Xù Hónglóumèng 續紅樓夢
Continuation of the Dream of the Red Chamber by 秦子忱
About the work
Xù Hónglóumèng 續紅樓夢 is a 30-chapter Qīng-dynasty sequel novel (xùshū 續書) to Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 KR4k0131, composed by Qín Zǐchén 秦子忱 (pen name Xuěwù 雪塢). The work is precisely datable by the author’s own preface to the mid-ninth month of Jiājìng 3 (1798), composed at the “Bǎipìxuān” 百甓軒 study within the Yǎnjùn 兗郡 Military Headquarters (present-day Yǎnzhōu 兗州, Shāndōng province), where Qín Zǐchén served as a military commander (dūkǔn 都閫).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Prefaces
The Kanripo text opens with an anonymous framing preface (the main xù 序), followed by a poem-preface (bǎntí 弁題) by “Xiùshuǐ dì Zhèng Shījìng Yàoyuán” 秀水弟鄭師靖藥園 and another (bǎnyán 弁言) by “Yìshuǐ dì Tán Yíng” 易水弟譚溁. Tán Yíng’s bǎnyán provides the key biographical evidence: he records that he read Hónglóu Mèng while convalescing in “丁巳春” (spring of a dīngsì year = 1797), was moved by the unresolved fate of Bǎoyù and Dàiyù, and encouraged the academician Zhèng Yàoyuán 鄭藥園 to invite Qín Zǐchén 秦子忱 to write the continuation. Qín had already been stimulated by reading an existing printed sequel (likely Hòu Hónglóumèng 後紅樓夢 KR4k0139) but found it unsatisfying in characterization (“于原本相反，而語言聲口亦與前書不相吻合”), and so wrote his own.
The author’s own postscript-preface (tí 題), signed “嘉慶三年九月中浣，雪塢子忱氏題于兗郡營署之百甓軒,” firmly dates the completed work to 1798. The authorial poem (Diéliànhuā 蝶戀花) reflects with mock-self-deprecating humor on writing an “unauthorized” sequel to the great Cáo Xuěqín: “斧在班門原許弄，無端濫續《紅樓夢》” (It is permissible to wield an axe at Bān’s gate; for no reason I rashly continue Hónglóu Mèng).
Abstract
Qín Zǐchén 秦子忱 was a military official (dūkǔn 都閫) stationed at Yǎnjùn 兗郡 (Yǎnzhōu, Shāndōng) in the Jiājìng period. He composed Xù Hónglóumèng in 1798, explicitly as a response to dissatisfaction with the 120-chapter received text’s ending (particularly Dàiyù’s death and Bǎoyù’s marriage to Bǎochāi) and with the existing print sequel. The work imagines a world in which the karmic debts of the Hónglóu Mèng universe are resolved through supernatural interventions: the souls of the dead (including Dàiyù, Jiǎ Mǔ 賈母, Wáng Xīfèng 王熙鳳) visit the underworld; Bǎoyù rises to official glory; and the lovers finally unite. The 30 chapters conclude with the reconstruction of Grand View Garden (Dàguānyuán 大觀園) and a celestial resolution of all the narrative threads.
The preface material identifies two other contributors: Zhèng Shījìng 鄭師靖 (pen name Yàoyuán 藥園; an academician at Dōnglǔ Shūyuàn 東魯書院) and Tán Yíng 譚溁 (pen name Yìshuǐ 易水). Neither appears in CBDB. Qín Zǐchén himself is not found in CBDB under this name.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
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