Dream of the Red Chamber

A Dream of the Red Chamber (Simplified Chinese: 紅樓夢; pinyin: hóng lóu mèng), also known as A Dream of Red Mansions, The Story of the Stone or Chronicles of the Stone (Chinese: 石頭記; pinyin: shí tóu jì) is one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction and is considered by many to be one of the greatest novels ever written. It was composed some time in the middle of 18th century during the Qing Dynasty, and its authorship attributed to Cao Xueqin (Cao Zhan).

The novel is usually grouped with three other pre-modern Chinese works of fiction, collectively known as the Four Classical Novels. Of these, Dream of the Red Chamber is often taken to be the zenith of classical Chinese fiction.

The novel is conjectured to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao Xueqin's own family. It was also intended to be a memorial to the women Cao knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants, as the author detailed himself in the first chapter.

The novel is a detailed, episodic record of the lives of the extended Jia family, made up of two clans (the Ning-guo and Rong-guo houses), which occupies two large family compounds in the capital, Beijing. Originally extremely wealthy, with a female member who was made an Imperial Concubine, the family eventually fell into disfavour with the Emperor, and had their mansions raided and confiscated.

The story is prefaced with supernatural Taoist and Buddhist overtones. A sentient Stone, abandoned by the Goddess Nüwa when she mends the heavens, enters the mortal realm after begging a Taoist priest and Buddhist monk to bring it to see the world.

The main character, Jia Baoyu, is the adolescent heir of the family, apparently the reincarnation of a Stone (some versions however have the Stone and Jia Baoyu as two separate, though related, entities). In that previous life he had a relationship with a flower, who is incarnated now as Baoyu's sickly cousin, the emotional Lin Daiyu. However, he is predestined in this life, despite his love for Daiyu, to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai. The novel follows this love triangle against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes.

The novel is remarkable not only in its huge cast of characters — over 400 in all, most of whom are female — and its psychological scope, but also in its precise and detailed observations of the life and social structures of 18th-century China.