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"Dream of Red Mansions" Author: [Qing Dynasty] Cao Xueqin / Gao E Publisher: People's Literature Publishing House
"Dream of Red Mansions" Author: [Qing Dynasty] Cao Xueqin / Gao E Publisher: People's Literature Publishing House
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Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
The Dream of the Red Chamber is an encyclopedic novel. With the love tragedy of Baoyu and Daiyu as the main line and the rise and fall of the four major families as the background, it depicts all aspects of Chinese feudal society in the 18th century and the budding of emerging capitalist democratic ideas under feudal autocracy. With a grand structure, euphemistic plot, exquisite details, vivid characters and vivid voices, it can be regarded as a classic among ancient Chinese novels.
The Dream of the Red Chamber, edited and annotated by the Dream of the Red Chamber Research Institute and published by the People's Literature Publishing House, is based on the Gengchen (1760) edition of The Story of the Stone Re-evaluated by Zhi Yanzhai, and is referenced by many other versions, including the Jiaxu (1754) edition, the Yimao (1759) edition, the Mongolian Royal Palace edition, the Qi Liaosheng preface edition, the Shu Yuanwei preface edition, the Zheng Zhenduo collection edition, the Dream of the Red Chamber manuscript edition, the Leningrad collection edition (the Russian collection edition), the Cheng Jia edition, and the Cheng Yi edition. It is a book that draws on the strengths of many other versions and is very suitable for public reading. At the same time, the important modifications to the base text are all recorded in the notes, so that readers can understand the different versions of the Dream of the Red Chamber.
The annotated edition of the Redology Institute has been published for 25 years, during which it was revised once in 1994. More than ten years later, the revised third edition was released in 2008, reflecting new annotation and scientific research results.
There have been many different opinions and speculations about the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber". "The first eighty chapters were written by Cao Xueqin, and the last forty chapters were continued by Gao E" is just one of them. In this revision, the editor changed it to "the first eighty chapters were written by Cao Xueqin; the last forty chapters were continued by an anonymous author, and edited by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E", which should be a more scientific expression, reflecting the editor's new understanding of this issue.
Now this revised version of "Dream of Red Mansions" is more perfect.
About the Author
Cao Xueqin (?-1763, 1764) was a Qing Dynasty novelist. His name was Zhan, his courtesy name was Mengruan, and his pseudonyms were Xueqin, Qinpu, and Qinxi. He was a "baoyi" of the Manchu Plain White Banner. Since his great-grandfather, three generations of his family served as Jiangning Weaving Supervisors, and his grandfather Cao Yin was particularly trusted by Emperor Kangxi. In the early years of Yongzheng, Xueqin's family suffered a major blow due to the political struggle within the statistical class. His father was dismissed from his post and his property was confiscated, so he moved to Beijing with his family. In his early years, he experienced a prosperous life in a feudal bureaucratic landlord family, but later his family declined and became difficult. In his later years, he lived in the western suburbs of Beijing and died of poverty and illness before he was fifty. He was arrogant, fond of drinking and talkative. He had a profound cultural accomplishment and outstanding artistic talent. He lived in the last days of feudalism in my country, when capitalist production had already sprouted. In his later years, he had the opportunity to contact the lower class people, so he had a more specific feeling of the class struggle and ideological struggle in society at that time, and saw the corruption and cruelty of the ruling class and the internal disintegration. He spent ten years writing The Story of the Stone (also known as A Dream of Red Mansions). The book depicts the rise and fall of a noble bureaucratic family, creates many typical characters, deeply dissects and criticizes the darkness and corruption of the society at that time, and enthusiastically praises young men and women with heterodox ideas, making it a great realistic work in Chinese classical novels. However, it also reflects the author's fantasy of "repairing the sky" for the feudal system and his pessimistic mood of not finding a way out. It is said that he added and deleted five times, but died before completing the book; the current popular version has 120 chapters, and the last 40 chapters are generally believed to be continued by Gao E. He can also write poems and paint stones, but few of his works have been circulated.
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