Dream of the Red Chamber
Encyclopedia
Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin
, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels
. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty
. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature
and is generally acknowledged to be a 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 print publication in 1791. The novel is also often known as The Story of the Stone . 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 1791-2, 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 women 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.
rather than classical Chinese
. Cao Xueqin was well versed in Chinese poetry
and in classical Chinese, having written tracts in the semi-wenyan style, while novel's conversations were written in the Beijing Mandarin dialect
, which was to become the basis of modern spoken Chinese. In the early twentieth century lexicographers used the text to establish the vocabulary of the new standardized language
and reformers used the novel to promote the written vernacular.
The novel's tone is both metaphysical and realistic, and was constructed in a way that reality and illusion are often hinted side by side and difficult to differentiate. It has been described as one of the most complex and psychologically penetrating works in all of world literature. 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
, the Four Books, etc. are vividly portrayed. Among these, the novel is particularly notable for its grand use of poetry
.
Two major themes that are prevalent throughout the novel are the nature of "reality
" and of the "truth
." The name of the main family, Jia (賈, pronounced jiǎ), is a homophone
with the Chinese character
jiǎ 假, meaning false or fictitious. Another family in the book has the surname Zhen (甄, pronounced zhēn), a homophone for the word "real" (真). Thus, Cao Xueqin suggests that the novel's family is both a realistic reflection and a fictional or "dream" version of his own family.
detail, and charts the Jias’ 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 story's frame story
, a sentient Stone, abandoned by the goddess Nüwa
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, accompanied by a character named Divine Attendant-in-Waiting (神瑛侍者) (while in Cheng-Gao versions they are merged into the same character), was 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.
pronunciations and in David Hawkes
' translation.
(脂硯齋), 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 (脂本). 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 which also 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.
Most modern critical
editions use the first 80 chapters based on the Rouge versions.
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 (绣像红楼梦). While the original Rouge manuscripts have eighty chapters, the 1791 edition completed the novel in one hundred and twenty chapters. The first eighty chapters were edited from the Rouge versions, but the last forty 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 forty chapters and the 1791-2 prefaces continues. 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 deviates with 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 involvement, 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 one hundred and twenty chapter version. Some editions move the last forty chapters to an appendix
. Also, some modern editions (like that of Zhou Ruchang's) do not include the last forty chapters.
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. Scholar Wang Guowei
, however, used them for solace. 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 on the novel.
in the Times Literary Supplement, the novel is "notoriously difficult" to translate. Nonetheless, many took on the task, for various reasons.
The earliest 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 on 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."
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 on 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 (1973–1980), 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."
A highly abridged version of Hawkes translation is The Dream of the Red Chamber (New York: Penguin Group 1996. ISBN 0146001761.)
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, four volumes, 1978–1980).
Cao Xueqin
Cao Xueqin was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...
, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels
Four Great Classical Novels
The Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly regarded by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are well known to most Chinese readers...
. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature
Chinese literature
Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of Chinese fiction. "Redology
Redology
Redology is the study of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Classics of China. There are many researchers in this field, most can be divided into four general groups. The first group is the commentators, such as Zhou Chun, Xu Fengyi, Chen Yupi, and others. The second group is...
" 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 print publication in 1791. The novel is also often known as The Story of the Stone . While the first 80 chapters were written by Cao Xueqin, Gao E
Gao E (writer)
Gao E was a Chinese scholar and editor. He was a Qing Dynasty scholar who attained the level of juren in 1788 and jinshi in 1795. He was a Han Chinese who belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. In 1801 he became a Fellow of the Hanlin Academy...
, who prepared the first and second printed editions with his partner Cheng Weiyuan in 1791-2, 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 women 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 vernacularVernacular Chinese
Written Vernacular Chinese refers to forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular language, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early twentieth century...
rather than classical Chinese
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...
. Cao Xueqin was well versed in Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
and in classical Chinese, having written tracts in the semi-wenyan style, while novel's conversations were written in the Beijing Mandarin dialect
Beijing dialect
Beijing dialect, or Pekingese , is the dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, which is used by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China , and Singapore....
, which was to become the basis of modern spoken Chinese. In the early twentieth century lexicographers used the text to establish the vocabulary of the new standardized language
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
and reformers used the novel to promote the written vernacular.
Themes
The novel is most often titled Hóng Lóu Mèng or Hung Lou Meng (紅樓夢), 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 "樓". However the word "mansion" is thought to neglect the flavour of the word "chamber" and it is a mistranslation according to scholar Zhou Ruchang.The novel's tone is both metaphysical and realistic, and was constructed in a way that reality and illusion are often hinted side by side and difficult to differentiate. It has been described as one of the most complex and psychologically penetrating works in all of world literature. 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
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...
, cuisine
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
, tea culture
Chinese tea culture
Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea, the equipment used to make tea and the occasions in which tea is consumed in China. The terms chayi "Art of Tea 茶藝" and "Tea Ceremony" have been used, but the term "Tea Culture茶文化" includes more than just the ceremony...
, proverbs, mythology
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
, Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, Buddhism, Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
, filial piety
Filial piety
In Confucian ideals, filial piety is one of the virtues to be held above all else: a respect for the parents and ancestors. The Confucian classic Xiao Jing or Classic of Xiào, thought to be written around 470 BCE, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of xiào /...
, opera
Chinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
, music, painting
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
, classic literature
Chinese literature
Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
, the Four Books, etc. are vividly portrayed. Among these, the novel is particularly notable for its grand use of poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
.
Two major themes that are prevalent throughout the novel are the nature of "reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
" and of the "truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
." The name of the main family, Jia (賈, pronounced jiǎ), is a homophone
Homophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
with the Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
jiǎ 假, meaning false or fictitious. Another family in the book has the surname Zhen (甄, pronounced zhēn), a homophone for the word "real" (真). Thus, Cao Xueqin suggests that the novel's family is both a realistic reflection and a fictional or "dream" version of his own family.
Plot summary
The novel provides a detailed, episodic record of the two branches of the wealthy and aristocratic Jia (賈) clan — the Rongguo House (榮國府) and the Ningguo House (寧國府) — who reside in two large, adjacent family compounds in the capital Beijing. 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 clan’s offspring was made an Imperial Consort, and a lush landscaped garden was built to receive her visit. The novel describes the Jias’ wealth and influence in great naturalisticNaturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
detail, and charts the Jias’ 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
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
, and their mansions are raided and confiscated.
In the story's frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
, a sentient Stone, abandoned by the goddess Nüwa
Nüwa
Nüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven.-Primary sources:...
when she mended the heavens aeons ago, begs a Taoist
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
priest and a Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
monk to bring it with them to see the world. The Stone, accompanied by a character named Divine Attendant-in-Waiting (神瑛侍者) (while in Cheng-Gao versions they are merged into the same character), was 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
Jia Baoyu
Jia Baoyu is the principal character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.- Introduction :The first chapter describes how one piece of stone was left over from when the heaven was repaired by the Goddess Nüwa...
. 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
Lin Daiyu
Lin Daiyu is one of the principal characters of Cao Xueqin's classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is portrayed as a well-educated, intelligent and beautiful young woman. The romance between Daiyu and Jia Baoyu forms one of the main threads of the book...
, who shares his love of music and poetry. Baoyu, however, is predestined to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai
Xue Baochai
Xue Baochai is one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is extremely beautiful and socially graceful. Her attributes complement those of her cousin Lin Daiyu...
, whose grace and intelligence exemplifies an ideal woman, but with whom he lacks an emotional connection. The romantic rivalry
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
and friendship
Friendship
Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum...
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 portrait of its many female characters. The names of the maids and bondservants are given in the original pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
pronunciations and in David Hawkes
David Hawkes (scholar)
David Hawkes was a British Sinologist. He studied Mandarin Chinese and Japanese at Oxford University between 1945 and 1947 and was a research student at the National Peking University from 1948 to 1951. During the later years of World War II he taught Japanese to military cryptolinguists and...
' translation.
Baoyu and Jinling's Twelve Beauties
- Jia BaoyuJia BaoyuJia Baoyu is the principal character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.- Introduction :The first chapter describes how one piece of stone was left over from when the heaven was repaired by the Goddess Nüwa...
' onMouseout='HidePop("89788")' href="/topics/Jade">JadeJadeJade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
)
The main protagonist is about 12 or 13 years old when introduced in the novel. The adolescent son of Jia Zheng (賈政) and his wife, Lady WangLady WangLady Wang is a character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the wife of Jia Zheng, and mother of Jia Zhu , Jia Yuanchun and Jia Baoyu...
(王夫人), and born with a piece of luminescent jade in his mouth (the Stone), Baoyu is the heir apparent to the Rongguo House (榮國府). Frowned on by his strict Confucian father, Baoyu reads ZhuangziZhuangziZhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name,...
and Romance of the West ChamberRomance of the West Chamberthumb|250px|A scene from a multi-colored woodblock printing album depicting scenes from the play,Romance of the West Chamber is one of the most famous Chinese dramatic works. It was written by the Yuan Dynasty playwright Wang Shifu 王實甫, and set during the Tang Dynasty...
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 DaiyuLin DaiyuLin Daiyu is one of the principal characters of Cao Xueqin's classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is portrayed as a well-educated, intelligent and beautiful young woman. The romance between Daiyu and Jia Baoyu forms one of the main threads of the book...
Jia Baoyu's younger first cousin and his primary love interest. She is the daughter of Lin Ruhai (林如海), a YangzhouYangzhouYangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across...
scholar-official, and Lady Jia Min (賈敏), 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 BaochaiXue BaochaiXue Baochai is one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is extremely beautiful and socially graceful. Her attributes complement those of her cousin Lin Daiyu...
Jia Baoyu's other first cousin. The only daughter of Aunt Xue (薛姨媽), 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 YuanchunJia YuanchunJia Yuanchun is a primary character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is Baoyu's elder sister by about ten years older . Yuanchun was a lady-in-waiting in the Imperial palace first, then, becomes an Imperial Consort...
Baoyu's elder sister by about a decade. Originally one of the ladies-in-waitingLady-in-waitingA lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
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 TanchunJia TanchunJia Tanchun is the younger half-sister of Jia Baoyu and a major character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the daughter of Jia Zheng and his concubine, Concubine Zhao...
Baoyu's younger half-sister by Concubine Zhao. Brash and extremely outspoken, she is almost as capable as Wang XifengWang XifengWang Xifeng is one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. A not-so-well educated upper-class woman with finesse, she is also known as "Peppercorn Feng" or "Hot Pepper"...
. 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 XiangyunShi XiangyunShi Xiangyun is a major fictional character in Dream of the Red Chamber. She is Baoyu's younger second cousin by the Dowager, Grandmother Jia. Xiangyun is the favorite grandniece of the Dowager, Baoyu's grandmother....
' onMouseout='HidePop("77041")' href="/topics/Xiang_River">Xiang RiverXiang RiverThe Xiang River , in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China...
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 use 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.
- MiaoyuMiaoyuMiaoyu is an important character in Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the classics of Chinese fiction. She is a young, beautiful but aloof Buddhist nun, compelled by circumstances to become a nun, and shelters herself under the nunnery in Prospect Garden...
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 YingchunJia YingchunJia Yingchun is a major character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is protagonist Jia Baoyu's eldest female first cousin. She is the daughter of Jia She and one of his concubines, and younger half-sister to Jia Lian...
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 XichunJia XichunJia Xichun is a primary character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the sister of Jia Zhen, de facto head of the Ningguo House, and Baoyu's second cousin. When she was little, her mother died, and Lady Wang brought her to the Rongguo Mansion. A devout Buddhist, she is...
Baoyu's younger second cousin from the Ningguo House, but brought up in the Rongguo House. A gifted painter, she is also a devout Buddhist. She is the 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 XifengWang XifengWang Xifeng is one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. A not-so-well educated upper-class woman with finesse, she is also known as "Peppercorn Feng" or "Hot Pepper"...
, 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, amusing and, at times, vicious and cruel. Undeniably the most worldly of the women in the novel, Xifeng is in charge of the daily running of the Rongguo household and wields remarkable economic 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 QiaojieJia QiaojieJia Qiaojie is a character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the only child of Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng. She remains a child throughout much of the novel...
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 EGao E (writer)Gao E was a Chinese scholar and editor. He was a Qing Dynasty scholar who attained the level of juren in 1788 and jinshi in 1795. He was a Han Chinese who belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. In 1801 he became a Fellow of the Hanlin Academy...
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
Baoyu's elder sister-in-law, widow of Baoyu's deceased elder brother, Jia Zhu (賈珠). 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
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 JiaGrandmother JiaGrandmother Jia , née Shi, so often also called Dowager Shi or simply the Dowager, is a major character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the daughter of Marquis Shi of Jinling. She is also Baoyu and Daiyu's grandmother and the oldest and most respected authority of the Jia...
, née 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
The elder son of the Dowager. He is the father of Jia Lian and Jia YingchunJia YingchunJia Yingchun is a major character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is protagonist Jia Baoyu's eldest female first cousin. She is the daughter of Jia She and one of his concubines, and younger half-sister to Jia Lian...
. He is a treacherous and greedy man, and a womanizer.
- Jia Zheng
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 punishmentCorporal punishmentCorporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
. He has a wife, Lady Wang, and two concubines: Zhao and Zhou.
- Jia Lian
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.
- XianglingXianglingXiangling is a character in the novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the primary maid of the Xue household. Originally named Zhen Yinglian , she is the lost daughter of Zhen Shiyin , the country gentleman in chapter 1. She was kidnapped as a young girl on the streets and sold to the Xue...
(香菱; Hawkes/Minford translation: Caltrop; Meaning: Fragrant Water caltropWater caltropThe water caltrop, water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod or Singhara or Pani-fol is either of two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis...
) — the Xues' maid, born Zhen Yinglian (甄英蓮, a homophoneHomophoneA homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
with "deserving pity"), the kidnapped and lost daughter to Zhen Shiyin (甄士隱), the country gentleman in Chapter 1. Her name is changed to Qiuling (秋菱) by Xue Pan's spoiled wife, Xia Jin'gui (夏金桂).
- Ping'erPing'erPing'er is an important character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is Wang Xifeng's chief maid and personal assistant/confidante, who follows her from the Wang family. Being the chief consultant of the household manager, Ping'er wields considerable power in the Jia household...
(平兒; 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 PanXue PanXue Pan is a secondary character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. He is a ne'er-do-well lout who is guilty of the killing of a man over a beautiful slave girl, Zhen Yinglian, who is renamed as Xiangling...
' onMouseout='HidePop("41494")' href="/topics/Chinese_dragon">dragonChinese dragonChinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts among Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Western and Turkic dragons. In Chinese art, dragons are typically portrayed as long, scaled, serpentine creatures with four legs...
))
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 LiuGranny LiuGranny Liu is a character in Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is an elderly country rustic and a distant relative of Lady Wang through "joining families" and marriage ....
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 WangLady WangLady Wang is a character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the wife of Jia Zheng, and mother of Jia Zhu , Jia Yuanchun and Jia Baoyu...
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 XueAunt XueAunt Xue is a secondary character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the younger sister of Lady Wang and therefore Baoyu's maternal aunt. Aunt Xue has two children, Xue Pan and Xue Baochai. She is also the widow of Xue Wen-chi, a Jinling purchasing agent...
, née 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
Baoyu's principal maid and his unofficial concubineMistress (lover)A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...
. 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
Baoyu's handmaidenHandmaidenA handmaiden is a female attendant, assistant, domestic worker , or slave.-Religion:Norse goddesses had handmaidens, . The biblical Mary referred to herself as "the handmaid of the Lord" in acceptance of becoming pregnant by the Holy Ghost.A man might use a handmaiden as a concubine to bear his...
. 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 ' onMouseout='HidePop("99663")' href="/topics/Mandarin_Duck">Mandarin DuckMandarin DuckThe Mandarin Duck , or just Mandarin, is a medium-sized perching duck, closely related to the North American Wood Duck. It is 41–49 cm long with a 65–75 cm wingspan.-Description:...
s")
The Dowager's chief maid. She rejected a marriage proposal (as concubine) to the lecherous Jia She, Grandmother Jia's eldest son.
- Mingyan
Baoyu's page boyPage (servant)A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
. Knows his master like the back of his hand.
- Zijuan ' onMouseout='HidePop("51548")' href="/topics/Rhododendron">RhododendronRhododendronRhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
or Cuckoo")
Daiyu's faithful maid, ceded by the Dowager to her granddaughter.
- Xueyan
Daiyu's other maid. She came with Daiyu from Yangzhou, and comes across as a young, sweet girl.
- Concubine Zhao
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 magicBlack magicBlack magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
, and it is believed that her plot cost her her own life.
Notable minor characters
- Qin ZhongQin ZhongQin Zhong is a secondary character in Cao Xueqin's classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. He is Qin Keqing's younger brother and Jia Baoyu's best friend and schoolmate, who is extremely handsome....
(秦鐘) — Qin Keqing's handsome and shy younger brother. He is a good friend and classmate to Baoyu, while the novel occasionally suggests that the relationship between the two might be more than just friends. He was bullied by another student at school, who suggests that he is a homosexual. This turned the school upside-down when Baoyu and his servants try to defend Qin against the rogues. He has had a romantic relationship with a teenage nun later in the story. He died young.
- Jia Lan (賈蘭) — 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 (賈珍) — Head of the Ningguo House, the elder branch of the Jia family. He has a wife, Lady Yu, a younger sister, Jia XichunJia XichunJia Xichun is a primary character in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is the sister of Jia Zhen, de facto head of the Ningguo House, and Baoyu's second cousin. When she was little, her mother died, and Lady Wang brought her to the Rongguo Mansion. A devout Buddhist, she is...
, 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 (尤氏) — Wife of Jia Zhen. She is the sole mistress of the Ningguo House.
- Jia Rong (賈蓉) — 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 (尤二姐) — Jia Lian takes her in secret as his concubine. Though a loose woman before she was married, after her wedding she becomes a faithful and doting wife. She is the elder sister of Third Sister You.
- Lady Xing (邢夫人) — Jia She's wife. She is Jia Lian's stepmother.
- Jia Huan (賈環) — 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 (麝月; Hawkes/Minford translation: Musk) — Baoyu's main maid after Xiren and Qingwen. She is beautiful and caring, a perfect complement to Xiren.
- Qiutong (秋桐) — 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 (傻大姐) — 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 consist of 110 or 108 chapters; however, for unknown reasons, only about 80 chapters were later circulated. Only hand-copied manuscripts survived after his 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 InkstoneRouge Inkstone
Rouge Inkstone or Red Inkstone is the pseudonym of an early, mysterious commentator of the 18th-century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber...
(脂硯齋), 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 (脂本). 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 which also 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.
Most modern critical
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
editions use the first 80 chapters based on the Rouge versions.
Cheng-Gao versions
In 1791 Gao EGao E (writer)
Gao E was a Chinese scholar and editor. He was a Qing Dynasty scholar who attained the level of juren in 1788 and jinshi in 1795. He was a Han Chinese who belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. In 1801 he became a Fellow of the Hanlin Academy...
and Cheng Weiyuan brought together the novel's first printed
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper....
edition. This was also the first "complete" edition of The Story of the Stone, which they printed as Dream of the Red Chamber (绣像红楼梦). While the original Rouge manuscripts have eighty chapters, the 1791 edition completed the novel in one hundred and twenty chapters. The first eighty chapters were edited from the Rouge versions, but the last forty 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 forty chapters and the 1791-2 prefaces continues. Many modern scholars believe these chapters were a later addition. Hu Shih
Hu Shih
Hu Shih , born Hu Hung-hsing , was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. His courtesy name was Shih-chih . Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberalism and language reform in his advocacy for the use of written vernacular Chinese...
, 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 deviates with 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 involvement, 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
Irene Eber
Irene Eber is an Israeli Orientalist. She is Louis Frieberg Professor of East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at Jerusalem , and Senior Fellow of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute. She lives at Jerusalem...
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 one hundred and twenty chapter version. Some editions move the last forty chapters to an appendix
Addendum
An addendum, in general, is an addition required to be made to a document by its reader subsequent to its printing or publication. It comes from the Latin verbal phrase addendum est, being the gerundive form of the verb addo, addere, addidi, additum, "to give to, add to", meaning " must be added"...
. Also, some modern editions (like that of Zhou Ruchang's) do not include the last forty chapters.
Reception and influences in modern era
In the late 19th century, Hong Lou Mengs influence was so pervasive that the reformer Liang QichaoLiang Qichao
Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...
attacked it along with another classic novel Water Margin
Water Margin
Water Margin , also known as Outlaws of the Marsh, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.Attributed to Shi Nai'an and written in vernacular Chinese, the story, set in the Song Dynasty,...
as "incitement to robbery and lust," and for smothering the introduction of Western style novels, which he regarded as more socially responsible. Scholar Wang Guowei
Wang Guowei
Wang Guowei , courtesy name Jing'an or Baiyu , was a Chinese scholar, writer and poet...
, however, used them for solace. In the early 20th century, although the New Culture Movement
New Culture Movement
The New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic, founded in 1912 to address China’s problems. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, and Hu Shi, had...
took a critical view of the Confucian classics, the scholar Hu Shih
Hu Shih
Hu Shih , born Hu Hung-hsing , was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. His courtesy name was Shih-chih . Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberalism and language reform in his advocacy for the use of written vernacular Chinese...
used the tools of textual criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
to put the novel in an entirely different light, as a foundation for national culture. Hu and his students, Gu Jiegang
Gu Jiegang
Gu Jiegang was a Chinese historian who is known best for his seven volume work Gushi Bian . He was a leading force in the Doubting Antiquity school.-Biography:...
and Yu Pingbo
Yu Pingbo
Yú Píngbó , former name Yú Mínghéng and courtesy name Píngbó , was an essayist, poet, historian, Redologist, and critic....
, 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
Cai Yuanpei
Cai Yuanpei was a Chinese educator and the president of Peking University. He was known for his critical evaluation of the Chinese culture that led to the influential May Fourth Movement...
'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
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
.
In the 1920s, scholars and devoted readers developed Hongxue, or Redology
Redology
Redology is the study of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Classics of China. There are many researchers in this field, most can be divided into four general groups. The first group is the commentators, such as Zhou Chun, Xu Fengyi, Chen Yupi, and others. The second group is...
into both a scholarly field and a popular avocation. Among the avid readers was the young Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, 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
Ba Jin
Li Yaotang , courtesy name Feigan , is considered to be one of the most important and widely-read Chinese writers of the 20th century. He wrote under the pen name of Ba Jin , Pa Chin, Li Fei-Kan, Li Pei-Kan, Pa Kin, allegedly taking his pseudonym from Russian anarchists Bakunin and Kropotkin...
's novel, Family
Family (novel)
The Family is an autobiographical novel by Chinese author Ba Jin. It tells the story of an upper-class family in the city of Chengdu in the early 1920s. The novel was first serialized in 1931-2 and then released in a single volume in 1933...
(1931), and Moment in Peking
Moment in Peking
Moment in Peking is an historical novel originally written in English by the Chinese American author Lin Yutang. The novel covers the turbulent events in China from 1900 to 1938, including the Boxer Uprising, the Republican Revolution of 1911, the Warlord Era, the rise of nationalism and...
(1939) by Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.-Youth:Lin was born in...
. 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
Hundred Flowers Campaign
The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, refers mainly to a brief six weeks in the People's Republic of China in the early summer of 1957 during which the Communist Party of China encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched...
, 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
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, 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 on the novel.
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 LonsdaleAnne Lonsdale
Anne Lonsdale is a sinologist and was the third President of New Hall, Cambridge.-Life:Born Anne Menzies in Huddersfield in February 1941, the only child of Alexander Menzies, a professor of physics at the University of Leeds, Lonsdale was educated at Heathfield School in Harrow before winning a...
in the Times Literary Supplement, the novel is "notoriously difficult" to translate. Nonetheless, many took on the task, for various reasons.
The earliest translation into English was a literal translation of selected passages prepared for foreigners learning Chinese published by the Presbyterian Mission Press of Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
in 1846. Edward Charles Bowra
Edward Charles Bowra
Edward Charles MacIntosh Bowra was a British citizen serving in the Chinese Maritime Customs working for the government of the Qing dynasty...
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 on the central love story, was published in 1929 with a preface by Arthur Waley
Arthur Waley
Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
. 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
The Virginia Quarterly Review
The Virginia Quarterly Review is a literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman...
wrote "This is a great novel," and along with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based on the events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in...
, 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."
The stream of translations and literary studies in the West grew steadily, building on Chinese language scholarship. The 1932 German translation by Franz Kuhn
Franz Kuhn
Franz W. Kuhn was a lawyer and a translator chiefly remembered for translating many Chinese novels into German, most famously the Dream of the Red Chamber.- Biography :...
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
Bramwell Seaton Bonsall
Bramwell Seaton Bonsall was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary to China from 1911 to 1926. He later became a translator....
, 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
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
in 1958 that the novel is to the Chinese "very much what The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger and completed in November 1880...
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
Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
in a 1958 review on 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
Chu Ci
Chu Ci , also known as Songs of the South or Songs of Chu, is an anthology of Chinese verse traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States Period, though about half of the poems seem to have been composed several centuries later, during the Han Dynasty...
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 (1973–1980), the first eighty chapters translated by Hawkes and last forty by John Minford
John Minford
John Minford is a sinologist and literary translator. He is primarily known for his translation of Chinese classics such as The Story of the Stone and The Art of War.-Early years and education:...
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
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
, 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
Complete review
complete review is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around the world, but there are also reviews of classics, non-fiction, drama and poetry...
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."
A highly abridged version of Hawkes translation is The Dream of the Red Chamber (New York: Penguin Group 1996. ISBN 0146001761.)
The respected and prolific team Gladys Yang
Gladys Yang
Gladys Yang was a British translator of Chinese literature, the wife of another noted translator Yang Xianyi...
and Yang Hsien-yi also translated a complete version, A Dream of Red Mansions (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, four volumes, 1978–1980).
Further reading
- Dore J. Levy, Ideal and Actual in the Story of the Stone (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).
- Zaifu Liu, Yunzhong Shu, Reflections on Dream of the Red Chamber (Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria Press, 2008).
- Andrew H. Plaks, Archetype and Allegory in the "Dream of the Red Chamber" (Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1976). Reprinted: (Ann Arbor: U.M.I. Books on Demand, Reprint, 1993). .
- Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, ISBN 0-393-30780-8
- Shih-Ch'ang Wu, On the Red Chamber Dream: A Critical Study of Two Annotated Manuscripts of the 18th Century (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1961).
- Chi Xiao, The Chinese Garden as Lyric Enclave: A Generic Study of the Story of the Stone (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies Publications, 2001).
- Anthony Yu, "Dream of the Red Chamber," in Barbara Stoller Miller, ed., Masterworks of Asian Culture (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe): 285–299.
- Anthony C. Yu, Rereading the Stone: Desire and the Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997). ISBN 97002207
- Ruchang Zhou, Edited by Ronald R. Grey, Mark S. Ferrara, Between Noble and Humble : Cao Xueqin and the Dream of the Red Chamber (New York: Peter Lang, 2009). Translated by Liangmei Bao and Kyongook Park. ISBN 978-1433104077 Google Book (link)
External links
- Book summary and analyses from CliffsNotes
- Outline of Dream of the Red Chamber
- Article on China Central Television Program about Red Chamber – China DailyChina DailyThe China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
. Raymond Zhou. November 12, 2005.