红楼梦鉴赏词典 (Dictionary of Appreciation of A Dream of Red Mansions)

《红楼梦》是一部反映封建社会的"百科全书"，举凡天文、地理、动物、植物、建筑、服饰、医卜星相、琴棋书画、器物摆设等等，无不尽收笔底。作者还撰写并引用了大量诗、词、曲、赋、歌、诔、谜语、酒令等，作为描写人物、叙述故事、揭示主题的艺术手段，从而成为作品的重要组成部分。这其中蕴藏着许多成语、典故和各种知识，并大量采用了《春秋》笔法，即作者所谓将"真事隐去"，以"假语村言"的别致的艺术手段进行巧妙地暗示或隐寓，致使《红楼梦》扑朔迷离，迷雾重重。本书意在给当今一般读者欣赏这部大书指示门径，在词条的注释方面，裴先生主要遵循了四条原则：其一，对于一般的疑难词语，重在疏通文意，多不引经据典，追根溯源。其二，对于成语、典故，则既要注明其出典，又要解释其本义，还要说明其引申义或比喻义。其三，对于各种名物（如建筑、服饰、官署、官职、琴棋书画、医卜星相等），则力求变专门术语为通俗语言，以利读者理解。其四，对于具有隐寓或暗示意味的诗、词、曲、文、成语、典故、谜语、酒令等，因其关系到故事情节的发展和人物性格、运命的描写，故除了作注释之外，还要揭示其隐藏的含义。(A Dream of Red Mansions is an "encyclopedia" of feudal society covering astronomy, geography, animals, plants, architectures, clothing, medicine, fortune-telling, astrology and phrenology, lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting, layout of household utensils, etc. The author describes characters, narrates stories and reveals the theme in an artistic way by composing and quoting plenty of ancient Chinese poems, songs, memorial speeches, riddles and drinking game verses, which form an important part of the whole novel. Besides, A Dream of Red Mansions also contains numerous idioms and allusions and all kinds of knowledge. The author references techniques of writing as adopted in The Spring and Autumn Annals, hiding the truth and providing hints and metaphors in rustic village language. This unique artistic way makes A Dream of Red Mansions appear to be complicated and confusing. This book is intended to help general readers to appreciate A Dream of Red Mansions by providing instructions. Mr. Pei, the author of this book, follows four principles in annotation of entries: first, for general difficult words, clarifying the context without citing the classics or tracing the source; second, for idioms and allusions, indicating their origins, explaining their original meanings and illustrating their extended or metaphoric meanings; third, for various names and descriptions of things (such as architectures, clothing, official institutions, official positions, lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting, medicine, fortune-telling, astrology and phrenology, etc.), transforming technical terms into public language for easy understanding of readers; fourth, for ancient Chinese poems, idioms and allusions, riddles, drinking game verses with metaphors or insinuations, revealing the hidden meanings in addition to providing annotation, as they relate to plot development and description of personalities and destinies of characters. )