Dream of the Red Chamber: The (Volumes 1 and 2)

Author: Cao Xueqin (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: "A wild tale of absurdity, a handful of bitter tears! Though all say the author is mad, who can fathom the depth of it?" A household name, Dream of the Red Chamber is a work that embodies Cao Xueqin's life's dedication. The novel, with the tragic love story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu as its main thread, weaves the rise and fall of the four great families—Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue. With vivid characters and a poignant love story, it is an endless tale of a timeless classic. The edition used in this book is one of the eleven extant ancient manuscripts of Dream of the Red Chamber, the most complete and authentically preserved version of the author's definitive original. It not only allows readers to appreciate the true style of the author's original manuscript but also enables them to directly savor over 2,100 precious annotations left by the author's "red-haired confidante," Liusanyan, on the Gengchen manuscript, possessing unique artistic appreciation value, academic research value, and edition preservation value.
The establishment of classical masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature is, of course, primarily due to the unique charm of these works themselves. However, it is also greatly related to the efforts of a large number of insightful literary critics who rigorously analyzed and commented on these novels after their publication. Names like Li Zhuo, Jin Shengtan, Mao Zonggang, and Liusanyan are closely associated with Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber in people's minds. They not only pioneered a new era in the history of Chinese classical novel criticism but also enabled more readers to delve deeper into the essence and charm of these classical masterpieces through their critiques.
Liusanyan's name is even more inseparable from Dream of the Red Chamber. From his annotations, it can be seen that Liusanyan had a close relationship with Cao Xueqin, but what that relationship was remains a subject of debate, with no definitive consensus. Some believe they were the same person, others that Liusanyan was the prototype for Shi Xiangyun in the novel, while still others think they were merely close friends. Regardless of who Liusanyan was, his critiques of Dream of the Red Chamber undoubtedly added brilliance to the already magnificent Grand View Garden, making the novel even more captivating for readers and leaving more room for speculation and imagination about the fates of the characters in the eighty chapters that follow.