest peak of Chinese novels, literature and even culture. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a saying that "if you don't talk about the Dream of Red Mansions, it will be in vain to read all the poems and books." During the Republic of China, someone asked a gentleman named Zhu Changding what sutra he was reading recently. He said: This sutra of mine is very special. It is "One Less One Horizontal and Three Songs" (Junyao's "Cizhuju Lingmo", "Literary Magazine", Issue 8, 1914). What is the character of this "One Less One Horizontal Three Songs" Sutra? It is the word "red", and he is reading the "Red" Sutra. Since the late 1970s, the four major classics, represented by "Dream of Red Mansions", have always been at the top of the list of "the most popular books among Chinese people". Even when they can't finish reading the list, they are always looking down on the others. Now, some provinces have also included "A Dream of Red Mansions" as a required part of the college entrance examination. Last year I went to Inner Mongolia for a meeting. The president of Inner Mongolia Normal University told me that when a shepherd boy goes to herd sheep on the grassland, he must bring two treasures: a pot of horse milk tea and a copy of Dream of Red Mansions. A good friend of mine confessed his love to the goddess when he was young. The goddess asked him if he had read Dream of Red Mansions. He honestly answered no. The goddess left him a single sentence and said goodbye: He has never read Dream of Red Mansions and yet he dares to flirt with girls.
Although the reputation of "Dream of Red Mansions" has long surpassed the traditional classics "Four Books" and "Five Classics", perhaps because the novel has been on the cultural fringe for a long time, we don't seem to know how to read the novel? Because I don’t know how to read the novel? So you don’t know much about "Dream of Red Mansions"? The result is: "A Dream of Red Mansions" is not only one of our country's most famous classics, but also one of our most misunderstood classics.
2. Three ways of reading literary classics
What is reading? How should we read literary classics and novel classics? Within the scope of my knowledge, these three sentences are closest to the essence of reading? The first sentence is: Reading is traveling; the second sentence is: Reading is looking in the mirror and reading yourself; the third sentence is: Reading is dialogue. These three sentences are independent of each other, but they also corroborate and explain each other.
Machine-translated from the Chinese original 红楼梦及文学经典的四重读法 (published 2020-03-15). WeChat original ↗