Mao Ling Autumn The Red Chamber Dream is Broken - Part II

Author: Gao Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: "The Fall of the Red Chamber" is a historical novel by Gao Yang that blends artistic imagination with academic research, depicting the rise and fall of the Cao and Li families from their luxurious lives in high society to their eventual decline and exile back to the capital. As the author puts it, it tells the story of "Cao Xueqin"—how Cao Xueqin "spend ten years of hard work" to create Jia Baoyu and "Dream of the Red Chamber." "Autumn in Maoling" is the second part. The downfall of the Li family has become unstoppable, leading to a dreamlike prosperity turning into ruins and scattered families. Together with "Spring in Muling," one spring and one autumn, they portray the innermost thoughts of many characters in the Li family, capturing the coldness of the world after wealth and glory turn into memories. In less than two years, Li Xù, who could still compete with his nephews and grandnephews in horseback riding in the spring fields, has become an old man with white hair. This is due to a series of blows following the suicide of the grand dowager. In the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign, he was severely criticized by the emperor upon arriving in the capital; his forehead was hit by a bruise in the brick pavement, but it did not change the emperor's mind. Once his favor waned, the officials from the Imperial Household Department, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Works began to look down on him! What he deserved was not given to him, and he could not get away with it. There were two payments he had to make: one was a impeachment fine. In March 18th of that year, it was the emperor's birthday, though not a whole-year celebration, as the sixtieth anniversary of his accession to the throne did not call for a festival. Therefore, apart from Li Xù, who was summoned, the other two textile manufacturers