Dream of the Red Chamber
From Free net encyclopedia
Dream of the Red Chamber (Traditional Chinese: 紅樓夢; Simplified Chinese: 红楼梦; pinyin: hóng lóu mèng), also known as A Dream of Red Mansions or The Story of the Stone and Chronicles of the Stone (Chinese: 石頭記; pinyin: shí tóu jì) is one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction and is considered by many to be one of the greatest novels ever written. It was composed some time in the middle of 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. Its attributed author is Cao Xueqin.
The novel is usually grouped with three other pre-modern Chinese works of fiction, collectively known as the Four Classical Novels. Of these, Dream of the Red Chamber is often taken to be the zenith of classical Chinese fiction.
Like Water Margin (Shui Hu), one of the other Four Classics, Dream of the Red Chamber is written in Vernacular Chinese rather than Classical Chinese. Image:Hongloumeng2.jpg There are two craters on asteroid 433 Eros named after the fictional characters Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu in the novel.
Contents |
Synopsis
The novel is conjectured to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao Xueqin's own family. It was also intended to be a memorial to the women Cao knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants.
The novel is a detailed, episodic record of the lives of the extended Jia family, made up of two clans (the Ning-guo and Rong-guo houses), which occupies two large family compounds in the capital, Beijing. Originally extremely wealthy, with a female member who was made an Imperial Concubine, the family eventually fell into disfavour with the Emperor, and had their mansions raided and confiscated.
The story is prefaced with supernatural Taoist and Buddhist overtones. A sentient Stone, abandoned by the Goddess Nüwa when she mends the heavens, enters the mortal realm after begging a Taoist priest and Buddhist monk to bring it to see the world.
The main character, Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉), is the adolescent heir of the family, apparently the reincarnation of the Stone (some versions however have the Stone and Jia Baoyu as two separate, though, related entities). In that previous life he had a relationship with a flower, who is incarnated now as Baoyu's sickly cousin, the emotional Lin Daiyu (林黛玉). However, he is predestined in this life, despite his love for Daiyu, to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai (薛寶釵). The novel follows this love triangle against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes.
Fiction / Reality
The name of the main family, "賈" looks similar to the author's surname 曹 and has the same pronunciation in Mandarin as another Chinese character "假", which means fake or sham. Thus Cao Xueqin suggests that the novel's family is both a version of his own family, and simultaneously fictional - or a "dream"-version of his family. (Confusingly, Baoyu occasionally dreams of another Baoyu, whose surname is "Zhen", which puns on "real").
The novel is normally called Hong Lou Meng (紅樓夢) - literally "Red Mansion Dream". "Red Mansion" was an idiom for the daughters of rich men; thus the title can be understood as a "dream of rich young women". It can also be understood as referring to a dream that Baoyu has - in a "Red Mansion" - at the beginning of the novel, where the deaths of many of the female characters are predicted. "Red" also suggests the Buddhist idea that the whole world is "red dust" - merely illusory and to be shunned. Thus the novel fits in perfectly with Buddhist and Taoist beliefs that to find enlightenment, one must realize that the world is but a dream from which we must awake.
Textual Problems
Early 80-chapter versions
Early hand-copied versions—all of which are 80 chapters and incomplete—have comments written on them by members of Cao's family, which give some clues as to how the novel was originally going to end. These are the textually most reliable versions, known amongst scholars as "Rouge versions" (脂本). Even amongst the some 12 independent manuscripts, small differences in wording, rearrangements and possible rewritings made each of them vary a little from another.
According to commentary by Red Inkstone, Cao Xueqin revised his novel five times, and died before he had finished the fifth version. To compound this problem, parts of the latter chapters of the book were lost by a friend, so we only have 80 chapters that are definitively written by the author.
The early 80 chapters brim with prophecies and dramatic foreshadowings which give hints as to how the book would continue. For example, it is obvious that Lin Daiyu will eventually die; that Baoyu will become a monk; various characters will suffer in the snow; and that the whole estate will finally be consumed by flames.
Chen Weiyuan and Gao E's 120-chapter version
In 1791, Chen Weiyuan and Gao E brought together a "complete" 120-chapter version of Dream, claiming to have edited the ending based on the author's manuscripts. This is the novel's first movable type edition. Most modern scholars believe that this later 40 chapters to be a later addition, perhaps by Gao E. According to Hu Shi, who first put forth the theory that the last 40 chapters were a forgery by Gao E, the ending of the novel does not coincide with the various foreshadowings of the chief characters' fates in the prophetic poetic lines.
Scholars since then have debated the authenticity of the last 40 chapters. Some claim the editors did not have access to the original manuscripts of the author at all. Others suggest that Gao E and Chen Weiyuan may be duped into taking someone else's forgery as the author's original work. A few scholars however believe that the last 40 chapters do contain Cao's work, although the extent cannot be conclusively known.
The book, is, nevertheless, normally published in Chen Weiyuan and Gao E's 120-chapter version.
Family trees of the main characters
The Jia clan
common ancestor
|
,-------------------------------------------+----------------------------.
| |
Jia Yan Jia Yuan
Duke of Ning-guo Duke of Rong-guo
| |
Jia Dai-hua Jia Dai-Shan === Grandmother Jia (née Shi)
| |
,------+-------. ,-------------------------------------+---+------------------------------------------.
| | | | |
Jia Fu Jia Jing Jia She === Lady Xing Jia Zheng === Lady Wang Jia Min === Lin Ru-hai
| | | |
,------+-------. ,-----------. ,---------+-----+--+---------+----------. |
| | | | | | | | | |
You-shi === Cousin Zhen Xi-chun Wang Xi-feng === Jia Lian Ying-chun* Li Wan === Jia Zhu Yuan-chun Bao-yu Tan-chun* Jia Huan* Lin Dai-yu
| | |
Jia Rong === Qin-shi Qiao-jie Jia Lan
('baby')
* denotes a child by a concubine
The Wang family
,--------------------+--------------+---------------------------------.
| | | |
Wang Xi-feng's father Wang Zi-teng Lady Wang === Jia Zheng Aunt Xue (née Wang)
| | |
,------+--. ,-----------+--+--------. ,----+---.
| | | | | | |
Wang Ren Xi-feng === Jia Lian Jia Zhu === Li Wan Yuan-chun Bao-yu Xue Pan Bao-chai
See also
References
- Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, ISBN 0393307808
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
External links
- http://www.china-on-site.com/pages/comic/comiccatalog4.php Dreams of Red Chamber english translation with manhua
- An Introduction to Editions of the Red Chamber, David L. Steelman, The Scholar, 1981
- Red on Gold: Teaching Honglou meng in California
- Honglou meng freedown - A chinese fan site for discussion of Hong Lou Meng.
- Article on China Central Television Program about Red Chamber - China Daily. Raymond Zhou. November 12, 2005.
- H. Bencraft Joly's English translation from Project Gutenberg--Vol. 1, Vol. 2de:Der Traum der roten Kammer
eo:Ruĝdoma sonĝo fr:Le Rêve dans le pavillon rouge id:Impian Paviliun Merah lb:Den Dram vun der rouder Kummer ja:紅楼夢 th:ความฝันในหอแดง zh:红楼梦