Posted 2011/1/25
Famous Works
The Dream of the Red Chamber
In China the Hong Lou Meng is considered the outstanding classic novel of the Ch'ing Dynasty. A considerable body of critical literature has grown up around it. The general assumption is that the author drew on his own experiences and that his hero, Pao Yu, is a self-portrait. Tsao Hsueh Ch'in was the pampered son of a rich and highly cultivated Mandarin family in which the lucrative office of Inspector of the Imperial Silk Factories in Kiangsu had been hereditary for generations. In spite of his great intellectual gifts, he failed at the Literary Examinations and was barred from office. He took refuge in the spheres of philosophy and letters.
Chinese literary criticism has offered other solutions to the puzzle, however. A not improbably theory identifies Pao Yu with the youthful Emperor Chien Lung (r. 1736–1796), of whom it is said that, like Pao Yu, he had the habit of licking the rouge off the lips of the young ladies of his entourage. According to this theory, Pao Yu's father, the stern Chia Cheng, represents Emperor Yung Cheng (r. 1723–1735), Chien Lung's predecessor. This theory has much to commend it. Among the host of characters in the novel, Chia Cheng is the pure type of the stern Confucian. History preserves the memory of Emperor Yung Cheng as that of the great Confucian on China's throne, the ruler of common sense and social consciousness.
Though at first sight the Hong Lou Meng appears to be an inexplicable chaos of innumerable characters and events, on closer scrutiny the novel reveals itself to be a harmonious structure, well ordered, logical, consistent. The main characters — Black Jade, of a nearly saintly chastity; the Princess Ancestress, earthy and motherly; Precious Clasp, womanly, warm, sensible; Bright Cloud and Mandarin Duck, touchingly loyal and devoted; Chia Cheng, stern and dutiful — are admirably drawn. But the many secondary figures also fill their positions solidly and have their definite functions within a carefully calculated plan. To give one example among many, the seemingly gratuitous appearance of the old servant and grumbler at the opening of the novel becomes meaningful when he reappears at the end of the story and the reader realizes that the old warrior functions as the unwanted and unheeded prophet.
The two mysterious monks that keep reappearing add an element of the supernatural; they are messengers from the beyond. They represent the recurring motif of the fundamental themes of the work, which is undeniably Taoist. The action begins with a prologue in the Phantom Realm of the Great Void, the Taoist heaven; it ends with an epilogue in the Blessed Regions of Purified Semblance, which is another name for the same sphere. Four times we see characters pass through the gates of the Great Void, which, in Taoist language, means to renounce the world: Shih Ying, the Cold Knight, Grief of Spring, and finally Pao Yu, the hero himself.
A second motif of the novel seems to me the matriarchy, eloquently represented by the Ancestress, who, always optimistic and ready to celebrate, admonishing and pacifying, holds the family together. The Confucian philosophy of life, of course, could not be absent from a Chinese novel. It appears in the person of Pao Yu's father, Chia Cheng.
What, briefly summarized, is the core of the novel?
From the Confucian point of view, it might be the story of the wealth and honor of a great and noble house and its self-destruction. The house is rehabilitated in the end through the intellectual and moral achievement of a son hitherto considered degenerate — since Pao Yu dutifully conforms to the wishes of his parents and submits to the ordeal of the examinations.
From the Buddhist and Taoist points of view the answer might be: It is a story of the gradual awakening, purification, and final transcendence of a soul originally sunk in the slime of temporal and material strivings.
From the Western point of view the answer might be this: It is the case history of a highly gifted but degenerate young aristocrat, a psychopath and a weakling, asocial, effeminate, plagued by inferiority complexes and manic depressions, who, though capable of a temporary rallying of energies, founders among the demands of reality and slinks cravenly away from human society.
The last stage of Pao Yu's development, his change into a spirit, goes beyond the comprehension of the Western mind. For Taoism is not only a theory but, above all, practical experience.
And finally, the often-mentioned spirit stone probably symbolizes the innate disposition, the spiritual nature, of a man, which he may not betray within risking the loss of his essential self.
The goddess Nu Wa and the 36,501 stones for the repair of the pillars of heaven, with which the novel starts, are mythological metaphors of rather prosaic significance. Countless as stones, men inhabit the earth; among them Providence picks a certain number and assigns them to administer the State as embers of the hierarchy of official and to preserve the mass of the people from the threat of anarchy. Pao Yu was rejected as unfit for this service, but he had been touched by the hand of the goddess and ennobled by her touch. Laziness makes him wish to be an ordinary stone among stones, but a higher destiny frees him and he becomes conscious of his quality as "Precious Stone." For this reason our novel has a second title in China, Shi Tou Chi, "The Story of the Stone."
The complete review's Review:
Few books can even be considered for the title of 'Book of the Millennium', but The Story of the Stone surely is a strong contender. This classic novel from the Qing dynasty, considered the greatest work of Chinese fiction, is a brilliant achievement and a marvelous read.
Metaphysical, allegorical, and vividly realistic, the immense scope of The Story of the Stone provides something for everyone. A rich family saga, a tragic love story, and a philosophical meditation it is one of those rare huge books in which one can lose oneself completely.
It begins as the story of the Stone, a supernatural entity endowed with consciousness that winds up in the mortal world and must find the path to enlightenment. His fate is inextricably bound with another creature from the Land of Illusion, the Crimson Pearl Flower. The Stone is responsible for its transformation into a fairy girl -- and she vows to repay him with "a debt of tears", willing to suffer for a lifetime in the world of mere mortals. The Stone describes how his story -- The Story of the Stone -- is the record of his journey to enlightenment, and offers the tale as a tool for others to follow his path, as, for example Vanitas does in the first chapter.
Too spiritual ? Too bizarre ? Patience -- it is only the framing device for the tale, and the more mundane world is soon entered. It is, however, a significant beginning, holding many clues to the rest of the text.
Passing through the gateway between the Land of Illusion and reality one can read the guiding principle behind the book:
Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real.
Confusing ? Perhaps initially, but in Cao Xueqin's masterful presentation the interplay of reality and fiction are made abundantly clear.
Once the Land of Illusion has been left most of the book does take place in the human world -- the contemporary China of Cao Xueqin's times. The story centers around the extended Jia family, made up of two clans (the Ning-guo and Rong-guo houses) that live side by side on huge estates. Their ancestors had won the favour of the Emperor and risen in rank and stature because of this. The current generations have, however, not lived up to these high standards, and there is an air of decay about the family.
Into this family Jia Bao-yu is born -- the incarnation of the Stone. He is recognized as special from the beginning, born with a piece of jade in his mouth. An unusual child, precocious, coddled (especially by his grandmother and his maids), and not with the sort of ambition that the expectations of the family demand, he is the great hope of the family. When he is still a boy a relative comes to live with his family -- the beautiful Lin Dai-yu, the incarnation of the Crimson Pearl Flower. In the other world the two were meant for each other, and their relationship in the real world drives much of the dramatic, romantic, and tragic tension of the book.
Another figure enters, Dai-yu's rival Xue Bao-chai, nearly as appealing as Dai-yu, but with other qualities. The rivalry and friendship among the three -- and the many other characters living in these huge compounds -- shifts throughout the book.
Bao-yu lives a carefree youth, though there are a number of significant occurrences from early on, including Bao-yu's famous "dream of the red chamber" in which the future is also revealed (or rather foreshadowed). Preferring the company of girls and women, Bao-yu seeks out the company of Dai-yu, Bao-chai, or others when possible. He is not an eager student, preferring to join in with girls at their games.
Cao Xueqin provides a great deal of insight into the Chinese culture of the time in his descriptions of protocol, manners, expectations, and consequences. Meticulously described, with great psychological insight, Cao Xueqin conveys the slow decline of the Jia's very convincingly.
Poetry plays a large role in the novel, always aware of its literary status. The girls form a Crab-Flower Club where they write poems according to set rules. The poems (convincingly rendered in translation) offer yet another perspective on the larger situation being described.
The setbacks in the family continue, and there are a number of dramatic scenes. Cao Xueqin weaves a marvelous tapestry of many intertwined lives, a true family saga.
Bao-yu must fulfill his obligations in the mortal world to attain enlightenment, and the novel runs its inevitable course. He does sit for the national examinations, he does marry the one he is ordained to marry (with predictable results), and he does find enlightenment, becoming the Stone again.
The huge book is so rich and varied that it is difficult to convey how much there is to it. Cleverly constructed, there are hints and cross-references to hidden (and obvious) meanings throughout. Truth and falsity, reality and illusion are constant throughout, side by side, often difficult to differentiate. There are mirrors and twins -- there is even a "real" Bao-yu, a twin of the "false" one around whom the story centers (false since he is actually the Stone). There are romantic tragedies and slapstick scenes, criminality and spirituality, recognition and deception.
Most remarkable is that for all it artful construction The Story of the Stone is also a great, straightforward read. The many smaller stories in it -- and the tragic love story of Dai-yu and Bao-yu -- alone are more gripping and entertaining than almost any other book one might pick up.
With a useful introduction and well annotated the Penguin edition makes this great work readily accessible. The translation reads very well and where there are significant ambiguities these are generally pointed out in the notes (for example regarding the meaning (or double-meaning) of the names of some of the characters).
Only its length might scare off readers -- otherwise there is nary a fault to find with this incredible work. We can not recommend this book highly enough.
"Monkey King", or known to the Chinese as "Journey to West", is one of the renowned classical Chinese novels dated back some four hundred years ago, the other three being "The Water Margins", "Dream of the Red Mansion" and "Romance of Three Kingdoms".
"Monkey King" was based on a true story of a famous Chinese monk, Xuan Zang (602-664). After years of trials and tribulations, he travelled on foot to what is today India, the birthplace of Buddhism, to seek for the Sutra, the Buddhist holy book. When he returned to China ,or the Great Tang as was called that time, he started to translate the sutras into Chinese, thus making a great contribution to the development of Buddhism in China.
"Monkey King" is an allegorical rendation of the journey, mingled with Chinese fables, fairy tales, legends, supersitions, popular beliefs, monster stories as well as whatever the author could find in the Taoist and Buddhist religions.
While average readers are facsinated with the prowess and wisdom of the Monkey King, many critics agree that the protagonist embodies what the author tried to convey to his readers: a rebellious spirit against the then untouchable feudal rulers.
Monkey King is indeed rebellious, being in fact not an ordinary being. He was born out of a rock, fertilized by the grace of Heaven, according to the story. Being extremely smart and capable, he learned all the magic tricks and gongfu from a master Taoist. Now he can transform himself into seventy-two different images such as a tree, a bird, a beast of prey or a bug as small as a mosquito so as to sneak into an enemy's belly to fight him or her inside out. Using clouds as a vehicle he can travel 180,000 miles a single somersault.
He claims to be king in defiance of the only authority over heaven, the seas, the earth and the subterranean world -- Yu Huang Da Di, or the "Great Emperor of Jade" in Chinese. That act of high treason, coupled with complaints from the masters of the four seas and the hell, invites the relentless scourge of the Heavenly army. In fact, the monkey had fought into the seas and grabbed the crown treasure of the neptune kingdom: a huge iron bar that supposedly serves as a ballast of the seas and can expand or shrink at its owner's command. That became the monkey's favorite weapon in his later feats. With that weapon, he went down into hell and threatened the helly king to spare his and his followers mortal life so that they all enjoy eternity.
After many showdowns, the dove faction of the heavenly court persuaded the emperor to offer the monkey an official title to appease him. The monkey accepted the offer on a trial basis. However, he learned a few days later that he was cheated and being jeered all over the heavenly court: the position he held was nothing but a stable keeper. Enraged he revolted, fighting all his way back earth to resume his own claim as a king.
Eventually, the heavenly army subdued him, only after many a battle, with the help of all the god warriors. However, all methods of execution failed. Having a bronze head and iron shoulders, the monkey dulled many a sword inflicted upon him. As a last resort, the emperor commanded he be burned in the furnace where his Taoist minister Tai Shang Lao Jun refines his pills of immortality. Instead of killing him, the fire and smoke added to the monkey a pair of firy golden crystal eyes that can see through what people normally can not. He fought his way down again.
At last, the emperor asked Buddha for help. The Buddha moved a great mountain known as the Mount of Five Fingers to fall upon him. Still, the tenacious monkey survived the enormous weight and pressure. Only that he could not move. Five hundred years later, there came to his rescue the Tang Monk, Xuan Zang, whom we mentioned at the beginning of the story.
To insure that the monk could make for the West to get the sutras, Buddha had arranged for the Monkey King to become his desciple and escort him, along with two other desciples they later came across, (actually also arranged by the Buddha). One is the humorous and not uncourageous pig transgressed from a heavenly general for his crime of assaulting a fairy, and the other a used-to-be sea monster. There the four started their stormy journey west which was packed with actions and adventures that brought into full play the puissance of the monks' disciples, the Monkey King in particular.
