Red Chamber Interpretation.1

Author: Huo Lijun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: "A sea of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears. Everyone says the author is mad, who can understand the taste within?" This book tells the story behind Dream of the Red Chamber: the love, fate, and struggle between Cao Tianyou and Zhu Hongyu. Cao Tianyou and Liu Huilan jointly wrote The Story of the Stone from 1728 (the first month of the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign) to 1744 (the eighth month of the ninth year of the Qianlong reign), spanning seventeen years until Zhu Hongyu's death, completing eighty chapters. The events include marital changes, being sent to the palace, becoming a concubine, being crowned empress, poisoning the Yongzheng Emperor, becoming a nun, Hongyu's death, Tianyou's escape, and more. This is the combined biography of the two jade figures. The entire annotations by Zhi Yan Zhai are the latter part of Dream of the Red Chamber, equivalent to the text of twenty or thirty chapters. The author and annotator are Cao Xueqin and Liu Huilan, an elderly couple with shared aspirations. It includes Xueqin's descent from the mountain, Cao and Liu's reunion, entering the era of Zhi Yan Zhai annotating the book, and Xueqin's death. It concludes in 1784 (the middle of the ninth month of the forty-ninth year of the Qianlong reign) when Liu Huilan, under the name "Dream-Awakened Master," released the complete eighty chapters. This is the combined biography of the two treasures. The combined biography of the two jade figures and the combined biography of the two treasures together constitute the entire text of Dream of the Red Chamber.