Abstract: A Dream of Red Mansions embodies the multiplicity of time, which can be seen from the three different times of Nü Wa, Stone and Jia Residence, And in this novel, Cao Xueqin also makes a detailed description of some characters sexual psychology, that can compare well with Freud’s theory. While the questions of life put forward by the novel and the declining tendency implied by Western modernism or postmodernism happen to hold identical view, all sorts of cultural symbols in the novel unceasingly supply new annotations and new perspectives of approaches.

Key words: multiplicity of time, Freud, cultural symbols, modern literary theories