Research On The Stone As Signifier In Dream Of Red Mansions

The novel Dream of Red Mansions is a symbolic city in which the Stone as signifier occupies a prominent position. On the basis of Stone, the author weaves out an exhaustive informational text network by unique rules, making an another world of signifiers leading to the spirit and soul behind the surface text of the novel. Therefore, this article attempts to explore the symbolic value of the Stone as signifier in the novel Dream of Red Mansions through semiotics, structuralism, psychoanalysis and other western literary theories.In Chapter I, we analyze the meanings of the Stone as signifier. According to the stone myth at the beginning of the novel, we find out that the protagonist Jia BaoYu characterizes of both stone and jade. Combining the traditional stone culture and jade culture, we find that stone features are the nature of Jia BaoYu, while jade quality is the appearances which people confer on him. Stone from the fairy world and jade folen to the secular world constitute the main plots in the novel.In Chapter II, III, and IV, we analyze a series of signifiers related to the Stone as signifier. We point out that firstly the Wood as signifier in the novel represents Lin DaiYu and it adds the emotional factors into the Stone as signifier. Secondly, the Water as signifier represents pure and young women and it with the Stone as signifier constitutes Grand View Garden, author's ideal world. Thirdly, the Mud as signifier represents nasty men of the Jia mansion and it contrasts with the Water as signifier. The Mud as signifier refers to the illusion of life by secular standards, which is same to the Jade as signifier. The Xue as signifer is a homonym of Snow in chinese language. Snow is the frozen state of water, which allegories that Xue BaoChai, a flawless girl, has already been secularized to the bones. In Chapter V, we analyze the dream about Zhen BaoYu and Jia BaoYu. We argue that the dream contains the contrast between Truth and False. At the last, we come to the conclusion that the Stone as signifier through the novel reflects the author's advocate of free and natural humanity.By the analysis of many kinds of information containing in the Stone as signifier, we have revealed the deep implication of the novel Dream of Red Mansions. Whatever the author named the novel Stone, he took the Stone as the hero, these refer precisely to the thinking of the meaning of life, the pursuit of the eternal beauty and the call of natural humanity. We argue that the author expresses by the novel his advocates of free and natural humanity.