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Dream of the Red Chamber is recognized as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction, which has been translated into more than 30 foreign languages and has an important influence in the world. Mr. Lu Xun once summed it up brilliantly: "Since the release of "Dream of Red Mansions", the traditional thinking and writing methods have been broken. The novel is based on the love entanglements of three young men and women, Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, and takes the rise and fall of the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue as the background, praising the pursuit of free love by young people, sympathizing with their pain of suppression, and revealing the corruption and degeneration within the big family in the old era and the inevitable fate of decay. On this basis, "Dream of Red Mansions" also makes philosophical reflections on the complexity of human nature and the tragedy of life.
In terms of art, "Dream of Red Mansions" has created many complex and multifaceted characters with distinct personalities. Ancient Chinese novels mainly evolved from the art of speaking, and mostly adopted a single-line narrative style. "Dream of Red Mansions" sets up a complex network structure, which is both ingenious and precise, but also as natural as life itself. The language of "Dream of Red Mansions" is also extremely concise and accurate, vivid and expressive. In conclusion, Dream of the Red Chamber represents the highest level of the art of writing novels in ancient China.
"Dream of Red Mansions" was not signed in its early circulation. Now it is generally believed that the first 80 chapters were written by Cao Zhan (the character Mengruan, the number Xueqin), and the last 40 chapters were revised and supplemented by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao He on the basis of the manuscript left by Cao Xueqin. Cao Xueqin (c. 1715 - c. 1763) was born in the Qing Dynasty Internal Affairs Department of the White Banner Cloth family, great-grandfather Cao Xi, grandfather Cao Yin, and father Cao Hao served as a weaver in Jiangning for 58 years. When Cao Xueqin was a teenager, she lived the life of a noble son in Jiangning (now Nanjing, Jiangsu). In the sixth year of Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (1728), the Cao family was dismissed from his post and copied his family due to a deficit and fell into poverty. "Dream of Red Mansions" should have been written by Cao Xueqin in her later years.
There are two main systems for the extant version of Dream of the Red Chamber: one is the manuscript system with the signature "Fat Yan Zhai" commentary, referred to as the Fat Commentary, named according to the date of copying and the place of collection, etc., including the Jiazhu Edition, the Ji Mao Edition, the Gengchen Edition, the Qi Zhisheng Preface Edition, and the Leningrad Collection, etc.; the second is the movable type typesetting edition jointly compiled and published by the bookseller Cheng Weiyuan and the literati Gao E, which is divided into 1791 engraving (commonly known as Cheng Jiaben) and 1792 engraving (commonly known as Cheng Yiben). There are many textual differences between the lipid review and the engraved version, as well as between the various lipid review versions, and between Cheng A and Cheng B. In the modern collated version of Dream of Red Mansions, the first 80 chapters are either mainly based on Gengchen's book, or mainly based on Qi Lisheng's preface, and the last 40 chapters are either based on Cheng Jia's book or Cheng Yi's book. There are also those who are all based on Cheng A or Cheng B, each with its own characteristics.
1. Dream of Red Mansions (Chinese Classical Literature Reader Series), by Cao Xueqin, Anonymous continued, People's Literature Publishing House
Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the "Four Great Masterpieces" of ancient Chinese fiction and the pinnacle of ancient Chinese fiction. The Dream of the Red Chamber is a new classic of the Dream of the Red Chamber edition of the "Ancient Chinese Literature Reader Series", which is proofread by the Institute of the Dream of the Red Chamber of the Chinese Academy of Arts. Since 1975, Feng Qiyong has been in charge of the proofreading work, and many famous red scholars have participated in the proofreading work or served as consultants. This collation is based on the Gengchen version, with various other manuscripts as the main reference texts, and the Cheng book and other early inscriptions as reference texts. This book is a detailed commentary, annotating the canonical system, allusions to famous objects, and difficult words in The Dream of the Red Chamber, representing the highest achievement in the study of The Dream of the Red Chamber at that time. It was first published in 1982, and has been supplemented and revised many times since then, constantly absorbing new achievements in the study of "Dream of the Red Chamber", making the edition more and more perfect, and has the greatest influence among the many editions of "Dream of the Red Chamber", which is suitable for the general public and professional researchers.
2. "Dream of Red Mansions" (Chinese Reading Recommendation Series), written by Cao Xueqin, continued by Anonymous, edited by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao He (Qing), edited by Yu Pingbo, Qigong Note, People's Literature Publishing House
Dream of the Red Chamber is the greatest Chinese literary masterpiece of the 18th century and the pinnacle of ancient Chinese fiction. The "Chinese Reading Recommendation Series" is written by Yu Pingbo, Qi Gong and others. The book is based on the original book, with the main school book of Yan Zhai Gengchen, Ji Mao and Jiaxu, and the Jiachen book, Zheng Zang remnant book, Cheng Jia B book, etc., Mr. Yu Pingbo's proofreading criteria have three: choose the good, follow the same, and keep the truth, which fully reflects the rigorous academic attitude towards the edition research. Mr. Qi Gong's annotations are simple, accurate, concise and beautiful, covering many aspects of knowledge such as language and writing, historical documents, folk customs, religious culture, art, etc., and are highly respected by modern red scholars. The two are perfectly combined to present a classic version of "Dream of Red Mansions".
3. "Dream of Red Mansions" (Four Masterpieces of Chinese Literature), written by Cao Xueqin and Gao E, compiled by Qi Gong and others, Zhonghua Book Company
The Dream of Red Chambers, a series of "Four Masterpieces of Chinese Literature" published by Zhonghua Book Company in 2005, is based on the proofreading book presided over by Mr. Qigong in 1998. It is important that the text is omitted and annotated, and the main text is placed in one volume, so that lovers of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Red Studies" can focus on reading the original text, especially for those readers who want to quickly understand the content of "Dream of Red Mansions", this version is very suitable, it can be described as "one volume in hand, no hassle to ask for", and can enjoy the pleasure of reading "Dream of Red Mansions" anytime and anywhere. Therefore, since its printing, this book has swept the whole country, and has been printed more than 20 times in a row, with a print run of 5.6 million copies. The reader's purchase is the most convincing, so I recommend this book as an authoritative book for the general public.
4. "Dream of Red Mansions" (Chinese Classic Novel Annotated Series), by Cao Xueqin and Gao E, edited by Qi Gong and others, Zhonghua Book Company
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is the pinnacle of ancient Chinese novels, and has always been valued by the publishing industry, and there are many editions, and "Dream of the Red Chamber", the "Annotated Series of Chinese Classic Novels" published by Zhonghua Book Company, is a unique one. The series of "Dream of Red Mansions" is based on the 1998 edited by Mr. Qi Gong and edited by Mr. Zhang Jun, Wu Jinghuan, Zhou Jibin, Nie Shiqiao and Gong Shuduo (the base is the first version of Cheng Cheng in the library of Beijing Normal University). The typography is also good, and the large characters are pleasing to the eye and easy to read. In particular, the concise proofreading is its characteristic. Because the annotators are all experts in red studies, knowledgeable, fluent in writing, and incompatible with famous objects, allusions, pronunciation of new words, etc., the attraction of "Dream of Red Mansions" lovers has been prominently reflected, and as soon as it came out, it was widely welcomed by all walks of life, and within a few years, it was reprinted many times and sold well at home.
5. "Dream of Red Mansions (Famous Artist Broadcast Reading Accessible Version)", [Qing] Cao Xueqin, Gao E, Yan Jixuan, Guo Yingde, Yuelu Publishing House
Dream of the Red Chamber (Accessible Version for Reading by Famous Artists) is based on the Qianlong manuscript of the Qing Dynasty, with reference to the Gengchen Edition, the Ji Mao Edition, the Cheng Gao Edition, the Mengfu Edition, and the Leningrad Tibetan Manuscript, with exquisite illustrations and retrospective readings. The accompanying text annotates the complicated and difficult words and sentences in the original work, and there are 88 videos of famous experts explaining and appreciating the explanation at the back of the book to help readers read easily.
The book's broadcaster, Yan Jixuan, is a famous host and dubbing director, who has been engaged in the art of acting for more than 40 years. On the basis of the existing text, the book uses QR code technology to link Yan Jixuan's 78 hours of full-text professional audio in chapters, as well as VR tours of the Grand View Garden, online serialized reading of the original comic version, forum services, etc. It greatly broadens the connotation and extension of the masterpieces themselves, which not only adapts to the trend of listening to books and micro-videos of modern readers, but also leads the trend of using digital technology to reactivate classical masterpieces and actively disseminate the excellent traditional Chinese culture. The whole book uses sound to awaken the classics, which is suitable for the majority of classical literature lovers and broadcasting art practitioners to appreciate the beauty of all-round audio-visual reading of classical masterpieces.
In 2021, the Office of the National Leading Group for the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books announced the first batch of 40 classic ancient books and 179 excellent collated editions recommended to the whole country, aiming to select the "most important books" and "best books" of excellent traditional Chinese culture for the majority of readers.
The first batch of recommended classic ancient books are ancient cultural classics with strong exemplary and inheritance, including not only the original classics that reflect the enduring core concept of China's excellent traditional culture, but also the famous masterpieces that are popular with the masses. The recommended excellent collated editions of classic ancient books follow the norms for the collation and publication of ancient books, and the base books are fine, the proofreading is excellent, the annotations are accurate, and the quality is high, covering various types such as text collation, advanced reading, general reading and selected books, focusing on popularization, taking into account improvement, and striving to meet the needs of readers at different levels.