Dream of the Red Chamber - (Full 2 Volumes)

Author: (Qing) Cao Xueqin / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Cao Xueqin is one of the greatest and most complex writers in Chinese literary history, and Dream of the Red Chamber is also one of the greatest and most complex works in Chinese literary history. 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 great families—Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue—representative of the era, with the Jia family being the focal point. It exposes the darkness and evils of the late feudal society, as well as its irreconcilable internal contradictions, delivering a powerful critique of the decadent feudal ruling class and the collapsing feudal system, leaving readers to foresee its inevitable downfall.
This book is a great work of both high ideological significance 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 officialdom, 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, and social moral concepts. He also proposes faint yet nascent ideals and proposals with preliminary democratic characteristics. These ideals and proposals are a subtle reflection of the budding factors of capitalist economic development at the time.