Which structure of the traditional novel did A Dream of Red Mansions break?

Lu Xun once pointed out: "In short, since the Dream of Red Mansions came out, the traditional thinking and writing methods have all been broken." By "broken" Lu Xun meant that the novel "dares to depict truthfully, without any concealment, and is very different from the previous novels in which the good people are completely good and the bad people are completely bad, so all the characters described in it are real characters".

"Dream of the Red Chamber" does not write the characters as the embodiment of a certain idea or character, let alone treating them as didactic tools. The author's delicate writing shows the vividness, richness and complexity inherent in life itself.

A Dream of Red Mansions breaks the one-line structure of traditional novels. It takes the romantic and marital relationships of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai as its central thread, while simultaneously unfolding the depiction of other characters and events in the aristocratic extended family. While focusing on the tragedy of the love and marriage of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, it develops a broad depiction of the social environment, thus writing out the social roots of this tragedy.

Expanded Information

A Dream of Red Mansions comprehensively and profoundly reflects the characteristics of the era of the decline of feudal society. What it depicts is not the love story of "the cave and the candles, the golden list"; rather, it is about the love and marriage tragedy between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, who were young feudal aristocrats.

The great social significance of the novel lies in the fact that it does not depict this love tragedy in isolation, but takes this love and marriage tragedy as the center, and writes about the rise and fall of the four representative families of the time, namely, Jia, Wang, Shi and Xue.

The novel centers on the Jia family, exposing the darkness and evils of the late feudal society and its insurmountable inner contradictions, and making a powerful criticism of the corrupt feudal ruling class and the feudal system that is about to collapse, so that the readers have a premonition of its inevitable destiny to be overthrown. At the same time, the novel also expresses a new and hazy ideal through the glorification of the aristocratic rebels.