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紅樓夢

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Text ID
KR4k0131
Date
1740–1792
Dynasty
清

Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢

Dream of the Red Chamber by 曹雪芹 (with the final 40 chapters attributed to 高鶚 and 程偉元)

About the work

Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 (also known by its original title Shítóu Jì 石頭記, “The Story of the Stone”) is one of the four great classical novels (sì dà míngzhù 四大名著) of Chinese literature. Its first 80 chapters were composed by Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹 (Cáo Zhān 曹沾, courtesy name Mèngruǎn 夢阮; c. 1715/1724–1763/1764) during the mid-eighteenth century. The final 40 chapters, completing the 120-chapter received text, were published by Chéng Wěiyuán 程偉元 and Gāo È 高鶚 in 1792. The Kanripo text KR4k0131 presents the 120-chapter version of the novel.

This entry is a second edition of Hónglóu Mèng held in the Kanripo corpus; the related text KR4k0016 entry in the current catalog numbering is Yóuxiān Kū 游仙窟 — the “refs: KR: KR4k0016” in the catalog metadata appears to be a cross-reference from an earlier catalog numbering system, not a true textual relationship. The primary Kanripo entry for this novel is the present KR4k0131.

Tiyao

No tiyao found in source.

Abstract

Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 is a vast Qīng-dynasty novel tracing the rise and fall of the aristocratic Jiǎ 賈 family clans (Rónggúo Fǔ 榮國府 and Nínggúo Fǔ 寧國府) through the experiences of the sensitive, jade-born hero Jiǎ Bǎoyù 賈寶玉 and his doomed love for his cousin Lín Dàiyù 林黛玉, set against the backdrop of the beautiful Grand View Garden (Dàguānyuán 大觀園).

Authorship and composition. The text’s metafictional framing apparatus — narrated through the inscription on the Sentient Stone (Shítou 石頭) as copied by a fictional Kōngkōng Dàorén 空空道人 and transmitted to Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹 in his Dàohóng Xuān 悼紅軒 — is laid out in the opening chapter, which also identifies the successive retitlings: Shítóu Jì 石頭記, Qíngsēng Lù 情僧錄, Fēngyuè Bǎojiàn 風月寶鑑, Jīnlíng Shí’èr Chāi 金陵十二釵, and finally Hónglóu Mèng. The preface of the first printed edition (1792, Chéng-Jiǎ 程甲 edition) states that Chéng Wěiyuán and Gāo È assembled fragmentary manuscripts of the final 40 chapters to complete the text. Whether Gāo È composed the final 40 chapters himself or collated genuine Cáo Xuěqín drafts remains the central debate in Hóngxué 紅學 (Dream Studies).

Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §31.2.1) notes: “Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹 (d. 1763 at about the age of 40+). 80-chapter version published in 1760; 120-chapter version published in 1792. The study of the novel and its social and economic background is known as Hongxue 红学; a field that has been going strong for well over a century.”

Dating. The KR4k0131 file contains the full 120-chapter text, beginning with the metafictional chapter 1 (“甄士隱夢幻識通靈 賈雨村風塵懷閨秀”) and ending with Jiǎ Yǔcūn 賈雨村 and Zhēn Shìyǐn 甄士隱 meeting at the Juémí Dùkǒu 覺迷渡口. This corresponds to the Chéng-Jiǎ or Chéng-Yǐ (Chéng-yǐ 程乙) text. The manuscript tradition of the 80-chapter Zhīyān Zhāi 脂硯齋 recension is attested from at least the Qiánlóng period (c. 1754–1760); notBefore is set at 1740 (a conservative estimate for the commencement of composition) and notAfter at 1792 (the date of the 120-chapter printed edition).

CBDB. CBDB id 87277 for 高鶚 records a birth year of 1758 with notes on variant dates (乾隆 3, 11, 13, 16, 18, 28 being variously proposed by scholars; Zhang Shucai 張書才’s 1989 study sets birth in the Qiánlóng period and death between 1814 and 1815). The catalog meta gives 1758, consistent with the CBDB note. For 曹雪芹, CBDB does not return a record under this biéhào (his legal name was 曹沾); modern scholarship places his death in 1763 or 1764.

Cáo family background. Cáo Xuěqín was the grandson of Cáo Yǐn 曹寅 (1658–1712), a trusted Kāngxī confidant and superintendent of the Jiāngníng 江寧 weaving bureau. The Cáo family’s dramatic fall from imperial favor under Yōngzhèng (1728 confiscation of estates) profoundly shaped the novel’s themes of aristocratic decline. The fictional Jiǎ family is widely taken as a lightly veiled reflection of the Cáo clan.

Text history. The 80-chapter Zhīyān Zhāi commentated manuscripts represent the earliest textual layer. The 120-chapter Chéng-Jiǎ printed edition (乾隆五十七年 / 1792) became the standard popular text and the basis for most subsequent editions and sequels, including those cataloged at KR4k0132–KR4k0140. The KR4k0131 Kanripo text is a transcription of this received 120-chapter tradition.

Translations and research

  • Hawkes, David, tr. The Story of the Stone. 5 vols. Penguin, 1973–1986. The standard English translation (vols. 1–3 by Hawkes, vols. 4–5 by John Minford). Based on the 80-chapter recension for the first 80 chapters and the Chéng text for the last 40.
  • Yang Xianyi 楊憲益 and Gladys Yang, tr. A Dream of Red Mansions. 3 vols. Foreign Languages Press, 1978–1980. Complete translation of the 120-chapter text.
  • Plaks, Andrew H. Archetype and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Chamber. Princeton UP, 1976.
  • Yu, Anthony C. Rereading the Stone: Desire and the Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber. Princeton UP, 1997.
  • Huang Yi’nong 黃一農. 2014. Er chongzou: Hongxue yu Qingshi de duihua 二重奏－紅學與清史的對話. Qinghua daxue chubanshe. New material on authorial biography and Qing historical context.
  • Zhou Ruchang 周汝昌. 2009. Honglou meng xinzheng 紅樓夢新證 (revised edition). Renmin wenxue chubanshe.
  • Honglou meng xuekan 红楼梦学刊. 1979–. The principal specialist journal.
  • Eifring, Halvor. 2016. “The Dream of the Red Chamber.” In Oxford Bibliographies: Chinese Studies. Annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

Other points of interest

The Hónglóu Mèng generated a vast genre of sequel novels (xùshū 續書) in the Qīng dynasty, six of which are cataloged immediately following this entry in the Kanripo corpus: KR4k0133 Hónglóu Fùmèng 紅樓複夢, KR4k0134 Hónglóu Yuánmèng 紅樓圓夢, KR4k0135 Hónglóu Zhēnmèng 紅樓真夢, KR4k0136 Hónglóumèng Bǔ 紅樓夢補, KR4k0137 Hónglóumèng Yǐng 紅樓夢影, KR4k0139 Hòu Hónglóumèng 後紅樓夢, and KR4k0140 Xù Hónglóumèng 續紅樓夢.

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