Abstract

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Title:: Who Can Understand Them? Duan En’s Poems about A Dream of RedMansions and the Social Psychology of Royal Literati in Qing Dynasty

Keywords:: Duan En; royal literati; poems about A Dream of Red Mansions; social psychology

Abstract:: Literature is an indirect reflection of real life. The cultural traits of a social group are closely relatedto the problems and environment facing them. The royal literati in the Qing Dynasty were granted considerableprivileges by the imperial totalitarianism, but at the same time they lived under great stress imposed by thevery system. The members of the royal clan, represented by Duan En who received good education and wasgood at putting into words his thoughts and feelings, were inclined to make friends and express their worriesand anxieties through poems and songs. Since Cao Xueqin, the author of the great Chinese classic A Dreamof Red Mansions, was a member of the Han bannermen, he was well known to the circle of the royal literati,who felt great affinity with this literary master and his masterpiece. In Cao’s work, which indicates the declineand the eventual collapse of the feudalism, these learned members of the royal clan could find that it wastheir own stories that were related. While showcasing the authors’ refined taste and enjoyment of leisure, thepoems written by people like Duan En about Cao’s A Dream of Red Mansions show that they were anxiouslydisillusioned to some extent with the meaning of life, for they were often ignored or even abandoned by the systemalthough they tried hard to pursue social and political achievements according to the Confucian teachings.