“奎璧(壁)辉煌”校注正误

Correction of a Longstanding Text Error in Ancient Chinese Novel A Dream of Red Mansions

程甲本《红楼梦》第八十三回有"奎璧辉煌"一词,令人费解;程乙本改作"奎壁辉煌",今通行校注本多从程乙本。红楼梦研究所校注组注释"奎壁"为二十八星宿之"奎宿"和"壁宿",分别喻皇帝和仙女;启功先生主持校注的北师大本则视"奎壁"同"魁壁",并释作"大壁"或"白壁";周定一先生疑"奎壁"即"照壁",俗称"八字墙";其他《红楼梦》校注本和工具书中亦还有别样注解,红学专家观点迥异如此,让人困惑。今详考古籍文献,发现"金璧辉煌"乃明清文学作品及方志中描述华丽建筑之惯常用语,程甲本中此处原文应为"金璧辉煌",意指元妃寝宫金光闪烁,富丽堂皇。"奎"字实为行(草)书体"金"字之形讹,程乙本以讹传讹,而今人注释均误。

In ancient Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions, Chapter Eighty-three, there is a puzzling word Kui Bi Hui Huang. The scholars have given it a disparity of interpretations and explanations. For example, Kui and Bi are two brilliant stars in Chinese mythology and here metaphor the emperor and empress respectively in a collated and annotated version of the book released by People＇s literature Publishing House, while Kui Bi refers to the high wall or white wall of the emperor palace in another issued by Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, but it means the screen wall opposite the gate outside a classical courtyard in a dictionary, so different and so confusing. Having searched database of ancient Chinese books, the authors found that here it should be the word Jin Bi Hui Huang, meaning resplendent or splendid, a common usage in Ming and Qing Dynasties literatures, and character Kui was a shape false of character Jin. Of course, all the published interpretations and explanations according to the false original text are wrong.