Talking about the Dream of the Red Chamber

Author: Zhang Guofeng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-10-01
Features: After the publication of Dream of the Red Chamber, those who loved it loved it obsessively, while those who hated it hated it intensely. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a man named Mao Qingzhen who wrote a book titled Random Notes on One-Handed Archeology. If it were not for him expressing his deep aversion to Dream of the Red Chamber in this book and thus being included in collections of materials about Dream of the Red Chamber, he would likely have been forgotten by history. Mao Qingzhen had to admit in his book that Dream of the Red Chamber was "more extraordinary and fervent than Golden Lotus Chamber," "popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang," and "reprinted increasingly." He slandered Cao Xueqin, claiming that he "corrupted body, mind, and life," with "great karma," and that those who followed him would "often suffer greatly in hell." Since Cao Xueqin had no descendants, Mao Qingzhen fabricated a story: "In the Gengxu year of the Jiaqing era, due to the case of Lin Qing, the deputy director of Cao, was executed and his family annihilated, and this was the home of Cao Xueqin." Even more absurdly, seeing that Dream of the Red Chamber could not be banned, Mao Qingzhen actually suggested: "Better gather this lewd book and send it overseas to repay its harm from opium." It seems that although Mao deeply hated Dream of the Red Chamber, he was actually an anti-opium advocate. He even had a wild idea to send Dream of the Red Chamber overseas to poison foreigners and take revenge for the harm caused by foreigners importing opium. In fact, long before the Opium War, Dream of the Red Chamber had already spread overseas. Below, we will trace the translations of Dream of the Red Chamber in various languages to see how it spread abroad.
English. In the 10th year of the Daoguang era (1830), Volume 2 of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland published two West River Moon poems from the third chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber in English-Chinese parallel text. The translator was John Francis Davis. In the 22nd year of the Daoguang era (1842), Chinese Language (Ningbo edition) selected and translated several passages from Dream of the Red Chamber, titled Dream in the Red Chamber, for the use of foreigners learning Chinese, translated by the Englishman Tom. In the 8th year of the Tongzhi era (1869), the Englishman Pola translated the first eight chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, titled Dream in the Red Chamber, and published them in the China Magazine (Hong Kong edition). The Englishman H. Bencraft Joly had an English translation of Dream of the Red Chamber. Published in 1892, the first volume and the second volume followed the next year. The first volume contained 24 chapters, and the second volume contained 32 chapters, totaling 56 chapters, with no omissions. This was a relatively complete English translation. Joly was originally the British Vice Consul in Macau and later became the British Consul in China. Later, there were some abridged translations. From 1973 to 1977, the Englishman David Hawkes' five-volume, 120-chapter complete English translation of Dream of the Red Chamber, titled The Story of the Stone, was published.
Japanese. In the 18th year of the Guangxu era, the Japanese Mori Kainan extracted and translated the preface of Dream of the Red Chamber. The Japanese Islandzawa Fujimura abridged the 12th chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber, titled Mirror of Wind and Moon, and published it in the Journal of Female Students, Issue 321. This may be the earliest Japanese translation of Dream of the Red Chamber. In 1916, the first volume of New Translation of Dream of the Red Chamber by Kan Eishun was published in Tokyo. The book translated the first 39 chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber. From 1920 to 1922, the 80-chapter annotated Dream of the Red Chamber translated and annotated by Kita Ruhan and Hirata Ryūsei was published in Tokyo in installments. The book includes 12 illustrations, including Jingyan, Baoyu, Daiyu, Xiren, Xifeng, Baosha, Xiangyun, Qingwen, Miaoyu, Li Wen, Li Qi, Fangguan, and You Sansjie. The translation was based on the Zhen Zheng edition. In 1940, the 120-chapter Dream of the Red Chamber translated by Matsuzhiya Shigeyo was published. It was part of the Iwanami series by Iwanami Shoten. This was a complete Japanese translation of Dream of the Red Chamber. The first 80 chapters were based on the Zhen Zheng edition, and the last 40 chapters were based on the Cheng Yi edition.
Russian. In the 23rd year of the Daoguang era (1843), the Russian Отечество magazine published the first part of the first chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber in Russian translation. The author was the mining engineer Alexei Ivanovich Kireev. The translated excerpt from Dream of the Red Chamber came from his book A Journey to China. In 1958, the complete translation of Dream of the Red Chamber by Panasuk was published in Moscow, titled Dream in the Red Chamber.
Korean. Around the 10th year of the Guangxu era, Korean scholars Li Zhongtai and others translated Dream of the Red Chamber into Korean. 117 chapters remain.
German. In 1928, the German Ding Wenyuan abridged chapters 21 and 22 of Dream of the Red Chamber and published them in the Journal of Chinese Studies, Volume 4, in the Frankfurt edition. In 1932, another abridged translation of the main stories of Dream of the Red Chamber by Kuhn was published in Leipzig. Kuhn's translation was later adapted into English, French, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, and other languages.
French. In 1933, Xu Zhongnian abridged chapters 17, 27, 28, 31, and 32 of Dream in the Red Chamber, titled Dream in the Red Chamber, and published them in Paris. In 1981, the complete translation of Dream of the Red Chamber by Li Zhihua and Ver·Arazak was published in Paris. The first 80 chapters were based on the Zhen edition, and the last 40 chapters were based on the Cheng Yi edition. According to a statistic by a redologist in the early 1980s, there were 17 versions of Dream of the Red Chamber in 52 translations. Among them, there were 12 complete translations of 120 chapters. The influence of Dream of the Red Chamber overseas can be seen from this.
Dream of the Red Chamber is the greatest and most complex work in the history of Chinese literature. It tells the tragic love and marriage between the feudal aristocratic youth Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, and centers on this to depict the rise and fall of the four great families of Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue, with the Jia family being the focus. It exposes the darkness and crimes of the late feudal society and its irreconcilable internal contradictions, strongly criticizing the decadent feudal ruling class and the feudal system on the verge of collapse, making readers sense its inevitable downfall.
The content of Dream of the Red Chamber is divided into four parts: "Characters," "Meaning," "Art," and "Extraordinary."
"Characters" analyzes the character images in the work in conjunction with the specific plot. It also includes the connection and differences between the characters in the novel and their historical counterparts, the formation process of the characters, and other interesting anecdotes and legends about the characters, helping readers understand the personality traits of the characters more accurately and deeply grasp the meaning and aesthetic significance of the character images.
"Meaning" analyzes the symbolism of the work and explores the author's creative intentions and purposes through specific analysis.
"Art" analyzes the artistic conception and artistic charm of the work from the perspective of novel art, introducing the achievements the work has made in art.
"Extraordinary" mainly introduces knowledge related to the work, such as the historical background of the story, the author's true identity and life, the version history of the work, and its status and influence in literary history, etc.