《红与黑》是法国作家司汤达的长篇小说，也是其代表作。主人公于连出生于小城维埃尔的一个木匠家庭，父亲是一个自私的木材厂老板。凭着超常的记忆力，他被市长选作家庭教师，但他却与德·瑞那夫人产生了感情。事情败露后逃离市长家，进了神学院。经神学院院长举荐，到巴黎给极端保王党中坚人物侯爵当私人秘书，很快得到侯爵的赏识和重用。与此同时，于连又与侯爵的女儿玛特尔有了私情。最后在教会的策划下，市长夫人被逼写了一封告密信揭发他，使他的飞黄腾达毁于一旦。他在气愤之下，开枪击伤市长夫人，被判处死刑，上了断头台。

　　于连靠着自己的聪明才智和坚韧不拔的毅力，为了实现自己的巨大野心而孤身一人在一个等级森严的社会里辛苦地奋斗着，其间不乏种种不光彩的手段。正当他自以为踏上了飞黄腾达的坦途和得到了超越阶级的爱情之时，社会却无情地把他送上了断头台。这就是于连之梦。《红与黑》在心理深度的挖掘上远远超出了同时代作家所能及的层次。它开创了后世“意识流小说”、“心理小说”的先河。

　　程亚杰早在1994年开始创作《于连之梦》，后来在2015年完成，最终画作被命名为《红与黑》，在2016年8月美国内华达州撒哈拉市立图书馆美术馆举办的程亚杰《拉斯维加斯艺术交响曲》画展上展出，并收录在同名画册。

　　程亚杰为什么会选中这部作品创作这样一个主题作品值得思考，1992年还创作过意象油画《红与黑之于连》，2015年又创作了意象人体画、《红与黑》。可见程亚杰的创作动机不是空穴来风，来源于对这部名著的思考和启迪。

　　这幅作品程亚杰用速写把三位人物再现在一个画面中，从左到右依次是德·瑞那夫人、于连、玛特尔。人物姿态，神态……寥寥几笔勾勒出来，相对红与黑50多万字的长篇巨著完全是神来之笔了。用油彩表现的背景风云迷幻。从于连之梦到红与黑是最后完成的数字1994，58，字母CYJ，两只蝴蝶，一个心形和扑克的梅花黑桃三个符号。奇妙的是色彩，背景的色彩，数字符号上的色彩。

红与黑 58x40cm 1994-2015年 维也纳 拉斯维加斯

于连之梦 58x40cm 1994年 维也纳

An Appreciation of Cheng Yajie's The Red and the Black and Dream of Julien

Lin Xi

　　As a representative work of Stendhal, the novel The Red and the Black describes a story of the man called Julien who is the son of a selfish carpenter in fictional village of Verrières. He is provided with a job tutoring the mayor's children due to his outstanding memory. However, he enters a love affair with Madame de Rênal, which ends when it is revealed to the village by her chambermaid. He escapes from the mayor's house and enters a seminary later. The seminary director recommends Julien as a private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Roman Catholic legitimist. Julien wins recognition from Marquis's and he is put in an important position. Meanwhile, he has a love affair with the Marquis's daughter, Mathilde. In the end, Madame de Rênal is forced by the Church to write a letter warning the Marquis that Julien is a social-climbing cad who preys upon emotionally vulnerable women, which destroys Julien's official career. Julien shoots Madame de Rênal with great anger. She survives, but Julien is imprisoned and sentenced to death.

　　Julien manages to achieve his ambition and rise socially beyond his modest upbringing due to a combination of talent, hard work, deception, and hypocrisy. When he presumes to be a successful man and win the love beyond class, however, the society relentlessly put him onto the guillotine. This is the dream of Julien. The Red and the Black has reached a level that contemporary writers fail to reach in the aspect of exploring the psychological depth, and pioneers the stream-of-consciousness novel and Cheng Yajie began to create Dream of Julien in 1994 and finished this painting in 2015. This painting, finally named as The Red and the Black, was exhibited in Cheng Yajie "Las Vegas Symphony of Art" exhibition held in Sahara West Library Studio Gallery in Nevada, the United States, and included in a painting album with the same name.

　　It is worth thinking about the reason why Cheng Yajie chose Stendhal's The Red and the Black to be the theme of his painting. He created the imagery oil painting The Red and the Black - Julien in 1992 and the imagery body-paintings The Red and the Black. Thus, it can be inferred that Cheng Yajie's creation motive comes from his thinking and enlightenment about this famous novel.

　　This painting sketches the three figures in a picture. They are Madame de Rênal, Julien and Mathilde from left to right. He sketches the figures' gesture and mien with few strokes, which can be regarded as strokes of genius when compared with the The Red and the Black, a great work of more than 500,000 words. The background depicted with paint is amazing. The Red and the Black is a new piece of work created on the base of Dream of Julien through adding the numbers of "1994" and "58", the letters "CYJ", two butterflies, a heart-shape symbol, spades and plum blossom. The colors of background and these symbols are marvelous.

作者：林夕