" Dream of Red Mansions " This masterpiece basically involved all aspects of society at that time, and naturally, temples and temples were indispensable.
In "Dream of the Red Chamber", the temples include Hulu Temple and Tianqi Temple; the temples include Zhitong Temple and Tiegan Temple; the temples include Xuanzhen Temple and Qingxu Temple; the temples include Shuiyue Temple and Bengcui Temple. I won't list them one by one here.
In the first chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", I first wrote about a temple - the Hulu Temple.
south gourd
1. The location of the "Gourd Temple" is very subtle
The Hulu Temple appears like this:
The land was trapped in the southeast that day, and there is a place called Gusu City in the southeast. The Changmen in the city is the most prosperous and romantic place in the world. There is a Shili Street outside this Changmen , there is a Renqing Alley in the street, and an ancient temple in the alley. Because the place is narrow, everyone calls it a gourd temple.
This Changmen is the west gate of ancient Suzhou City . Inside this Changmen is the inner city, a first- and second-class wealthy and romantic place, equivalent to the third ring road of Beijing City. Those who live must be powerful and wealthy people, who belong to the upper class of society;
Outside the Changmen is "Shili Street". Pay attention to this "Shili Street". Cao Xueqin attaches great importance to people and place names in "Dream of Red Mansions", and many of them use homophonics. The homophonic of "Shili Street" here is "Snob Street";
This "Shili Street" is outside the Changmen, which means that the people living outside the Changmen are all snobs in the market. The secular people have "two snobbish eyes and one rich heart", and the trend of pursuing profits is the norm for secular people. There is a "Renqing Lane" in
Street, which still uses a homophonic sound, namely "Humanxiang Lane". Human feelings have cold and cold, but human feelings are as thin as paper.
"Hulu Temple" is between "Zangmen" and "snobbish streets" and "people's love alleys", that is, between "wealthy and romantic" and "snobbish people". However, the place is narrow and everyone calls it "Hulu Temple".
2. Why is the "Gourd Temple" called "Gourd Temple"
What does narrow place mean from a narrow place? Why is it called "Gourd Temple" in a narrow place?
There are two common gourds in my country, one is called "garlic gourd" and the other is called "sub-waist gourd". This sub-waist gourd is like two stacked spheres, small on the top and large on the bottom, and a slender "bee waist" in the middle. The one related to narrowness is supposed to be "sub-waist gourd".
This small temple in the "Hualian Lane" is called the "Gourd Temple" because of its narrow place. It must be similar to its shape. It can be seen that it is like the bee waist of the "sub-waist gourd", which is very narrow.
The location of this gourd temple is very interesting. On one side is the prosperous inner city with rich and romantic feelings, and on the other side is the residence of civilians with favors like paper and trends for profit. This narrow "Gourd Temple" like the "sub-waist gourd" is in the middle. So what do Cao Xueqin wants to say about this temple arrangement and title?
Don’t say that Cao Xueqin just screamed casually. Cao Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions" was written by "read it for ten years, adding and deleting it five times", and "every word seems to be bloody, and ten years of hard work are unusual."
took ten years to modify it five times. It can be said that it is a careful word and a good intention. Moreover, this time is the opening work. How could Cao Xueqin treat it? How could this "Gourd Temple" be called casually?
Cao Xueqin wrote "Dream of Red Mansions"
3. "Hulu Temple" refers to the middle layer of class flow
Zhen Shiyin lives next to Hulu Temple. It is a village official. His family has a house with a garden. He has two maids, a male servant and a child. He watches flowers, builds bamboos, drinks and writes poems every day, and lives like a god-like life. Does he look like the middle class in our contemporary society?
If Zhen Shiyin goes further, he will be able to live a rich and romantic life in Changmen with rich clothes and food.
But not only did he fail to go further, he lost his daughter, and the property was burned to rubble by a fire. In addition, rats and thieves rose up, officers and soldiers surrounded him, and had no choice but to sell the land, and were deceived by his father-in-law. Finally, he saw through the world and left, and finally failed to achieve the leap from the middle class to the upper class of society.
There is a small novice in the gourd temple. This novice novice should belong to a proletarian. Even if he later became a disciple of Jia Yucun , he would be the lowest-level listener.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", this disciple who once served as a novice monk in the Gourd Temple is called a "Gourd Monk". People mostly interpret "Dream of Red Mansions" and say that the "Gourd" here means "confused". If you carefully examine what this student does, he is not confused, but he has his own wisdom and extraordinary strengths.
This student is not willing to sink into the bottom of society. When he saw his old friend become a prefect, he felt that this was an opportunity to achieve a leap in class, so he decisively seized the opportunity and offered suggestions to show his loyalty, hoping to be promoted and reused.
But he didn't understand the ulterior motives of human hearts and the sinister officialdom, but he flattered and was filled with the cunning and insidious Jia Yucun from afar, losing the opportunity to achieve class improvement.
Jia Yucun, who lives in Hulu Temple, was originally poor and lived by writing and writing. He was also a low-level figure in society. However, he was despicable and cunning and good at craftsmanship. He became the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture and finally achieved a leap from the bottom to the upper level.
So does this small gourd temple look like a world of fame and fortune in life?
Jia Yucun made his fortune here and jumped from the bottom of society to the top of society; Zhen Shiyin's family was destroyed here and his people were "dead", and he fell from the middle of society to the bottom of society; and the little novice monk in the Hulu Temple, after some efforts, could not jump to this dragon gate and was still the bottom of society.
"Dream of Red Mansions"
4. "Dream of Red Mansions" is also a history of social class transformation
We now often compare the class of today's society to a "pyramid": the top of the tower is the smallest, and there is the powerful and wealthy class, which may only account for 5% of the total number of people in society, but they have more than half of the wealth of this society;
The next paragraph is the middle class, who are entrepreneurs or successful people in a certain field, and have achieved financial freedom, but some of them often cannot escape the trap of middle class and will fall back to the bottom of society if they are not careful;
The bottom of the house are ordinary workers and unemployed people at the bottom. They make money by physical strength and labor, and may be in trouble at any time due to a disaster or a disease.
Although Cao Xueqin is knowledgeable, he cannot surpass the times, so he does not know what triangle, cone or "pyramid" shape he can only use a "sub-waist gourd" to describe the social class at that time.
From the perspective of social class, "Dream of Red Mansions" is also a history of class transformation in feudal society. It describes the transformation of social class among many characters. Some people fall into the bottom, some people jump into the top, some people jump into the middle, and some people jump into the middle.
The upper class in "Dream of Red Mansions" is of course represented by " Four Major Families ". These "four major families" are not iron-clad. For example, Jia Mansion eventually "the tree falls and the money scatters", and the children are scattered everywhere, some are green lamps and ancient Buddhas, some are becoming women of the people, and some are missing. Most people fall from the upper class of society to the bottom of society.
And Jia Yucun can be regarded as an example of a lower level jumping into the upper level. As for the final outcome, let’s not talk about it.
Liu Laolao Originally the bottom of society, the family was already poor and destitute. Winter is coming, and it is difficult to prepare for winter clothes.
Fortunately, Liu Laolao went to the Jia Mansion to find assistance. Because of Liu Laolao's hard work, she could actually have a house and land to achieve a well-off life, which can also be regarded as a leap from the bottom to the "quasi-middle level".
The son of Lai Shangrong, Lai Da, of Rongguo Mansion, was also the one who achieved class leap. Although Lai Da was a slave, he had a large group of servants and a large garden at home. He also spent money to donate his son to become a magistrate. After his son became the magistrate, Lai Da's mother, Lai Ma, was happy. She had served her three days of wine at home and invited her to celebrate her. Do you think she has become a middle class?
pyramid structure
5. "Gourd" should not be interpreted as "confused"
Cao Xueqin once said in the first chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions":
"People today are poor, and they are burdened by food and clothing every day; rich have a lack of heart."
Cao Xueqin believed that the social class at that time was like a "sub-waist gourd", with two ends large and small in the middle. Although the two ends were large, it was not as large as both ends, but represented the upper end of the upper class, and the lower end of the lower class. Because the number of middle class was too small, it was like the "bee waist" of a gourd.
Therefore, the gourd temple in "Dream of Red Mansions" was a channel between the upper and lower classes of society at that time, representing the middle class of society at that time.
Zhen Shiyin lived next to the gourd temple, and he was the "bee waist" of the social class at that time, that is, the middle class in the society at that time; and Jia Yucun and the little novice monk who lived in the gourd temple were struggling desperately and wanted to cross the bottom class.
"The girl with a little fate met a little fate In the chapter "Gourd Monk Judgment of the Gourd Case", it is not very appropriate to interpret "Gourd" as "confused". The reason why I call my son the "Gourd Monk" is just because he lived in this gourd temple that Cao Xueqin attached great importance to.
"Dream of the Red Chamber"
