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| Statue of Cao Xuequin in Beijing |
The Story of the Stone (aka
The Dream of the Red Chamber or
A Dream of Red Mansions), has a cast of hundreds, but it mostly concerns itself with the fortunes of Jia Bao-yu, who "at the moment of his birth...had a piece of beautiful, clear, coloured jade in hiw mouth with a lot of writing on it" (Longman 82). That piece of jade is the same piece of jade that the Taoist and the monk call an "absurd creature" (p. 78) and take to earth to so that it can experience mortal life. The same piece of jade, "shrunk...to the size of a fan-pendant" (74), had once been the stone that the goddess Nu-wa rejected as unworthy for patching the sky.
What functions does this elaborate frame (which I have greatly abbreviated and related in reverse) serve? How does it shape or guide your reading of the narrative of more ordinary human life that follows?
You don't have to stick to my boiled-down version above in your response--feel free to discuss other details, twists, and significant features of the novel's opening!
Deadline: Monday (2/14), start of class.
3 comments:
The background information in our Longman Anthology mentions that Xueqin incorporated many biographical aspects into The Story of the Stone. By opening with a description of how "Nü-wa was repairing the sky," (74) Xueqin frames his story within a greater narrative of mythology that creates some distance between his work and reality. Based on the description of Bao-yu as a spoiled young man with a mercurial temperament, I think the work might offer a critique of aristocratic lifestyles or family structures. Beginning the narrative in a cosmic setting would remind readers that the story is fiction and should not be interpreted as an absolute denunciation of their values or society.
In addition to creating distance between the story and reality, Xueqin had to contend with the expectations that readers would have about what literature should be. Including personal history in a work was a relatively new technique, for previous literature, like in other cultures, was often based on stories or ideas from mythology and folklore. Xueqin was able to include his personal history but only by also incorporating his culture’s mythology. Satisfying the literary criteria that average readers anticipated allowed Xueqin to expand the scope of his narrative and depict a realistic setting that contains aspects of his personal experiences.
The jade stone forms a huge part of the story. I believe that the reason that the author told the story about the jade was to give the audience something to focus on. When the taoist and monk state that they wished to allow the stone to feel mortal life we know that it will be reincarnated. When the audience discovers that the Bao Yu was born with the jade stone, the audience can anticipate that the story will revolve around what happens to Bao Yu. In fact it is because of the story with Bao Chai, and the fact that she was given the gold locket to match the jade stone, that Grandmother Jai thought it appropiate to force them to marry each other. At the beginning of the book in chapter 1, when the words "Pages full of idle words Penned with hot and bitter tears: All men call the author fool; None his secret messages hears" are inscribed on the stones, give the reader a glance of the future (77). The reader should be prepared to read a story that does not have a happy ending. Just as the stone was not used to repair the sky, Dai Yu was not able to be with Bao Yu. She was cursed with an illness that greatly crippled her. Dai Yu eventually died with no one that cared about her except the two maids (Nightingale and Snowgoose) that worked for her. Dai Yu dies alone, without even being Bao Yu before she dies. Even Grandma Jai, no longer gave her any attention during the last couple weeks of her life. The Grandma used to treat Dai Yu, the same as Bao Yu. The grandma only was preoccupied with getting Bao Yu to marry Bao Chai through an elaborate lie. In the end Dai Yu dies, with Bao Yu being forced to merry Bao Chai. Bao Yu looses the love of his live and eventually begins to find that "a small part of his love for Dai Yu began to transfer itself to [Bao Chai]"(145).
In the "Story of the Stone", I believe the framework sets up not only the story of Bao-Yu and Dai-Yu (as well as the rest of the Jia clan), but serves to credit the author with his work and possibly praise the religion of the day. At the beginning of the story, the Taoist and the Buddhist monk are considered to be high above the common man (as demonstrated by the scene with Shi-yin asking the Taoist and monk what they were talking about). They are given special ranking amongst the fairy Disenchantment's "amorous souls", and the man who comes upon the stone is yet another man of religion.
The beginning framework also serves as a criticism of the common fiction of the day. On page 76, the stone defends its own story by claiming that "...kind of romance [referring to a type of popular fiction] only gets written in the first place because the author requires a framework with which to show off his love poems..." The stone also criticizes historical romances, and then claims its own story is not a traditional romance but merely the biography of what the stone (later Jia Bao-Yu) has been through. It is not trying to pander of show off like the other romances of the day, it is merely trying to tell a story.
Finally, the first chapter gives credit to the author Cao Xueqin by claiming that he is the one who transcribed and drafted the "Story of the Stone".
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