Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature - Dream of the Red Chamber

Author: Cao Xueqin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Cao Xueqin is one of the greatest and most complex writers in the history of Chinese literature, and Dream of the Red Chamber is also one of the greatest and most complex works in the history of Chinese literature. Dream of the Red Chamber depicts the tragic love and marriage between the feudal aristocratic youth Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, and centers on the rise and fall of the four major families—Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue—representative of the era, with the Jia family being the focus. It exposes the darkness and evils of the late feudal society, as well as its irreconcilable internal contradictions, and delivers a powerful critique of the decadent feudal ruling class and the collapsing feudal system, leaving readers with a sense of its inevitable downfall.
This book is a great work of both high ideological depth and high artistic achievement. From the ideological tendencies it reflects, the author demonstrates preliminary democratic thoughts. He critically examines the darkness of the real society, including the courts and official circles, the corruption of the feudal aristocratic class and their families, the feudal imperial examination system, marriage system, servant system, and hierarchical system, as well as the corresponding social ruling ideology—Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism—as well as social moral concepts. He also proposes faint but preliminary democratic ideals and, which reflect the subtle influence of the budding capitalist economic factors of the time.