Since its inception, Dream of the Red Chamber, one of China’s Four Great Masterpieces, has attracted the attention of countless people who have fallen in love with it, and in modern times, there has been a “Redology” dedicated to its study. Some “Redologists” believe that “Dream of the Red Chamber” reflects the world through the rise and fall of several families, the eunuchs and the love of men and women, while the Chinese Communist Party regards it as a novel that “reflects the struggle of one class against another”. Mao himself launched a critical campaign against the study of “Dream of the Red Chamber”, which was soaked with tears of sorrow during the bloody wind of the Cultural Revolution. As for the “Song of Good Fortune”, which begins the novel by pointing out its true meaning, it was deliberately ignored by the world under the brainwashing of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Dream of the Red Chamber in Mao’s eyes
Mao had read Dream of the Red Chamber when he was a teenager. According to the official Chinese Communist Party media, Mao talked about “Dream of the Red Chamber” with He Zizhen during his time in Jinggang Mountain, saying it was a rare and good book, and that it was written about the struggle between two factions, Jia Ma, Wang Xifeng, and Jia Zheng, which is one faction and is bad; Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and the maids, which is one faction and is good, and that “Jia Baoyu is the first revolutionary in Chinese history “.
Whether during the civil war or after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao did not hide his love for Dream of the Red Chamber, and he repeatedly used it to discuss current affairs, such as using Lin Daiyu’s words “the east wind overwhelms the west wind” to compare the international situation and give political meaning to the east wind and the west wind; using Wang Xifeng’s words “to give up all The materialist is fearless”; the maid Xiaohong said “there is no banquet that does not end in a thousand miles” to explain “the law of development of things”, and so on. The law of development”, and so on.
On December 20, 1961, Mao also told a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau and the first secretaries of the regions: “Dream of the Red Chamber should be read not only as a novel, but also as history.” In August 1964, he also said, “If we do not speak of history from the viewpoint of class struggle, we cannot make sense of it.” He also considered the fourth chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber, “reflecting the class antagonism in feudal society,” as the general outline of “The Monk of the Gourd’s Disorderly Judgment of the Gourd Case.
Undoubtedly, Mao’s views on Dream of the Red Chamber directly influenced the CCP’s official commentary.
Mao Launched a Critical Campaign of Criticism of Dream of the Red Chamber
Shortly after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, Mao and the CCP undertook an ideological transformation of intellectuals who retained Western democratic ideas and traditional scholarly temperament in order to strengthen their intellectual control. Hu Shih, an academic “predator” with a liberal bent who consistently attacked the CCP’s theories and practices, became the target. Hu Shih’s son Hu Sidu, who remained on the mainland, severed his father-son relationship and called him a “reactionary” and an “enemy of the people”. The academic community then launched a movement to criticize Hu Shih, with Yu Pingbo, Yang Zhensheng, Gu Jie Gang, Tang Utong and Zhu Guangqian, who claimed to have been friends with Hu Shih for more than seven years, “leading the charge”, and major intellectuals criticizing Hu Shih’s “reactionary crimes”.
The criticism was temporarily suspended due to the outbreak of the Korean War. With the end of the war, the action to “clean up and criticize bourgeois ideology and bourgeois idealism” with Marxist-Leninist thought and “achieve ideological unification” was again on the agenda, and Hu Shih, who had ignored the messages sent by the Chinese Communist Party either explicitly or implicitly, was again criticized for his firm support of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party’s message was ignored and Hu Shih was criticized again for his firm support of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. Mao was the first to use the articles of Li Xifan and Lan Ling, young people who had just graduated in 1954, to criticize Yu Pingbo, who was a student of Hu Shih and an important figure in Hu Shih’s “New Red School”, for studying Dream of the Red Chamber.
In the opinion of Li Xifan and Lan Ling, Yu Pingbo’s essay’s self-referential legends of “lamenting one’s life” and “confessions in love” do not conform to the typical anatomical significance of the Dream of the Red Chamber for feudal society; the emphasis on the concept of “color and emptiness The concept of “color and emptiness” obliterates Cao Xueqin’s intention to make a comprehensive critique of the entire feudal era’s politics, economy, and culture in the novel; the idea of “the unity of hairpin and Dai” reconciles the opposing ideologies of Baochai and Daiyu; the “resentment but not anger” The style of “Dream of the Red Chamber” distorts the spirit of realism and criticism. The so-called “Redology” always dwells on tedious examinations and claims, instead of exploring its significance, ideological and artistic achievements, and contributions in literary history, and sometimes even intentionally belittles it, “which is a materialistic interpretation of realist literature. Thus, they tried to interpret Dream of the Red Chamber with a Marxist view of literature and art, confirming its historical significance of the times, etc..
And this was just what Mao wanted, because Mao likewise disapproved of many of Yu Pingbo’s views on Dream of the Red Chamber, because Mao was likewise interpreting Dream of the Red Chamber with the Marxist-Leninist view of material history, the theory of class struggle, etc. In addition, Mao felt that this was an opportunity to purge intellectuals because the critical articles of Li Xifan and Lan Ling raised the big question of whether “the Marxist viewpoint or the bourgeois viewpoint should guide social science research” in the field of thought.
Under the impetus of Mao, in October 1954, Literary Art Daily and Guangming Daily reprinted and published Li’s and Lan’s critical articles respectively, and added “editor’s notes” to both editor’s notes, stating that Yu Pingbo’s views should not be recognized as correct. It is not a matter of deeper and more thorough study of “Dream of the Red Chamber”, but a matter of criticizing wrong ideas.
Later, Mao issued a letter on the study of Dream of the Red Chamber, criticizing the “big shots” for “willingly being captives of the bourgeoisie”. This letter signaled Mao’s intention to launch an ideological campaign in the cultural field.
On October 23, the People’s Daily published an article by Zhong Luo entitled “Criticism of the Wrong Views in the Study of the Dream of the Red Chamber”, and on October 24, an article by Li and Lan entitled “What Kind of Road to Take? –Reviewing Mr. Yu Pingbo’s Wrong Views on the Study of “Dream of the Red Chamber””. These two articles formally kicked off the public criticism of the so-called “bourgeois idealism” of Yu Pingbo and Hu Shih.
The Classical Literature Department of the Chinese Writers’ Association, the Presidium of the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Presidium of the Chinese Writers’ Association, as well as many higher education institutions and research units, also held symposiums to discuss the criticism of Yu Pingbo’s study of Dream of the Red Chamber.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Writers’ Association set up a committee for this purpose, headed by Guo Moruo, to launch a comprehensive, concentrated, sharp, and savage artillery bombardment against Hu Shih’s philosophical, political, literary, and historical ideas. Guo Moruo was the first to take the lead, taking the form of speaking at meetings, talking with journalists, or writing articles himself to verbally attack Hu Shi. On November 8 of that year, Guangming Daily published a conversation between Guo Moruo and a reporter of this newspaper, saying: “The discussion caused by Yu Pingbo’s erroneous views on the study of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ is a major event in the current cultural and academic world …… This is a serious ideological struggle. …… Hu Shi’s bourgeois idealistic academic views are deeply rooted in Chinese academia, and there is still a great potential force among many parts of the higher intellectuals. We have politically declared Hu Shi a war criminal, but in the minds of some people Hu Shi is still the ‘Confucius’ of the academic world. This ‘Confucius’ we have not yet knocked down, and we can even say that we have rarely touched him yet.”
On December 9, the People’s Daily, under the title “Three Suggestions,” published again the speech made by Guo Moruo at the joint meeting of the Presidium of the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Presidium of the Chinese Writers’ Association on the previous day, saying that Hu Shih was “the No. 1 spokesman of the bought-and-paid-for bourgeoisie, and that he and Chiang Kai-shek, one in literature and one in politics, are like twin peaks against each other. He and Chiang Kai-shek, one literary and one political, are like two peaks confronting each other, and two waters diverging”, and asked everyone to “examine deeply and be alert at all times” through the criticism of Hu Shih and Yu Pingbo’s study of “Dream of the Red Chamber”.
In February 1955, Yu Pingbo published “Resolutely clearing the line with the reactionary Hu Shih’s thought – a preliminary review of his personal research on Dream of the Red Chamber” in the Literary and Art Newspaper, admitting that he had devoted himself to the research of Dream of the Red Chamber for more than 30 years and that “his main mistake lies in following the bourgeois idealistic He said that he was “determined to draw a clear line with Hu Shih and all reactionary and hostile ideas”.
It was at this point that the tone set by the study of The Dream of the Red Chamber began to burn until the end of the Cultural Revolution, twenty years later, creating a deformity, distortion, and gap in the field of red studies for more than twenty years. During the “Anti-Rightist” and the Cultural Revolution, almost everyone in Redology was criticized, so some chose to keep their mouths shut, some stopped studying the Red Chamber, and some chose to abandon their conscience and cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party in telling lies. In time, a unique and great work, Dream of the Red Chamber, was left with words such as “class, revolutionary, feudal, and critical”.
If we look at the titles of the articles on “criticism and research” at that time, we can understand the perspective of people’s perception of Dream of the Red Chamber at that time: “insisting on studying Dream of the Red Chamber from a class perspective”, “Dream of the Red Chamber is a book about class struggle “, “the weak nature of the reactionary decadent class from Dream of the Red Chamber”, “the class struggle in feudal society from Dream of the Red Chamber”, “the resistance struggle of the slaves in the Da Guan Yuan “, “The Self-Exposure of the Counter-Revolutionary Two-Faced Faction – An Analysis of Lin Biao’s Criticism in the One Hundred and Seventh Cycle of Dream of the Red Chamber”, “A Class Struggle in the Field of Ideology –Study Mao’s Letter on the Study of the Dream of the Red Chamber” …… The Dream of the Red Chamber was turned into a current textbook on class struggle.
Yu Pingbo, the Red Scholar, was delegated for reform
Among Chinese academic authorities, Yu Pingbo’s name should be a household name, and his study of Dream of the Red Chamber has attracted attention from many quarters. Although he was the first to be sacrificed during the Hu Shi movement in the 1950s, the criticism of him ended temporarily after he publicly “drew a line in the sand” with Hu Shi and others.
However, after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, in the early 1970s, Yu Pingbo and other scholars from the Academy of Social Sciences, such as Qian Zhongshu, were sent to the May 7 Cadre School in Xixian, Henan Province, for rehabilitation. In rural Xixian, many villagers had heard of Mr. Yu’s name, some saying, “I know, I know, the old guy who wrote Dream of the Red Chamber against Mao x x.”
According to the mainland media, once several villagers stopped Yu Pingbo on the road and asked him, “Did you write “Dream of the Red Chamber”? Why did you write the book against Mao××?” Yu Pingbo said, “I didn’t write Dream of the Red Chamber, I couldn’t write it.” Several villagers shouted, “Come on, everyone, the newspaper has said that he wrote it, he refused to admit it, what dare not dare not dare, I think you have the guts to cover the sky, what dare not!” At this time, an intellectual-looking young man came forward and pushed the crowd away and said, “This is a very serious issue, so leave it for later criticism. For now, let him explain how he hooked up with the big reactionary American Empire lapdog Hu Shi.” Probably the young man was more cultured and knew that the real author of “Dream of the Red Chamber” could never be Yu Pingbo, so he came out to cover it up and the matter was over. Later, a few people from the Institute of Literature, and good talk to Mr. Yu led back to the dry school.
Who understands the true flavor of “Dream of the Red Chamber”?
What is a “Dream of the Red Chamber” about? Is it about the rise and fall of families and noble love, as the Redologists say, or about the class struggle in the eyes of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party? In the first chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber, there are these words: “The paper is full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears! Everyone says that the author is foolish, but who understands the taste of it.” “When it comes to the bitterness, the absurdity is more pathetic. From the same dream, don’t laugh at the world’s idiocy!”
Obviously, the world obsessed with worldly affairs did not penetrate the true meaning of Mr. Cao Xueqin’s writing this book, which is actually about the divine way to advise people to see beyond the red world.
The story of “Dream of the Red Chamber” is about a redundant stone from Nuwa’s refining of stones to mend the sky, which turned into a piece of jade with the divine Ying of the Red Flaw Palace (reincarnated as Baoyu) to further cultivate in the mortal world, and how the senior life of the fairy Jiangzhu (reincarnated as Daiyu) was able to settle the manna with the divine Ying The story is about how the higher beings, the fairy Jiangzhu (reincarnated as Daiyu), helped her to fulfill her wish by the kindness of irrigation, and how the fairy eventually returned to the world by “seeing color through emptiness, creating love from color, passing on love to color, and understanding emptiness from color. In other words, Bao Dai’s relationship appears to be one of love, but it is actually one of revenge and wish-fulfillment behind the scenes.
And in the first round of a monk, a monk, is to come to earth to enlighten the world of the gods. Along the way, the Taoist priest sang the “good song” needs special attention: the world knows that the gods are good, but there is merit and fame can not be forgotten! Where are the ancient and modern generals? A pile of grass in a barren mound is gone. The world knows that the gods are good, but only gold and silver can not be forgotten! I just hate that there is no more gathering in the end of the day, and when the time comes, my eyes are closed. Everyone knows that the gods are good, but only the wife can’t be forgotten! On your birthday, you talk about your love, but when you die, you go away with others. Everyone knows that the gods are good, but only the children and grandchildren can’t forget them! There are many loving parents in the past, but who has seen filial children and grandchildren?
Throughout the ages, people have longed for a life like the immortals, with plenty of food and clothing, carefree, glory and prosperity. People persist in pursuing the so-called happiness on earth, but life is short and impermanent, what is eternal? How many people can let go of their obsessions? And how many people can be redeemed by God? Dream of the Red Chamber” is to advise people to look beyond the red world and wake up from the confusion. All the things in this world are uncertain, and fame and fortune are only temporary, people will eventually die, money and wealth cannot be taken away, and even though love is good, it must be parted! Only cultivation can lead to eternity and true happiness. What does it mean to be good? What is it? It is “good” to have all your wishes fulfilled in the next life, and it is “good” to return to the place where you came from.
In addition to advising people to see beyond the red world and to take the path of cultivation, “Dream of the Red Chamber” also deals with the following themes: Firstly, one must repay for one’s kindness. People and heaven are the same thing, the gods have to repay the same kindness, how much virtue they receive, how much kindness they repay.
Secondly, the “Grand View Garden”, which is full of human emotions and desires, can be a place of practice for higher beings to return to their true nature after they have fulfilled their wishes.
Thirdly, everything has a cause, life is just a script, and each character takes a turn. The whole “Dream of the Red Chamber” is arranged by the director, and the lives of the protagonists and supporting characters, including the lines, are just like acting in a movie.
Conclusion
If we understand the true flavor of “Dream of the Red Chamber”, we can understand that the analysis of the Redologists has not hit the core, and we can understand that the distortion of the Chinese Communist Party is in essence making the world deviate from the true meaning of “Dream of the Red Chamber” to the world. Life is like a dream. How many people who have been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party and are persistently pursuing the life they desire can understand the true meaning of life?
Recent Comments