Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber" why the "encyclopedia" reputation.

Because the Dream of Red Mansions covers a wide range of topics.

Specifically, there are more than 700 characters in Meng of the Red Chamber, and they can be found in real life. The characters in it aren't exactly good guys or bad guys. When A Dream of Red Mansions came out, all the techniques of writing characters were all broken.

The food in Dream of Red Mansions can also be a reference for recipes. (Duck Meat Porridge, Bird's Nest Porridge, Red Rice Porridge, Almond Tea, Eggplant with Chicken). Clothing is also a bright landscape (description of Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu's outfits, Qingwen mending Baoyu's clothes).

The Dream of Red Mansions covers various subjects, such as architecture (the Grand View Garden), costumes, folk customs, proverbs, lantern riddles, poems, songs and tunes, various drinking games, drinking orders, and paintings, and the judging of poems (Xiangling's study of poetry).

Expanded Information

A Dream of Red Mansions comprehensively and profoundly reflects the characteristics of the era of feudal society's prosperity and decline. 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 people of the feudal aristocracy.

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 to write about the rise and fall of the four representative families of the time, namely, Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue, which, centering on the Jia Mansion, exposes all kinds of darkness and evils in the late feudal society and its insurmountable inner contradictions.

The novel is a powerful critique of the corrupt feudal ruling class and the collapsing feudal system, making the reader anticipate its inevitable destiny. At the same time, the novel also expresses a new and hazy ideal through the glorification of the aristocratic rebels.

A Dream of Red Mansions is a work of rich connotation, with the Song of Well Done and the twelve Songs of the Dream of Red Mansions hinting at the triple tragedy experienced by Jia Baoyu. The author places Jia Baoyu and a group of young girls of different status and position in the fictional world of the Grand View Garden, which is both poetic and real, to show the tragedy of the destruction of their youthful lives and beauty.

What is extremely profound in the work is that it does not attribute this tragedy entirely to the brutality of the villains. Part of the tragedy is the direct destruction of the feudal forces, such as the tragic fate of the characters of Yuanyang, Chingwen, and Siqi, but more tragedies are caused by the feudal ethical relations of the "usual morals, usual human feelings, and usual situations".

It's the "usual morality, usual human feelings, usual situation" in feudal ethical relationships that causes the tragedies.

It is the tragedy of life caused by the deep structure of the orthodox culture solidified over thousands of years. The novel depicts a broad historical picture from the imperial palace to the countryside, extensively and profoundly reflecting the complex and profound contradictions and conflicts at the end of the feudal era, and showing the essential characteristics of the feudal aristocracy and the historical destiny of its inevitable decline.

What is particularly profound is that in the picture of the life of Jiafu shown in the novel, it shows the absurdity of the rituals and customs that maintain the relationship between the rank, name, seniority and youth of this aristocratic family, and unveils all the fierce contradictions and struggles inside the "veil of warmth and tenderness" of the feudal family.

Baidu Encyclopedia - A Dream of Red Mansions