A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS Volume i TSAO HSUEH-CHIN and KAO Hgo FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS BEIJING
First Edition 1994 First published in hardback in 1978 Translated by YANG HS EN-YI and GLADYS YANG llustrated by AlT小FANG SBN7-119006436 Foreign Languages Press. Beijing. China.1994 Published by Foreign Languages Press 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Bei ing 100037, China Printed in the Peoples repubiic of china
红饗爹 曹写芹高鹗着 杨宪益識乃迭译 戴敦邦插图 Q外文出版社 (中国北京百万在路24号) 邮政编码10007 北京百花彩印有限公可印刷 199年(36开)第一版 (莫) ISBN7-119-00643-6/I353(外)
8 ?t
Miiniliil; t 你
Publishers Note A Dream of Red Mansions (Hung Low Meng, sometimes trans tated as Tbe dream of tbe Red Chamber), the great classical Chi- neae novel written in the mid-eighteenth century during the reign of Emperor Chien-lung of the Ching Dynasty, has been widely pular throughout the last two hundred years and more. It was no accident that such a work should appear during he Chien-lung era(r736-9,). It was the product of class con- tradictions and class struggles in that period of Chinese be Cling dynasty(164-4-19 ) was the last feudal dynasty in China. Although it saw a period of relative stabilit dal society was already on the decline and all the contradictions inherent in it were sharpenin The entire state apparatus of this dynasty in the main took over the form of the feudal autocracy of the Ming dynasty Cr368-1644), the political power remaining in the hands of the feudal landlord claIs. In that sense it was a continuation and development of the feudal political power of the Ming autocracy. At the start of the Ching Dynasty, the social economy was gravely disrupted by years of warfare; but from the eighteentH century onwards che measure taken by the ruling class to re store production led to a certain rehabilitation and develop- meat. By the last decades of the reign of Emperor Kang (1662-r722)agriculture had not only recovered but was fairl thriving, while the last years of his reign and the reigns of Yung-cheng (723-35 and Chien-lung witnessed fresh progreas not only in agriculture but also in mining, the textil ilc ind ceramics, printing and other fields, the textile industry actually surpassing the heights it had reached in the sixteenth century. During this period commerce and foreign trade expanded too
DMEAM OF食FMAN5M and the embryos of capitalism, based on trade aad handicrafts recovered from the restrictions imposed on them in the first days of the dyna The Kang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Chien-lung eras were de scribed by the feudal ruling class and its official historians as a"Golden Age, "but the development of the economy failed to improve the life of the labouring people. The Ching rulers extorted untold weath from them and squandered it on uxuries; but while nobles, big landowners, rich merchants and local gentry battened on their blood the toilers themselves lived in wretched misery. Peasants who bad owned land in the early Ching period were gradually deprived of it by nobles and big landlords so that they became utterly destitute, The political oppression and economic exploitation of the peasants by the Ching ruling class furtber aggravated the principal contra- diction in feudal society-that between the landlord claRs d the peasantry -with the result that the latter fought back to resist taxation and wia land to till Early in the Ching Dynasty there appeared some progres sive thinkers with rudimentary ideas of democracy, which represented a progressive trend. This proved so infuential that the rulers resorted to savage suppressive measures. From the start of the dynasty and all through the Kang hsi, Yung-cheng and Chien-lung eras, the authotities carried out a literary in- quisition, persecuting and executing feudal intellectuals with progressive ideas; at the same time, on the pretext of compiling an Imperial Library they screened and censored earlier works hich opposed feudal rule, and continued the Ming examination system in an attempt to deceive and befuddle the people. Al- though all these policies failed to wipe out progressive ideas and crush the people' s resistAnce, they had an adverse effect on the newly emerging democratic ideas Furthermore, within the ruling class itself contradictions and struggles over che redistribution of wealth and power between different political farces and factions were growing Gver more acute. Thus the Chien-lung era was the turning point towards the decline of the Ching Dynasty. Ccisis-riven feudalism war
P:xH:S NOTE already oo its last legs. The whole fabric of Chinese foudal cociety was tottering on the verge of final collapse. the period in which Teao Haueh-chin the author of A Dream of Rod Mansions lived. TRo Hsueb-chin's family were hans, but they had later be Manchu ba One of his ancestors came south of the Great Wall with the Ching rulers. Subsequently his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and uncle all held one of the post administering the afairs of the imperial house- hold-Textile Commissioner of Chiangning Prefecture (present-day Nanking and aix contiguous counties including Liuho, Kaochug, Chiangpu and others); and his great-grand- mother auro Peror Kant-heL Such chin's gmodfsthc ocoonpenied the emperor in his studies, This showB the Tuto family,'s rddatioaahip with the Ching imperial house in general, and wich Emperor Kang-hui in particular Towards the end of the reign of Kang-hsi and the beginning of that of Yung-chens bowcve a fierce struggle for the claim bo the throne within the ruling class led to a contlict among members of the imperi ear cheng (rzm)the Tao Eamily, so favoured by the previous em were changed with the crime of embeding public funds. their estates were confiscated and they fel into disgrace. After this the moved from the south to Pek ing: later Tso Hruch- in lived in the western suburb of the city. He was then so poor that his family sometimes bad noding more to eat than porridge It wa in thee povertyttricken cir- cumstance that he started writing his novel. Then the death of hin beloved won overwhelmed him with sorrow and he fell ilL Unable to afford good mediaal treatent, he died in the twenty-eighth year of Chien-lung(r7 6, without having finish d his povel The variou ootodiatons in moribund feadal society and the calamities befaLling his owu family due to stru e la within the ruling clas opened Tso Hsueh-chia's eyes to many signif
A DREAN。 F RED MNSIONS A Dream of Red Mansions is a book about political strug gle, a political-historical novel. The cruel penalties for subversive" writing forced the author to express his ideas in a veiled, indirect manner. Thus at the start of the book he says that he"tried to hide the true facts of his experience""by writing"fiction in rustic language."In other words, he could not openly present the true facts of the contemporary political struggle. But although he claimed that his book did not touch at all on current events"and that on the contrary the main theme was love, " this great realist writer in fact mounted a bitter attack on the evils of real politics. On the e urce thi novel deals largely with the love between Pao-yu and Tai-yu but actually, through this story as well as many other episode in the book, the author penetratingly exposes the evils of the feudal system and the crimes of the feudal ruling class. It also describes the sufferings and revolt of the labouring mauser truthfully reflecting the social contradictions in the last perio of feudalis as well as the actual political struggles of the ame Chapter Four gives us the main outline of the novel. In this chapter the author draws back the curtains of the stage on class struggle. The " oficials'protective charm"mentioned in this chapter lists the four notable families of Chinling (present-day Nanking), the rich and powerful Chias, Shihe Wangs and Hsueh As Chairman Mad has pointed out: The patriarchal feudal class of local tyrants, evil gentry and Jawless land- lords has formed the basis of autocratic overnment for thousands of years. In feudal sociaty the "notable families the cells of the patriatchal-feudal aystem,were the main props f its autocratic rule The emperor was the highest represent ative of their interests while the various grades of local gov- ernment were the instrument to enforce their control The four grcat houses of Chia, Shih, Wang and Hsueh described A Mao Teung"Report on aa Invaatigntion of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, Selected Warr, Foreiga Ianrusges Prom, Pcking fu7, yol I
PUSLSH5S NOTE in this novel were typical basic political units of feudal 8O- icty. Such families were linked with the court above and the Iocaf officials below to form a network of control with the feudal autocratic state power as its tentre. The reaction ary rule of these four big families epitomizes the dark rule of feudal society As a whole, just as their decline reflects the inevitable doom of the entire feudal ystem. This novel describes the savage political oppression of the labouring masses by these four great families. Outside the Chia mansions, they use their powerful connections to in Auence local officials to hound people to death. As for the Chia mansions themselves, they are permeated with the darkness and cruelty of feudal rule: many bondmaid no better of than shaves are one by one trampled underfoot and done to death These magnificent houses described as"a place where fowers loutish, the home of pleasure and luxury, "are not shing but a slaughter-house This novel also describes the ruthless economic exploitation of the labouring masses by these great families of high officials, big landlords, tich imperial purveyors and big usurers. build up their fortunes by robbing other people and annexing their property; then by means of exorbitant land rent, high interest and their connection with local officials they insatiably suck the blood of the poor. Their aplendid mansions, glittering wealth and wanton luxury are all built on the bleached bones of the working people. Tbe book also depicts the inevitable doom of these families riven as they are by fence struggles among themselves and in society. Outside their walls, drought, food and crop failure drive the famished peasants to seize land by armed revolt; s their rule is tottering. Within their wall, their own slaver against them, giving their masters and mistresses ao rest The ruling class itself is split into contending factions, the appearnace of much rebels as Pao-yu and Tai-yu revealing the violent hammering at feudal orthodoxy by carly democratic reflects the growth of the seeds of capitalism
