Research On Cao Xueqin And Dream Of The Red Chamber From The Perspective Of Garden Culture

Chinese culture has a long history,extensive and profound,and garden culture is an important part of it.Chinese gardens developed from primitive society to the Ming and Qing dynasties,and the garden architecture in each period is engraved with the cultural imprint of this period.Garden architecture and garden culture reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty after the development of successive dynasties.The gardens of the Qing Dynasty were magnificent.The number and construction level of royal gardens and private gardens in Qing Dynasty reached the highest in history.The gardens in the Qing Dynasty also showed the characteristics of full function,various forms and art.The characteristics of aesthetic thoughts of garden culture in Qing Dynasty are mainly embodied in the aspects of elegance,return to simplicity,artistic conception of poetry and painting,implicative twists and turns,physical property comparison,garden sentiment and so on.The Grand View garden constructed by Cao Xueqin in A Dream of Red Mansions not only inherits the Qing Dynasty garden culture,but also innovates it.Grand View Garden has gone beyond the pure sense of garden.First of all,the Grand Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions is the main place for the activities of the characters in the novel.The grand events and trivial activities of the characters in the novel basically take place in the Grand Garden.The setting of the Grand Garden is also carried out according to the development of the theme of the novel.Secondly,the description of the environment of the Grand View Garden assists the characters in the Dream of Red Mansions.Cao Xueqin designed a unique living environment for different characters in the Grand View Garden according to their personalities.Thirdly,the description of the Grand View Garden reflects Cao Xueqin’s aesthetic thoughts.The location of Grand View Garden is the most important issue in the study of Grand View Garden.At present,there are "main north theory","main south theory" and "comprehensive theory" concerning the location of Grand View Garden.In the "Theory of the main North",there are "theory of the West capital","theory of Beijing" and "theory of Prince Gong’s House".In the "Main South Theory",some scholars believed that the Grand View Garden followed the garden in Nanjing,and some scholars believed that the Grand View Garden was the Jiangning Weaving Office in Nanjing.Some scholars have researched the location of Daguan Garden from the perspective of the author,with typical examples including "Hong Sheng’s theory of writing","Wu Meicun’s theory" and "Gu Jingxing’s theory".Both the "main north theory" and the "main South theory" are biased to a certain extent.In fact,the Grand View Garden is more likely to be a magnificent private garden based on the palace of King Gong in Beijing,combined with many architectural features of Jiangnan Gardens and the life experiences of Jiangning Weaving family and Cao Xueqin.In addition,whether the Grand View Garden is the ideal world or the real world is also a non-negligible part of the study of Grand View Garden.Scholars represented by Yu Yingshi tend to think that the Grand View Garden is an ideal world,but scholars represented by Zhou Ruchang insist that the Grand View Garden is a completely realistic world.The debate,though inconclusive,has boosted scholarship.The Grand View Garden is more likely to be a garden with both the "ideal world" and the "real world" constructed by Cao Xueqin.To some extent,the creation of Grand View Garden reflects Cao Xueqin’s value pursuit.Cao Xueqin had already gone beyond the questioning of nature,but began to ask the meaning of human existence,providing a new spiritual home for the intellectuals trapped in the secular vanity,and constructing a transcendent spiritual realm.