Dream of Red Mansions and Qianjia Shi, apart from both having poems, seem to have nothing to do with each other.

But the only similarity of "poetry" closely connects the two and guides me to find the secret behind them.

All this starts from Jia Baoyu’s birthday...

In the 63rd chapter of "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Shou Yi Hong Qun Fang's Night Banquet", the sisters in the Grand View Garden , the maid held a night banquet in Yihongyuan to celebrate Baoyu's birthday, and the drinking order was to "acquire the name of the flower" - each person took a flower stick, and each flower stick had a poem on it.

Our country’s poetry originated in the pre-Qin Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and spread to the Ming and Qing Dynasties for nearly two thousand years. In the meantime, there is always a continuous continuity.

Classic poems are always quoted and imitated. According to the book, the verses and sources quoted on the flower sign are as follows:

Baochai pulled out a peony - "the most beautiful flower in the world". The poem goes: No matter how ruthless it is, it is also moving.

It comes from "Peony Flower" by Luo Yin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The original poem is:

In the spring, I picked out an apricot blossom - "The Fairy of Yaochi", the poem goes: By the sun Red apricots are planted against the clouds.

From "Shang Gao Shilang" by Gao Chan, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, the original poem is:

Li Wan picked out an old plum - "Frost Dawn and Cold Look", the poem goes: The bamboo fence and thatched hut are self-reliant.

It comes from "Plum" by Wang Qi, a poet of the Song Dynasty. The original poem is:

Xiangyun picked out a branch of crabapple - "the fragrance is deep and the dream is deep", the poem goes: I am afraid that the flowers will bloom late at night Go to sleep.

From "Begonia" by the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi, the original poem is:

The Musk Moon picked out a branch of tea flower - "Shaohua is the best", the poem goes: When the tea flower blooms It’s a hassle.

From the Song Dynasty poet Wang Qi's "Spring Evening Tour in the Small Garden", the original poem is:

The fragrant water chestnut picked out a side-flowered flower - "Spring Festival surrounds the auspicious", the poem goes: The flowers on the branches are blooming.

From "Falling Flowers" by Zhu Shuzhen, a female poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. The original poem is:

Daiyu plucked out a hibiscus - "The wind and dew clear my sorrow", the poem goes: Don't blame the east wind when the wind blows Sigh.

From the Northern Song Dynasty poet Ouyang Xiu's "Ming Fei Song: Joining Wang Jiefu Again", the original poem is:

Attacking people and pulling out a sprig of peach blossom - "A Farewell View of Wuling", the poem goes: Pink is another spring.

It comes from "Peach Blossoms of Qingquan Temple" by Xie Fangde, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. The original poem is:

The eight-line poem signed by eight branches of flowers seems unrelated at first glance. Upon closer inspection, it has profound meaning.

It turns out that except for the first and seventh poems, the other six poems all come from the Qijue chapter in Volume 3 of "Qianjia Shi".

Moreover, although the seventh sentence "Don't blame the east wind and sigh at yourself" is not the original sentence included in "Poetry of a Thousand Families", it is obviously derived from the "Don't Xiang" in Gao Chan's "Shanggao Shilang" The east wind is full of resentment."

In other words, "A Dream of Red Mansions" quotes a large number of verses from "Poems of a Thousand Families" in the "Yihong Night Banquet" episode. What is the connection between the two?

"Poems of a Thousand Families" is an anthology of metrical poems with an enlightening nature in ancient times. Together with "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Surnames" and "Thousand Character Essay", it constitutes the Four Little Books of Enlightenment of Chinese Studies , collectively called "Three Hundred Thousand Thousand".

Why does Cao Xueqin have a special liking for the elementary school textbook "Poems of a Thousand Families" and pick it up at his fingertips?

On the surface, it is because "Poetry of a Thousand Families" is widely circulated and has far-reaching influence.

Most of the poems selected in "Poems of a Thousand Families" are classic poetry works, which are easy to learn and understand, and have rich themes and various types. For Cao Xueqin, who is erudite and has a wide range of miscellaneous knowledge, it is natural for him to It's very familiar and it's normal to quote it casually.

But in fact, there is a secret hidden between "Poems of a Thousand Family" and Cao Xueqin.

According to research, the earliest "Qianjia Shi" compiled into categories was published by Cao Yin in the forty-fifth year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1706).

In Cao Yin's "Twelve Kinds of Neem Pavilion", there is a book called "Selected Poems of Thousands of Wise Masters in the Tang and Song Dynasties", titled "Compiled by Mr. Houcun", with a total of twenty-two volumes. , fourteen categories, recording more than 1,200 poems by Tang and Song dynasties. "Mr. Houcun" is Liu Kezhuang in the Southern Song Dynasty, whose courtesy name is Qianfu and he calls himself a layman in Houcun.

Later, two types of Qianjia poems gradually appeared on the market - namely, the "Supplementary and Re-edited Annotations of Qianjia Poems" signed by Xie Fangde of the Song Dynasty and annotated by the King of Qing Dynasty (both Qijue and Qilv) ) and Wang Xiang's "Newly Engraved Five-Character Poems of Thousands of Families" (all of which include the Five Jue and the Five Rhythms).

Later, the bookstore published the two together, which is the current version of "Qianjia Shi".

Cao Yin is Cao Xueqin’s grandfather. He was appointed as a weaver in Jiangning.

Cao Yintong was a famous writer and bibliophile during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Thanks to Cao Yin's profound cultural upbringing and extensive cultural activities, the Cao family at that time showed a prosperous cultural atmosphere, and could be called "a family with poems and books, a family with bells and dishes".

Obviously, as Cao Xueqin's enlightenment reading, "Poems of a Thousand Families" published by Cao Yin had a profound influence on Cao Xueqin, and Cao Xueqin was also very familiar with and loved "Poems of a Thousand Families".

Therefore, when writing "A Dream of Red Mansions", it was logical and natural for Cao Xueqin to readily grasp the verses from "Poems of a Thousand Families".

As an anthology of poems, "Poems of a Thousand Families" collects famous poems, poems and lines from famous writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties. From this perspective, Mr. Cao can be regarded as "collecting many opinions and forming a family of his own"!

I didn’t expect that “A Dream of Red Mansions” and “A Thousand Family Poems” have such a relationship!

After learning the secret behind Yihong’s flower sign poem at the Night Banquet, netizens exclaimed: So that’s it!