第11章 出生是人生的起点（3）
1.3 Appreciations of the Novel
《红楼梦》有着丰富的思想和观念，是一个艺术的多面世界，越钻研，发现的东西也越多。其迷人之处，简而言之，就在于它充分而真实地揭示了青年人的天真、热情、优美和亲切。尽管小说中的主人公贾宝玉和林黛玉生活的时代及其社会情况和文化环境早已消失，但他们的梦想和渴望以及大观园的年轻女子们仍然拨动着今天人们同情的心弦。
A Dream of Red Mansions is rich in ideas and concepts. It is a multi-faceted world of art into whichthe more one delves the more one finds. The charm of the novel lies， in short， in its revealing youth fully andtruthfully， in its uncovering the naivety， zeal， grace and tenderness of the younger generation. Although theera in which the protagonists of the novel Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu lived， together with its social conditionsand cultural environment， has long since vanished， their dreams and longings， together with those of theyoung ladies of the Grand View Garden， still strike a sympathetic chord in the hearts of the people of today.
《红楼梦》是我国古典小说艺术的顶峰，其艺术成就首先表现在万紫千红般的人物阵容（多达975个）上。作者以其超级的艺术绘出了一整套全貌世态画，整个画廊充满了高度个性化并十分典型的人物。通过对人物日常生活的细节描写，塑造了不同特性、不同思想、不同情感的人物。在使用对话中，他也表现了杰出的技能，让每个人物的嘴里说出独特的话来，使读者感到好像看见并听到了说话的人物一样。贾母、贾政、贾宝玉、元春、林黛玉、薛宝钗、史湘云、王熙凤、秦可卿、尤二姐、刘姥姥、袭人、晴雯和其他人等都有各自独特的个性，逼真得就像还活在我们之中一样。这些丰富多彩的众多人物，在各自不同的生活层次和地方，以各自不同的处世哲学和观点，网织出贾府大院里错综复杂的人际关系和矛盾冲突。
除了他们说话做事的独特方式、外貌、服饰和生活安排的特性外，这些人都有各自明显的性格特征。读者只凭他们的说话方式或房间布置就知道他们是谁。小说人物塑造的独特之处就在于它打破了传统小说写好人全好，坏人全坏的模式，调动不同的手法，从不同的侧面写出人物丰富复杂的个性特征。如此成功的人物描写不仅在中国文学中就是在整个世界文学领域都是少见的成就。
A Dream of Red Mansions is the peak of the art of the novel in ancient China. Its artistic achievementis displayed first of all in its dazzling array of characters (as many as 975). With superb artistry the authorpresents a panoramic genre-painting， a whole gallery of highly individual yet typical characters. Throughdetailed deions of their dail life he succeeds in depicting their different idiosyncrasies， thoughts andfeelings. In the use of dialogue too he shows outstanding skill， putting such distinctive speech into eachcharacter’s mouth that the reader feels as if he can see and hear the speaker. Lady Dowager， Jia Zheng， JiaBaoyu， Yuanchun， Lin Daiyu， Xue Baochai， Shi Xiangyun， Wang Xifeng， Qin Keqing， Second Sister You，Granny Liu， Xiren， Qinwen and the others all have their distinct personalities and are as true to life as ifthey were living among us. These richly complex characters with their different stations in life and divergentviews and philosophies act out an intricate pattern of human relationships and conflicts within the Jia familymansion. Apart from their distinct ways of acting and speaking， and the peculiarities of their appearances，dress and living arrangements， these people all have clear character traits. The reader knows who is who justby their manner of speaking or the layouts of their rooms. Peculiar to the characterization in this novel is thefact that it breaks with the stereotypes of traditional Chinese fiction like good characters always describedas good and bad ones as bad， and employs different writing methods to display their rich and complicatedpersonalities from different angles. Such character delineation is a rare accomplishment not only in Chineseliterature but in the whole field of world literature.
《红楼梦》的文学价值还表现在其艺术结构的宏大和精致之中。围绕贾宝玉与林黛玉和薛宝钗之间的恋爱，小说简直就是当时整个社会的缩影。很多人物和事件汇聚，相互联系又相互制约，使故事情节一环扣一环地互为因果地顺利发展，无情地富于戏剧性地达到悲剧高潮。《红楼梦》所呈现的世界就像现实生活本身一样丰富、复杂、深沉和自然。尽管是曹雪芹根据他自己的人生经历和家庭的历史创作的《红楼梦》，但小说毫无雕作的痕迹，表现得十分自然流畅，浑然一体，使其成为了艺术的壮美极品。
The literary merit of A Dream of Red Mansions is also displayed in the grandness and exquisiteness ofits artistic structure. The novel is a microcosm of the world of its time， revolving around the love between JiaBaoyu and Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. The host of personages and events converge on， link and restrict eachother to make the plot develop smoothly in a chain of cause and effect， as the tragedy moves dramatically andinexorably to its climax. The world of A Dream of Red Mansions is as rich， complicated， deep and natural aslife itself. Though created by Cao Xueqin according to his own experiences of life and his family history， thenovel betrays no trace of craftsmanship， but presents itself as a natural and spontaneous entity， and it is thisaspect that marks it as a sublime work of art.
《红楼梦》使用的语言既通俗又清丽，准确精练，生动形象，自然流畅，具有诗情画意。人物的语言达到了高度的个性化， 能够准确地显示出人物的身份、地位和性格，新鲜传神，令人赞叹不已。难怪人们会说曹雪芹是个语言大师，他的语言创造使《红楼梦》的语言达到了炉火纯青的地步。
The language used in A Dream of Red Mansions is marked by popularity and elegance， accuracy andconciseness， liveliness and graphicness， naturalness and fluency as well as poetic beauty. The language foreach character achieves a very high degree of individuality and precisely indicates his or her identity， statusand temperament. It is so fresh and lifelike as to be praiseworthy. No wonder people say Cao Xueqin is agreat master at language. His language competence has almost perfected the language of A Dream of RedMansions.
《红楼梦》是部百科全书式的小说，以一个贵族家庭为中心展开一幅社会历史全景画卷。当时中国社会的每级每第，从皇帝的配偶到商贩、信童， 都是以真实生活的时兴式样再现出来，并且，以封建社会末期出现的所有社会矛盾为线索贯穿全书情节。例如主仆间、妻妾间的争斗，贵族中的经济危机，继承权的争夺，封建主义和新生的民主精神的斗争等等。小说还提供了当时贵族家庭的园艺建筑、车马用具、衣装饰品、习惯礼仪、食物饮料、医药补品等的大量细节。实际上，《红楼梦》所介绍的文化内容之丰富多彩不仅在中国文学史上，就在世界文学史中也是同类小说所罕见的。
A Dream of Red Mansions is an encyclopedic novel. Centered on an aristocratic family， it unrollsa panorama of social history. Every grade and station of Chinese society of that time—from an imperialconsort to peddlers and messengers boys—are presented in a true-to-life fashion. In addition， all the socialcontradictions which emerged toward the end of the feudal period are threaded through the plot： for instance，the conflict between master and slave， that between the master of the house’s legal wife and his concubines，the economic crisis in a noble clan in the absence of an heir， and that between feudalism and the newlysprouting spirit of democracy. The novel also provides a wealth of details concerning aristocratic householdsin those days—garden architecture， the equipage of carriages， clothing and ornaments， customs and etiquette，food and drink， medicines， etc. Indeed， the cultural reference content of A Dream of Red Mansions is of akind rarely seen not only in the history of Chinese literature but also in the history of world literature.
在中国古典小说中，因一部作品的研究而在学术界成为一门专学的，大概只有《红楼梦》一书。几百年来对《红楼梦》的学习和研究，经久不衰，论争迭起，包含着很多有趣的课题和谜案，如《红楼梦》的版本、思想艺术内容、最后四十回、后续问题、文学主题，曹雪芹的生活和家庭背景、红学历史等。对这些课题和谜案的不同观点和解释，便出现了不同的红学学派，如评点派、 索隐派、 新红学派等。甚至在今天，它仍是我们中国人谈论的热门话题。由此可见《红楼梦》在中国文学史上至高无上的地位。
The Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions is perhaps the only novel to have become a specializedfield of study. The research on and study of the novel has continued for hundreds of years， and hasengendered a great deal of debate， bringing up interesting themes and mysteries， such as its editions， itsideological and artistic content， the last 40 chapters， the sequels， the literary content， Cao Xueqin’s life andfamily background， the history of Redology， etc. Because of the different viewpoints and interpretations aboutthe themes and mysteries mentioned above， there are different schools of Redology， such as the Pingdian(Commentating) school， the Suoyin(Tracing out the hidden) School， the New Redologist school， etc. Even upto now， it is still a hot topic of conversation among us Chinese. All this fully proves its paramount status in thehistory of Chinese literature.
《红楼梦》从一开始以手抄本形式流传起就吸引了广大读者的兴趣，像燎原之火一样迅速蔓延，甚至超越了国境，传到了国外。自19世纪40年代以来，《红楼梦》已出版了英文、德文、法文、日文、俄文、意大利文、匈牙利文、罗马尼亚文、朝鲜文、越南文、泰国文等外文版。所有这些翻译文本都能帮助全世界的读者增加对《红楼梦》的鉴赏机会，确定《红楼梦》是人类文化财富宝库中的一块真正的宝玉，从而对人类文明作出持久的历史贡献。
A Dream of Red Mansions attracted the interest of a wide range of readers as soon as it began tocirculate in hand-copied form. It was spread like wildfire， even beyond the border of China. Since the 1840s，the novel has been published in many foreign languages， including English， German， French， Japanese，Russian， Italian， Hungarian， Romanian， Korean， Vietnamese and Thai， etc. All these translations have helpedto increase appreciation of A Dream of Red Mansions among readers worldwide and establish the novel asa true jewel in the store of mankind’s cultural wealth， thereby making an indelible historical contribution tohuman civilization.