Little Tradition in the Dream of the Red Chamber

This article is an excerpt from Prof. SUN, Tien-Lun 's book.

Edited by Shen Shilin, Loke Kok Kuen Chinese Cultural Legacy Research Trust Researcher.

General Background

The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng 紅樓夢) comprises 120 chapters. It is generally believed that the first 80 chapters were written by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹, c. 1715 – 1763), and the other 40 chapters were added later by other authors to provide a fuller ending to the novel. The earliest version of the novel appeared around 1745, but today, popularized versions of the novel, operas, modern ballets, television dramas, and movies are usually based on the 120-chapter adaptation.

The Dream of the Red Chamber is a detailed account of the lives of the members of the extended Jia clan, which was one of the four most illustrious households in Beijing, the capital of China during the Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of the novel, the Jia clan is wealthy and influential, and in fact later falls out of favor with the ruling emperor, and all its worldly possessions are confiscated. The Dream of the Red Chamber has an amazing cast of 30 major and some 400 minor characters, most of whom are female.

Mythical Backdrop

The Dream of the Red Chamber is basically a love story and is set against a backdrop of Chinese mythology featuring the Goddess Nüwa(女媧) who is charged with the responsibility of mending the Heavens. Nüwa leaves behind a stone which becomes sentient by absorbing the pure energy of the Universe. This sentient stone begs a Taoist priest and a Buddhist monk to carry it along with them to see the world. On the way, the sentient stone happens to provide sustenance to a celestial plant. Later, when the stone decides to be reincarnated as a man, the plant returns as a woman to repay its debt of gratitude. The sentient stone becomes the chief male protagonist in the novel, Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉), who is born with a precious jade stone in his month, and the celestial plant becomes one of the female protagonists, Lin Daiyu (林黛玉). Jia Baoyu is the adolescent heir to the Jia clan, and Lin Daiyu is his cousin. Despite the passionate love they have for each other, Jia Baoyu is destined to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai (薛寶釵), and this love triangle becomes the theme of the novel.

This novel is known as the encyclopedia of ancient Chinese social life  society and is structured on the popular Taoist theme of immortals being banished from Heaven (Sun，1997). Generally speaking, immortals are banished for some form of wrongdoing, but if they do something to redeem themselves, such as assisting a worthy person in need or volunteering for service on earth, they can be reincarnated as human beings. Regardless of the reason for banishment, such immortals will again return to Heaven after a period of life on earth. A novel with such a structure promotes the notions of fatalism, dependent co-origination, and karma. Sun (1994) claimed that The Dream of the Red Chamber represented the cream of Chinese classical novels, illustrating a wide range of aspects of popular culture, such as cuisine, attire, landscaping, drama, art, customs, recreation, and tea culture. In a later discourse, Sun (1997) noted that the story began in the ethers, continued in this world, and returned again to the ethers, and told of karma which traversed three lives: the past, the present and the future. In structuring the plot this way, the author expanded the capacity and expressiveness of the story. If the plot had been restricted to occurrences in the worldly lives of the characters and to mythological references, notions of karma and reincarnation would have been absent, and the philosophical aspects of the story would have been superficial and inadequate.

Women and Marriages

All marriages in The Dream of the Red Chamber are arranged, and women of nobility focus on finding good matches for their children. In The Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu are in love but are destined never to be married, because in a collective and feudal society, marriage is based not on love, but on political, financial compatibility and expediency.  Lin's family status is too low on the social and political hierarchy to be considered a suitable match for the powerful Jia clan.

As for the status of women generally in the feudal China, although there was no overt slavery, the trading of human lives was a common practice. Young girls from poor families were often treated as merchandise and were either married off to rich men as concubines or sold to rich families as maids. Two chambermaids in The Dream of the Red Chamber commited suicide— one was Chess (司棋), the maid of Jia Yingchun (賈迎春), who could not tie the knot with her lover Pan Youan (潘又安) and demonstrated resistance to feudal oppression by her head against the wall. The other was Lady Wang (王夫人)'s maid, Golden (金釧) who lost face after being driven out of the Jia household and she jumped into a well to end her life. Suicides were indeed a way (or the only way) for females to demonstrate resistance to perceived injustices in feudal China. (Lee & Kleinman, 2000)

In terms of gender relationships, woman generally deferred to men, but hierarchy commanded more respect than gender. Hence, in The Dream of the Red Chamber, the authority of Grandmother Jia, who is the oldest and therefore, most respected member of the Jia clan, is undisputed. This is a unique feature of feudal China, where hierarchy and the accompanying precepts of filial piety override gender.

The Impact of Taoism and Buddhism

The impact of Taoism on the novel is quite evident. In the Garden of Great Vision (Da Guan Yuan，大觀園) inhabited by Jia Baoyu and his entourage of female companions, Baoyu leads a carefree life, far from the confines of social conventions. He lives not in observance of Confucian dictates, as a young man of nobility should, but rather for the pleasure derived from following his nature and impulses. He leads quite an active sex life and has multiple sex partners. Hence, the Garden of Great Vision is deemed to refer to the innocence of primordial times, when one acts impulsively and instinctively before social conventions and their accompanying restraints, conflicts, and traumas set in (Zhou，2001). Baoyu refuses to make a name for himself and does not care about his "face". Such presentation is antithetical to the Confucian pursuit of social prestige. It appears that Baoyu has defied conventional growth and development and opted for a primitive state of existence, or a state of harmonious/benevolent chaos (混沌) as it is known in Taoist philosophy. His way of life is frowned upon by his father, who holds an official position in the court, but he cannot be punished because of the doting protection he receives from his grandmother, the matriarch of the Jia Clan. However, anyone else who is found encouraging Baoyu to indulge in "chaotic" behavior is immediately banished permanently from the household.

When Baoyu is eventually forced into an arranged marriage and moves out of the Garden of Great Vision, Confucian order is imposed, and the Taoist paradise deteriorates into a wasteland very quickly. Evidently, Taoist values cannot compete with Confucian values for dominance in the life of the nobility. However, Baoyu refuses to be tamed and instead, elects to accept tonsure and becomes a Buddhist monk, so Buddhism effectively becomes the compromise between Confucianism and Taoism.

Literary Achievements

In an article published in 2004, Sun elucidated the literary achievement of The Dream of the Red Chamber. To begin with, he pointed out that The Dream of the Red Chamber was the first major novel to depart from the "happy ending" format of Chinese literature. Earlier Chinese novels had generally been ensnared within the concept of karmic rewards and punishments, with the protagonists receiving their just rewards and the antagonists being justly punished in the end. The Dream of the Red Chamber dared to realistically portray the rise and fall of a family of nobility and the tragic dimensions of existence.

On the issue of love and marriage, The Dream of the Red Chamber again deviated from traditional novels. Instead of having the protagonists fall in love because they were attracted by each other's appearance, The Dream of the Red Chamber portrayed love based on intellectual compatibility. This was inconsistent with the dictates of feudal society, where political and financial compatibility were the primary concerns of parents and matchmakers; hence, the love affair between the protagonists met with a tragic ending in which the woman died from tuberculosis and the man became a Buddhist monk.

In addition, unlike the other three classical novels, which had been transmitted orally from generation to generation, The Dream of the Red Chamber was written by a single author who explored the everyday life of people of his time, and whose characters were unique and real.

Also, earlier literature had been male-dominated and had relegated women to unimportant or despicable roles, whereas The Dream of the Red Chamber gave a rich and complex account of the lives, hopes, aspirations, and sentiments of woman in China. In so doing, it provided the first unbiased glimpse into the psychology of Chinese women.

Finally, The Dream of the Red Chamber eschewed traditional plots with their complicated and eccentric storylines, instead revealing the extraordinary that was to be found in the ordinary everyday life of characters caught in an intricate web of interpersonal interaction. Since social orientation (K. S. Yang, 1995, 2006) and relational orientation (Ho, 1998) are distinguishing features of the Chinese culture, such an approach probably reveals more truthfully the psychology and patterns of communications of people from that period. In terms of languages, the author engaged the dialect spoken in Beijing, which made it more comprehensible to the public.

Values, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution

In its depiction of Chinese nobilities' daily life, The Dream of the Red Chamber conveys the values, beliefs, and causal attribution upheld in feudal China, particularly various aspects of the social orientation model (Yang, 1995). These include emphasis on family harmony; solidarity; honor and prosperity; adherence to relational formalism, interdependence, fatalistic determinism, demonstration of authority sensitization and worship, concern with other people's opinions and an inordinate regard for reputation and conformity. In addition, The Dream of the Red Chamber accentuates the importance of:

• Respect for the feudal system and absolute loyalty to the Emperor, the Son of Heaven. One of the most celebrated highlights for the Jia clan is the instatement of one of its female members as a concubine to the emperor.
   
• Highly differentiated gender roles of men for the exterior and women for the interior. Hence, Jia Baoyu's choice of attaching himself to the womenfolk rather than studying the Classics and aspiring to be a scholar-official is most disturbing to his father.
   
• Respect hierarchy. Grandmother Jia is indisputably the highest authority in the Jia clan. Whenever Jia Baoyu is reprimanded and about to receive a serious beating from his father, the womenfolk quickly ask for Grandmother Jia to rescue him. There is also a clear demarcation of roles and authority in the Jia household, so interpersonal conflicts are either minimized or kept private. There is, however, a strong undercurrent of dissention, disagreement, and disparagement.
   
• Respect for the clan system. In feudal China, there was a clear distinction between the nobility and the common people, and between masters and servants. When an inferior person in the dyad acted or spoke out of turn, punishment was immediate and severe. In this sense, Jia Baoyu is unusual in that he often regards his chambermaids and servants as his equals.
   
• Respect for intellectual and literary excellence. The favorite pastime of young people in The Dream of the Red Chamber is attending the poetry society, where competitions in literary compositions are often held.
   
• The Buddhist belief in fatalistic determinism (缘). The love triangle depicted in the novel illustrates this belief. At the end of the novel, Jia Baoyu decides to become a monk, indicating his disillusionment with the world and his desire to break free of the cycle of fatalistic determinism.
   
• Emotional moderation. Emotional expressivity is disapproved of, so Lin Daiyu, who is overly emotional, is often frowned upon and considered to be both self-centered and immature, whereas Xue Baochai, who suppresses her emotion and never openly shows her dislike for anything or anyone, is considered socially mature.

Major References  

1、孫遜（1994）。〈中國小說文化述略〉。《上海師範大學學報》，3，78-82。

2、孫遜（1997）。〈釋道“轉世、諦世”觀念與中國古代小說結構〉。《文學遺產》，4，69-77。

3、孫遜（2004）。〈《紅樓夢》對於傳統的超越與突破〉。《紅樓夢學刊》，1，131-141。

4、Ho, D. Y. F. (1998). Interpersonal relationships and relationship dominance: An analysis and social organization: An application in the study of Chinese culture. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theoretical and methodological issues (pp. 137-156).  Saga.

5、Lee, S. & Kleinman, A. (2000). Suicide as resistance in Chinese society. In E. Perry & M. Selden (Eds.), Chinese society: Change, conflict, and resistance (pp. 221-240). Routledge.

6、Yang, K. S. (1995). Chinese social orientation: An integrative analysis. In T. Y. Lin, W. S. Tseng, & Y. K. Yeh (Eds.), Chinese social and mental health. Oxford University Press.

7、Zhou, Z. (2001). Chaos and the gourd in The Dream of the Red Chamber.

8、T'oung Pao, 87(4/5), 251-288.