Plot summary the story of the stone, also known as the dream of the red chamber, is one of the four great classical novels of china. Dive deep into chao zhans dream of the red chamber with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion. It was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the qing dynasty. Social hierarchy and class one function of story of the stone is its capacity to shed light on chinese customs, value systems, and social hierarchies during this period in chinese history. The novel was originally written by tsao hsueh chin translated and adapted from chinese by chinchen wang. But the simpleton, who seeks no gains, with belly full, he wanders free as drifting boat upon the sea.
Its central story is a love triangle framed as buddhist parable. The novel and the opera both revolve around jia baoyu, the reincarnation of the stone, the boy who was born with the jade in. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. In red chamber, a love triangle for the ages before most chinese readers learned of romeo and juliet, they fell for dream of the red chamber. Somehow, through the spats, crushes and rivalries of a. Pdf a dream of red mansions download full pdf book download. Dream of the red chamber themes these notes were contributed by members of the gradesaver community. Dream of the red chamber in 120 chapters world digital library. Brigitte lin chinghsia stars as the young prince chiao paoyu who falls in love with his cousin lin taiyu played by sylvia chang, but their love isnt approved of by the royal family and palace treachery and broken hearts hit the screen. Dream of red mansions mv broken bridge english sub. Reading dream of the red chamber a sentimental girl sought to repay a debt of tears to a young man with a penchant for female companions in a complex web of family and social relationship. Written during the qing dynasty, the book reflects the rise and decline of a prestigious noble and wealthy family, jia it is a homophone with the character jia, meaning false or fictitious. It is renowned for its huge scope, large cast of characters and telling observations on the life and social structures of 18th century china and is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the classical chinese novel.
Like a chorus of golden pages and jade maidens came onto the stage, fairy streamers fluttering and flags aloft, to reveal in their midst a gorgeously attired lady, her head draped in black, her costume shimmering with. Dream of the red chamber, also called the story of the stone, composed by cao xueqin, is one of chinas four great classical novels. The dream of the red chamber story of the stone is unlike any work in the western canon yet it fits into the western tradition of great literature in a way few other examples of classic chinese writing are able to, offering an engrossive narrative and a real feel for both character and place. Feb 21, 2016 fanmade music video trailer contains short scenes from the 2010 romance tv drama series the dream of red mansions based on the sad classic novel dream of red chamber telling the story. This is counted among chinas four great classical novels, composed in the 18th century during the qing dynasty. The stonethe jade referred to both as the stone and the jade, but more often as the jade, this is the magical rock that the fairy disenchantment transforms and sends to earth to work its magic among mortals. Cao xueqin, a member of an eminent family that had served the qing dynasty emperors but whose fortunes had begun to decline, began composing dream of the red chamber during the 1740s. Dream of the red chamber, chinese pinyin hongloumeng or wadegiles romanization hungloumeng, novel written by cao zhan in the 18th century that is generally considered to be the greatest of all chinese novels and among the greatest in world literature. Men and women in qing china is an analysis of chinese prescriptions of gender as represented in cao xueqins famous eighteenth century chinese novel of manners, the red chamber dream or the story of the stone, drawing on feminist literary critical methods it examines qing notions of masculinity and femininity, including themes such as bisexuality, motherhood, virginity and purity, and. Drawing on feminist literary critical methods, it examines qing notions of masculinity and femininity, including themes such. Chinese architecture provides for the mass of the population low, onestory buildings. Included here are the preface and comments by zhang ruzhi at the tops of the pages, the table of contents. Old goody liu pays a visit to the jung kuo mansion.
Ritual in the dream of the red chamber stephen jones. A dream doesnt quite come true at san francisco opera by. Early chinese critics identified its two major themes as those of romantic love, and of the transitoriness of earthly material values, as. The story is full of dreams and begins with a myth of the stone. There is a whole scholarly field redology devoted to the study of the novel it is a most complex work, a semiautobiographical novel, focusing on the saga of the authors own family, throwing light on the qing dynasty. The novel and the opera both revolve around jia baoyu, the reincarnation of the stone, the boy who was born with the jade in his mouth. A deconstruction of the twelve beauties of jinling in dream of the red. Jia baoyu the first illustration in the first published edition of the novel shows the stone and the flower, reinforcing the extra mundane connections between baoyu and daiyu. About dream of the red chamber introduction dream of the red chamber is a onevolume adaptation of a much longer, threevolume work, sometimes translated into english as a dream of red mansions. It was composed sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the qing dynasty. Sep 27, 2016 so begins dream of the red chamber, a new opera based on the classic chinese novel of the same name.
Dream of the red chamber paperback october 20, 1958. Dream of the red chamber s textual history is involved and complex, and has long been a subject of critical scrutiny, debate, and conjecture. As such, the social and economic relationships between various characters illuminate a larger system of social hierarchy and a broader understanding of the eastern. It arrives in baoyus mouth and indicates his special fate as a romantic with the potential for. Dream of the red chamber, by cao xueqin, follows the travails of a pubescent boy. The result is a wonderfully vivid story of the powerful rise, and subsequent fall, of the jia clan, an illustrious family representative of the eighteenth century chinese aristocracy. With dream of the red chamber, composer bright sheng and colibrettist david henry hwang have distilled the essential core of a 2,000pluspage masterpiece of chinese literaturearguably the single greatest work of the entire traditioninto two and a half hours of musical drama. Dream of the red chamber may be a great novel in its original mandarin chinese, but i gave up reading it about onethird of the way through. On the top, with red letters, the original text is written, and next to it is an indication of chinese pronunciation written in korean. Chichen wangs translation is skillful and accurate. The basic storyline of a dream of red mansions focuses primarily on the chia family. Dream of the red chamber journeys across the pacific by. Dream of the red chamber, also called the story of the stone, or hongloumeng, composed by cao xueqin, is one of chinas four great classical novels. Full text of the dream of the red chamber hung lou meng.
Poetry in dream of the red chamber serves as a major plot device, but it also serves as an extension of each character. Chichen wang, dream of the red chamber 1958, introduction, p. Drawing on feminist literary critical methods, it examines qing notions of masculinity and femininity, including themes such as. Dream of red chamber theme mansion su bang food haunting. In rereading the stone yu engages with both chinese and european literature and critical traditions, in a tourdeforce of scholarship that is perhaps the preeminent critical study, at least in english, of dream of the red chamber chinese hongloumeng, best known translation the story of the stone.
There are two dukes in the family duke ningkuo and duke jungkuo. Dream of the red chamber, written by cao xueqin, is considered the masterpiece of chinese fiction. The monitory vision fairy expounds, in ballads, the dream of the red chamber. The three most important characters, jia baoyu, xue baochai, and lin daiyu. This is the theme of chinas fascinating and bestloved story, dream of the red chamber or dream of red mansions hung lou meng, written by tsao. There is a whole scholarly field redology devoted to the study of the novel. The result is an enchanting new version of the tale in a new. Chamber and an analysis of their image in modern adaptations. The dream of the red chamberstory of the stone is unlike any work in the western canon yet it fits into the western tradition of great literature in a way few other examples of classic chinese writing are able to, offering an engrossive narrative and a real feel for both character and place. Presentation of artificial flowers made in the palace.
We have based this set of notes on the threevolume original novel, feeling that the richness of the original work is too important to ignore. Chang, in one of the roles that helped cement her stardom, plays opposite brigitte lin in this colorful shaw brothers production, an ornate and operatic huangmeixi musical adaptation of a classic novel of the qing dynasty, which has lin, later a specialist in genderbending parts, playing the male lead, a young nobleman hopelessly in love with chang, the sickly daughter of another wealthy. The golden days questions like what is the theme in the story of the stone, or the dream of the red chamber. Although dream of the red chamber frequently formed a topic of conversation in the homes of literate chinese families and an enthusiastic scholar here and there ventured to undertake a commentary. Chins death, and turning himself round quickly he crept out of bed, when he felt as if his heart had been stabbed with a sword. Theme of interpenetration of reality and illusion, daily life and dreams the idea of true and false producing one anothertruth becomes fiction when the. Dream of red chamber theme mansion ofsoochow household, by taking the most immutable remarkable bookthe dream of red chamberas the theme and the su bang food as the main style, has absorbed the advantages ofzhejiangandanhuicuisines. Hongnumong out of 120 books 120 volumes, volume 24, 54 and 71 are missing. Sfopera delving deeper into dream of the red chamber. Cao xueqin wrote the work sometime in the 18 th century, during the qing dynastythe last volume in the fivevolume sequence was compiled and published many years later by gaoe. Also known as hung lou menga, red chamber dream, and a dream of red mansions, a chinese novel in two parts by cao xueqin. Why you should read chinas vast, 18th century novel, dream of the. It is renowned for its huge scope, large cast of characters and telling observations on the life and social structures of 18th century china and is considered. This study guide consists of approximately 44 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the story of the stone, or the dream of the red chamber.
Dream of the red chambercirculated in coveted handcopied. Cao xueqin, as quoted in the introduction attributed to his younger brother cao tangcun to the first chapter of dream of the red chamber, present in the jiaxu 1754 version the earliestknown manuscript copy of the novel, translated by david hawkes in the story of the stone. Dreams of red chamber this is a story about love between paoyu and taiyu. The dream of the red chamber is a shaw brothers produced hybrid of historical melodrama and musical and is an adaption of the classic qing dynasty novel.
May 07, 2016 fanmade music video trailer contains short scenes from the 2010 romance tv drama series the dream of red mansions based on the classic novel dream of red chamber telling the story of. Sleeveband embroidered with scenes from dream of red chamber. It is the first printed edition of the classic novel written by cao xueqin circa 1715. Dream of the red chamber, chapter cao xueqin and gao e translation by h. The result is an enchanting new version of the tale in a new medium and language. For more than a century and a half, dream of the red chamber has been recognized in china as the greatest of its novels, a chinese romeoandjuliet love story and a portrait of one of the worlds great civilizations. Because of the huge numbers of characters and difficulty of remembering all the chinese names, i was getting little out of the book. Dream of the red chamber is an 18thcentury novel written by cao zhan that is generally considered to be the greatest novel of chinese literature. The dream of the red chamber is one of the four great classical novels of chinese literature. A new operatic adaptation of dream of the red chamber by bright sheng and david henry hwang offers musical and visual delights but stumbles on the text.
Sep 11, 2016 bright shengs dream of the red chamber, adapted from cao xuequins 18thcentury novel, long considered one of the great masterpieces of chinese literature, gets a stunning world premiere by. Xueqin cao quotes author of dream of the red chamber. An intelligent and artistic man, known for both his poetry and his paintings, xueqin spent a decade working diligently on the dream of the red chamber. The dream of the red chamber 1977 directed by li han. Dream of the red chamber, the red chamber dreams or a dream of red mansions honglou meng, also known as the story of the stone shitou ji is one of the masterpieces of chinese fiction and one of the chinese four great classical novels. Dream of the red chamber study guide contains a biography of tsao hsuehchin, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Get answers to your the story of the stone, or the dream of the red chamber. Pdf dream of the red chamber download full pdf book download. Pdf a dream of red mansions download full pdf book. Long considered a masterpiece of chinese literature, the novel is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of chinese fiction red chamber is believed to be semiautobiographical. Themes dream of the red chamber wikipedia gradesaver. Ritual in the dream of the red chamber posted on 03022018 by stephenjones. With brigitte lin, sylvia chang, michelle yim, deborah dik. It is renowned for its huge scope, large cast of characters and telling observations on the life and social structures of 18th century china and is considered by many to.
Dream of the red chamber or the hung lou meng is the greatest of all chinese novels and the first of its kind to break completely with the past. Xin jian quan bu xiu xiang hong lou meng newly printed complete illustrated edition of the dream of the red chamber is also known as the chenga edition. This apparently is a great translation by the late professor wang and. Dream of the red chamber is a onevolume adaptation of a much longer, threevolume work, sometimes translated into english as a dream of red mansions. Pdf dream of the red chamber download full pdf book. The first glance at such a mansion with long history surrounded by modern commercial buildings with rich flavor. Dream of the red chamber symbols and motifs supersummary. Dream of the red chamber is a long and extremely complicated domestic chroniclethe novel contains more than four hundred charactersthat is at once a lively comedy of manners, a realistic.
What function or purpose does the poetry in the novel hongloumeng dream of the red chamber. The dream of the red chamber by cao xueqin, paperback. The story of the stone, or the dream of the red chamber. The golden days themes cao xueqin this study guide consists of approximately 44 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the story of the stone, or the dream of the red chamber.
Dream of the red chamber in 120 chapters world digital. Dream of the red chamber is a book that depicts the life of a chinese aristocratic family. Essay analysis of the novel dream of the red chamber this essay is a summary and analysis of the novel dream of the red chamber. But with a brand new opera commission, dream of the red chamber, closing out the festival on 17 march one that has traveled 11,000km across the pacific she and her team have been orchestrating a symphony of logistics. The novel describes the life of the women in chinese aristocracy and their declining fortune. The dream of the red chamber is one of chinas greatest classical novels, written around the middle of the 18th century during the qing dynasty by cao xueqin. It details the decline of the jia family as it blends realism and romance, psychological motivation and fate, and daily life and supernatural occurrences. Dream of red mansions ending mv who remembers who after.