The Study Of Leisure Thought In A Dream Of Red Mansions

A Dream of Red Mansions, one of the Chinese classical novels, has carefully perceived the human emotions and inner world, particularly focusing on the exploration of life value, the expression of human desire as well as the meaning of life. Besides, the daily life, cultural taste and romantic entanglements presented in this great work are reflections of the aristocratic family in China’s feudal society. Moreover, the novel is a representation of the different understandings on the realization of life value by people from different social classes in the Jia Family, especially their desire of and pursuit to individual freedom under the special social, economical and cultural psychological context the author lived in. The novel has on the one hand revealed the conflict between these desires and the intrinsic traditional ideas shared among aristocratic families in the feudal society; and on the other hand provided a new way of recognizing social politics and life by emphasizing the human nature and the meaning of life. This unique angle of the work not only described a typical picture of people’s pursuing of the meaning of life in the feudal society and the life conditions as well as cultural tastes of aristocratic family in ancient China, but vividly explained the aesthetic mentality and actualization of aesthetic judgment in the context of traditional Chinese culture as well. All the content and features mentioned above provide the possibilities for a further study of A Dream of Red Mansions from the approach of leisure studies. Therefore, the research on the rich intellectual resources of A Dream of Red Mansions as well as the leisure thought embodied in the novel may lead to new areas and new directions of the current field of A Dream of Red Mansions studies, and add to the fresh understandings of the major characters in the novel.To this end, the thesis will base itself on the exploration and cognition of the theories of leisure studies and take an inter-disciplinary perspective, i.e. adopting the ideas and research methodologies from philosophy, literature, aesthetics, sociology, folklore etc., to explore the possible paths of studying A Dream of Red Mansions from the leisure approach, the major leisure thought implicated in the novel and the work’s tragic meaning. It is hoped that the leisure thought extracted from A Dream of Red Mansions wi11enrich and deepen the similar researches on the leisure thought in Chinese traditional philosophy and culture. The thesis will be structured as follows.Chapter One provides a review of the current research on A Dream of Red Mansions and people’s different awareness of leisure influenced by the Eastern and Western culture. Based on these, the researcher demonstrates the basic ideas of the study and further explains the innovation and value of the research.Chapter Two illustrates the great influence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism on the development of traditional Chinese society and culture from the perspective of philosophy of human nature. Moreover, the researcher will establish the relationship between these philosophical thoughts and leisure thought so as to provide the intellectual foundation for the research on leisure thought in A Dream of Red Mansion.Chapter Three tires to unfold the leisure thought embodied in A Dream of Red Mansions by analyzing the’sentiment’discussed in the work. The settlement and realization of sentiments are the representation of human nature and one of the key elements to Chinese people’s realization of the meaning of life. The core of leisure points to the natural and authentic human status. When we talk about the freedom and achievement of human nature, it necessarily includes the expression of sentiments. It is based on the thought and cognition of sentiment from the angle of traditional Chinese philosophy and detailing the affection through text construction, we could position sentiment in leisure theory through the reading and understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions. The discovery of sentiment in the process of leisure revealed the unique value and contribution of traditional Chinese culture to the field of leisure studies.Chapter Four discusses the leisure thought implicated in the aesthetic judgment. The Chinese way of aesthetic judgment is experiential. The aesthetic pleasure is obtained by’quiet attention’ and ’void quietness’. The aesthetic leisure is not only an important form of leisure, but also another unique value of traditional Chinese philosophy contributed to the field of leisure studies. The different types of aesthetic leisure manners described in A Dream of Red Mansions, including the leisure achieved through dai ly aesthetic judgment, the beauty of life of the leisure state, the female aesthetic leisure and the spiritual realm of the harmony between heaven and human, revealed the Chinese wisdom of aesthetics and leisure. Furthermore, without aesthetic leisure life in the splendid but miserable world created in A Dream of Red Mansions will inevitably move towards destruction.Chapter Five provides an analysis of leisure thought unfolded in the recreational and leisure lifestyle which are presented in A Dream of Red Mansions. Due to the richness and distinctiveness of the leisure activities narrated in the novel, the analysis of leisure manners will focus on four different aspects, including the recreational leisure, casual living, festivals, and leisure among literati and officialdom in feudal China.Chapter Six takes a leisure study stance to interpret the tragic spirit of A Dream of Red Mansions, thus deepen the understanding of leisure thought in the novel.The leisure study approach, on the one hand, enables us to understand what are already included in tragic spirit, such as human self-reflection and thoughts on life, happiness as well as fate. On the other hand, it helps us to experience the importance of leisure to human life, happiness and fate; recognizes the limitations of freedom-oriented leisure status and better understands the humanity and spiritual attribute embodied in leisure.