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Dream of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of the Stone) is the pinnacle of Chinese classical fiction. Set against the rise and fall of the Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue families — especially the Jia household — it portrays the emotional and marital tragedies of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, and the process by which a glittering, prosperous household declines into ruin and finally becomes 'a vast expanse of whiteness, utterly clean'.
The first eighty chapters were written by Cao Xueqin (c. 1715–1763). During his lifetime, they circulated among family and friends in manuscript form (the Zhiyanzhai commentary-text system), and he died before completing the work. The final forty chapters are generally believed to have been completed and edited by Gao E. In the fifty-sixth year of the Qianlong reign (1791), Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E used movable type to print the "Cheng Jia edition"; the following year (1792), it was revised into the "Cheng Yi edition", forming the now standard 120-chapter edition.
This section's chapter titles follow the standard edition (Cheng Yi edition). The wording of the chapter titles varies slightly across different editions (Cheng Jia edition, various Zhi-ping editions); once the full text has been imported, the reading page will use the original text of the imported version as the reference.
A stone left over after Nüwa mended the sky was transformed by monks and Daoists into the "Lingering Jade" and brought into the mortal world to undergo tribulations; there was also a Crimson Pearl Immortal Herb, which, in gratitude for the watering kindness once shown by the Attendant of the Divine Luminary, vowed to repay that debt of tears in a later life. This is the karmic bond by which Lin Daiyu repays love with tears to Jia Baoyu. The whole book thus unfolds in parallel along the two threads of "myth" and "reality".
Three intertwined clues:
1. Emotional thread — the tug-of-war between the
2. Youth thread — after Imperial Concubine Yuan's visit, the sisters move into Grand View Garden, compose poetry, admire flowers and feast, and the youthful collective portrait of the Twelve Beauties flourishes here, forming the brightest paradise in the whole book.
3. Decline and rise thread — from the elevation of Imperial Concubine Yuan and the height of the family visit, through the fissure caused by the inspection of Grand View Garden, to her death, the death of Lady Jia, and the seizure of the Jia household by the Jinyi guards, the family mansion gradually collapses.
To treat Baoyu’s delusional illness, the Jia family devised a ‘switcheroo’ scheme, deceiving Daiyu so that Baoyu would marry Baochai. On the wedding night, Daiyu burned her manuscripts, broke off her attachments, and died in tears. The Jia family was then convicted and their property confiscated; later, by the Emperor’s grace, they recovered somewhat, but their former splendour was gone. Baoyu and Jia Lan both passed the imperial examination, yet after the exam Baoyu became a monk and severed his worldly ties; Qiaojie escaped thanks to Granny Liu’s rescue. In the end, Zhen Shiyin explained the Illusory Realm in detail, and Jia Yucun brought the whole work to a close; thus ended the Red Chamber dream.
Dream of the Red Chamber centres on 'emotion' and 'emptiness', 'prosperity' and 'decline', 'youth' and 'disillusionment', and offers profound reflections on the structure of feudal aristocratic families, the value of examination success, and marriage and women's circumstances under ritual propriety.
For readers encountering it for the first time, you can approach it from three angles: treat it as an encyclopaedia of Qing society and human relationships, a literary benchmark that writes each character with a distinct spirit and temperament, and a philosophical reflection on the eventual emptiness of prosperity. It is recommended to start with Chapter 5's judgements and songs, grasp the outline of destiny, and then read through each chapter in order.