The Story of the Stone

Author: Cao Xueqin (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: This is the first corrected edition of the Jiaxu manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber ever published domestically and internationally. The most significant difference between this edition and the commonly printed versions is that it allows readers to glimpse the early original form of the novel as created by Cao Xueqin and to directly experience the 1,600+ precious annotations left by the author’s confidante, Shi Yanzhai, on the Jiaxu original manuscript. The base text of this edition was discovered and collected by Mr. Hu Shih in 1927 and is now preserved in the Cornell University Library in the United States. It is now typeset and printed based on the facsimile edition first released in Taiwan in 1961, with all relevant materials about this manuscript included. The Jiaxu manuscript of Dream of the Stone Chamber is a national treasure. However, since Mr. Hu Shih acquired it, wrote about it, and conducted research on it, no one has made substantial efforts to study it in the past eighty years, nor has anyone compiled a dedicated book to introduce and promote it to the academic world and the general public (so-called "popularization"). Although it has a facsimile edition, its circulation is limited to scholars and experts. Now, with the publication of this corrected edition, the significant gap left over the past eighty years has been filled. The contribution of this effort is self-evident and needs no further elaboration. The Jiaxu manuscript is the origin of Red Chamber Studies, just as Four Pines Studio Collection and Mao Zhai Poetry Collection Donggao Collection are the origins of Cao Studies. I have long wanted to collect different manuscripts and printed versions of these two collections (Four Pines has three, and Mao Zhai has two), to correct, annotate, and explain them, and to name it Shou Qin Bian (A Collection for Cao Xueqin’s Longevity). Yet, I have not yet started the work. Taking this as a point of comparison, it is clear that the contribution of this effort is significant, while my own achievements in this regard remain unfulfilled.