Dream of the Red Chamber - (New Curriculum Standards)

Author: Cao Xueqin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: The Jia family of Jinling is a prominent official family, yet they produce a mischievous young master, Jia Baoyu. He is clever and lively but eccentric in behavior, disdaining official positions and court life, spending his days with the young ladies and maids in the mansion. He claims that daughters are pure and pleasing, while men are filled with turbid energy. His cousin, Lin Daiyu, loses both parents in childhood and lives in the Jia mansion. She is frail and often ill but possesses exceptional talent and is proud and haughty. The two are deeply in love and consider each other as confidants. However, under the constraints of feudal ethics, the lovers cannot be together. Later, Daiyu passes away tragically, and Baoyu, upon realization, becomes a monk.