1Godzilla_on_tiptoe
Everyone, my English level is really not good enough to translate a lot of ancient poetry, so sometimes I will directly quote the original Chinese, I'm sorry.
For this analysis, I'm using a translation by David Hawkes.David Hawkes translated 《红楼梦》as The Story Of the Stone,and the first volume, which contains chapters from one to twenty-six, was called the Golden Days, which I think is very appropriate.
The Story Of the Stone is a masterpiece of China in the 18th century, which is the book of Cao Xueqin's life blood and tears.So at the beginning of the book, the author says,page full of idle word penned with hot and bitter tears,all men call the author fool,none his secret message hears.
First of all, why is it called The Story Of the Stone?I don't know if you have any knowledge of Chinese mythology. There is a Chinese legend called Nuwa mending the sky. I will not go into the details here, but the goddess Nuwa finally refined the colored stone on the earth, mended the sky, and saved the human beings on the earth.Therefore, in China, colored stone is a stone with divine nature.But how does the colored stone fit into the story？This goes back to the imperial examination system in ancient China. In ancient China, the only way out for literati was to pass examinations and become officials.Please don't look at ancient China with modern eyes. In modern times, even if I don't pass the university entrance exam, I can make bread, repair boats, and work as a tour guide, and still realize my value in life.This is what modern values allow.However, in ancient China, the education of literati from childhood is to study hard, to take part in the imperial examinations, to be a high official.As the saying goes, "all things are inferior, only the imperial examination is higher."Of course, there is no need to think that this is pathetic. Everything has its pros and cons. Modern people are very free and have many choices, but we struggle with a variety of mixed values, isn't it also pitiful?Returning to the topic of imperial examinations, such an examination system will inevitably have two results, one is passed, the other is not passed. Even if they were admitted to the imperial examinations, there were many literati who could not be appointed. So these literati who did not get the exam or did not get the appointment, will be their own situation, and Nu Wa mending the sky, the world is compared to the damaged sky, the emperor as a screening person was given the role of NuWa, and themselves - there are so many colored stones in the world! Why aren't there one or two that have been abandoned? Ancient Chinese literati called it a "being frustrated for all one's talent".Chinese literati used the abandoned stone as a metaphor for not being appointed, not being valued by the emperor, and not being able to realize the ideal of benefiting the people of the world, which is a strange situation.And Cao Xueqin borrowed this metaphor again. In the book, the main character Jia Baoyu was a colored stone abandoned by Nuwa in his previous life. He is the successor of Jia's Mansion, but can not save the fate of Jia's Mansion overturned. If Jia's Mansion is the broken sky, then Jia Baoyu is the stone to mend the sky, is not also not playing his role? This also corresponds to the situation of ancient Chinese literati.
The rest will wait after my dinner...
For this analysis, I'm using a translation by David Hawkes.David Hawkes translated 《红楼梦》as The Story Of the Stone,and the first volume, which contains chapters from one to twenty-six, was called the Golden Days, which I think is very appropriate.
The Story Of the Stone is a masterpiece of China in the 18th century, which is the book of Cao Xueqin's life blood and tears.So at the beginning of the book, the author says,page full of idle word penned with hot and bitter tears,all men call the author fool,none his secret message hears.
First of all, why is it called The Story Of the Stone?I don't know if you have any knowledge of Chinese mythology. There is a Chinese legend called Nuwa mending the sky. I will not go into the details here, but the goddess Nuwa finally refined the colored stone on the earth, mended the sky, and saved the human beings on the earth.Therefore, in China, colored stone is a stone with divine nature.But how does the colored stone fit into the story？This goes back to the imperial examination system in ancient China. In ancient China, the only way out for literati was to pass examinations and become officials.Please don't look at ancient China with modern eyes. In modern times, even if I don't pass the university entrance exam, I can make bread, repair boats, and work as a tour guide, and still realize my value in life.This is what modern values allow.However, in ancient China, the education of literati from childhood is to study hard, to take part in the imperial examinations, to be a high official.As the saying goes, "all things are inferior, only the imperial examination is higher."Of course, there is no need to think that this is pathetic. Everything has its pros and cons. Modern people are very free and have many choices, but we struggle with a variety of mixed values, isn't it also pitiful?Returning to the topic of imperial examinations, such an examination system will inevitably have two results, one is passed, the other is not passed. Even if they were admitted to the imperial examinations, there were many literati who could not be appointed. So these literati who did not get the exam or did not get the appointment, will be their own situation, and Nu Wa mending the sky, the world is compared to the damaged sky, the emperor as a screening person was given the role of NuWa, and themselves - there are so many colored stones in the world! Why aren't there one or two that have been abandoned? Ancient Chinese literati called it a "being frustrated for all one's talent".Chinese literati used the abandoned stone as a metaphor for not being appointed, not being valued by the emperor, and not being able to realize the ideal of benefiting the people of the world, which is a strange situation.And Cao Xueqin borrowed this metaphor again. In the book, the main character Jia Baoyu was a colored stone abandoned by Nuwa in his previous life. He is the successor of Jia's Mansion, but can not save the fate of Jia's Mansion overturned. If Jia's Mansion is the broken sky, then Jia Baoyu is the stone to mend the sky, is not also not playing his role? This also corresponds to the situation of ancient Chinese literati.
The rest will wait after my dinner...
