When was the poem on the wall at No.39, Zhengbaiqi, Xiangshan discovered?

Comment on Zhengbaiqi's 39th Poem on the Wall

The relationship between Zhengbaiqi No.39 Poem on the Wall and Cao Xueqin has been an unresolved topic in academic circles for many years. It is still meaningful to discuss the discovery process of Poetry on the Wall and the logic of relevant academic research articles in detail, re-examine some problems with an objective attitude and solve some difficulties with scientific methods.

In 2008, after completing the fifth exhibition since its establishment, Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall began to carry out two tasks: one is to declare the intangible cultural heritage of Cao Xueqin's Legend of Xishan; The second is the scientific evaluation of the poem on the wall.

I. Origin

On June 5438+065438+1October 17, 2008, Mr. Wang Quanli, a photographer of the former film group of the Ministry of Water Resources, introduced Mr. Lee Hung, the physical examination center of the Ministry of Public Security.

Lee Hung, a senior document retrieval expert from the Ministry of Public Security, went to the United States to receive professional training in document retrieval, participated in the document identification of many major cases in China, and has rich experience in document handwriting identification.

Li Mingxin, executive director of Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall, introduced to Mr. Lee Hung the academic controversy over the poem on the wall of No.39 old house for many years. Lee Hung expressed great interest in Cao Xueqin's research and was willing to do his best to identify the handwriting of the poem on the wall for free, so as to make a modest contribution to the research and development of Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall.

We provided Lee Hung with the original photos of "Poems on the Wall" in the memorial hall, the photos of "Five Elements Bibliography" in Zhang Jiaren's collection box, the photos of Kong Xiangze's "An Examination of Kites in the North and South" and "Cao Xueqin's Custom Double Hook Copy". After several days of intense work, Lee Hung telegraphed Li Mingxin, and the basic results of handwriting identification came out; However, because the handwriting of "Five Elements Bibliography" is not clear enough, I hope to see the real thing. Then, we contacted Ms. Zhu Bing, the wife of Mr. Zhang Hang, the owner of the bookshelf, through a Ganoderma lucidum lady. After consultation, Zhu Bing is willing to transport the book box to the memorial hall by himself, and ask Lee Hung and other experts to inspect it.

On June 24th, 2008,165438+1October 24th, the lady's son opened his car and took his books to the memorial hall. In order to ensure the accuracy of handwriting identification, the memorial hall also took out the original poem on the wall of Zhengbaiqi No.39 stripped by the Cultural Relics Bureau in 197 1 for reference. At the same time, Yao Tianxin, a woodcarving expert in the Qing Dynasty and Mr. Qi Ming, a senior artist, were invited to the Summer Palace Research Office, and Kong Lingmin and his wife were present to jointly study related cultural relics. In order to objectively preserve this historical material, Comrade Wang Quanli made a whole video.

Two, the Ministry of public security experts "Cao Xueqin cultural relics" appraisal opinions

After carefully watching the original poem on the wall, the original box of Zhang Jiaren's library pavilion and Kong Xiangze's Transcripts of North-South Examination of Kites and Cao Xueqin's Custom Double Hook, Lee Hung pointed out with rich experience in text appraisal:

(1) The poems of No.39 inscribed wall poems in Zhengbaiqi are all written by one person, and there is no case of multiple people closing books;

(2) Poetry on the Wall, Book Box Bibliography of Five Elements, Notes on Kites in the North and South and Preface to Cao Xueqin in Zhengbaiqi No.39 have the same handwriting and were written by one person.

Lee Hung compared the handwriting of "self-made double hook" and "poem on the wall" of Zhengbaiqi No.39 with that of "An Examination of the South Kite" as follows:

Self-ordered double-hook handwriting in the chronicle of North-South kite research

The handwriting of Zheng Baiqi's Poems on the Wall

There are many similarities between Lee Hung's appraisal results of three "Cao Xueqin cultural relics" and previous academic appraisal results.

Wu Enyu, Feng Qiyong, Zhao Gang and others all think that from the perspective of calligraphy, the words "Five Elements Bibliography", "Examining the Records of Kites in the North and South" and "Preface to Cao Xueqin" in the bookcase are undoubtedly written by one person.

Wu Enyu believes that the writing and meaning of the words "Yu", "Wei", "Suo", "Zhi" and "Zi" in the five-element bibliography are exactly the same. The radicals or radicals such as square characters, radical characters, golden characters, swallow characters, characters, secret characters and He characters are written in exactly the same way.

Feng Qiyong thinks that the five-line bibliography on the back of the cover of the bookcase is exactly the same as the "language, meaning, behavior, place and self" described by Kong Xiangze in the Annals of Flowers in the South and the Custom Double Hook by Cao Xueqin.

It can be seen that the words "Five Elements Bibliography" on the back of the book cover titled "Chu Shi in the Western Qin Dynasty" and the words "Cao Xueqin's Self-ordered Double Hook" in "A Study of Kites in the North and South" were written by one person, which has been studied by scholars for a long time and the results are consistent.

Now, after professional appraisal, Lee Hung thinks that these two words and Zhengbaiqi No.39 Poem on the Wall were written by one person.

In fact, as early as the end of 1970s, Kong Xiangze, as the curator of three cultural relics, discussed the problem of handwriting. Kong Xiangze pointed out: "I began to look at the poems on your wall. When I saw the original photos of poems and couplets, I didn't think those handwriting were Cao Gong's brushwork. Later, I asked you to take out the ashes of official books such as "Cooking Tutankhamun Today", and I was convinced that this was Mr. Cao's handwriting. "

"Judging from Zuo Zongtang's calligraphy ink, he wrote a smooth chapter. After years of thinking and judgment, I think Cao Gong's calligraphy is based on Han Li. Cao Gong applied Han Li's simple and vigorous brushwork to various forms of writing, such as seal script, cursive script, line script and letters. In particular, the wind that reciprocates back and forth naturally blends into all kinds of points, strokes, waves, folds, horizontal and vertical. " ?

Huang Zhentai, a former professor of radiology in Peking University, also compared the poem on the wall with the word "Cao Xueqin's self-made double hook" in the North-South Kite Research Annals, and found many similarities. He said, "The gray handwriting on the wall is written with a pen standing sideways. There is a big difference between using a pen, using ink, and sitting in front of a desk with a double hook. " There is also a distance between reality and the method of describing double hooks. Even so, we can still find similarities. "He listed the two words of the table:

On the basis of his calligraphy accomplishment, Kong Xiangze appraised the handwriting of three "Cao Xueqin's cultural relics", while Huang Zhentai studied the handwriting relationship among Poem on the Wall, Examination of Kites in North and South and Preface to Cao Xueqin in the form of western language tables.

The identification results are consistent with those of Kong and Huang. After getting to know Mr. Wang, the memorial hall never provided expert opinions from Kong and Huang. Due to the professional gap, Lee Hung has never been exposed to "mural poetry" before.

Moreover, in June of 20 10, Ms. Sun He, a postdoctoral fellow in fine arts and calligraphy at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, also pointed out that Poems on the Wall, Bibliography of Five Elements, Kite Records of North and South Studies and Self-ordered Double Hooks by Cao Xueqin were consistent in calligraphy.

Third, the writing time of Zhengbaiqi No.39 "Poem on the Wall"

Judging from the appraisal results, Poems on the Wall, Bibliography of Five Elements, Textual Research on Kites in North and South, and Self-ordered Double Hook by Cao Xueqin were written by one person. Then, if we can determine the writing age of any one of the characters, we can determine the writing age of the other two characters and further study their relationship with Cao Xueqin.

Academic circles generally believe that Zhengbaiqi No.39 Poem on the Wall was written by Qing people. However, there are different opinions about the specific writing age of "Poems on the Wall" or Yun Jiaqing, represented by wu shichang. Or Yun Guangxu, represented by Zhao Xun.

On August 3rd1977, Zhang Boju, a famous cultural relic appraiser, visited No.39 Zhengbaiqi with his friends. After seeing the photos of Poems on the Wall, Zhang Boju pointed out on the spot that, as far as calligraphy is concerned, No.39 Poems on the Wall on Zhengbaiqi was undoubtedly written by people during the Qianlong period.

After Zhang Boju returned to the city, he filled in the word "Huanxisha" to describe the trip to Zhengbaiqi:

In Huangye Village, autumn is bleak, relatives and friends are poor, and future generations come to look for the past.

Carving a phoenix and carving a dragon gate is still there. Look at the toad lying on the rabbit inkstone.

Pay attention to the cloud after the word:

On a dark day in August, Mao Yi visited Zhengbaiqi in the western suburbs, which was passed down as the former residence of Cao Xueqin. There are four rooms in the North House. There are couplets and model poems on the wall, and there is a jade rabbit inkstone side. There is a carved lattice fan in the east room. Yu Fei, who studies A Dream of Red Mansions, only studies paintings and cultural relics to textual research history. Judging from the discovered calligraphy style, poetry style and rabbit inkstone, it is undoubtedly the Qianlong era. Poems on couplet fans are also written in poverty, and the carved lattice fans in the East Room are not owned by ordinary farmers. But it can't be concluded that it must be Cao Xueqin's former residence, but there is no evidence to convince people that it must be Cao Xueqin's former residence. On that day, there were Xiao Zhongmei, Xia Quchan, Zhou, Li Jin and a maid. The west wind is getting tighter and the yellow leaves begin to float.

Zhang Boju's determination of the date of No.39 Poem on the Wall in Zhengbaiqi provides a basic theoretical basis for studying the relationship between Room No.39 in Zhengbaiqi and Poem on the Wall and Cao Xueqin.

Since there is no doubt that the calligraphy style of Tibi Poem was in the Qianlong period, the "Bingyin" in Tibi Poem was recorded in the Bingyin and the end of Qing Dynasty, and it was accidentally recorded in "Anti-wind Xuannan" which refers to the eleventh year of Qianlong, that is, AD 1746.

According to the owner of the bookcase, in 1977+00, accompanied by Wu Enyu, the then Vice Minister of Culture, and Wang, a famous wood expert in the Forbidden City, photographed Zhang Xingjia to see the pair of pine bookcases, entitled "Qin Xi Chu Shi". At that time, Wang said that the age of the bookcase must be the Qianlong period.

Yao Tianxin, who has been dealing with wood restoration for many years, pointed out that all the contents on the bookcase have the same sense of time, and there can be no difference between one moment and two, and there is no problem with the age of Qianlong.

4. Zheng Baiqi No.39 and Cao Xueqin's former residence of Zheng Baiqi.

1963, Wu Enyu, wu shichang, Zhou, Luo Jinglan went to Xiangshan to interview Zhang Yonghai, an old man in Zhenghuangqi. According to Zhang, Cao Xueqin first lived in Zhengbaiqi, located in the west of Siwangfu, at the mouth of Dizang Ditch and near the river. Today, there is a big pagoda tree for more than 200 years, and behind the house is the stall of Zhengbaiqi.

In fact, another factor in the legendary location of Cao Xueqin's former residence has not been mentioned, that is, the river beach is about 100 meters west of Zhengbaiqi ditch, and Dongyu Village, where the Han people live in concentrated communities west of the river beach, is no longer within Zhengbaiqi. According to what Zhang Yonghai told the experts in 1963, Cao Xueqin's position in Zhengbaiqi's former residence is as follows:

In other words, according to 1963, Cao Xueqin's former residence, which has been handed down from generation to generation by Xiangshan people, should be located in dozens of houses near Cao Xueqin's memorial hall. Moreover, Zhang Yonghai said that today there is a big pagoda tree with a history of more than 200 years (referring to 1963). The former residence of Cao Xueqin is in front of No.39 Zhengbaiqi, and there is indeed a huge pagoda tree.

The legend also mentioned that Cao Xueqin's friend gave her a couplet: "The rich are far away from the poor, and the proprietors are close to the world;" There are many things in the world because of wealth. "After eight years, in the 197 1 year of the' Cultural Revolution', it was written that' the rich are far away and the poor are near, and the world is less polite; On the wall of Westinghouse, No.39 Zhengbaiqi, the couplet "I don't want to be friends, but I am scattered in the world because of wealth" was found.

Couplets presented by Cao Xueqin's friends were found on the wall of the old house in Cao Xueqin's former residence. The most direct logic during this period is to find that the house with the poem on the wall has something to do with Cao Xueqin.

There are three differences between the antithetical couplets in Zhengbaiqi No.39 "Poem on the Wall" and those given to Cao Xueqin by friends in folklore:

The writing content of the poem on the wall: "The rich are far away from the poor, and the courtesy is less than the world;" If you are friends, you will be scattered around the world because of money. "

1963' s word-of-mouth content: "Be rich and poor, and treat the world with courtesy; There are many things in the world because of wealth. "

In addition, in order to meet the needs of the diamond-shaped writing form, the word "really good" was added to the "wall poem" to make it a complete diamond.

To sum up, the following logic can be formed:

(1) No.39 Courtyard of Zhengbaiqi, located in the former residence of Cao Xueqin Zhengbaiqi;

(2) The couplets presented by Cao Xueqin's friends were found in the west wall of No.39 Courtyard of Zhengbaiqi;

(3) The calligraphy style of "Poem on the Wall" in No.39 Courtyard of Zhengbaiqi undoubtedly belongs to the Qianlong period;

(4) The bookcase engraved with the words "Xueqin Chu Shi" is a cultural relic of the Qianlong period. The "Five Elements Bibliography" in the cover of the bookcase and the "Poems on the Wall" in No.39 Courtyard were written by one person.

According to these logics, Poetry on the Wall at No.39 Zhengbaiqi was written by Cao Xueqin, and No.39 Zhengbaiqi was Cao Xueqin's former residence. On the pine bookcase engraved with the words "Qin Xi Jushi", Cao Xueqin wrote Bibliography of Five Elements, Kao Gong Zhi of Southern Yao Beiyuan and Preface of Cao Xueqin.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion

According to early legends, Cao Xueqin did not die in Zhengbaiqi. In the spring of the 20th year of Qianlong (1755), he moved away from Zhengbai Banner and moved to the north uphill outside Huangqi. Because a princess of the Ming Dynasty was once buried here, it is also called "Princess Tomb". "The north slope is near the Jade Emperor Peak. After the downhill slope, it is a wolf road, which is very desolate. "

Cao Xueqin's friends have come here many times, and the "mountain village" in the poems of Duncheng, Dunmin and Zhang Yiquan is also here, not the flag camp of Zhengbaiqi. Cao Xueqin's second wife was here, and he and his son also died here.

1963, Teacher Wu Enyu has been here. At that time, there was a broken watchtower standing there. Now, there is no trace to be found.