"a Dream Of Red Mansions" Comment Theoretical Research

The critiques of Dream of the Red Chamber are an important and sizable integration of critiques in the developmental course of Chinese novel theories. In terms of its main idea and spirit, Dream of the Red Chamber represents all of the past novels'achievements and makes some major breakthroughs. The critiques'exposition of the artistic features of Dream of the Red Chamber, although intermingled with the good and bad ones, in general, not only reflect the development of the academic research on Dream of the Red Chamber, but also constitute the valuable theoretical connotation and promote the development and improvement of Chinese classic novel theories. Beyond all doubt, further studies on the theoretical connotations and academic values of the critiques are justified.The dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One focuses on theme. Different critiques have different understandings on the theme of Dream of the Red Chamber, such as talking about sentiment or revealing the implications, which reflects the multivocal feature of the theme of Dream of the Red Chamber and is peculiar in the history of novel criticism. On the one hand, the critiques made by Zhi Yanzhai, Dongguan Zhuren, Chen Qitai, Yaoxie and others are all concerned with the description of sentiment, which contrasts the traditional views that novels are about happenings and is its major contribution to the critiques of Dream of the Red Chamber. On the other hand, the discussions on the author's implications given by Wang Xilian, Ha Sibao, Zhang Xinzhi and others enrich people's understanding of the theme of Dream of the Red Chamber and put forward several noticeable theoretical problems. For example, Wang Xilian's viewing the theme as the rise and fall of a dynasty reveals roles of the major clue in expressing the theme; Ha Sibao's argument of'belligerence'characterizes the artistic feature of Dream of the Red Chamber, i.e. characters being more important than thoughts.Chapter Two is about characters. The critiques make peculiar understanding and generalizations about the character's individuality and their molding. First, the critiques attach much importance to the complicacy of characters. For example, Zhi Yanzhai argues that only portraying character's complex personality can make the characters in the novel be of artistic authenticity, that all cuties have a flaw reflects the description is close to reality, that the unprecedented beauty is a kind of verism in imagination and affection. Second, the critiques discover and summarize quite a lot methods of molding characters, such as Zhi Yanzhai's discussions on characters'naming, Dongguan Zhuren's supplementary depict and feature portraying, Wang Xilian's stealthy description, Zhang Xinzhi's observation from the shadow, and so on. In general, criticism on characters is the centre of the critiques of Dream of the Red Chamber and the most important contribution to novel theories.Chapter Three centers on scenario. The exploitation and analysis of the scenario of Dream of the Red Chamber by the critiques improve the novel theories of scenario since the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty. As to the scenario construction, the critiques sum up quite a lot artistic skills, such as the constructing principle of approximation to affection and reason, the circumbendibus depicting method, the transforming skills between detailed and rude descriptions, etc. Moreover, the critiques are also of theoretical values in respect of scenario functions. For example, Wang Xilian unfolds the power of scenario in molding personality; Chen Qitai comes to realizes the harmonious relation between scenario and personality; Huang Xiaotian generalizes the artistic effects of detail description in molding personality, developing plots and deepening theme.The fourth chapter is on structure. The critiques'argumentation on structure of Dream of the Red Chamber is also helpful to the development of novel theories. The first, the critiques laid stress on the frame of structure. Based on the interrelatedness between the part and the whole, Wang Xilian first pointes out the'major paragraph'and'major creed'of the novel. Ha Sibao put forward the concept of pivot and proposed that the arrangement of the structure should be centered on characters, which provides a new critic viewpoint for novel structural esthetics. The second, the critiques attach special importance to the role of foreshadowing. Zhi Yanzhai argued that the design and arrangement of foreshadowing should be rigor and profound, which really approximates the perfect condition of the structure of novels.The last, the critiques emphasized the important action of subplot. Zhi Yanzhai argued that subplot is significant to the structure of novels, raising two claims and some ways, which grows the forefathere's understandings.Chapter Five is about language. There are two noteworthy points in terms of language. One is the discussion on language skills. By stressing the implicitness, veracity, and creativity of the novel's language, Zhi Yanzhai argued that the prosodic art of choosing the exact words can be extended to narrative novels, which can improve the expressive power and aesthetic quality of novel language. The other is the discussion on language styles, among which Wang Xilian suggested that the implicative wording art in narration be derived from the classic poetry tradition and be consistent with the pursuit of using ironical and polysemous language. In the history of novel criticism, all of these are of great enlightenment.In conclusion, on basis of novel theories, the critiques made extensive theoretical analysis of the artistic achievements of Dreams of the Red Chamber and improved the development of Chinese classic novel theories.