Redology's End

Author: Ke Fei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: I am not a red scholar by profession; my life has been dedicated solely to loving Red Chamber. Cao Xueqin's Red Chamber is indeed a rare and extraordinary book in the history of literature, both in China and the world. It not only provides a high level of artistic enjoyment but also broadens one's horizons, enhances wisdom, enriches one's spiritual realm, and, in my perception, it can also calm the mind, nourish the heart, and rectify one's character. When I encounter minor ailments, feel restless and uncomfortable, or have some unresolved issues weighing on my mind, causing depression and unhappiness, I often sit alone and read Red Chamber. As I gradually immerse myself in the story, getting lost in its narrative, body and mind forget time. Over time, I unconsciously find balance, often achieving remarkable effects.
In the early 1990s, my illness worsened, with frequent relapses, leaving me bedridden for months at a time. To distract my mind and endure the intense pain, I turned to Red Chamber as usual. This led me to reread the Zhi editions, revisit the Zhi annotations, and read the works and monographs of various scholars in the red study community. I have no hesitation in admitting that I was once a believer in the Zhi Yanshi, the Zhi annotations, and the Zhi editions. This time, I reread and revisited them, likely due to the passage of time and the sustained effort, aiming to delve deeper into them, find refuge within, and resist shifting my focus. The large volume of material I read, concentrated and easily comparable, facilitated absorption and inspired reflection. Gradually, as I read and thought, I began to notice inconsistencies: many of the Zhi annotations, though presented as definitive, often contradicted each other when read together, and some were clearly nonsensical and far-fetched, defying common sense. This sparked my curiosity to investigate further, and the more I explored, the more puzzled and astonished I became. It was as if I had accidentally picked up the mysterious "Mirror of Wind and Moon," seeing the Zhi Yanshi as a beautiful woman on one side, yet a horrifying skeleton on the other.
Adding to this, the New Red School, which dominates the red study community, has, since its founding by Hu Shi, only intensified over the decades, with an unwavering reverence for the Zhi annotations, promoting and glorifying them until elevating the Zhi Yanshi to a sacred status and treating the Zhi annotations as the ultimate authority. This is a serious yet engaging academic work that demonstrates considerable intellectual rigor. Readers will see how many learned scholars in the red study community, over decades, were deceived and misled by the Zhi Yanshi, a charlatan who played flawless tricks, only for them to be exposed and debunked one by one. The author spent a decade conducting in-depth research, meticulously and convincingly revealing the Zhi editions, Zhi annotations, and Zhi Yanshi, while equally meticulously and convincingly exposing the absurdities and lack of common sense in the New Red School since Hu Shi. The work declares that the New Red School is no better than a tower built on sand, heading toward its downfall.
Excerpt:
(6) When were the three Zhi editions produced? Regarding the three Zhi annotated editions of The Story of the Stone by Zhi Yanshi, they are not printed books but handwritten manuscripts, yet they contain numerous annotations. What period do they belong to? In my view, they do not fall within the five time periods mentioned earlier but rather are products of the period after the fifth time period, meaning they emerged only after other annotated editions of Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone appeared in the world. The Zhi annotations say, "The annotations of the gentlemen are naturally the reflections of their perspectives, and the annotations of Zhi Yanshi also have their own sources of enjoyment." This hints at the situation. The "annotations of the gentlemen" came first, followed by the "annotations of Zhi Yanshi," as he was comparing his own annotations with those already in circulation. If the "annotations of the gentlemen" came later, he would not have seen them, and thus, there would be no such comparison. Other annotated manuscripts published earlier were undoubtedly printed books, not handwritten ones, otherwise he would not have been able to see them. Without seeing them, he could not have made such remarks. He could not see them because handwritten manuscripts were always scarce, whereas printed books had a much wider reach, making them much easier to encounter.
This leads to profound questions worth pondering and pursuing: When did the world begin to have printed annotated editions of Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone? It would not have been during the Qing Dynasty, and certainly not in the lifetime of Cao Xueqin.