《红楼梦》究竟多少回问题再思考

Retrospection on the Question of How Many Chapters A Dream of Red Mansions Actually Has

有关《红楼梦》“后半部”的探佚是红学研究重要内容之一。“后半部”到底是否存在,究竟有多少回,其原貌为何样,脂批与正文的关系如何?这些问题因循日久,困扰着无数研究者。从各脂本正文和脂批信息看,80回是“前半部”与“后半部”作者有意设定的一个明显分界线。根据作者用“假语村言”将“真事隐去”的“一击两鸣”写法,综合书中各种伏线以及有关“后半部”材料情况,可基本肯定《红楼梦》是一部谜书。其以前80回为“谜面”,以脂批等为“谜格”,将“后半部”的“迷失的故事”作为谜底隐藏在前80回当中,从而形成一部旷世奇作。

The exploration of the latter half of A Dream of Red Mansions forms an important task for the researches on Redology.The questions that whether or not the latter half of A Dream of Red Mansions really exists,how many chapters it has,what its original appearance is,and what the relationship between ZHI comment and the text is,have been puzzling countless researchers for a long time.Judged from the text and information of each comment version made by ZHI Yanzhai,the eightieth chapter is a clear dividing line between the first half and the second one.According to the author′s style of writing of using"Jia Yu Cun Yan"to hide the truth in"Yi Ji Liang Ming",and combining the various story clues and the latter half of the materials,we can almost be sure that A Dream of Red Mansions is a book of riddle,which sets the previous eighty chapters as the"conundrum",ZHI Yanzhai′s comment as"format",and the second half of the lost story as the"solution"hidden in the former eighty chapters,thus form a rare work.