【Date & Time】
Mar 17 (Thu), 2016, 5:00-6:00pm
【Venue】
Lobby, Ground floor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
【Speaker】
Jianli Duan(Professor,Faculty of Humanities, Beijing Language and Culture University)
【Title】
『紅楼夢』における「比徳」の観念 —「林黛玉と花」より
The Analogy between Flower and Virtue in Dream of the Red Chamber: in the Case of Lin Daiyu and the Cottonrose Hibiscus
【Commentator】
Yasushi OKI(Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo)
【Abstract】
In the Dream of the Red Chamber, we can see a kind of subtle relationship between the girls and flowers. The variety of images of flowers not only symbolizes the fates of the girls or even that of the humans, but also present themselves as a sort of analogy.In the light of traditional virtue-showing culture, we can see that flower images can both be indicators of the characters of girls and be the value judgment of them. The telling case is that of Lin Daiyu.By drawing lot, Daiyu got the Cottonrose Hibiscus. She chose to live in Xiaoxiangguan due to her interest in the bamboo around the house. At parties, she won the first prize for her poems of chrysanthemum. She does not like poems by Li Shangyin, but she did like one line of it which reads “The withered lotus-leaves can still withhold the raindrops”。 Related with Daiyu are such flowers as Cottonrose Hibiscus, chrysanthemum, lotus flower which foreground the proud character of hers. These flowers mirror her grace and nobility. Contrast with Daiyu is Baochai, her lot was the peony, which, together with her golden lock, symbolizes wealth and position. If we say that plums, bamboo, violet and chrysanthemum are symbols of nobility, which is the goal of pursuit of the scholars, then, peony as the symbol of wealth and position, indicates the interest of the secular world. The spiritual pursuit and the material pursuit are not contradictory, and they co-exist well in the personalities of Daiyu and Baichai. These qualities complement each other, support each other, and jointly shows the profundity of Cao Xueqin’s greatness.
【Languages】
Chinese
【Others】
No registration needed.
