Why did "Dream of the Red Chamber" reach the peak of the art of ancient Chinese novels?
Dream of the Red Chamber was a classic work of Chinese classical novels. It was hailed as the pinnacle of the art of ancient Chinese novels mainly because of its outstanding artistic achievements and rich cultural content. First of all,'Dream of the Red Chamber' had extremely high literary value. The novel depicted the rise and fall of a wealthy family. Through the exchange of life, emotions, and thoughts of the family members, it showed the richness and complexity of human nature and the contradictions and conflicts. The novel's plot twists and turns, distinctive characters, beautiful language, and rigorous structure all reflected the author's ingenuity and artistic attainments. Secondly,'Dream of the Red Chamber' had a profound cultural meaning. The novel depicted traditional Chinese culture and values such as family, love, friendship, filial piety, etiquette, etc., reflecting the life and ideology of ancient Chinese society. At the same time, the novel also incorporated many symbolic elements such as the burial of flowers by Daiyu, the chasing of butterflies by Baochai, and the tasting of tea by Baoyu, which implied the impermanence of life and philosophical thinking. Lastly,'Dream of the Red Chamber' had a unique artistic feature. In the novel, a large number of rhetorical devices such as metaphor, symbolism, metonymy, etc. were used to make the characters more vivid and the plot more fascinating. At the same time, the structure of the novel was also very unique, with the rise and fall of the Jia, Shi, Wang, Xue four families as the main line, interwoven with many characters and events, making the whole novel present a grand and delicate narrative style. To sum up, the reason why " Dream of the Red Chamber " was hailed as the pinnacle of the art of ancient Chinese novels was because it had extremely high literary value, profound cultural content, and unique artistic features. It displayed the level and value that the pinnacle of ancient Chinese novels should have.