Dream of the Red Chamber, also called The Story of the Stone, or Hongloumeng , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was written some time in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing dynasty. Long considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature, the novel is generally acknowledged to be one of the pinnacles 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. Gao E, who prepared the first and second printed editions with his partner Cheng Weiyuan in 1791–92, added 40 additional chapters to complete the novel.Red Chamber is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decline 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 society.
“Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real.”
Jia zuo zhen shi zhen yi jia,
Wu wei you chu you huan wu.
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 5
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 1
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 5
“Fall'n the great house once so secure in wealth,
Each scattered member shifting for himself.”
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 5
“All those whom history calls great
Left only empty names for us to venerate.”
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 5
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 2
“One day, when spring has gone and youth has fled,
The Maiden and the flowers will both be dead.”
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 27
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 5
“Let others laugh flower-burial to see:
Another year who will be burying me?”
Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760)
