The embodiment of A Dream of Red Mansions in traditional culture

Cao Xueqin's novel A Dream of Red Mansions integrates China's Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism into this classic work, which makes people unconsciously absorb the nutrients in it, thus changing their cultural knowledge structure and ideas.

This novel, which is called an encyclopedia by later generations, embodies the traditional culture of China, focusing on Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and absorbs other ideas such as Zen and Yi Li as much as possible. Although there are many characters and complicated relationships, no matter what background or social status, the cultural genes embodied in them correspond to their language and behavior one by one.

First of all, take ancient myths as the preface of the novel.

As early as 3000-2000 BC, our ancestors created the first spiritual wealth for mankind, that is, ancient myths. Most of these ancient myths are included in Shan Hai Jing. According to legend, this fairy tale was basically produced around 2200 BC, and many of them, such as the Goddess of Mending Heaven, were widely circulated through Huainanzi.

The myth of the goddess mending the sky is the most magnificent fragment in China's ancient mythology. It reflects the primitive and naive world view of our ancestors. They are related to the breaking of the sky caused by lightning and thunder, the composition of celestial bodies caused by falling meteorites and colorful clouds caused by colored stones. After careful combination, it depicts the heroic image of the goddess who fills the sky. "In the past, the four poles were abolished, and Kyushu was cracked; Heaven does not repeat, and the earth does not contain it; Fire does not go out, water is inexhaustible; Wild animals eat people, while birds prey on the old and the weak. So the woman tried every means to refine the five-color stone to make up the sky, breaking Ao Bai was enough to set up four poles, killing the black dragon to help Jizhou, and accumulating reed ashes to stop it. Heaven makes up, * * dries up, Jizhou is flat, cunning insects die, and people's livelihood is destroyed. " ("Huainanzi-Ming Lan Xun")

In ancient mythology, what caused the sky to break and people to die? It turned out that Duke * * and Zhuan Xu fought fiercely, which led to the collapse of the earth and the destruction of the universe, causing a flood: "Once upon a time, Duke * * and Zhuan Xu fought for the emperor, but in a rage, they touched the mountain of failure. Tianzhu is broken, and the ground is unique. The sky leans to the northwest, so the sun, the moon and the stars move; The land is dissatisfied with the southeast, and the water and dust return. " This is the myth that the anger of workers can't touch Zhoushan.

A Dream of Red Mansions begins with an ancient fairy tale: "It turns out that when Nu Wa tried to mend the sky by refining stones, she practiced 3650 1 block of hard stones with twelve classics and twenty-four classics on the barren cliffs of the barren hills. You Huang only used 36.5 thousand, and only one piece was useless, so he abandoned it at the foot of this mountain. "

Cao Xueqin uses the ancient myth that this goddess fills the sky as the preface of the novel. what is the purpose? There are at least three advantages: First, ancient myths are the real origin of China culture and the accumulation and summary of tens of thousands of years of ancient civilization by our ancestors.