Since I knew that the author of "Dream of Red Mansions" was Cao Xueqin, the characters I know who are closely related to "Dream of Red Mansions" are Hu Shi and Yu Pingbo, and the third person is Zhou Ruchang. At that time, I was young, less than twenty years old, Zhou Ruchang"These three words have taken root in my heart and have accompanied me for more than 50 years.
Zhou Ruchang, born in 1918 in the suburbs of Tianjin, is a famous red scholar, classical writer, poet and calligrapher in China, successively served as a professor of the Department of Foreign Languages of Yenching University, West China University and Sichuan University, the editor of classical literature of the People's Literature Publishing House, a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, and the honorary president of the Chinese Cao Xueqin Research Association, died in Beijing in May 2012 at the age of 95.
Zhou Ruchang's cemetery is in the Wan'an Cemetery on the outskirts of Beijing, covering an area of about two square meters, sitting west and facing east, the front and back of the tomb are sidewalks, the left and right are densely planted cypress fences, and then it is someone else's cemetery.
His tombstone is a gray stone block of about two square meters, and a bamboo plant is carved on the right side of the front, which means that he is upright and proud. In the stele is a rectangular black granite of about one square meter, on which are vertically engraved from right to left 19181122", Zhou Ruchang, Mao Shuren", 1924112002"。Both husband and wife's names are thin gold of Mr. Zhou's own"The font, white on black is very obvious. Engraved in the lower left corner In May 2013, the children and the whole family stood in respect"。
The tomb cover in front of the monument is about two square meters in size and consists of two black granite pieces on top and bottom. The top one is more than a foot thick, and the bottom one is ten centimeters thick. The lower one is ten centimeters wider than the upper one. The top piece is carved to resemble eight thread-bound books, encased in a book sleeve. Book covers"On the front of the book is a book"and the black line for binding"Book covers"There is a big red seal engraved on the top of the square seal Xianshou Hengchang", with a unique design that impresses. Are these thread-bound books Mr. Zhou's masterpieces for researching Cao Xueqin and "Dream of Red Mansions"?It's possible.
On the back of Zhou Ruchang's tombstone, there is an inscription written by him before his death: Borrow jade to save Han ink and work hard for Qin", there are three red marks on the top and bottom. It not only embodies Mr. Zhou's thin gold body"calligraphy, and it is a true portrayal of his relationship with Cao Xueqin and "Dream of Red Mansions".
Mr. Zhang Changhua, the former deputy editor-in-chief of Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, wrote about his interview with Mr. Zhou Ruchang in his book "I Took Pictures for Them". In Mr. Zhou's house, there is a small statue of Cao Xueqin on the bookshelf, and there is a small incense burner underneath, which is full of ashes. Seeing that I was curious, Lun Ling smiled and said: My father worshiped Cao Xueqin all his life to the point of no return, he forgot his birthday and his mother's birthday, but he couldn't forget Cao Xueqin's birthday. Every time Cao Xueqin's birthday, he always burns incense to worship. Sometimes there is no incense to burn, so a few pieces of dried orange peel are used instead. Cao Xueqin became the Buddha in his heart"。
It is safe to say that Zhou Ruchang dedicated his life to Hongxue. In order to study "Dream of Red Mansions" and Cao Xueqin, he devoted his whole life to it. He was the first person in New China to study "Dream of Red Mansions" after Hu Shi and Yu Pingbo, and was well-known as the main force and master of the research school at home and abroad. In 1953, Hu Shi led him into the palace of red studies, and in 1953 he published his masterpiece The Dream of the Red Chamber, which systematized and specialized the empirical research of The Dream of the Red Chamber with rich and detailed content and groundbreaking, and was hailed as an epoch-making work in the history of red studies"；Another of his masterpieces, the 5 million-word The Stone Record, is the brainchild of his painstaking research on 11 ancient manuscripts of The Dream of the Red Chamber after more than 50 years, which can be called the most studied version of the Red Studies. In addition, he has published dozens of monographs such as "Cao Xueqin", "Dream of Red Mansions and Chinese Culture", and "Collection of Offering Qin", covering all aspects of the field of red studies.
It took Cao Xueqin ten years to write "Dream of Red Mansions", and ten years of hard work was unusual"Zhou Ruchang spent nearly 70 years studying "Dream of Red Mansions", and the jade on the tombstone was borrowed to save Han ink, which was hard to see for Qin's life"It's proof. He said: Only by being foolish can we be persistent and persevere"。After the "Zhou Ruchang Red Studies Collection", "Red Mansions" was printed 7 times in a row within 5 months, setting a record of 150,000 copies of academic books, which is admirable.
What touched me even more was that Mr. Zhou Ruchang was deaf in both ears in 1954, and in 1974, he was almost blind due to excessive use of his eyes. The retina of the left eye is detached, and the right eye needs to rely on two high-powered magnifiers overlapping each other to read and write. Writing is written arbitrarily on the back of the manuscript paper, which is twice as large as the standard manuscript paper, and the characters as big as red dates are born on the manuscript paper without stopping like a cow plowing a field. Within a few years, the characters on the manuscript were larger than walnuts, and often overlapped in series, and only her daughter Zhou Lunling, who had been an assistant for many years, recognized her father's characters and typed them on the computer for storage. Later, Zhou Ruchang's creative method had to be changed from writing to narration.
People**" Earth"Luo Xuecun, the editor of the supplement, and his colleagues visited Zhou Ruchang in May 2005. As Zhou was talking to the others, Luo asked his daughter, "Where does the old gentleman write?"She pointed to a folding round table in the middle of the room, which is the kind that is used by ordinary people for dinner, and my father writes here every day"。
What he wrote, Luo Xuecun didn't ask, but knew that his eyes were no longer visible. But just like that, he still has to write more than 2,000 words a day. The daughter looked at her father and whispered, "My father will not die of illness in the future, but of exhaustion." "
Mr. Zhou Ruchang has accumulated decades of research and wants to leave the research results to future generations. As he said before his death, he said the most human sentence: I am afraid of death, because it is not easy for me to save some knowledge, and I am willing to do more. "His words came from the heart.
At this point, I thought to myself, a well-known red scholar, in the decades when he was deaf in both ears and almost blind in both eyes, can achieve fruitful results that impress the red scientists, it is conceivable that Mr. Zhou must have paid many times more effort and hardship than ordinary people, which is sad and infinitely admirable!Mr. Zhou Ruchang is proficient in English, and has lectured "Dream of Red Mansions" in English at universities in Wisconsin, Princeton and other universities in the United States, which has left a deep impression on the audience. In addition, he also explained "Dream of the Red Chamber" in English to more than 40 foreign embassies in Beijing**, when the surface of the building was like a magnet to attract nails. He deserves to be the envoy of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries!
In 1970, after Zhou Ruchang was transferred back to Beijing from the cadre school, he couldn't help but regret that not even one of Cao Xueqin's poems had not been handed down to this day. He suddenly remembered that there were only two sentences left in "The Legend of Pipa Xing" that Cao Xueqin wrote for his friend Duncheng, so he was whimsical and dared to continue to make up, and tried to make up a total of three songs. Later, one of them spread out, which made the red family think that it was Cao Xueqin's original work, and almost made a big joke. The number of poems written by Zhou Ruchang is very large, involving all aspects, among which Yonghong poems are the most admired by poets. He wrote a poem for each of the 40 characters in Mr. Liu Danzhai's "Stone Figure Painting", which made the album a lot of color. His attainments in poetry have made his "Selected Poems of Fan Chengda" and "Selected Works of Yang Wanli" always valued by Xuelin.
Zhou Ruchang's Dream of Interpreting the Red Mansion has a back cover poem: The dream of the Red Mansion is long and the sun and the moon are long, and the strange feelings are detailed. Loose notes and broken ink can be read, and a petal of incense is carried by a micro"。Now that Siren has passed away, what he left to future generations is not only the wonder of the Red Mansion, but also a petal of Chinese culture.
The reason why I wrote this little article is not only because Mr. Zhou Ruchang is a master of red studies, but also because he and I are both alumni of the Hubei Xianning Wuqi Cadre School of the Ministry of Culture. Unfortunately, we didn't know each other, and I didn't have a chance to learn a little bit from him. Sad also!
Boqing Riverside People).