中国古代小说女性“白衣”、“红妆”描写的修辞异质

中国古代小说关于女性“白衣”和“红妆”两种服饰的描写包涵着对行性的修辞意蕴。作为孝服标志的“白衣”往往隐喻着“素洁”,而一贯作为吉庆象征的“红妆”则暗涉着“热烈”。同时,在《金瓶梅》和《红楼梦》等世情小说中,红、白两种服饰还暗涉着高低贵贱。另外,就审美色调而言,“白衣”通常给人以“冷艳”之感,而“红妆”则给人以“丽”之感。所有这些描写大都不是作者的信笔所至,而是在特定民俗作用下的文化生成。

The Explanation of the Different Rhetoric Meaning of White Clothes and Red Dresses in the Chinese Ancient Novels

The Chinese ancient novels' mutual finery depiction about white clothes and red dresses mostly contains much different rhetoric meaning.White clothes,as mourning dress,are usually metaphorized into chasteness.Comparatively,as auspicious symbol persistently,red dresses indicate fire function.And then,white clothes and red dresses in human relationship novels such as "Plum in Golden Vase"and "Dream of the Red Chamber"also symbolize much significance and different stations.Otherwise,White clothes usually offer people "cold and gorgeous"in manner,but red dresses usually give us warm and beautiful feeling.All these depiction are not written at random by the authors.They are caused by the folk-custom culture.