Dream of the Red Chamber
by Tsao Hsueh-Chin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tsao Hsueh-ChinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1958-11-20
ISBN: 0385093799
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of Dream of the Red Chamber
Book Review: Completion of worldly duty and seeing through dust-stained world
Summary: 5 Stars
The much anticipated concluding volume of the epic (if readers have persevered and made this far) settles the fate of our protagonist Jia Baoyu and expounds the nature of passion and illusion. The decadence of the Jia household thus concludes the Dream of the Golden Days. Following the death of the enamored Lin Daiyu, Baoyu weaves his way through a series of tragic events that plunge the Jia further into disgrace. Mourning bells incessantly resonate throughout the Rong-guo and Ning-guo houses as the financially stricken family prepare to encoffin the Old Lady Jia, Wang Xifeng, and a senior maid who demonstrates the purest essence of virtue and loyalty by following her mistress's footstep to death. There is a Chinese idiom that says "mishap does not occur singly." On top of the Jia's crumbling household and tremendous deficit in the occasion of mourning, robbers break into the Rong mansion and burglarizes all of the Old Lady's belongings the sale of which the family depends upon to pay for the funerals. Majestic police raid the Ning mansion and confiscates property of Baoyu's uncle. Xifeng's loaning out of the Jia's money at exorbitant interests shamefully unveils as the officers find property deeds and notes bearing illegal interest rate, as well as garments and skirts restricted for palace use. Upon the closure of the Ning mansion, Jia She and his son are sentenced to penal servitude in remote region, leaving their women folks in inconsolable grief and desperate grip to seek financial security.
It is in the midst of the poignant havoc, against this multifarious backdrop that Jia Baoyu slowly comes to his realization about the illusion of passion and resolves to sever the ties with the material world. One by one events come to pass that was riddlingly foretold in the first volume. It seems sad but with expectation that the Twelve Jinling (twelve females who are close to Baoyu) all end up dying or in small circumstances. At the fulfillment of these prophecies, Baoyu weaves through these events like a somnambulist and finally through a dream-vision is awakened to the realization that life itself is but a dream. His grief for Daiyu and his general state of gloom are compounded as he perceives that Daiyu is no ordinary mortal (but a visitor from some immortal realm). Since his life has consisted for the most part of peaceful and pleasant pursuits and he had been protected from too close an acquaintance with real suffering, sudden loss of family fortune and Daiyu make him succumb to despair. Seeing through the human suffering and breaking from the lust-stained passion enlighten him.
While the Jias still cares for the enjoyment of splendor and concerned with the show of grandeur that is at best vanity, Baoyu realizes the predestined attachments of human heart are all of them mere illusions, which are obstacles blocking the spiritual path to joy. This inner change draws him to an unprecedented direction has proceeded insipiently unnoticed until he maintains a detached composure and makes no attempt to offer any solace to the tragic occurrences around the house. The karma has obviously completed its work as Baoyu has attained a clear perception of destiny. After all, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER is about rising above all life's vices: all our lives we sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of greed, hatred, folly, and passion. The only way out of suffering, according to the working of the karma, is to escape the net of mortal life.
Summary of Dream of the Red Chamber
For more than a century and a half, Dream of the Red Chamber has been recognized in China as the greatest of its novels, a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story and a portrait of one of the world's great civilizations. Chi-chen Wang's translation is skillful, accurate and fascinating.Classics Books
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