This
novel also known in English as The Dream of Red Chamber was written in China in the late 18th century. The English edition I am familiar with, the Penguin translation, comes to five fairly substantial volumes, giving an idea of the huge scale of the work.This brilliant novel centres on the fabulously wealthy Jia
family of Beijing and in particular the hero Bao Yu and heroine Dai Yu and their doomed, foredestined and largely unspoken love, which began before their present incarnation, in the Land of the Fairy Disenchantment. Bao Yu was originally a piece of jade that was left over when the goddess Nu Wa was repairing the sky yet somehow wandered the Otherworld in human form. Dai Yu was a flower in the Fairy's garden watered by Bao Yu. Dai Yu realises that the only way she can repay Bao Yu is through the tears shed throughout a human lifetime. It seems that it is in order to repay this debt that the two are incarnated. Bao Yu is born with a piece of jade in his mouth which he ever after wears round his neck. His name means Precious Jade. The
supernatural is never absent from the novel, although it can be unobtrusive for long stretches as the everyday dramas of this huge
household are related. From the beginning, it is hinted that the powerful Jia dynasty is at the point of decline and this is a warning that runs throughout, despite the constant emphasis on the huge wealth and prestige of the family. This glory can be said to have reached its zenith when one of the Jia daughters is appointed concubine to the Emperor but as so often in the novel the dark and tragic side of glory is not concealed. The concubine is graciously allowed home on a royal visit for which the family are obliged to spend a fortune in constructing new apartments and gardens fit for the royal visitation. The girl is however revealed to be lonely and sad in her exalted status and there is pathos in the scene of her father having to address her from behind the door curtain as he can now go no closer to her.There is much joy and fun in the novel as the gardens and apartments provided for the Visitation become an idyllic home for the
young girls of the household as well as young Bao Yu, considered an eccentric and a worry to his family as he would rather spend time with his girl cousins and maids than studying and preparing for an illustrious career in the service of the state. They spend their time composing verses and organising various parties and events in the gardens in which the grown ups sometimes good humouredly join in, in particular Grandmother Jia, the aged matriarch who dotes on Bao Yu her grandson. There is tension even in the garden with hints that Bao Yu's cousin Bao Chai ,who was given a gold locket by a Taoist priest in infancy, is destined to marry Bao Yu despite the fact that the bond between Bao Yu and Dai Yu has existed between them since before either of them were born. Dai Yu though a brilliant wit and poet is also depressive and sickly, given to mysterious perpetual weeping. As an orphan, she has no one to speak to the Jias about marriage with Bao Yu. Throughout there is the realisation that however much Bao Yu denies it, one day he and the girls must grow up, they will marry and leave to start new lives, while he will be expected to launch on his career.As well as the young people in the garden, the novel tells of numerous other members of the household. One of the most interesting of these is Xi Feng, a young woman who has married into the Jias and has heavy responsibilities managing the household and fulfilling the role of dutiful daughter in law. Although illiterate, Xi Feng is superlatively shrewd and manipulative. At all times she works to charm Grandmother Jia and her mother in law but she can also be cruel and ruthless. She tricks and humiliates a foolish young admirer, indirectly bringing about his death. She bullies and hounds to suicide a young woman her husband brings in as a junior wife while appearing to accept her presence dutifully. She has numerous machinations and schemes to further her own interests and line her pocket including lending the household budget out at interest.Another character though apparently minor has a deeper significance in the novel. Grannie Liu an impoverished and simple old peasant woman has some dubious connection to the Jias. She visits them, trying her luck and is received with a mixture of kindness and mockery. She is loaded with gifts and treated as a guest but she is also exploited for comedy value - she is given solid gold chopsticks to eat a bowl of pigeons' eggs with predictably hilarious results. When the Jias finally face their downfall it is this Grannie Liu who appears to save Xi Feng's young daughter from being sold as a concubine. She finds her an honest countryman as her husband.As well as a brilliantly entertaining novel, a complete world you can lose yourself in, The Story of the Stone could also be regarded as a supreme illustration of the laws of Karma.
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