Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber (simplified Chinese: çº¢æ¥¼æ¢¦; traditional Chinese: ç´…æ¨"å¤¢; pinyin: HÃ³ng LÃ³u MÃ¨ng), also called The Story of the Stone (simplified Chinese: çŸ³å¤´è®°; traditional Chinese: çŸ³é è¨˜; pinyin: ShÃtÃ³u jÃ¬), composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature and is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of Chinese fiction. "Redology" is the field of study devoted exclusively to this work.

The title has also been translated as Red Chamber Dream and A Dream of Red Mansions. The novel circulated in manuscript copies with various titles until its print publication, in 1791. While the first 80 chapters were written by Cao Xueqin, Gao E, who prepared the first and second printed editions with his partner Cheng Weiyuan in 1791â€"2, added 40 additional chapters to complete the novel.

Red Chamber is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decay of author Cao Xueqin's own family and, by extension, of the Qing Dynasty. As the author details in the first chapter, it is intended to be a memorial to the damsels he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese aristocracy.

Language

The novel is composed in written vernacular (baihua) rather than Classical Chinese (wenyan). Cao Xueqin was well versed in Chinese poetry and in Classical Chinese, having written tracts in the semi-wenyan style, while the novel's dialogue is written in the Beijing Mandarin dialect, which was to become the basis of modern spoken Chinese. In the early 20th century, lexicographers used the text to establish the vocabulary of the new standardized language and reformers used the novel to promote the written vernacular.

Themes

In the opening chapter of the novel, a couplet is introduced:

Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;

Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real.

As one critic points out, the couplet signifies "not a hard and fast division between truth and falsity, reality and illusion, but the impossibility of making such distinctions in any world, fictional or 'actual.'" The name of the main family, Jia (è³ˆ, pronounced jiÇŽ), is a homophone with the character jiÇŽ å‡, meaning false or fictitious; this is mirrored by another family that has the surname Zhen (ç"„, pronounced zhÄ"n), a homophone for the word "real" (çœŸ). It is suggested that the novel's family is both a realistic reflection and a fictional or "dream" version of Cao's own family.

The novel is most often titled HÃ³ng LÃ³u MÃ¨ng (ç´…æ¨"å¤¢), literally "Red Chamber Dream". "Red chamber" is an idiom with several definitions; one in particular refers to the sheltered chambers where the daughters of prominent families reside. It also refers to a dream in Chapter 5 that Baoyu has, set in a "red chamber", where the fates of many of the characters are foreshadowed. "Chamber" is sometimes translated as "mansion" because of the scale of the Chinese word "æ¨"". However the word "mansion" is thought to neglect the flavour of the word "chamber" according to scholar Zhou Ruchang.

The novel also provides great insight in its depiction of the Chinese culture of the time, including description of the era's "manners, expectations, and consequences." Many aspects of Chinese culture, such as medicine, cuisine, tea culture, proverbs, mythology, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, filial piety, opera, music, painting, classic literature and the Four Books, are vividly portrayed. Among these, the novel is particularly notable for its grand use of poetry.

Plot summary

The novel provides a detailed, episodic record of the two branches of the wealthy and aristocratic Jia (è³ˆ) clanâ€"the Rongguo House (æ¦®åœ‹åºœ) and the Ningguo House (å¯§åœ‹åºœ)â€"who reside in two large, adjacent family compounds in the capital. Their ancestors were made Dukes and given imperial titles, and as the novel begins the two houses are among the most illustrious families in the city. One of the clanâ€™s offspring was made a Royal Consort, and a lush landscaped garden was built to receive her visit. The novel describes the Jiasâ€™ wealth and influence in great naturalistic detail, and charts the Jiasâ€™ fall from the height of their prestige, following some thirty main characters and over four hundred minor ones. Eventually the Jia clan falls into disfavor with the Emperor, and their mansions are raided and confiscated.

In the novel's frame story, a sentient Stone, abandoned by the goddess NÃ¼wa when she mended the heavens aeons ago, begs a Taoist priest and a Buddhist monk to bring it with them to see the world. The Stone, along with a companion (while in Cheng-Gao versions they are merged into the same character), was then given a chance to learn from the human existence, and enters the mortal realm.

The main character of the novel is the carefree adolescent male heir of the family, Jia Baoyu. He was born with a magical piece of "jade" in his mouth. In this life he has a special bond with his sickly cousin Lin Daiyu, who shares his love of music and poetry. Baoyu, however, is predestined to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai, whose grace and intelligence exemplifies an ideal woman, but with whom he lacks an emotional connection. The romantic rivalry and friendship among the three characters against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes forms the main story in the novel.

Characters

Dream of the Red Chamber contains an extraordinarily large number of characters: nearly forty are considered major characters, and there are almost five hundred additional ones. The novel is also known for the complex portraits of its many female characters. The names of the maids and bondservants are given in the original pinyin pronunciations and in David Hawkes' translation.

Baoyu and Jinling's Twelve Beauties

Jia Baoyu (simplified Chinese: è´¾å®çŽ‰; traditional Chinese: è³ˆå¯¶çŽ‰; pinyin: JiÇŽ BÇŽoyÃ¹; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Pao-yu; Meaning: Precious Jade)
The main protagonist is about 12 or 13 years old when introduced in the novel. The adolescent son of Jia Zheng (è³ˆæ"¿) and his wife, Lady Wang (çŽ‹å¤«äºº), and born with a piece of luminescent jade in his mouth (the Stone), Baoyu is the heir apparent to the Rongguo House (æ¦®åœ‹åºœ). Frowned on by his strict Confucian father, Baoyu reads Zhuangzi and Story of the Western Wing (Xi Xiang Ji), rather than the Four Books of classic Chinese education. Baoyu is highly intelligent, but dislikes the fawning bureaucrats that frequent his father's house. A sensitive and compassionate individual, he has a special relationship with many of the women in the house.

Lin Daiyu (Chinese: æž—é»›çŽ‰; pinyin: LÃn DÃ iyÃ¹; Wadeâ€"Giles: Lin Tai-yu; Meaning: Blue-black Jade)
Jia Baoyu's younger first cousin and his primary love interest. She is the daughter of Lin Ruhai (æž—å¦‚æµ·), a Yangzhou scholar-official, and Lady Jia Min (è³ˆæ•), Baoyu's paternal aunt. She is sickly, but beautiful in a way that is unconventional. She also suffers from a respiratory ailment. The novel proper starts in Chapter 3 with Daiyu's arrival at the Rongguo House shortly after the death of her mother. Fragile emotionally, prone to fits of jealousy, Daiyu is nevertheless an extremely accomplished poet and musician. The novel designates her one of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling, and describes her as a lonely, proud and ultimately tragic figure. Daiyu is the reincarnation of a flower from the frame story, and the purpose of her mortal birth is to repay Baoyu with tears for watering her in her previous incarnation.

Xue Baochai (simplified Chinese: è–›å®é'—; traditional Chinese: è–›å¯¶é‡µ; pinyin: XuÄ" BÇŽochÄi; Wadeâ€"Giles: Hsueh Pao-chai; Meaning: Jeweled Hair Pin or Precious Virtue)
Jia Baoyu's other first cousin. The only daughter of Aunt Xue (è–›å§¨åª½), sister to Baoyu's mother, Baochai is a foil to Daiyu. Where Daiyu is unconventional and hypersensitive, Baochai is sensible and tactful: a model Chinese feudal maiden. The novel describes her as beautiful and intelligent, but also reserved and following the rules of decorum. Although reluctant to show the extent of her knowledge, Baochai seems to be quite learned about everything, from Buddhist teachings to how not to make a paint plate crack. She is not keen on elaborately decorating her room and herself. The novel describes her room as being completely free of decoration, apart from a small vase of chrysanthemums. Baochai has a round face, fair skin, large eyes, and, some would say, a more voluptuous figure in contrast to Daiyu's willowy daintiness. Baochai carries a golden locket with her which contains words given to her in childhood by a Buddhist monk. Baochai's golden locket and Baoyu's jade contain inscriptions that appear to complement one another perfectly. Her marriage to Baoyu is seen in the book as predestined.

Jia Yuanchun (simplified Chinese: è´¾å…ƒæ˜¥; traditional Chinese: è³ˆå…ƒæ˜¥; pinyin: JiÇŽ YuÃ¡nchÅ«n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Yuan-chun; Meaning: First Spring)
Baoyu's elder sister by about a decade. Originally one of the ladies-in-waiting in the imperial palace, Yuanchun later becomes an Imperial Consort, having impressed the Emperor with her virtue and learning. Her illustrious position as a favorite of the Emperor marks the height of the Jia family's powers. Despite her prestigious position, Yuanchun feels imprisoned within the four walls of the imperial palace.

Jia Tanchun (simplified Chinese: è´¾æŽ¢æ˜¥; traditional Chinese: è³ˆæŽ¢æ˜¥; pinyin: JiÇŽ TÃ nchÅ«n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Tan-chun; Meaning: Seeking Spring)
Baoyu's younger half-sister by Concubine Zhao. Brash and extremely outspoken, she is almost as capable as Wang Xifeng. Wang Xifeng herself compliments her privately, but laments that she was "born in the wrong womb," since concubine children are not respected as much as those by first wives. She is also a very talented poet. Tanchun is nicknamed "Rose" for her beauty and her prickly personality.

Shi Xiangyun (simplified Chinese: å²æ¹˜äº'; traditional Chinese: å²æ¹˜é›²; pinyin: ShÇ XiÄngyÃºn; Wadeâ€"Giles: Shih Hsiang-yun; Meaning: Xiang River Clouds)
Jia Baoyu's younger second cousin. Grandmother Jia's grandniece. Orphaned in infancy, she grows up under her wealthy maternal uncle and aunt who treats her unkindly. In spite of this Xiangyun is openhearted and cheerful. A comparatively androgynous beauty, Xiangyun looks good in men's clothes (once she put on Baoyu's clothes and Grandmother Jia thought she was a he), and loves to drink. She is forthright and without tact, but her forgiving nature takes the sting from her casually truthful remarks. She is well educated and as talented a poet as Daiyu or Baochai.

Miaoyu (Chinese: å¦™çŽ‰; pinyin: MiÃ oyÃ¹; Wadeâ€"Giles: Miao-yu; Hawkes/Minford translation: Adamantina; Meaning: Wonderful/Clever Jade)
A young nun from Buddhist cloisters of the Rong-guo house. Extremely beautiful and learned, while also extremely aloof, haughty and unsociable. She also has an obsession with cleanliness. The novel says she was compelled by her illness to become a nun, and shelters herself under the nunnery to dodge political affairs.

Jia Yingchun (simplified Chinese: è´¾è¿Žæ˜¥; traditional Chinese: è³ˆè¿Žæ˜¥; pinyin: JiÇŽ YÃngchÅ«n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Ying-chun; Meaning: Welcoming Spring)
Second female family member of the generation of the Jia household after Yuanchun, Yingchun is the daughter of Jia She, Baoyu's uncle and therefore his elder first cousin. A kind-hearted, weak-willed person, Yingchun is said to have a "wooden" personality and seems rather apathetic toward all worldly affairs. Although very pretty and well-read, she does not compare in intelligence and wit to any of her cousins. Yingchun's most famous trait, it seems, is her unwillingness to meddle in the affairs of her family. Eventually Yingchun marries an official of the imperial court, her marriage being merely one of her father's desperate attempts to raise the declining fortunes of the Jia family. The newly married Yingchun becomes a victim of domestic abuse and constant violence at the hands of her cruel, abusive husband.

Jia Xichun (simplified Chinese: è´¾æƒœæ˜¥; traditional Chinese: è³ˆæƒœæ˜¥; pinyin: JiÇŽ XÄ«chÅ«n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Hsi-chun; Meaning: Treasuring Spring)
Baoyu's younger cousin from the Ningguo House, but brought up in the Rongguo House. A gifted painter, she is also a devout Buddhist. She is the young sister of Jia Zhen, head of the Ningguo House. At the end of the novel, after the fall of the house of Jia, she gives up her worldly concerns and becomes a Buddhist nun. She is the second youngest of Jinling's Twelve Beauties, described as a pre-teen in most parts of the novel.

Wang Xifeng (simplified Chinese: çŽ‹ç†™å‡¤; traditional Chinese: çŽ‹ç†™é³³; pinyin: WÃ¡ng XÄ«fÃ¨ng; Wadeâ€"Giles: Wang Hsi-feng; Meaning: Splendid Phoenix), alias Sister Feng.
Baoyu's elder cousin-in-law, young wife to Jia Lian (who is Baoyu's paternal first cousin), niece to Lady Wang. Xifeng is hence related to Baoyu both by blood and marriage. An extremely handsome woman, Xifeng is capable, clever, humorous, conversable and, at times, vicious and cruel. Undeniably the most worldly woman in the novel, Xifeng is in charge of the daily running of the Rongguo household and wields remarkable economy as well as political power within the family. Being a favorite of Grandmother Jia, Xifeng keeps both Lady Wang and Grandmother Jia entertained with her constant jokes and amusing chatter, playing the role of the perfect filial daughter-in-law, and by pleasing Grandmother Jia, ruling the entire household with an iron fist. One of the most remarkable multi-faceted personalities in the novel, Xifeng can be kind-hearted toward the poor and helpless. On the other hand, Xifeng can be cruel enough to kill. Her feisty personality, her loud laugh, and her great beauty contrast with many of the frail, weak-willed beauties of the literature of 18th-century China.

Jia Qiaojie (simplified Chinese: è´¾å·§å§; traditional Chinese: è³ˆå·§å§; pinyin: JiÇŽ QiÇŽojiÄ›; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Chiao-chieh)
Wang Xifeng's and Jia Lian's daughter. She is a child through much of the novel. After the fall of the house of Jia, in the version of Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan, she marries the son of a wealthy rural family introduced by Granny Liu and goes on to lead a happy, uneventful life in the countryside.

Li Wan (simplified Chinese: æŽçº¨; traditional Chinese: æŽç´ˆ; pinyin: LÇ WÃ¡n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Li Wan; Meaning: White Silk)
Baoyu's elder sister-in-law, widow of Baoyu's deceased elder brother, Jia Zhu (è³ˆç ). Her primary task is to bring up her son Lan and watch over her female cousins. The novel portrays Li Wan, a young widow in her late twenties, as a mild-mannered woman with no wants or desires, the perfect Confucian ideal of a proper mourning widow. She eventually attains high social status due to the success of her son at the Imperial Exams, but the novel sees her as a tragic figure because she wasted her youth upholding the strict standards of behavior.

Qin Keqing (Chinese: ç§¦å¯å¿; pinyin: QÃn KÄ›qÄ«ng; Wadeâ€"Giles: Ch'in Ko-ching)
Daughter-in-law to Jia Zhen. Of all the characters in the novel, the circumstances of her life and early death are amongst the most mysterious. Apparently a very beautiful and flirtatious woman, she carried on an affair with her father-in-law and dies before the second quarter of the novel. Her bedroom is bedecked with priceless artifacts belonging to extremely sensual women, both historical and mythological. In her bed, Bao Yu first travels to the Land of Illusion where he has a sexual encounter with Two-In-One, who represents Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu. Two-in-One's name is also Keqing, making Qin Keqing also a significant character in Bao Yu's sexual experience. The original twelve songs hint that Qin Keqing hanged herself.

Other main characters

Grandmother Jia (simplified Chinese: è´¾æ¯; traditional Chinese: è³ˆæ¯; pinyin: JiÇŽmÇ"), nÃ©e Shi.
Also called the Matriarch or the Dowager, the daughter of Marquis Shi of Jinling. Grandmother to both Baoyu and Daiyu, she is the highest living authority in the Rongguo house and the oldest and most respected of the entire clan, yet also a doting person. She has two sons, Jia She and Jia Zheng, and a daughter, Min, Daiyu's mother. Daiyu is brought to the house of the Jias at the insistence of Grandmother Jia, and she helps Daiyu and Baoyu bond as childhood playmates and, later, kindred spirits.

Jia She (simplified Chinese: è´¾èµ¦; traditional Chinese: è³ˆèµ¦; pinyin: JiÇŽ ShÃ¨; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Sheh)
The elder son of the Dowager. He is the father of Jia Lian and Jia Yingchun. He is a treacherous and greedy man, and a womanizer.

Jia Zheng (simplified Chinese: è´¾æ"¿; traditional Chinese: è³ˆæ"¿; pinyin: JiÇŽ ZhÃ¨ng; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Cheng)
Baoyu's father, the younger son of the Dowager. He is a disciplinarian and Confucian scholar. Afraid his one surviving heir will turn bad, he imposes strict rules on his son, and uses occasional corporal punishment. He has a wife, Lady Wang, and two concubines: Zhao and Zhou.

Jia Lian (simplified Chinese: è´¾ç; traditional Chinese: è³ˆç'‰; pinyin: JiÇŽ LiÇŽn; Wadeâ€"Giles: Chia Lien)
Xifeng's husband and Baoyu's paternal elder cousin, a notorious womanizer whose numerous affairs cause much trouble with his jealous wife, including affairs with men that are not known by his wife. His pregnant concubine (Second Sister You) eventually dies by his wife's engineering. He and his wife are in charge of most hiring and monetary allocation decisions, and often fight over this power.

Xiangling (é¦™è±; Hawkes/Minford translation: Caltrop; Meaning: Fragrant Water caltrop) â€" the Xues' maid, born Zhen Yinglian (ç"„è‹±è"®, a homophone with "deserving pity"), the kidnapped and lost daughter to Zhen Shiyin (ç"„å£«éš±), the country gentleman in Chapter 1. Her name is changed to Qiuling (ç§‹è±) by Xue Pan's spoiled wife, Xia Jingui (å¤é‡'æ¡‚).

Ping'er (å¹³å…'; Hawkes/Minford translation: Patience; Meaning: Peace)
Xifeng's chief maid and personal confidante; also concubine to Xifeng's husband, Jia Lian. The consensus among the novel's characters seem to be that Pinger is beautiful enough to rival the mistresses in the house. Originally Xifeng's maid in the Wang household, she follows Xifeng as part of her "dowry" when Xifeng marries into the Jia household. She handles her troubles with grace, assists Xifeng capably and appears to have the respect of most of the household servants. She is also one of the very few people who can get close to Xifeng. She wields considerable power in the house as Xifeng's most trusted assistant, but uses her power sparingly and justly.

Xue Pan (Chinese: è–›èŸ ; pinyin: XuÄ" PÃ¡n; Wadeâ€"Giles: Hsueh Pan; Meaning: To Coil (as a dragon))
Baochai's older brother, a dissolute, idle rake who was a local bully in Jinling. He was known for his amorous exploits with both men and women. Not particularly well educated, he once killed a man over a servant-girl (Xiangling) and had the manslaughter case hushed up with money.

Granny Liu (simplified Chinese: åˆ˜å§¥å§¥; traditional Chinese: åŠ‰å§¥å§¥; pinyin: LiÃº LÇŽolao)
A country rustic and distant relation to the Wang family, who provides a comic contrast to the ladies of the Rongguo House during two visits. She eventually rescues Qiaojie from her maternal uncle, who wanted to sell her.

Lady Wang (Chinese: çŽ‹å¤«äºº; pinyin: WÃ¡ng FÅ«ren)
A Buddhist, primary wife of Jia Zheng. Because of her purported ill-health, she hands over the running of the household to her niece, Xifeng, as soon as the latter marries into the Jia household, although she retains overall control over Xifeng's affairs so that the latter always has to report to her. Although Lady Wang appears to be a kind mistress and a doting mother, she can in fact be cruel and ruthless when her authority is challenged. She pays a great deal of attention to Baoyu's maids to make sure that Baoyu does not develop romantic relationships with them.

Aunt Xue (simplified Chinese: è–›å§¨å¦ˆ; traditional Chinese: è–›å§¨åª½; pinyin: XuÄ" YÃmÄ), nÃ©e Wang
Baoyu's maternal aunt, mother to Pan and Baochai, sister to Lady Wang. She is kindly and affable for the most part, but finds it hard to control her unruly son.

Hua Xiren (simplified Chinese: èŠ±è¢äºº; traditional Chinese: èŠ±è¥²äºº; pinyin: HuÄ XÃrÃ©n; Hawkes/Minford translation: Aroma; Meaning: Flower Assails Men)
Baoyu's principal maid and his unofficial concubine. While she still has standing as the Dowager's maid, the Dowager gave her to Baoyu so, in practice, Xiren is his maid. Considerate and forever worried about Baoyu, she is the partner of his first adolescent sexual encounter in the real world in Chapter 5.

Qingwen (Chinese: æ™´é›¯; pinyin: QÃngwÃ©n; Hawkes/Minford translation: Skybright, Meaning: Sunny Multicolored Clouds)
Baoyu's personal maid. Brash, haughty and the most beautiful maid in the household, Qingwen is said to resemble Daiyu very strongly. Of all of Baoyu's maids, she is the only one who dares to argue with Baoyu when reprimanded, but is also extremely devoted to him. She is disdainful of Xiren's attempt to use her sexual relation with Baoyu to raise her status in the family. Lady Wang later suspected her of having an affair with Baoyu and publicly dismisses her on that account; angry at the unfair treatment and of the indignities and slanders that attended her as a result, Qingwen dies of an illness shortly after leaving the Jia household.

Yuanyang (simplified Chinese: é¸³é¸¯; traditional Chinese: é´›é´¦; pinyin: YuÄnyang; Hawkes/Minford translation: Faithful; Meaning: "Pair of Mandarin Ducks")
The Dowager's chief maid. She rejected a marriage proposal (as concubine) to the lecherous Jia She, Grandmother Jia's eldest son.

Mingyan (simplified Chinese: èŒ—çƒŸ; traditional Chinese: èŒ—ç…™; pinyin: MÃngyÄn; Hawkes/Minford translation: Tealeaf, Meaning: Tea Vapor)
Baoyu's page boy. Knows his master like the back of his hand.

Zijuan (simplified Chinese: ç´«é¹ƒ; traditional Chinese: ç´«éµ'; pinyin: ZÇjuÄn; Wadeâ€"Giles: Tzu-chuan; Hawkes/Minford translation: Nightingale; Meaning: "Purple Rhododendron or Cuckoo")
Daiyu's faithful maid, ceded by the Dowager to her granddaughter.

Xueyan (Chinese: é›ªé›; pinyin: XuÄ›yÃ n; Hawkes/Minford translation: Snowgoose)
Daiyu's other maid. She came with Daiyu from Yangzhou, and comes across as a young, sweet girl.

Concubine Zhao (simplified Chinese: èµµå§¨å¨˜; traditional Chinese: è¶™å§¨å¨˜; pinyin: ZhÃ o YÃniÃ¡ng)
A concubine of Jia Zheng. She is the mother of Jia Tanchun and Jia Huan, Baoyu's half-siblings. She longs to be the mother of the head of the household, which she does not achieve. She plots to murder Baoyu and Xifeng with black magic, and it is believed that her plot cost her own life.

Notable minor characters

Qin Zhong (ç§¦é˜) â€" His elder sister is Qin Keqing, Baoyu's nephew's wife, and so he is technically a generation younger than Baoyu. Both he and Qin Keqing are the adopted children of Qin Ye (ç§¦æ¥). The two boys enroll in the Jia clan's school together and he becomes Baoyu's best friend. The novel leaves open the possibility that things might have gone beyond innocent friendship. Qin Zhong and the novice Zhineng (æ™ºèƒ½, "Intelligent"; "Sapientia" in the Hawkes translation) fall in love with tragic consequences, for Qin Zhong dies soon after from a combination of a severe beating administered by his father, sexual exhaustion, grief and remorse.

Jia Lan (è³ˆè˜) â€" Son of Baoyu's deceased older brother Jia Zhu and his virtuous wife Li Wan. Jia Lan is an appealing child throughout the book and at the end succeeds in the imperial examinations to the credit of the family.

Jia Zhen (è³ˆç) â€" Head of the Ningguo House, the elder branch of the Jia family. He has a wife, Lady You, a younger sister, Jia Xichun, and many concubines. He is extremely greedy and the unofficial head of the clan, since his father has retired. He has an adulterous affair with his daughter-in-law, Qin Keqing.

Lady You (å°¤æ°) â€" Wife of Jia Zhen. She is the sole mistress of the Ningguo House.

Jia Rong (è³ˆè"‰) â€" Jia Zhen's son. He is the husband of Qin Keqing. An exact copy of his father, he is the Cavalier of the Imperial Guards.

Second Sister You (å°¤äºŒå§) â€" Jia Lian takes her in secret as his lover. Though a loose woman before she was married, after her wedding she becomes a faithful and doting wife. Because of Wang Xifeng's intrigue, she finally kills herself by swallowing a large piece of gold.

Lady Xing (é‚¢å¤«äºº) â€" Jia She's wife. She is Jia Lian's stepmother.

Jia Huan (è³ˆç'°) â€" Son of Concubine Zhao. He and his mother are both reviled by the family, and he carries himself like a kicked dog. He shows his malign nature by spilling candle wax, intending to blind Bao Yu.

Sheyue (éºæœˆ; Hawkes/Minford translation: Musk) â€" Baoyu's main maid after Xiren and Qingwen. She is beautiful and caring, a perfect complement to Xiren.

Qiutong (ç§‹æ¡) â€" Jia Lian's other concubine. Originally a maid of Jia She, she is given to Jia Lian as a concubine. She is a very proud and arrogant woman.

Sister Sha (å‚»å¤§å§) â€" A maid who does rough work for the Dowager. She is guileless but amusing and caring. In the Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan version, she unintentionally informs Daiyu of Baoyu's secret marriage plans.

Versions and textual challenges

The textual problems of the novel are extremely complex and have excited much critical scrutiny, debate and conjecture in modern times. Cao did not live to publish his novel, and it is believed by some scholars that the original version of this novel consists of 110 or 108 chapters; however, for unknown reasons, only about 80 chapters were later circulated. Only hand-copied manuscripts survived after Cao's death, until 1791, when the first printed version was published. This printed version, presented by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E, contains edits and revisions not authorised by the author. It is possible that Cao personally destroyed the last 30 chapters of the novel; or that at least parts of Cao's original ending were incorporated into the 120 chapter Cheng-Gao versions, and it was done with Gao E's "careful emendations" of original manuscripts.

Rouge versions

Up until 1791, the novel circulated merely in scribal transcripts. These early hand-copied versions end abruptly at the latest at the 80th chapter. The earlier ones furthermore contain transcribed comments and annotations in red ink from unknown commentators. These commentators' remarks reveal much about the author as a person, and it is now believed that some of them may even be members of Cao Xueqin's own family. The most prominent commentator is Rouge Inkstone (è„‚ç¡¯é½‹), who revealed much of the interior structuring of the work and the original manuscript ending, now lost. These manuscripts are the most textually reliable versions, known as Rouge versions (è„‚æœ¬). Even amongst some 12 independent surviving manuscripts, small differences in some of the characters, rearrangements and possible rewritings cause the texts to vary a little.

The early 80 chapters brim with prophecies and dramatic foreshadowings that give hints as to how the book would continue. For example, it is obvious that Lin Daiyu will eventually die in the course of the novel; that Baoyu and Baochai will marry; that Baoyu will become a monk.

Cheng-Gao versions

In 1791, Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan brought together the novel's first printed edition. This was also the first "complete" edition of The Story of the Stone, which they printed as Dream of the Red Chamber (ç¹¡åƒç´…æ¨"å¤¢). While the original Rouge manuscripts have eighty chapters, the 1791 edition completed the novel in 120 chapters. The first 80 chapters were edited from the Rouge versions, but the last 40 were newly published.

In 1792, Cheng and Gao published a second edition correcting "typographical and editorial" errors of the 1791 version. In the 1791 prefaces, Cheng claimed to have put together an ending based on the author's working manuscripts.

The debate over the last 40 chapters and the 1791â€"2 prefaces continues to this day. Many modern scholars believe these chapters were a later addition. Hu Shih, in his 1921 essay Proofs on A Dream of the Red Chamber, argued that the ending was actually written by Gao E, citing the foreshadowing of the main characters' fates in Chapter 5, which differs from the ending of the 1791 Cheng-Gao version. However, during the mid-20th century, the discovery of a 120 chapter manuscript that dates well before 1791 further complicated the questions regarding Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan's involvementâ€"whether they simply edited or actually wrote the continuation of the novel. Though it is unclear if the last 40 chapters of the discovered manuscript contained the original works of Cao, Irene Eber found the discovery "seems to confirm Cheng and Gao's claim that they merely edited a complete manuscript, consisting of 120 chapters, rather than actually writing a portion of the novel."

The book is normally published and read in Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E's 120 chapter version. Some editions move the last 40 chapters to an appendix. Also, some modern editions (like that of Zhou Ruchang's) do not include the last 40 chapters at all.

Reception and influences in modern era

In the late 19th century, Hong Lou Meng's influence was so pervasive that the reformer Liang Qichao attacked it along with another classic novel Water Margin as "incitement to robbery and lust," and for smothering the introduction of Western style novels, which he regarded as more socially responsible. The eminent scholar Wang Guowei, however, achieved a new method of literary interpretation in an innovative and path-breaking 1904 essay which invoked the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Wang called the novel "the tragedy of tragedies," in contrast to the happy and prosperous endings in most earlier drama and fiction.

In the early 20th century, although the New Culture Movement took a critical view of the Confucian classics, the scholar Hu Shih used the tools of textual criticism to put the novel in an entirely different light, as a foundation for national culture. Hu and his students, Gu Jiegang and Yu Pingbo, first established that Cao Xueqin was the work's author. Taking the question of authorship seriously reflected a new respect for fiction, since the lesser forms of literature had not been traditionally ascribed to particular individuals. Hu next built on Cai Yuanpei's investigations of the printing history of the early editions to prepare reliable reading texts. The final, and in some respects most important task, was to study the vocabulary and usage of Cao's Beijing dialect as a basis for Modern Mandarin.

In the 1920s, scholars and devoted readers developed Hongxue, or Redology into both a scholarly field and a popular avocation. Among the avid readers was the young Mao Zedong, who later claimed to have read the novel five times and praised it as one of China's greatest works of literature. The influence of the novel's themes and style are evident in such works as Ba Jin's novel, Family (1931), and Moment in Peking (1939) by Lin Yutang. The early 1950s was a rich period for Redology with publication of major studies by Yu Pingbo. Zhou Ruchang, who as a young scholar had come to the attention of Hu Shih in the late 1940s, published his first study in 1953, which became a best seller. But in 1954 Mao personally criticized Yu Pingbo for his "bourgeois idealism" in failing to emphasize that the novel exposed the decadence of "feudal" society and the theme of class struggle. In the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Yu came under heavy criticism but the attacks were so extensive and full of quotations from his work that they spread Yu's ideas to many people who would not otherwise have known of their existence.

During the Cultural Revolution, the novel initially came under fire, though it quickly regained its prestige in the following years. Zhou Ruchang resumed his lifework, eventually publishing more than sixty biographical and critical studies. In 2006, Zhou, who had long distrusted Gao E's editions, and the novelist Liu Xinwu, author of popular studies of the novel, joined to announce a new 80 chapter version which Zhou had edited to eliminate Gao E's emendations and restore Cao's original text.

Translations and reception in the West

It is a major challenge to translate Cao's prose, which utilizes many levels of colloquial and literary language and incorporates forms of classic poetry that are integral to the novel. According to Anne Lonsdale in The Times Literary Supplement, the novel is "notoriously difficult" to translate.

The first recorded attempt at translating the novel into English was done by the noted Protestant missionary and sinologist Robert Morrison (1782â€"1834) in 1812 when he translated part of chapter four of the novel for the purpose of having it published in the second volume of his 1812 book Horae Sincae (this book was never published). In 1816, Morrison did publish a translation of a conversation from chapter 31 in his Chinese language textbook Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language. In 1819, a short excerpt from chapter 3 was translated by the famous British diplomat and sinologist John Francis Davis (1795â€"1890) and published in the London Journal Quarterly Review. Davis also published a poem from chapter 3 of the novel in 1830 in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society.

The next translation into English was a literal translation of selected passages prepared for foreigners learning Chinese published by the Presbyterian Mission Press of Ningbo in 1846. Edward Charles Bowra of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs published a translation of the first eight chapters in 1868 and H. Bencraft Joly of the first fifty-six chapters in 1892.

An abridged translation by Wang Chi-Chen which emphasized the central love story was published in 1929, with a preface by Arthur Waley. Waley said that in the passages which recount dreams "we feel most clearly the symbolic or universal value" of the characters. "Pao Yu", Waley continued, stands for "imagination and poetry" and his father for "all those sordid powers of pedantry and restriction which hamper the artist..." In a 1930 review of Wang's translated version, Harry Clemons of The Virginia Quarterly Review wrote "This is a great novel," and along with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it "ranks foremost" among the novels of classic Chinese literature. Although Clemons felt "meaning was only fragmentarily revealed" in the English translated prose and that "many of the incidents" and "much of the poetry" were omitted, he nevertheless thought "at any rate the effort to read The Dream of the Red Chamber is eminently worth making." In 1958 Wang expanded on his earlier abridgement, though it was still truncated at 60 chapters.

The stream of translations and literary studies in the West grew steadily, building on Chinese language scholarship. The 1932 German translation by Franz Kuhn was the basis of an abridged version, The Dream of the Red Chamber, by Florence and Isabel McHugh published in 1958, and a later French version. Bramwell Seaton Bonsall, completed a translation in the 1950s, Red Chamber Dream, a typescript of which is available on the web. British critic Anthony West wrote in The New Yorker in 1958 that the novel is to the Chinese "very much what The Brothers Karamazov is to Russian and Remembrance of Things Past is to French literature" and "it is beyond question one of the great novels of all literature." Kenneth Rexroth in a 1958 review of the McHugh translation, describes the novel as among the "greatest works of prose fiction in all the history of literature," for it is "profoundly humane."

The first complete English translation to be published was by David Hawkes some century and a half after the first English translation. Hawkes was already a recognized redologist and had previously translated Chu Ci when Penguin Classics approached him in 1970 to make a translation which could appeal to English readers. After resigning from his professorial position, Hawkes published the first eighty chapters in three volumes (1973, 1977, 1980). The Story of the Stone (1973â€"1980), the first eighty chapters translated by Hawkes and last forty by John Minford consists of five volumes and 2,480 pages. In a 1980 review of the Hawkes and Minford translation in The New York Review of Books, Frederic Wakeman, Jr. described the novel as a "masterpiece" and the work of a "literary genius." Michael Orthofer of the online literary site Complete Review proclaims it as one of the few works that can be considered for the title "Book of the Millennium," and a rare piece of literature "in which one can lose oneself completely."

Extracts from the Hawkes translation were published as The Dream of the Red Chamber (New York: Penguin, Penguin 1960s Classics Series, 1996. ISBN 0-14-600176-1.)

The respected and prolific team Gladys Yang and Yang Hsien-yi also translated a complete version, A Dream of Red Mansions (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, three volumes, 1978â€"1980).

References

External links

Guide to Reading "Dream of the Red Chamber."
Zhang Xiugui, CliffsNotes. Summary and notes.
Richard Smith (Rice University) Dream of the Red Chamber Outline of Vol I of Story of the Stone, with comments.
Article on China Central Television Program about Red Chamber â€" China Daily. Raymond Zhou. November 12, 2005.

Dream of the Red Chamber

Rabu, 20 Mei 2015