The Hong lou meng, or Dream of the Red Chamber, is one of China’s four classic novels. It broke the clichéd model of “scholar and beauty” novels, a popular genre of Chinese fiction which typically involved a romance between a young scholar and a beautiful woman. It also divested from Chinese traditional fiction the vulgarity with which had portrayed daily lives. Dream of the Red Chamber tells a tragic story about society and life in a profound and comprehensive way. The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in classic Chinese fiction because of its theme, undertones, plot, characterization, treatment of details and style.

The author of the first 80 chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin (1716–1763), whose courtesy name was Mengruan, came from a prestigious family that had more than a hundred years’ history. He fully tasted life’s hardships because of the decline of his family. It was recorded that Cao Xueqin was an unconstrained yet talented person. Near the end of his life, he lived in the western suburbs of modern Beijing. After his son died young, Cao Xueqin was so deeply grieved that he stopped writing and soon afterward died.

The textual problems of the novel are extremely complex and the book can be found in many different versions, which can be roughly divided into two categories. Versions of the first category end abruptly no later than the 80th chapter. They have transcribed comments and annotations in red ink and so are known as “rouge versions.” The second category is comprised of the novel’s first printed edition of 120 chapters brought together by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E in 1791, which is known as the “Cheng version.” Later generations believe that the last 40 chapters of the “Cheng version” were an addition written by someone other than Cao Xueqin.

Successful novels, behind their artistic fabrication, must have true emotions and have a footing in real life. Dream of the Red Chamber is one of them. The main thread of the story includes the tragic loves of Baoyu, Daiyu, and Baochai, and stories around their daily lives in the Grandview Garden. The hidden thread of the story is the decline of the four prestigious families in Jinling (ancient Nanjing), which are the Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue families. With these two threads, the story unrolls like a vivid painting. It not only follows the characters and describes their daily lives, but it also inserts myths such as the “story between gold and jade” and the “union between wood and stone” both of which relate to Baoyu and one or the other of his female friends. The mythical stories and dreams that take place in the red chamber give the book unique aesthetic perception and enrich its depth. Dream of the Red Chamber is known for its portraits of a large number of lively characters. Many of them, such as Lin Daiyu, with her standoffish reserve, Shi Xiangyun’s generous nature, and Wang Xifeng’s shrewishness and vigor leave a lasting impression on readers. All of the characters have great complexity because they have both merits and demerits that make them everlastingly fascinating.

Dream of the Red Chamber is a carefully styled masterpiece that reaches an unprecedented height in the history of Chinese novels. The achievement of its artistic structure is extraordinary. The clever and careful interlacing of the three main characters (Baoyu, Daiyu, Baochai), the Grandview Garden, the Jia family, the four clans, and society shows the lives and fates of people from the imperial family all the way down to commoners. The grand use of poetry that is closely related to the characters and plots plays an important role in heightening the atmosphere, describing the environment, depicting characters and expressing thoughts. Its profound and detailed descriptions of characters’ inner feelings became the model of later Chinese novels. Like a painting with extremely rich subject matter, Dream of the Red Chamber is a large repository of information about the grandeur of the imperial family, the bitterness of commoners’ lives, wedding and funeral traditions, festival customs, banquet culture, drama and bard songs, medicine and divination, gardens and architecture, clothes and games, and more.

Dream of the Red Chamber has continually grown in popularity to the point where it is known around the world today in over twenty languages. Various stories, sequels, dramas, bard songs, movies and TV shows have all been based on it and continue to emerge in an endless stream. Academia has also valued this masterpiece very much. Redology, the academic study of Dream of the Red Chamber, has become a distinguished field in the humanities and is one of the most important research projects in the field of classical Chinese fiction.