Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone

One of the novels that we will be reading excerpts from in EN 202 is The Dream of the Red Chamber (or The Story of the Stone). 



Here is American poet Kenneth Rexroth's discussion of this novel.  Note that we are reading excerpts of excerpts of a novel! Also, he spells the characters' names differently as in his time they were transliterated from the Chinese differently.  Beijing, for example, was Peking.   As you may have noticed in the entry on the novel continued, Rexroth is a strong advocate of world literature. 

http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/cr/7.htm#The%20Dream%20of%20the%20Red%20Chamber

This introduction (a translation of a German translation) is useful even though it is difficult to read.  However, it provides some important background on the author(s) and his/their work:

http://www.scu.edu.tw/english/teachers/steelman/steelman/kuhn000.htm

This overview from Purdue is shorter, clearer, and less argumentative:

http://www.fll.purdue.edu/Chinese/Honglou/intro.html

More practically, here is an outline of the novel and its characters:

http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/China/tales/lindaiyu_b.htm

The picture below is from a Chinese television network (TV B)'s adaptation of the novel.  Interestingly, there are no men in this picture.




Here are pictures of the characters:

http://www.fll.purdue.edu/Chinese/Honglou/characters.html

A professor of Chinese talks about his experience teaching Dream of the Red Chamber:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080124160954/http://www.cityu.edu.hk/ccs/Newsletter/newsletter2/Red.htm

In 2000, the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art held an exhibit of An Ho's art inspired by the Dream of the Red Chamber:

http://museum.oglethorpe.edu/RedChamber.htm


In 1977, the Hong Kong film producer Run Run Shaw made a movie of Dream of the Red Chamber.  Interestingly, the role of Bao Yu was played by a woman!  The picture at the top of this entry is from this film.

http://www.dragonsdenuk.com/reviews/dream_of_red_chamber.htm

For more information (and pictures), see this web site:

http://www.brns.com/pages4/blin16.html

For more information about Cao Xueqin, one of the authors of Dream of the Red Chamber:

http://anywherechina.com/history/historical_figures/caoxueqin/caoxueqin.htm




If you are ever in Beijing, you may want to go to the Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall (see above):

http://www.10thnpc.org.cn/english/features/museums/139507.htm



Prince Gong's Mansion (see above) may have been the original for Bao Yu's home:

http://www.chinatour.com/attraction/beijing/gong-wang-fu-gong's-mansion-garden.htm

Preserving palaces like Prince Gong's can be difficult:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080210073252/http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/HomeBj/Hutong/HTOUR/t171490.htm

For more information about Confucianism,

http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=38

For more information about Daoism,

http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=40&PHPSESSID=cf3a1e7b0f8e79502f7f76f32db9f031

For more information about Chinese Buddhism,

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/buddhism/chinese_buddhism.asp

http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/bud/5budhism.htm