Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin

At the present, the 'Jiaxu manuscript' (dating to 1754) is held in the Shanghai Museum, the 'Jimao manuscript' (1759) is held in the National Library of China, and the 'Gengchen manuscript' (1760) is held in the library of Peking University. Several early manuscripts are still extant. A branch of Redology, known as tànyì xué (探佚學), is focused on recovering the lost manuscript ending, based on the commentators' annotations in the Rouge versions, as well as the internal foreshadowings in the earlier 80 chapters. For example, it is obvious that Lin Daiyu will eventually die in the course of the novel that Baoyu and Baochai will marry that Baoyu will become a monk. The early 80 chapters brim with prophecies and dramatic foreshadowings that give hints as to how the book would continue. These manuscripts, the most textually reliable versions, are known as 'Rouge versions' ( zhī běn 脂本).

The most prominent commentator is Zhiyanzhai, who revealed much of the interior structuring of the work and the original manuscript ending, now lost.

These commentators' remarks reveal much about the author as a person, and it is now believed that some of them may even be members of Cao Xueqin's own family. The earlier versions contain comments and annotations in red or black ink from unknown commentators. The earliest manuscripts end abruptly at the latest at the 80th chapter. Even amongst some 12 independent surviving manuscripts, small differences in some characters, rearrangements and possible rewritings cause the texts to vary a little. Up until 1791, the novel circulated in hand-copied manuscripts. It is possible that Cao destroyed the last chapters or that at least parts of Cao's original ending were incorporated into the 120 chapter Cheng-Gao versions, with Gao E's 'careful emendations' of Cao's draft.

The first printed version, published by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E in 1791, contains edits and revisions not authorized by the author. These hand-copied manuscripts circulated first among his personal friends and a growing circle of aficionados, then eventually on the open market where they sold for large sums of money. By the time of Cao's death in 1763 or 1764 hand-copied manuscripts of the novel's first 80 chapters had begun circulating, and Cao may have made early drafts of the remaining chapters. It is definitively known that Cao Xueqin, a member of an eminent family that had served the Qing dynasty emperors but whose fortunes had begun to decline, began writing Dream of the Red Chamber in the 1740s. Home Dream of the Red Chamber Wikipedia: Historyĭream of the Red Chamber's textual history is complex and has long been the subject of scholarly debate and conjecture.

Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin