Dream of the Red Chamber - (Complete Two Volumes)

Author: Cao Xueqin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Features: This book is the result of over half a century of meticulous collation by Mr. Zhou Ruchang, based on eleven extant ancient manuscripts of Dream of the Red Chamber. The collator has studied and understood the true style and intent of Cao Xueqin, discerned spurious texts and false continuations, and sought to restore the original form, providing a reliable text for lovers of Dream of the Red Chamber. Unlike the 120-volume edition containing the 40 additional chapters by Gao E, this edition is truly a "work by Cao Xueqin." Most readers believe that Cao Xueqin only left behind the first 80 chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber during his lifetime. However, scholars like Zhou Ruchang argue that Cao Xueqin completed the entire work, though the text after the 80th chapter was lost for some reason. At the end of this book, the article "The Trace of the Lip is Not Scattered, the Shadow of the Red Chamber is Still Fragrant" includes the collator's research findings on the content of the 80th chapter and beyond, based on clues from the Lip annotations, presenting a complete authentic version of Dream of the Red Chamber for reference. This book strives to remain faithful to the ancient manuscripts. During the Qing Dynasty's Qianlong period, when Cao Xueqin wrote Dream of the Red Chamber, few scholars used colloquial language, and many characters in what was then called "vernacular" had no fixed forms. Authors often wrote characters phonetically, leading to inconsistencies. Ancient writing customs also included a preference for variant characters, with authors reluctant to adhere to uniformity, unlike the standardized characters of today. The collator cross-referenced the various manuscripts and found that Cao Xueqin's draft used words and phrases inconsistently, often varying between different passages, with the same meaning but different forms, such as "wounded feelings" () vs. "winding path" (), "to observe" () vs. "to notice" (), "to attend to" () vs. "to serve" (), and so on. Other examples include writing "a trip" as "a flow" (), "very" as "extremely" (), and the old forms of the modern character "visit" (), such as "sightseeing" (), "open" (), "+," and "+," etc. These variations were used interchangeably, reflecting the personal preferences of writers at the time or changes due to different contexts or revisions. There are also characters that modern readers may find difficult to understand, such as the Manchu Bannermen often writing "inlaid" () as "side" (), which was not considered unusual. This book aims to preserve the original form of the text, retaining all variant characters without standardization. The character and word phenomena in the book are explained in advance and annotated where necessary, which should not hinder smooth reading and can instead help readers appreciate the evolution of vernacular Chinese writing and the origins of today's standardized characters. Additionally, there are differences in character names between ancient manuscripts and popular versions, such as "Dai Shu" () vs. "Shi Shu" (), "Bi Lang" () vs. "Bi Hen" (), and "Qi Guan" () vs. "Qi Guan" (). For example, the place where Miaoyu lived is actually "Longcui An" (), not "Longcui." These differences may seem unfamiliar to readers, leading them to believe they are errors, but they should be carefully examined. Besides the widely circulated editions that include Gao's continuations, there are also various "ancient" versions of Dream of the Red Chamber in the market, including "collated editions" based on single or multiple manuscripts. However, these often merely list variant texts without thorough collation or finalization, making them suitable only for scholars but not for general readers. The publication of this collated edition by Zhou Ruchang aims to provide ordinary readers with a new choice for appreciating Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber.