How to Read the Honglou Meng

7/22/2019 How to Read the Honglou Meng

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CHAPTER VII

Chang Hsin-chih on How to Read theHung-lou meng (Drean1 of the Red Chamber)

INTRODUCT IONChang Hsin-chih and His Hung-lou meng tu-fa"(How to Read the Dream of he Red Chamber)Chang Hsin-chih H V r z (studio name Miao-fu hsi.ian RIJ> IFf; fl. I 828-1850) completed an extended com.mentary on the Hung-lou meng K J : 1 ~(Dream of the Red Chamber; also known as the Shih-t'ou chi 1:1(Story of the Stone]) in 1850. The earliest extant version of his commentary, Miaoju hsiian p'ing Shih-t'ou chi f J > 1 3 U F f ~ (Commentary on the Story of the Stone from .1\ liao-fu Studio), is a m.anuscriptcopy held in the Peking Library. The first section of that copy consists ofvarious prefaces as well as the tu-fa essay translated below. 1 According tohis 1850 preface and the notes to three poems appended to the commentary and dated to the same year, Chang Hsin-chih had been readingthe Hung-lou meng since he was quite young , but did not begin hiscommentary on it until1828 2 For over twenty years he worked on it ashis career and travels took him from the capital to Manchuria in thenorth, through South China, and twice to Taiwan. It was during thesecond stay in Taiwan that the commentary was co mpleted . The littlethat we know about Ch ang Hsin-chih comes solely from the prefatorymaterial to his commentary and from scattered remarks in the commentary itself. He seen1.s to have been an itinerant scho lar w ho supported

1 Th ese prefaces, the tuja essay, and three poems written by Chang 1-lsin-shih tocommemorate the completion of his commentary are available in typeset form in 1-ILJ\IIC,pp. 34- 38, I 53 - 59, and 506- 7 and HLMSL , pp. 48-53

2 For the preface, see HL J\IfC, p. 34 and HL viS L, pp. 50 - 52 . For the poems and theno tes to them, see HLJ\IIC, pp. 506-7 and HLJ\IlSL, p. 52. Mo st of the details areco rroborated in the ot her prefatory pieces, particularl y the one by Wu-kuei shan-jen

HLMC , HLJ\IISL, pp

r l.rt Introduction 317himself by doing secretarial work on the staffs of local governmentofficials. One of the reasons that it took so long to finish the project w assurely the fact that a friend who borrowed his only copy managed tolose it , forcing him to start all over again.

Perhaps Chang I-lsin-chih originally planned to publish a printededition of his commentary . At one point he remarks that his commentary would smdy justi6y the cutting of woodblock s for its publication,3and the last item of the tuja essay says that the illustrations and accompanying colophons in his edition are based on that of the twenty-fourwoodblock illustrations in the original text of the novel that he used forhis commcntary.4 The Peking Library copy, ho weve r, contains no illustrations. The earliest notice of the commentary found outside thework itself is by Liu Ch'i.ian-fu J ~ i j \ p j \ (ca. I8I8 - r88o). He was a bookcollector of wide fame who was one of the owners of the so-called"Chia-hsi.i" q: r.X (1754) copy of the Shih-t'or.t chi w ith commentary bythe group of commentators collectively known by the name of theirmost famous member, Chih-yen chai I J ~ l i f i (Red Inkstone Studio). Intwo notes wr itten by him on the end pages of the "Chia-hsi_i" edition,Liu Ch\ian-fu mentioned that he obtained a copy of the Miao-fu hsi.iancommentary ( bound in twelve oversize volumes") in 1863 and lent it toSun T'ung-sheng in 1867. 5 Sun T'ung-sheng (1 852 chin-shih)published th e first printed edition of the commentary in 1881.6 According to hi m, Liu Ch'i.ian-fu's copy did not contain the text of the noveland he had to spend about ten years matching the comments to the text

3 See his preface, HLMC, p. 34 and HL v SL, p. so.4 The descrip tion of the twenty-four illustrations matches those of the 179 1- 92 p rint ed

editions of the nov el published by Ch'eng Wei-yLian {i\ft/; j[; In this item , C han g 1lsinchih also mentions what he considers to be an inferior edition with only fifteen illustrations. The ea rliest ed ition described in HLl'vfSL that fits his description dates to aboutr8r8 (see HLlvlS L, p. 39, T'eng-hua h s i ~ 1 edition), and was followed by num erous

r e ~ n ~ _5 A facsimile edition is available, Ch' ien l g chia-hsii pw Chih-yen clwi ch 1111g-p illg

Shih-t o11 chi ijil:lliEtl \ ;* J l lil\1 'if ru:B i 1:5 j j ~ ilc (1754 Copy of the Repeated Co mm entaryon the Story of he Stotte from Red lnk stone Studio}, 2 vo ls. (Ta ipe i: Comm ercial Press ,1961). There is a discussion of Liu Ch Lian-fu and Sun T'ung-sheng in the last section ofthe postface by Hu Shih appended to the second volum e (pp. 8a - 9a). C hang 1-lsin-chihseems to indicate that his commentary u sed oversized woodblocks (see item 30 of he ll


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320 VII. Chang H sin -chih on the Hung- lou 1r1engbeen transcribed. Yao Hsieh's no tes contain extracts fi ol'n the work ofother w ri ters on th e novel, and the transcriber has also added his andother people's comments to this conglomeration.15 It is fairly clear thatth is copy or one }ike it was the base tex t for the commentary in the"Wang-Yao edition, 6 but whereas the complex provenance of thevarious comments is kept clear in the original by the use of differentcolored inks and the location of the comments, this m aterial has beenindiscriminately copied into the la ter printed edition and all looselyattributed to Yao I-:lsieh .17

Starting with the decad e of the I 88os, new editions of the Hung-loumeng with commentary appeared at a stupendous pace. This decade sawthe large-scale introduction and use of m odern printing techniques likelithography and metallic movable type, with Shanghai as the center ofactivity. That there was money to be ma de printing new editions can beseen from the sh eer number of editions produced, and from the fact thatin I 892 a printing of 2,500 copies was sold off in a month. 1 8 In this kindof climate it is understandable that publishers used somewhat unorthodoxm.ethods to try to gain a share of this market. In the r88os two mainkinds of editions vied for supremacy. On the one hand there were thelithographic editions titled Chin-yii yiian : : U ~ (Afl: nity of Gold andJ ade) put out by the T'ung-wen shu -chi.i with tex tu al commentary byWang Hsi-lien, Yao H sieh, and C hang Hsin-chih. The fmt edition ofthis type dates from I 884, on ly three years after the fnst printed editionof the Chang Hsin-chih commentary by Sun T'ung-sheng. On the other

1 5 Som e of the sections of Yao Hsieh's comm ent ary are dat ed to 1849. Som e of theother m aterial from o ther sources dat es from after his death.

16 T w o sources that att es t to the independ ent ex istence of a manuscrip t copy of YaoH sieh' s tex tual com mentary on the novel are quoted in HLJ\;IS L , pp . 57- 58. On e assertsthat a copy belonging to 1-Isu Yii-chih z w as used by him w hen he brought out thefirst printed edition in which it appeared. It should be added that the Yao Hsieh chaptercomments and the "Tsung-p ' ing" ~ I I I ~ ' (General C om ments) attributed to him appear inboth the Wan g-Yao-Chang and the Wang-Yao editinns and are based on th e samesource. T he Tsun g-p'ing is particularly interes tin g. In the transcrib ed version of YaoH sieh's comm enta ry, these sho rt , elliptic comm ents are cor rectly describ ed as notes toC hiang C h' i's 1 W t I-Iung-lvu 1 leng shih " ~ U : ) , [ ~ : ~ l ' (Po em s on the Hung-lou ll eng; for thetex t o f th e poems and notes, see HLJ\;[C, pp . 475 - 90) , but in the printed edit ions they arepresented (after minimal editing) as sum mary comments on th e novel b y Yao Hsi eh .

1 7 Th e most easily available. reprint of the Wan g-Yao commentary editions of theHu11g-lou 1/leng is probably that reproduced in the Kuo-hsiieh chi-pw ts ung-s111 @ll&ji\; l;:$:J&i f (Basic S inological C ollection ; T aipe i: C om mercial Pr ess, 1968), vo ls. 257- 58 . Thisis a repr int of the fust publication of this series in 1933 by the sam e publisher. Th e titlepage reads Tswg-p'iug pu-t'u S hih-t'ou chi . l t i ~ ~ 1 i \ H i i l l J : E i (S tory of he St011e w ith Add edCo mm entary and Illust rati ons).

Introduction 32 1hand there w ere th e editions entitled S hih -t'ou chi put out first by theKuang-pai-sung chai in or slightly before r886. The founder of the latterpublishing house, Hsi.i Yi.i-chih f% fi z ,was one of the co founders of theTung-wen shu-chi.i. An r889 edition of the Chin-yii y iian has a noticestating that the edition was printed by the T'ung-wen shu-chi.i, but thatthe blocks are the propehy of the Kuang-pai-sung chai. 19 Instead ofantagonistic competition between the two publishers, it seems mo re likea case of splitting the market, w ith two difl:-erent titles used to sell verysimilar ma terial. Th e fac t that in the Shih- t'ou chi editions spoken ofhere the nam.e Hung-lou rneng wa s changed to S hih-t'ou chi wherever itoccurs in the Hung- lou 1neng tu-fa and in the Ch'eng Wei-yi.ian ; f t l ( t ~ : [preface to the novel reprinted in both filiations seems to indicate anattempt by the publisher to differentiate this new edition from the earlier .one. Thus H si.i Yi.i-chih could avoid competition between th e two publishing houses for the sa le of a no vel with the same name.20

The shorter version of the tu-fa essay in the "Shih-t'ou chi editions,does not, however, have anything to do with Yao Hsieh. There is noevidence that Yao Hsieh, an avid reader and critic of any kind of ma terialdealing with his favorite novel , even knew of the Chang H sin- chihcommentary. The transcribed version of Yao H sieh 's commentary doesnot contain the tu-fa essay. We can onl y assum e that H si i Yi.i-chih oroth ers involved in publishing the Wan g-Yao commentary editions concocted it themselves. The editing work was done very roughly, but onetrend is very clear. The most tendentious (and in the end most representative of Chang Hsin-chih ) of the original items in th e tu-Jn essay havebeen omitted or shortened. All personalizing elem ents hav e been removed, such as Ch ang H sin-chih 's habit of referring to himself in thethird person by a shortened form of his nom de plume or narrative initem twenty-six about ho w he arrived at his " breakthrough " in understanding the Hung-lou meng.

Chang H sin -chih's reputati on as a critic of fiction does not stand veryhigh either in China or abroad. Part of that mi ght simply be du e tounfamiliarit y w ith his work or prejudice aga in st som e of th e basic ideas

19 See HL vfS L , p. 62. Th ese two publishin g hou ses also collabo rated on an edi tion ofthe Liao-chai chil1- i ' l i \ H t l ' 4 (S trange Stor ies from Desultory S tud io) and a Mao T sungkang commentary edition of the San-ku b yen-i in 18 86.

20 To avoid a ban on the publication df the Huug-lou meng in Shan ghai, publishers useda variety of nam es on the title pages to avo id confisca tion. Two more nam es used at th istime were Ta -kuan yiian so- 11 :::lc /liJ Illl j (Ramblin g R eco rd of G rand Prospect Gar den)and C h i u ~ ~ t a hsiw KJ ill (S to ry o f the G odd ess of D isillusionm ent). In the latterwork, the edi ting w as not done very care fully- the earlier titles to r th e nove l appear inI P V F> l1 n l ro r L - r . I


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322 VII. Chang Hsin-chih on the Hung-lou nteng. b t c nnot be denied thathat he nunipulates in lus comrnentary, u I a _

many of his ideas are quite strange at first sight, a fact that he rnentwnshi:nself in his interlineal and chapter comments. One of lns less o r 1 ~ v m g. .d This kind of person cannot even read hJmse. ' yetdetractors once sal , , , = ill 21 Whateverhe oes and composes a how to read [tu-fa I*] essay. . _q u a ~ r e l we might have with Chang Hsin-chih's often reductwmst a r ~ u ments that the multitex tu red and subversive narratrve of the H ~ m f tlrneng is nothing but a restatem ent in a slightly unorthodox styl e o_basic teachings of the Confucian classrcs, we should not allow our kdJstance from or impatience with such a notion to prevent us from tahim seriously either as a critic or as a representative and rnfluent ral readerof the noveL , b 1 h t t of theIn the translation of the Hung-lou meng tu-fa e ow, t e ex _essay follows that of the manuscript version . R e,ferences to th e e s ~text of the novel are to the reprint of a late Ch mg ed1t10n wJth _lineal and chapter comments by Chang Hs m- cl1Jh_22 R t o ~ t ~ f dlish translations of the novel are to The Story of tile Stone YHawkes and John Minford.23

I I ., (N o tes on Read-21Y I-h [ l l - f f r ~ (pseud. ) Tu Hung-lou Jeng c u -c 11 i l P t > i L nc _ e 1 0 '' ' - HLlVIC ? 8 _ 9 ? T he qu otation occurs oning the Hu11g-lou meng), reprodu ced In , PP - 5 - -p. 286 . This is a late C h'in g w ork.

22 See n . I I above for details.2 3 Abbrev iated as Slone.

How to Read the Dream of he R ed CharnberHow to Read the Dream of he R ed Chamber

Translated and Annotated by ANDREW H . PLAKSAdditional Annotation by DAVID L. ROLSTON

323

L The Hung-lou meng is a li terary work that is not only ver y appealing [k'uai-chih jen-k'ou I ] ~ :fj( A 1=1 but, more important, it also ca rves adeep impression on the mind , moving and transforming one's nature andemotions lhsing-ch'ing 11 t lf]. 1 It go es even further than the C hin P'ingMei in produ cing potentially dangerous effects, in tha t r eaders are proneto recognize only its im mediate surface r h e n g - r n i e n lLM J, failing toperceive what lies o n the other side [fan-mien mi ]. 2 Occasionally som eone with g reat vision ma y per ceive and fathom (its true meaningJ, butstill, du e to its elusive and confusing quality, no sooner has he g rasped itthan it slips aw ay agai n, so that it is still very hard to avoid becomingentangled. My 3 com mentary [p 'i-p'ing JJUW] m akes the ce nt ral m eani ng

1 Thi s translation is based on the text of the thirty-item man uscript copy of the essaytranscribed in HL lv C pp . 153- 159 and checked against th e manuscript copy held in thePeking Library upon which it was based. Where relevant, reference will be made totextual variants in tw o other filiations of the tex t: (1 ) the r 881 version published by SunT'ung-sh eng w ithou t the last thr ee items, also rep rinted in late Ch 'ing editions generallyusing the title Chin -yLi y iian ' l i z > ~ l d (A tTini ty of Go ld and J ade), and (2) a shorterversion found in late C h'ing editions with comm entary by Wang [-lsi- lien I :lfi Wi andYao Hsieh dE l't but without tha t o f Chang Hsin- cbih Jllf l9r2_, usually w ith Sh ih-t'ouchi (Story of the Stone) in the title. Shih-t'ou chi is t he preferred title of thenovel found in the early manuscript copies w ith com mentary by C hih-ye n chai, but fro mthe time of the first printed edition at the end of the eighteenth century on in to themiddle o f the follow ing century, the alterna te title of Hung-lou IJJeng (D ream ofthe Red Chamber) w as the mo st popul ar designation fo r the noveL As stated in theintroduction above, there is a fa irl y concerted effort in the la te C h'ing Sbih- t' ou ch ieditions t o change the title of the nove l fro m [-Tung- lou meng to Shih- t 'o u chi inpreexisting pieces rep ublished in those editions. In the Shih - t'ou chi version of thisessay, the title H ung-lou meng is ne ver u sed as the general title of the nove l and is no teven to be found in the list of alternate titles in the last item of that ve rsion (not found inthe manuscript o r Chin -yLi yLian versions). Not onl y is H ung-lou meng changed toShih-t'ou chi, often the latter title is inserted into the text where the o ther versionmerely says th is boo k or uses similar ind irect ph rases.

2 Many of th e traditional cr itics of the H ng -lo mwg dwell at leng th on the discrepancy between the m im etic surface and the hidden mean ing of the tex t, par ticularly asallegorized in the tw o-sided mirror tha t p roves to be the und oing of C hia Ju i in cha p. 12 .Chih-yen chai dra ws an explicit analogy betw een the fateful mi rror and the tex t of thenovel in a comment o n that passage of he nove l, in Chih-yen clwi ch 1mg-p iug S hih-t'clll chi

ifl ~ i j i f i lj( (R epeated Co mm entary on the S tory of the Sto ne by Reel InkstoneStudio; Pek ing: Wen-hsLi eh ku-chi k an-hs ing she, 1955), p. 12.268.3 Thr oughou t thi s essay and in his interlineal and chapter com m ents on the no vel,

Chang Hsin-chih refe rs to him se lf from time to tim e as H sien-jen IKJ A_ (The M an of


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324 VII. Chang Hsin-chih on the Hung-lou meng- the other side of th e book- come welling up into full view, making itpossible for those who read the book to derive the proper warning andthose who discourse on it to be free of guilt. 4 Is this not a m arve lou sachievement?

2. The Story of the Stone is a book that sets forth latent patterns ofnature and reason [hsing-li i ~ U I U In this it traces its ancestry to the Tahsiieh ::k: l.ljl\ [The Great Learning] and derives its lineage from the Chungyrmg ~ 1 = Jl f [The Doctrine of the Mean]. That is why it states, throughPao-yi.i., There are no real books other than that which teaches the'restoration of the original brightness of one's inherent virtue' 5 orNot hing but the Ta-hsiieh and the Chung-yung. 6 The main purpose of

this book is to elucidate the teachings of the Ta-hsiieh and the Chungyrmg. It uses the example of the Ching . f b i f i . ~ [Book of Changes) toportray the waxing and waning of fortunes; it uses the example of theKuo-feng ) Til [Airs of the States; a section of the Shih-ching F.if

(Classic of Poetry)] to set apart the chaste from the lewd; it uses the4The last part of this sentence recalls the language of a section of the so-called Great

Preface (Ta-hsii : \ ) f;) to the Shih-chillg ~ ~ f (Classic of Poetry) on the admonitorymeaning of th e important termje11g l fi\, which reads, injames J.Y. Liu's translation, Thenthe one who speaks does not commit any offense, while it is enough for the one wholistens to take warning'' See his Chi es e T heor ies of Literature (Chicago: University ofChi cago Press, 1975), p. 112. The personal tone ofthe first part of the sentence is avoidedin the Shih-t'o u chi version s, w here the entire sentence reads, Once hav ing beencommented on, this causes the auth or's central meaning- the other side of the book- tobe as readily accessible to one's perception as the whorl patterns on one's ow n fi ngertips,so that one can finally decide whether or not the Sto ry of the Stone produces dangerouseffects.

5 1-Is i-j en (Aroma) attributes this saying to Pao-yii in chap. r9, CYY 19j 5a (283) an dStone r. 19.391. References to CYY indicate chapte r and original page number, withmodern pagination in parentheses. P...eferences to Stolle indicate volume, chapter, and pagenumber. The quote in the essay is from the opening section of the Ta-hsiieh, referred to byDavid Hawkes as Illllfnillatiull of" Clear Virt11e. For Chinese text and trans lation, see jamesLegge, trans., The Chinese Classics, 5 vols. (Hong Kong: Hong Ko ng University Press, 1960),vol. 1, p. 356. The passage in the novel in question is crucial to the meaning of the largerwork, in that the orthodox interpretation of the expression ming ming-te fjlj lJ y g as theproper order ing of self and world in the Confi.1cian sense was also subject to a quiteopposite exegesis in terms of the cultivation of the individual self in isolation. Theoccurrence in the novel is particularly ironic, since it is the maid l-Isi-jen who warns Paoy ii to refrain from voicing this sort of exaggerated emp ha sis on the mi11g-te concept to theexclusion of all other learning, while at the same time exhorting him to serious study ofthe Four Books , which include this very passage.

6 CYY 23j27a (327) and Stolle 1.2] .463- 64. Pao-yii makes this remark whe n Tai - yiicatches him reading the romantic play Hsi-hsim1g chi f f r j F , ~ (Romance of the WesternChamber) and asks him what he is reading. In an int erlinea l comment on the text at thispoint, Chang l-Isin-chih paraphrases Pao-y(i's remark, The ent ire H t ~ 1 1 g - l o 1 1 meng is

How to Read the Dream of he Red Chamberexample of the Ch'un-ch'iu :W f}( [The Spring and Autumn Annals J toconvey praise and blame [yii-to f ~ } : and borrows also from. the examples of the Li-ch ing f f t i H ~ [Classic of RitesJ and the Yr:eh -ch i 3\ 2 JRecordofMusic]. 7 .3. The Ching, the Ta-hsiieh, and the Chung-yung are all standardtexts. 8 The Hung-lou nreng, which borrows from and expands upon theirteachings , is an extraordinary text. 9 That is why it says, Whom can Iask to pass on this extraordinary tale? 1 0

4 Master Hu said, When Confucius composed the Ch'un-ch'iu hedid not se t down everyday events, but only recorded on bamboo slipsinstances of the breakdown of standards and the violation of principles,with the purpose of edifying later generations so that they might rectifytheir ways of thinking, restore moral order and th e adherence toprinciple, and bring social interaction into a state of harmony, 11 Thisbook [th e Hung-lMt meng] definitely borrows this idea Jfrom the Ch'unch iu].

5 True learning is based on clear insight into human activities,Genuine culture lies in the skillful manipulation of human relationships. 12 It is to this point that our attention is called throughout thebook. For this reason, in its representation [p'u-hsr: }ill 11. 1 of humannature and mundane affairs, th ese [qualities ] emerge with brilliant

7 U-chiug is another name for the I-Ii R f f i ~ (Book of Etiqu ette and Ceremo nial) , and theYlieh-chi is the name of one of the chapters in the Li-chi j ~ ~ G (Book ofRites). To this listof classical works that allegedly influenced the author, th e Shih -t'ou chi versions addtwo literary works: the Chuang Tz11 llf }- by Chuang C hou and the Li-sa,> v1IU Jff: (Encountering Sorrow) by Ch'i.i Yiian.

8 Th e list of orthodox texts in the Shih-t'ou ch i versions also includ es the Chua11gTz u, the Li-sa o, the Kuo-feng, and the Ch'un-ch'itl.9 Chang Hsin-chih uses this same type of opposition in his chapter comm ent to chap. 3,

CYY, p. 3/7b (llo). The S hih-t 'o u chi versions give the title here as Story < ~ / t h eStone.10 See CYY, rfz (73) and Stone, 1.1.49 This is the last line in agatha (a l3uddhist verse

form) on th e reverse side of the stone upon which the or iginal story of the stone isrecorded.11 The I 881 Sun T'ung-sheng ed ition and the Shih-t'ou chi and some of the Chin

yti ytian versions as well have the additional words Chih - t'ang iff.i: before Master1-Iu's name which, if there is anything behind it, would identify the Master Hu inquestion as Hu Yin NJ (1098- r 156). Another candidate is f-lu Yin's uncle, Hu An-kuoM ti.:lllil (I073 - 1i38). Both men were classicists and f-lu An-kuo in particular wrote astandard commentary on the C h \ m - c h ' i ~ < , Ch'm-ch'i H11-shih elm '{ f. {1\ ~ l j J( ( ~ j (MasterHu's Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals). As this quote ha s not yetbeen identified as coming fiom either man, the attribution mu st remain open for thepresent.

12 CYY, s/r4a (123) and Stone, I.S. 126. The sight of his couplet hanging in Ch'in K'o-rh1 .. . . - L - - 1 '


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326 VII. Chang Hsin-chih on the Hung-lou 1nmgclarity as if a phosphorescent rhinoceros-horn candle [hs i-ch )riH\%]had been turned on them. 13 In comparison with other works of ftction,this book is ahead of its predecessors. 14

6. The entire text of the Hung-lor rneng can be summed up in onephrase from the Tso-chuan ~ r : { ~ ~ [The Tso Commentary], condemnation for failure to instruct [shih-chiao rty: ).l 5

7. The I Ching has the following passage: When a minister murdershis lord or a son murders his father, this is not due to the events of asingle n1.orning and evening. T he ultimate causes lie in the gradualdevelopment of circumstances." 16 Therefore one must assiduously guardagainst the frost developing into ice underfoot. 1 7 The entire text of the

13 By lighting a rhinoceros-horn torch, Wen Ch'iao ilfililli ll (288- 329) was able to see thedemons inhabiting deep water, who were usually hidden from sight. See Wen Ch'iao'sbio graphy in the Chi11-Sh11 \ / (History of the Chin Dynasty; Peking : Chung-hua shuchLi, 1974), p. 67.1795. This allusion is also used in the Hsieh I" preface to the C hangChu-p'o commentary on the Citin P'ing Mei to describe the effect of that commentary onthe reader's perception of what he reads in that novel, Like the fox spirit revealed in theCh'in mirror and the wat er demons exposed by Wen Ch'iao's rhinoceros torch, the realappearance [of the characters in the novel] is completely revealed" - \ l r k i J J J f \ ' W : ~ ~ , t l ~

1 . ~ 11f:, l t\ 1' i l ' ~ r'll: M.14 Th e Sh ih-t'ou chi" versions omit the first half of the set phrase lwu -lai chii- slwng

& ~ A H I . f "a case of the latecomer surpassing those who came before."15 T his phrase is used in th e Tso-cl llatt, first year of Duke Yin (721 n.c.), to explain the

reason why the Ch'wt-ch'i" refers to the ruler of Cheng only as an earl (po J ) . See .JamesLegge, trans., The Chi11ese Classics, vol. 5, pp. 1- 7. According to a standard interpretationof this famous narrative, the ruler of Cheng, Duke Chuang (r. 743 701 B.c. , preferred togive his brother enough rope to hang himself rather than try to instruct him in the properway of conducting himself. Chang Hsin-chih uses this phrase in his textual commentaryon the novel, see chapter comm ents CYY 9/sa (r8r), r r/IJb (198), 23j28a (329), 34/4b(450). This section of the Tso-tlutatt is also referred to by him in an interlineal comment,CYY 17/4tb (254).1 " See Shih-sa11 chi11g ching-ll'ett - -:=:: f i H ~ 1: (Text of the Thirteen Classics; Taipei: T'aiwan K'ai-ming shu-tien, 1955), 1--Veu-yeu )( (Commentary on the Words of the Text)appendix to the k'tllt ~ ~ ~ ~ hexa gram of the I Ching, p. 2 and Richard Wilhelm, The I Chingor Book of Changes, Cary F. Baynes, trans. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967),p. 393

17 This conceit has its source in a comment on one of the lines of the k'un hexagra m(Shilt-saa ch ing ching-ll'en, p. 2 and Richard Wilhelm, The I Ching, p. 389), When there ishoarfrost underfoot, solid ice is not far off ("hi shuang chien ping chih" J w J ~ v l i l i O kbut the author might have in mind a line from the concluding remarks in the biographyof Emperor Kao-tsung of the T'ang (r. 649- 683) in the Hsilt T'aag-shu ffi JiJH (NewHistory of the T'ang Dynasty; Peking: Chung-hua shu-chi.i, 197 5), p. 3 79, in reference tothe failure of the emperor's father to take steps to avert disruption to the dynasty latercaused by Wu Tse- t'ien (624-705), Not taking warning from the gradual developmentof frost underfoot, the poison was allowed to spread throughout the land, bringing great

How to Read the Dream of he Red Charnber 327H ~ m g - l o u rneng is an elaborrrion of ust this concept of gradual development rei-lien ~ W i ].1 8

8. According to the Ho-lin yii-lu,19 the writing of Chuang Tzubrings being out of nothingness; the writing of the Chan-kuo ts e r f l ~ / w:[Intrigues of the Warring States] turns indirectness into dir ectness. All hislife, Su Tung-p'o [1037- IIOI] was well versed in these two books, so inhis prose the m eanin g reaches beyond what the actual text says, the argument is refmed and to the point, without the least bit of hesitation. 2 0I would like to use these ame words to describe the Story of he Stone.

9. The narration lhs1:-shih &Z ] in this book is mostly modeled afterpassages in th e C ha11.-kuo ts e, the Shih-chi J.: ilc [Records of the Historian],and the prose writings of th e three masters of the Su family ."21

IO The I-Iun,J?-lou rneng grows out of [t'o-t'ai Jli Jf:ll the Hsi-ytt-chifi.YlaH2 [The Journey to the West], 22 takes a trail rchieh -ching 1 1 : \ ' i Iblazed by the C hi11. P'ing f.. ,fei, and takes its spirit [she-shen Jili'i I fromthe Shui-h1t ch11m1 71 1m=1Ji fThe Water Margin].. J I The Hung-lou meng conceals within itself a Chin P i11.g lvlei. ThatIS why IPao- yLi IS sa id to indulge in] "excess of the mind ji-yin ~ ? , ' 0 J . 2

18 Chang Hsin-c hih uses this concept frequently in his commentary. See CYY 3/5b(108), ro/Sb (r88), and 28/7a (379), all interlin ea l comments.19 A collection of scholarly not es and random jottings by the Sung scholar Lo Ta-chingli:.kl'il (1226 chin-shih). See 1-Io- /in yii-lu j ' l ( ~ ; t t . : E ~ (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chci, 1983),p. 167 for the passage quoted by Chang 1-lsin-c hih below.20 The citation has omitted here tour characters found in the original text (heug -sh11o

slw-slwo t i i H l t ~ W l "discoursing at will backwards and forwards"). The worJing of th e"Shih-r'ou chi" versions is slightly different.21 Su H si.in t i l ~ (I009- ro66) and his two sons, Su Shih @"(ipJ\ (ro37 - 1LOr) and Su Ch'effi.U it (I039-1 I I2) .22 Some critics hold rather that it is Chang I-Jsin-chih's style of criticism that grows out

of the work of commentators on the l-Isi-y11 chi such as Wang Hsiang-hsLi 1 %< )i i, Ch 'enShih-pin ~ J i i %t Chang Shu-shen 5lli:'i Hf/l, and Lin I-ming IU - r]lj_ See Ts'ai Yiian-p'eij/f)[;J."fi= (1867- 1940), Shill-l'ou chi so-yin r i i l J . ~ ~ c ' , W I \ \ : (The Key to the Story o(the Sto11e),quoted in HL v C, p. 319 and Han Chin-lien \il(:):lliEfii, I-Iung-hsiieh shih-kao ~ t l & j \ ~ f i * J (ADraft History ofRedolog y [The Study of the Htmg-lou tneng]; Shih-chia-chuang: Ho-pe iJen-mm , 198 1) , p. rp . For other premodern discussions of the relationship between thesetwo novels, see Chou Ch 'un /il'J Jf Yiieh Hwtg-lou meng sui-pi IJE KtiJ-i J , : l i ' ~ : ; ~ ~ ~ ~ (RandomNotes on Reading the Hung-lou 111eng), quoted in HLMC p. 77 and Meng-ch'ih hsiichjen ~ f n ~ A (pseud.), lvfmg-ch'ih shuo-meng @ l : J E r i f i l t ~ (Dream Talk fi:om Dream-Crazy),quoted in 1-ILMC, pp. 220, 224. The phrase t'o-t'ai lllillil is similar to the Ch'an sloganused by Huang T'ing-chien ~ l f i ~ (I045 - ll05), to-t'ai lwan-ku l l ~ t J J ; f l J J f : : ' l ~ , throughwhich he advocated the production of new poetry by starting out with and transformingthe works of the famous poets .

23 Th e Chill P i11g vfei is renowned for its dep iction of sexual indulgence on the part ofits main character, 1-Isi-men Ch'ing. In the passage in chap. 5 where Pao -y ii is told that heis characterized by "excess of the mind, a distinction is made between carnal and m ental

1


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328 VII. Chang 1Isin-chih on the Hung- lou me gFor th e Chin P' ing llifei we have the theory of frustrated filiality [k'u--hsiaoshuo '@:\',;)tf lt j;24 accordingly that book concludes [chieh expli citlywith the concept of filial piety. 25 This book, on the other hand, concludes with a vague implica tion offtliality.26 As for the hidd en sufferingcontained in thi s work, it is far deeper than that of the author of the ChinP'ing Mei. The Chin P'ing M ei works out th e concepts of co ld [ eng

and heat [je '\' \ ].2 7 This book also works out the concepts ofcold and heat. The C hin P'ing Mei works out the concepts of

24 See the essay of that title included among the introductory essays prefacin g ChangChu - p' o' s com m entary to the C l1i1J. P'i11g vfei. C han g C hu - p'o s argument seem s to be anex tension of the popular idea that Wang Shih-chen IIJ: J41: (I 526- 1590) w ro te the novelas part of a plot to avenge th e dea th of his father at the hands of Yen Sung lii U i;(1481 - 1568) and his so n , Yen Shih -fa n 'H IU::jlf (15 3 - 1565), but in the essay only the ideaof fru stra ted filiality is kept, without any of the deta ils of the Wang Shih-chen story. In histll -j(l essay on the no vel, Chan g C hu -p'o seems to deny the no tion that Wang Shih -chen isthe author as claimed in the traditional sto ry (see chap. lV above, item 36), and one of i11 sint erlineal comments on the no vel says that th e work was probably compl eted after th efa ll from power of Yen Sung and his SOIL See p. 98/Sb of the 1695, large-c haracter Tsaitzu t a ng ::E_H 5 ; edition. .

25 The h in P'ing Mei end s with Hsi-men Ch'ing's posthumous son, Hsiao-ko 3if: :rn("F ilial Brother ), beco ming the disciple of a Buddhist monk. C han g C hu -p'o interpretsthi s event positively, tak ing 1-Isiao-ko as the reinca rnat ion of Hsi-m en C h'ing and hisJOining the Buddhist ta ith as an act of atonement for the sins of his previous life. See chap.rv above, item 26 of the Clti11 P' ing 1 lfei tuja essay.

26 As proof of the con tenti on that the novel ends with the concept of filiality, ChangI-Tin -c hih points to the tact that the title of chap. 1 r6 cont ains the words ch'iiau hsiao-tao1i: 3if: )ll ([C hia Cheng] co mpl etes the way of filial piety) , although the author of thatchapter probably only had in mind the rather prosaic id ea of Chia C hen g escor ting hi smother's corpse home for burial. See YY n6j23a (14 87), chapter comm en t, for Chang1-lsin-chih's rema rks. He uses the conce pt of "frustra ted ft iality " to exp lain the novel inchapter comm ent s, YY 3/7a (IO'J), 120/54a (1549), and interlineal comment s such as5/ 13b (122). Chang 1-lsin-c hih also held that Pao-yLi appears in the last chapter wearing ared cape because the author wanted to criticize his failure to fulfill the dema nd s of filialpiety. Sec YY I20/47b (1536), interlinea l comment.

27 For Cha ng Chu-p 'o's discuss ion of this pair of concept s as metaphors for structuralprinciples in th e novel, see chap. IV above, items 10, 25 , 83, 87, and 88 of his ChinP'iug Nfei tu-j;, essay. H e also has a sepa rate essay on this subj ect, "Leng-je chin-chen"

1 \ flz iH (The Secret ofl-lot and Cold), included in his prefatory pieces to his commentary on that nove l. For further disc ussion, see Andrew H. Plaks, Tl1e Four 1\ fastenuorks ofthe l\ Iing Novel (Princeton: Princeton U niv ersity Press, 1987), pp. 81 - 85 . A relat ed u sagecan be found in Mao Tsung-kang's disc ussion of hot and "cold" passages in the Sankuo ye11-i r ' l l i l ' ~ (T he Romance of the Three Kin gdom s), in item 15 of his tuja essayfor that nove l (sec chap. 111 above). In H ung-lou meng criticism thi s distinction tak es on apa rticular signi tlcance in term s of the a lternation betwe en excitem en t (je-11ao f. \ ll1ft) andennui (u>11-liao :lf lill in the li fe of the characters in the Grand Prospect Garden. SeeAndrew [-l. Plaks , .flrchetype


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330 VII. Chang H sin -chih on the H ung -lou mengthey are the name of the song-suite on the twelve beauties. 5 That isto say, the twelve beauti es is the descriptive outline [mu f=l] of thedream, while the term "passion" in "The Record of the Monk of Pa ssion" is its summation [kang WJ]. That is why I have posited threemajor structural sections [tuan St] within the first twelve ch apters: thefirst section wrapping up lchieh i ] the "story of the stone, the secondsection wrapping up the "dream in the red chamber," and the thirdsection wrapping up the story of the "p recious mirror oflove, with thesto ry of the "Monk of Passion" and the "Twelve Beaut ies serving asthe summa tion and detailed outline of it all. 36

14. This rnonumental tex t in one hundred and twenty chapters isvast and boundless like an ocean and , yet, it still ha s its own str ucturaldivisions [tuan-lo \i:nn which one can seek out. Sometimes four ch;Jptersco mprise a section [tuan \i: ]; som.etimes th ree chapt ers co mprise a section; even one or two chapters can comprise a section. T he divisionsbetwe en them are always clearly demarcated [in my co mm.entary]; itwo uld neve r do to try to take it all in in a sin gle gulp. M y pointing outof these [th e structural divisions] will save the reader a considerableamount of m ental effort.

15. Pao-yi.i has a personal name but no courtesy name [tz u t h u scausing the reader to search for meaning within that very namelessness.37 This is what is m eant by the idea th at there is a so-called state ofla ten cy "before the con crete feelings of oy, ang er, sorrow, and delighthave arisen [weija * or that "within the original state of theun ive rse prior to the em ergence of con cre te manifestations [hsien-t ien\:; there are no nam es. 3 9

16. In this book Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yi.i are presented in tandem with35 See CYY 5/ 17b - t9a (130- 33) , Stolle .) .1 39- 4436 Fo r mo re on C hang Hsin-c hih 's division of these tw elve ch apters, see his chaptercomnwtts to chaps. L CYY t /6b [821) , 4 (4/12 b [uo]), 5 (5/2oa [1 351), 9 (9/sa [1 81 ]), and

12 (12/17b [2o 6J). T he thr ee sections are all our chapters in length (chaps. 1- 4 , s- 8,9- 12).

37 T he au thor is here playin g w ith a ver bal pun that ar ises from the fact that the phraseV -tz u , ~ j : can refer bo th to the absence wu tOof a cou rtesy na me tz u =) and also tothe C hin ese character (tz u) fo r nothingness (wu).

38 This refers to th e fourth section of th e op eni ng paragraph of th e Cl11mg-ytmg. SeeJ am es Legge, trans., T he Chi11ese C lassics, vo l. 1 , p . 384. In both this and th e follow ingallusion , it is not so mu ch a prior state in tem po ral sequ ence as an omnipresent latentdim ens ion that is stressed in classical exegesis and is at issue her e.

39 For th e concept of hsiett-t iell (va rio usly : anterior to Heaven, prenata l state , etc. ), seechap. VI above, text and notes to items 7, 8, 33, 35, an d 41 of he Hsi-ytt chi j a essay. Theusage of his term in the metaphysical sense d iscussed in the precedin g note may betracedmo re directly to such treatises as Shao Yun g's HHili (IOll - 1077) Huang-chi ch ing-shih s tp

How to Read th e Dreant of he Red Charnber 331each other. The ma ids Hs i-j en [Aroma and C h 'ing-wen [Skybri ght arethe shad ows" [y ing-tzu i f i ~ + ] of these two characters. At every pointwh ere ,a. scene involving Pao-yii and Ta i-yii is presented, it is alwaysPao-ch ar w ho rs tak en up for treatment immediately after. When scenesmvolving _Pa o-y ii and Pao-ch 'ai are depicted , it is always Tai-yii who istaken up tor treatment im med iately after. Failing that, l-Isi-jen ma y beused as a sub stitute fo r ' Pao - ch'ai, or C h 'in g-we n may be used to substitL)te for Ta i-y ii, wh ile occasionally attention is turned to a th ird partvbut such cases are n ever far removed from the origin al situation . T hi sa majo r compositional principle rchangja of the entire text fromwhich the author never stra ys by eve n as much as a hair, retaining it ftrmand unshakab le. As for the dep iction of Tai-yii, she constantly causes111Jury to others with her sharp tongue. She is a person who is ex trem elyunadept at gettmg along w ith ot her people, ex trem.ely lackin g in concern for protect ing herself even to the point that she unwittingly treads n ght upon th e trigger of destruction lsha-chi ~ t \ t j As for the depictJOn of Pao-ch 'ai, she constantly uses material possessions to in gratiateherself with other people . She is a person who keeps her own co un seland Is extremely practiced in th e ways of the wo rld . U lt imately, however, thrs too IS all fo r nau ght. One shou ld n ot try to be like eit her ofthese two types of characters.

. 17. One Ini ght ask why the marriage plot of thi s novel mu st in vokean mn er bond between wo od and ston e, and an outer one between go ldand jad e.41 I wo uld answer that the stone of ade represent s the ht.unansoul. Th e mind shou ld strive to wa rd the good, rather than towa rd ev il.Thus, in th e philosophy of the I C hing, the principle of yanr; J ~ j ; isregard ed as supenor an d the princip le of yin as in ferior; hence the sagesuppresses ym and elevates yang.42 T he element wood is ass igned to theeastern quarter, where it ho lds sway ov er sprin gtim e and gro w th; the

4C han g 1-Isin- ch ih describes Tai-yii's pa rtial responsibili ty for her tragic fa te in sim ilarterms m a chapter comm ent CYY J4 /26b [224]) and in tc rl ineal co mm ents (7 /29b [1 ,f l28/9a [383)). ) '

. 41 T he wood-stone, go ld-ja de links, of course, describe th e pred est ined Jove and m arn age relatiOns among Pao -y ti, Ta i-y ii, and Pao -ch ai, as ma de abu ndantly clear at variouspomts m the tex t. W ha t is of sign i ficance in thi s formulati on is no t its facile use of f1vephases m um bo ju mbo, but ra ther the mann er in w hich the fi ve phases concept ualmodel1s used as the cen tra l str uctural framework arou nd which innumerable details ofthe fabnc of the nar rative are woven. Fo r a fuller elab o ratio n of these stru ctur al relations111 the nove l, see And rew H. P laks, Archetype and A llegory ill the Dream of he ned C ta berchap. 4, pp . 54 -8 3 . '

42 T his is of course but one interpretation of the yin- yang relationship in the I Chi g,wluch actually wo uld seem to stress m ore the mutual com plementarity of yin and yang


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332 VII. Chang Hsin-chih on the Hung-lou mengelement gold is assigned to the western quarter, where it holds sway overautumn and death. The trees of the forest [ Lin, Tai-yi.i's surname)are engendered by the waters of the sea. The ocean is located in theSoutheast, the do main of yang. Gold is engendered by the Hsi.ieh family[Pao-ch'ai is surnamed Hsi.ieh), that is to say, by snow [hsiieh ~ Thiscongealed and accumulated cold comes under the sign of yin. It is in thissense that the names of Lin and Hsi.ieh, referring to the elements woodand gold, take on their full significance.

r8. When ever this book narrates pattern s of union and separation (/iho ~ I f : f:::l ] bound by marriage affinity- as in the cases of Yu Erh-chieh,Yu San-chieh, Hsia Chin-kuei, 44 and others too numerous to m.entionit is always talking about nothing other than th e relations among Paoyi.i, Tai-yi.i, and Pao-ch'ai. Whenever it presents cases in which the opposition betw een predete rm.ined destiny and individual effort is at issuesuch as those of the Taoist priest Wang, the physician Wang, Pao Yung,Sha Ta-chieh 45 and others too nun1.erous to mention- it is alwaystalking about 'the role ofLiu Lao-lao [Granny Liu). It is simply a case ofchanging th e water in the brew without changing the prescription.When one knows how to view it in this way, th en it will be as simple assplitting bamboo [to understand this book) .

19. Eve ry one of the poems in the tex t has a hidden meaning, muchlike riddles. The words go in one direction, but the eye is drawn elsewhere. The degree of poetic skill is always in accordance with thespecific character in qu es tion, like a hat that is tailor-made to fit the sizeof the head. Therefore no attempt is made to rea ch for the lofty lyricismof th e great masters. In this it differs from other works of fiction wherethe author first comes up with a few poems and then arbitrarily forcesth em onto a given character. ~ J c { c ( , c r f c ~ - f q { L . r r ~ t r t ~ - 1 ~ f{ b r Ot"f\

c C },tsf" fee sec twn LOur o t e brst paragraph of the Ta -llSlleh, Jam es Legge, trans., TheChmese ClaSSics, vol. I, p. 358. The translation is based on various Neo-Confuciancommentaries that int erpret the ex press ion more in ter m s of a state of ca lm, almostreverent equanimity- a state often nearly indist in guishable from the qui etud e of Taoistand Buddhist enlightenment - than in the literal sense of "since rity. ". 48 Chang Hsin-chih discusses the use of scenes of ea ting in the novel in the followin g

' '


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334 VII. Chang Hsin-chih on th e ~ t n g l o u mengYi.ian-ch'un takes the secondary rol e, Ch'in Chung suffers the onus, andthe Prince of Pei-ching is the witness.5From Yi.ian-yang 's three turns asma ster of ceremonies in the dominoes and drinking gante in chapter 40to the suicide of Yu Erh-chieh by swallowing unalloyed gold in chapter69 cornprises the second segment. Yi.ian-yang is the dominant figure,H si.ieh Pao-ch 'in takes the secondary rol e, Yu Erh-chieh suffers the onus,and Yu San-chieh is the witness.51 From Yi.ian-yang's unwitting encounter with the sporting mandarin ducks" in ch apter 71 to Wang Hsifeng's final cha rge to the old peasant woman (Liu Lao-lao] in chapter II3comprises the third segm.ent. Liu Lao-lao and Yi.i.an-yang share the central position, Sha Ta-chieh takes the secondary role, Hsia Chin-kueisuffers the onus, and Pao Yung is the witness.52 This is another dimension of the overall structure [chieh-kou t.fil;ij:] of the entire work.

24. The entire tex t of the Story of the Stone, one hundred andtwenty chapters in all, vast and ex pansive, may be said to be prolix lJcm

but there is actually not a single line of id le verbiage in it. T hiscommentary on the Story of he Stone, more than three hundred thousandwords in all, is quite detailed and fragmentary, one might also call itprolix.53 There still remain thousands upon thousands of additionalpoints not touched upon, but it is ho ped th at the adept reader will beable to extrapo la te by analogy [ch u-lei p ang-tung 1 @ 1 1 ~ . \ \ l j l l i in order toperceive w h at has not been touched upon (in the commentary].54

25 . Some say this book has only eighty chapters and that the addi-50 Clouds and rain" is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. In chap . 36, Pao-yii cries

om in his sleep his defiance of the predes tined union of gold and ja de, w hile Pao-ch'ai sitsbeside his bed em bro iderin g a mandarin-d uck" coverlet (a topos of conjugal bliss), andTai - yi.i eavesdrops from outside the window. Chang Hsin-chih borrows the phrasing ofthe chapter title co upl et to refer to this incident, as is the case below as well. Th e use of hename Chiang-y iin hsiian" to refer to Pao -yii 's apartm ent , the I- hu ng yi.ian, makesallusion to both the m yt hical parable at the beginning of the novel d escribing Tai-yi.i'sdebt of ears" to Pao -y ii and Pao -yii's dream vision in chap.).

5 1 The manuscript ver sion mi stakenly reads chapter 6o instead of chapt er 69. Theco rre ct fi gure appears in the other versions.

52 The tex t gives chapter 71 as chapter 70. The correct fi gure app ears in the otherversion s. In C han g 1-Isin-chih 's chapter comm ent to chap. 70 (CYY 70/34a- b [927- 28])he uses the same terminology and concepts to discuss the stm cture of the no vel.

53 T he "Shih- t 'o u chi" ve rsions substitute chih : E (perfect) for the fnst occurren ce of{ m in this item. Other changes include the om ission of the leng th of the comm ent ary .

5 4 At this point, th e Sh ih-t'ou chi versions add the following item: " It is already along time that thi s book has had cur ren cy in the wo rld. It is regrettable that there has been


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VII. Chang H sin-chih on the Hung-lou meng1s no point in using comic relief, so I began to have my doubts ~ ~ o u tthis . When later on I read carefully through the song entitled TheSurvivor, 59 I saw that the rescue ofCh'iao-chieh is in reward for WangHsi-feng's kindness to her in her poverty , and this seemed to me to bethe answer. But at that point in the novel [Liu Lao-lao's f1rst visltl, 1t JSonly the sixth chapter, and a lot of the principal characters l ~ : v e not yetbeen introduced; also, immediately after the scene of Pao-yu s first taste of clouds and rain, precisely where one would expect an. extendedtreatment of the problem of emotional experience, the narrative comesto a conspicuous halt and she [Liu Lao-lao] is singled. out for s p e n ~ lattention. Pointing up her importance, special attentwn 1s pven to tracing h er oricrins and roots and to laying out her genealogical connectwnsover a n u n ~ b e r of generations. Considering all this greatly increased mydoubts. From this point on I tried reading the sections separately [ f e n ~k a ~ and together with each other [ho-k'an ~ @ ; - ~ ], line by hne andword by word , carefully savoring the :flavor wlthm. Yet It ~ ; v a s not U ~ l t l lthree years later that I finally hit upon it: it was the Way ot the I Clung,the whole book was nothing more or less than the Way of the I Ching Infact , the commentary [p'i-p'ing Jitl(q ] on the Story of the ~ t o n e by the

Man of Leisure of the Great Peace 60 really began from th1s pomt. ,Let us take Liu Lao-lao as an example. She corresponds to a pure k un

lifl hexagran1, in which the old yin generates a,_"young ~ a n g , whichexplains why she saves Ch'iao-chieh.61 Now , Ch Iao-chieh s birthdayon the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and the number seven ISthe nm nerical equivalent of the young yang. But yin do es not suddenlybecome yi11; it must begin from a sin gle yin line.62 When a smgle ym hueappears in the initial positi on at the bottom. of the he xagram., 1t forms thenew hexacrram kou .63 If we take Pao-yu to be the embod1ment ofpure yang,0 then the taste of clouds and rain represents th e entry ofa yi 11 line into the first position, thus forming the hexagram kou. ~ h ~ texplains why this scene is im mediately followed up by the scene of LmLao-lao's first entry into thejung-kuo fu ." After the yin line has movedin to pla ce, the pr ocess continues in orderly sequence, bringing us to the

5 9 This song is part of he song cycle heard by Pao-yti in his dream of chap. 5 and pertainsparticularly to the rescue of Wang Hsi- fen g's dau ghter Ch'iao-chieh by Llll Lao-lao. SeeCYY 5/19a (133) and Sto11e l.).l43 . .

60 Here Chang Hsin-chih refers to hi mself formally by the use of the full form of htsstyle or om de pittme. . .

6 1 For the tenus you ng yin and ol d ya11g, see Richard Wtlhelm , The I Cl11ng,P 7 22. . . l62 As the author goes on to explain, this means that the k'un hexagram of pure )'Ill mescan on ly be obtained through the g radual buildup of yin line by yi11 line.

How to Read the Dream of he ed Chamber 337hexagram po 64 at which point Liu Lao-lao's true image fin ally takesshape, with a- ~ i n g l e yang line significantly left over at the top of thehexagram. Now, po is the hexag ram of the ninth month, which at thejuncture with the t e n ~ h n1.onth is replaced by k'un 65 That is why herarrival takes place at the end of the season of autumn and the beginningof winter, the very height of the season of greater goings and lessercomings."66 For this reason, when the narrator is searching for a narrative th read [t ou -hsii lU il to follow, he describes a small, humblefamily" and says that this small, humble family was surnamed Wangand descended from a small, humble official in the capital. "67 Here thewords "small, humble appear three times n all, comprising six occurrences of the character hsiao + ["small"], all of which has an ineffablemeaning. The three horizontal lines in the ch'ien trigram l l correspondto the three horizontal strokes in the character wang I which, wh en we

.add a straight line in tersecting them, split s them vertically, forming thek'un trigram.68 This splitting proceeds from bottom to top. When the first line is split it forms the trigram hsun _- , representing the eld estdaughter, which is why we have a mother living in the daughter's hou se .

When the second line is split, it forms the trigram ken = =:, correspondingdog, which is why her son-in-law is called Kou-erh ["Little Dog"J.

When the third line is split , it forms the k'un trigram ::::::, which represents the minister as opposed to the ru leL This is why she h as a familymember serving in an official capacity, with clan links to the Wangfamily. 69 On this basis, this is doubled to form the entire k'un hexagramcomposed of six lines. The successive mo ves from korr __ to t ~ m top i::: ; 7 to kuan to po and then to k'un all derive from theidea of advancement from smallness. The force of this is extrem elyadvantageous, one that cannot b e suppressed. The linking of the familieswas in order to gain power and advantage, and the Jung-kuo fu is at thispoint in a phase of prosperity whose apex is still far off, which is why

64 For the po hexagram, see Richard Wilhelm, Tl-1e I Chittg, pp. 93- 96, 500- 504 .65 For the k'tm hexagram, see Ri chard Wilhelm, The I Ching, pp. I0- 5, 38 5- 97.66 For this line, see Shih-smt ching chi11g-wet1 I Ching, p'i hexagram, p. ) , and Ri chard

Wilhelm, Tlte I Chi11g, pp. 52 , 44-7 67 "Small, humble" (11siao-h siao 'J"J') might be mo re literally translated as sm all,

small." For the text of the novel, see CYY 6/21b- 22a (IJ8-39) and Stone 1.6. t )O .68 Chang H sin-chih is comparing tbe written form of the surname of Liu Lao-lao's

son-in-law, Wang, with the form of the k urt trigram.69 For a rev iew of the trigra ms and their associations, see Richard Wilhelm, T he I

Ching, pp. 266-79.7For th e hexagram, see Ri chard Wilhelm , The I Ching, pp. 129- 32 , 550 - 54 .71 For the hexagram p'i , see Ri chard Wilhelm, Tlte I Chinr. on. \2- '\ ' A Ali-< "


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VII. Chang H sin-chih on the Hung-lou 1nengthese people are accepted as distant relati ves. O f Ko u- erh 's grand fatherw e are on ly to ld that he wa s sur nam ed W ang and a native of the place[literally , the local soilJ, but no given na me is supplied. W ith respectthe expression "local soi l, we no te that k'un represent s the ea rth, butthis case t he way of th e ea rth is not successful , and the gen eratiOns areabo u t to com e to an end. That is wh y he has no giv en nam e, but lm sonis nam ed "Ch 'eng [success], because he will carry on his physical descent. If Ko u- erh is -equivalen t to th e ken tri gram, Wang Ch 'eng alsocor responds to a ken tr igram . Ken is the tri gram of the nor theast, wherethe m y riad thin gs of creation reach both the end and the begmnmg ofthe pro cess o f completion. T hat is why he is ca lled Also, then or theast is marked by the in tersec tion of w in ter and spnng phases. Th atis w hy he has a son nam ed Pan- erl1 , since the character pan i is composed of the gra ph for wood mu :;{;: ] and the phon etic elem entfan &[toret urn], thus expressing the idea that the season of water recedes, g1vmgw ay to the return of the season ofwood .73 H e also has a daugh ter namedC h' in a-erh "ch'ing W bein g the archety pal color of the element ,wood," wh ich gro ws from no rth to east, w hich is equivalent to the birth

of the yo un g yang out of the old yin. " In the fiv e phases schem e thetrigram ken signifies ear th , wh ich is w hy he is engaged in agriculture asan occ u pation. As long as the o ld w idow has n o offspnng, her ym cannoten gender li fe. After a lon g period over several generations, the cycle ofen din g an d beginni ng m akes a complete revo lu tion [chen yiian yt:n-hutt{_ 7c :JI" ].7 4 It has been thus since tim e immemorial. And so, the sagecomp ose d the I Ching, in w hich yang is eleva ted and y in is suppressed tothe poin t at w hich no outside influe nce on the system is possib le. T im JSthe true seed of continuous creation, w hich mu st be pam stakmgly nurtu red. T hat is w hy this character is called Liu Lao-lao, Liu" is homo- ph onou s with liu f:1 [to preserve]. It is too bad that m os t peo ple areboun ded by the limitations of their mortal existence an d con sciOu snessand fa il to un derstand th e significan ce o f ju st this one ch aracter Lm Laolao, so that she [Liu Lao-lao] is subj ec t to ridicule by th e likes of Wang

~ f e n g W hat a shame7 573 Here.Chang Hsin- chih uses the techn ique of splitting Chin ese characters (ch ai-tz JF Cf:) to make his poin t. T he manuscript ve rsion m istakenly reads li g \ for /eng i; 7 4 For the terrns che fi and ytian 5C as the end ing and beginning of a cycle, see

R ichard Wi lhelm, T he I C hing, pp . 4- 6, 373. See also chap. VI above, items 13 and 17 ofthe l-lsi- yu chi tu -) ; essay.

75 T his section is repeated almost exactly in C hang Hsin-chih 's inte rlineal comm ents atthe po int in chap. 6 where Liu Lao-lao appears in the narrat ive, but does not appear m theintedineal comm ents of he r 88 r or the " C hin-y ii yuan editions. T his and the followmgfo ur items are not found in the "Shih -t'ou chi" ve rsions. Instead there appear the two .

Ho w to R ead the D rea111 of he R ed C harnber 33927. T he ma nn er in w hich images fro m the I C hing are taken over

and wo rked o ut in this book is mo st ev ident , and yet most obscure, inthe case of Pao-yii '-s four "sisters" : Yiian- ch 'un, Ying- ch'un , T 'an-ch'nn ,and Hs i-ch 'un. Yiian- ch 'un correspond s to the hexagram t'ai =:: ,76 thehexagram of the fir st month, so she is the eld es t sibling . Ying-ch 'un cor responds to the hexag ram ta-chuang ::::,77 th e hexagram o f the secondmonth, so she is t he second oldest daughter . T'an-ch'un corres ponds tothe hexagram kuai :::_::: ,78 the hexagram of the thi rd m on th, so she isthe thi rd oldest daughter. Hs i-ch'un co rresponds to the hexagram ch'ien

/ 9 w hich is th e hexagram of the fo ur th m ont h, so she is th e fou rtholdes t daugh ter. Bu t: sin ce aU of th em are fem ale, th eir yang lines ;Iretransformed into yin lines. T hu s Yiian- ch' un's t ai is transform ed into p'i::::, Ying-ch 'un 's ta-chu ang is tran sfo rm ed in to kuan :: :: , T 'an-c h'un's kuaiis transform ed in to po and H si-eh un's ch'ien is t ~ a ~ 1 S into k'un

. T his is one of the-n-;_ost important m essages in the boo k, and I ma keCOmm ent [p'ing j o n this in turn during the biog rap hies fpen-cflJJan

of each of them .28. As a ru le, in editions of fic tion , the symb ols 0 l 6 and _are used to elucid ate point s in the tex t, but thi s ca n be dispensed w)thas e c e s s a r y T he reason for this is th at on ce the essenti al meanings,examples of fine prose, and profound messages have been broughtout by m eans of comm en tary [p'ing there is no need to go tofurther effort to poin t th em out. T herefo re, all I d o is simply put .n

At he co', elusion oft he book we have the gra nting of he ti tle Taoist Master of Li teraryBnlh ance to Pao- yu fm cl"'P 120 j, whereb y the outstandmg accounts of he entire tex t arcsettled ll full. T his means, i n ef ect, that this is the m ost tru ly brilliant l i t e : ~ r y wo rk in theworld . T here seems to be li tt le we can do abo ut the fa ct that most readers fa il to sec this.The Story of he Stone has the va rious alternate titles Rcw rd of he d ank qf l'


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VII. Chang Hsin-chih on the Hung-lou mengsingle circles [tan-ch dan 1;I 11 ] in the text itself and single dots [tan -lien1tl W\] in the commentary and notes [p ing-chu Ftt l in order to punctuatesentences and clauses.81

29 . In this book there is a causal link between the western compoundand the eastern compound, which is occupied by Chia Chen. T his isactually talking about Ch'in K'o-ch'ing; who is the originator of thediscord in the fam ily. Here I revise eastern compound to Ying-kuofu" f f W H ~ l F f ~ : , which conforms precisely to th e position of Ch'in K'och'ing, Ying being the surname of the royal house of Ch'in. The nameof the second master Chia [Chia Lienl is also revised here to thecharacter lien J ~ , which is a homophone of the original and is explainedin the same way8

30. In the original printing there are twenty-four engraved illustrations, all matched to the ideas in the novel. Only th e dedica tory poemsprovided for the first illustration, that of the preincarnate stone, and thelast, that of the Buddhist monk and the Taoist priest, imp licitly correspond to the basic message of the book, according to which the stonerepresents the undifferentiated mind, while the Buddhist monk and theTaoist priest represent the workings of the way of the I ing. Therenuinder are all drawn up in accordance with the surface of the story,with an am.biguous range of m eaning somewhere between presence andabsence or between meaningfulness and meaninglessness, all of whichderive from the author's own hand. In revising the original edition andadding comments in an en larged form.at, the engraved illustrations anddedicatory verses have been copied according to those of the originaledition in order to preserve their former appearance. There are also othereditions put out by local commercial printers, in which the illustrationsare reduced to fifteen in number and contain portraits with no backgrounds. They are mis sing th e illustration of the scene at the Chia clantemple and the portraits of Grandmother Chia; Chia Cheng's wife,Madame Wang; Pao-ch'in; Li Wen and Li Ch'i; Hsiu-yen, Yu San-chieh,Hsiang-ling and Hsi-jen; Ch'ing-wen, and the fe1nale singers. Thesedeficiencies are a great mistake in respect to the plot of the novel. 83

8 1 For a disc ussion of the use of diacritical marks as a mode of criticism, see essays c andd in chap. 1 above. On the question of whethe r the manuscript copy of the commentarycontained the full text of the novel, see the introduction to this chapter.

82 The exact reason why Chang Hs in-chih would want to change l w JJiE to liett J f isnot immediately apparent. The second character is much rarer and do es not have as many 'associat iona meanings as the former one. It is also unclear w hether Chang Hsin-chih didany of the revisions mentioned in this item in the tex t of the novel or not. These changesare not evident in the Peking Library manuscript copy of the commentary.

83 For the identiftcation of these two types of editions and the problem of what, _] ,______

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX IFinding List ofTerminology Used by C hinese FictionCritics

Translations of the te rms cited below on ly refer to the particular patternsof l Sage by the mdividual critics in the contexts identified immediatelyfollowmg the translatiOns. They do not represent any attempt at universally applicable defmitions. The chapters in this volume are re ferred toby the use of roman numerals, w ith the four introductory essays labeledas ra, rb, rc, and rd. Citations to the translated tu-fa essays are indicated bythe chapter munber (m roman numerals) followed by the numb er of theItem 111 that essay. In the case of chapter v, p is used to refer to thetranslation of the Hsien-chai lao-jen preface, w hil e the two middle num bers ofthe other chapter v citations indicate which chapter comment andwluch Item of that chapter comment are involved. The last number in allC1tat1ons refe rs to the page number in this volume. The number ofoccurrences of the term with the same meaning in a sin gle item of a tu -faessay or chapter comment follows in parentheses whenever th at numberexceeds one. Please note that as a general rule, in the translation of theessays, romanization and Chinese characters are on ly inserted for the firstoccurrence of the term in each item and for any other occurrence wherenecessary to avoid ambiguity. The reader can id entify the exact locationof multiple occurrences not marked by insertion of romanization andcharacters by the id en tification of the phrases used to translate the termsor by reference to the Chinese text. The terms are arranged below inalphabetical order according to their romanized forms; in cases wherethe rom anized spelling is the same, Chinese words with fewer characterstrokes precede homonyms with more strokes and all phrases beg inningWith the same character are cited together before listing ph rases beginnmg Wit h a homonym of the first character. Characters romanized withapostrophes appear after those w ithou t (ch ang after chang), as is also thecase for characters romanized with umlauts (ch ii after ch u).

~ ~ ~ ~ 1 1 : C t 1 t ' : t ~ _ r l a n t the roots [of the narrative] firmly," VI1.25.335 .

How to Read the Honglou Meng

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