The Metaphor of “Dreams” and the Aesthetic Implications of “Love is not Love” in Dream of the Red Chamber

Abstract

The dream world metaphorically carries the aesthetic ideals of the author of Dream of the Red Chamber throughout the book. The most dream aesthetic value of the first eighty dreams include dream travel in the fantasy world of Taixu, dream of cloud and rain, dream language wood and stone marriage, and dream meeting of Zhen Jia Baoyu. Jia Baoyu’s attitude towards everything can be summarized as “love not love”, that is, the infatuation and consideration for all good people. The dream world of The Red Chamber is full of metaphors. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific expressions of different metaphors in the text from the metaphorical discourse system of ontological metaphor, orientation metaphor and cultural metaphor. It will reveal the kindness, compassion and understanding that Jia Baoyu’s dreams metaphorically reveal that he respects and loves the beautiful people as his good friends, without the thought of insulting them. The author pursues the ideal state of “love is not love”, but lust is not the perfect state. On this basis, Jia Baoyu gives a different meaning to the emptiness after life and death: above life and death, the ultimate solution to human loneliness is kindness and soul togetherness with one’s soulmate. The Metaphor of “Dreams” and the Aesthetic Implications of “Love is not Love” in Dream of the Red Chamber下载