A Research On The Image Of You Ling In A Dream Of Red Mansions

You Ling are an old term for a group of artists engaged in drama, music, musicals, comic performance, comic dialogues, and etc. There were three different types of You Ling in ancient China, some served domestically, some were professional, and some performed as part-time jobs. You Ling not only embody highest charm as the major part of performing arts, but brought laughter for people, but they enjoyed lower social status than common people, been misunderstood, slandered, and even dallied.In the book/4 Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin, portrayed a complete picture of You Ling from a real world of their life, including three types of them, which are the author wants to further illustrate in this paper. It analyzes You Ling in A Dream of Red Mansions from three aspects in three chapters.The first chapter analyzes images of You Ling in A Dream of Red Mansions, who are twelve You Lings in Jia mansion, professional You Ling Jiang Yuhan, and Liu Xianglian as a guest actress. Although they have different characteristics, rise from obscurity, they are all people with self-respect, amour-propre, talents and arrogance.The second chapter analyzes significant of these You Ling's portray from two aspects. First, their tragic destiny with deep tragic aesthetic significant, they are na(?)ve, but they finally disbanded because of their low social status, sordid surrounding and social ethos and bias. Second, the symbolization of You Ling. Symbolization is the main written method in the book A Dream of Red Mansions. As minor roles in this book, You Ling foreshadowed the destiny of the main role.The third chapter mainly analyzes the attitude toward You Ling in the book and the causes result from. The book neither regard them as positive from the aspect like Si Maqian's remonstration, nor regard them as of low origin as the common traditional idea of the whole society. Cao Xueqin first of all affirm their individuality, sing high praise for their high level of performing art, then gives positive assessment, and comment on the positive function of entertainment as well. He keeps abreast of the time, which is praiseworthy by the later generations. This attitude results from Cao Xueqin's personal experience, family history and extraction, and cultural ethos.