Qǐlóu Chóng Mèng 綺樓重夢
Renewed Dream of the Embroidered Chamber by 蘭臯主人 (撰)
About the work
Qǐlóu Chóng Mèng 綺樓重夢 is a Qing dynasty sequel to Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber) in 48 chapters (huí 回), composed by the pseudonymous author 蘭臯主人 Lángāo Zhǔrén (“Master of the Orchid Bank”). It was completed and re-edited in the Jiaqing yǐchǒu year (嘉慶乙丑, 1805), as the preface-poem (xù 叙) states explicitly (“Jiāqìng yǐchǒu nián jìxià chóngyān” 嘉慶乙丑年季夏重編). The novel is one of the earliest and most elaborate of the large body of sequel fiction (xùshū 續書) that grew up around Cao Xueqin’s 曹雪芹 masterwork.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
Qǐlóu Chóng Mèng belongs to the genre of Hónglóu Mèng continuations that proliferated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Unlike the better-known Hónglóu Mèng bǔ 紅樓夢補 by Guī Fùhuā 歸覆華 (1819) or the Hòu Hónglóu mèng 後紅樓夢 by Lánghé Shūlǔ 朗和書魯 (1796), this work presents itself as a “renewed dream” rather than a continuation: the opening chapter invokes the Goddess of Illusion (Jǐnghuàn Xiān 警幻仙) and the God of the Old Man Under the Moon (Yuèxià Lǎo 月下老), resetting the karmic machinery of Cao Xueqin’s novel. Characters from the original — including Jǐnghuàn 警幻, the maid Qíngyún 晴雲 (a version of Qíngwén 晴雯), and Yuānyāng 鴛鴦 reborn as a woman of the next generation — reappear in new incarnations.
The preface-poem (叙) is written in a loose piān’ōu 駢偶 style rich in allusions to Hónglóu Mèng: “Jiǎ yuán shì jiǎ, Zhēn yì fēi zhēn” 賈原是假，甄亦非真 (“The Jiǎ family is indeed false, the Zhēn family is not real either”) directly quotes and ironizes the famous onomastic conceit of the original. The author explicitly acknowledges the literary game being played, comparing the sequel to dreaming of the past at the pillow’s edge.
The author’s identity remains unknown. The pen name Lángāo Zhǔrén 蘭臯主人 is unrecorded in standard bibliographies of Qing fiction. No other works attributed to this name are known. The Kanripo text appears to derive from an early nineteenth-century woodblock edition; the text uses the characteristic Qing manuscript conventions (interpunction by space, páiyǎn 排演 chapter-title format) of popular fiction of this period.
The novel’s plot follows the reincarnated descendants of the Jiǎ 賈 household through 48 chapters of romantic adventure, military exploits (chapters 11, 15–18 involve suppressing Japanese pirates), examination success, and imperial favor. Chapter 40 uniquely introduces an embassy girl from Jiāozhǐ 交址 (Vietnam) and a Yangzhou Daoist nun, reflecting an interest in the exotic margins of the Qing empire. The final chapter (48) brings the “great dream” to full circle as the rebuilt Jiǎ family gathers at a revived Grand View Garden.
Qǐlóu Chóng Mèng was not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書 and has attracted limited scholarly attention compared to the most widely read Hónglóu Mèng sequels. It is catalogued in Ouyang Jian’s Zhōngguó tōngsú xiǎoshuō zǒngmù tíyào 中国通俗小说总目提要 (1990) and Sun Kaidi’s bibliography of popular fiction.
Translations and research
- Ouyang Jian 歐陽健 and Xiao Xiangkai 蕭相愷, eds. Zhōngguó tōngsú xiǎoshuō zǒngmù tíyào 中國通俗小說總目提要. Zhongguo wenlian, 1990. Bibliographic entry for this novel.
- Ōtsuka Hidetaka 大塚秀高. Zōho Chūgoku tsūzoku shōsetsu shomoku 增補中國通俗小說書目. Kyūko, 1987. Japanese bibliography of Chinese popular fiction.
No substantial Western-language secondary literature specifically on this work located.
Other points of interest
The preface’s phrase “Jiǎ yuán shì jiǎ, Zhēn yì fēi zhēn” is a knowing allusion to the onomastic wordplay central to Hónglóu Mèng — the Jiǎ 賈 family name is a homophone of jiǎ 假 (false/fake), and the Zhēn 甄 family name echoes zhēn 真 (true/genuine). The author thus signals from the outset that his “renewed dream” is doubly fictive: a dream within a dream, a fiction about a fiction.