Step inside Hung Lou Meng, or, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Book I

The film without the cuts. And the book itself.

A rejected stone enters a house where beauty already knows loss.

9:41

The Cast

Pao-yü / Baoyu

Main · Jia / Chia household

A noble boy born with jade in his mouth keeps turning away from official ambition toward poetry, girls, and feeling.

Locations

Ch'ing Keng Peak

mountain peak

A stone lies alone on a high peak, the one piece heaven left behind.

Passage

A playful opening turns urgent when dreams reveal themselves as warnings to readers.

Read →

The Author’s Pen

Dreams As Warning

More than any in these pages have been employed such words as dreams and visions; but these dreams constitute the main argument of this work, and combine, furthermore, the design of giving a word of warning to my readers.

Reader, can you suggest whence the story begins?

The narration may border on the limits of incoherency and triviality, but it possesses considerable zest. But to begin.

Reading

The author gets ahead of his own critics here. He knows a reader might dismiss a book stuffed with dreams and visions as flimsy, so he claims those dreams are exactly the point and carry a warning worth heeding. Turning to address the reader directly, he even concedes the tale may seem scattered and slight, then pivots on his own admission by insisting it still has flavor. Cao Xueqin is asking for trust before he has earned it, and doing it with a shrug rather than a boast.

World Index

The Plot

The Stone and the FlowerShih-yin and YucunDaiyu Enters the Jia MansionBaoyu and the DreamBaochai and a DeathThe Grand View Garden

The Cast

Pao-yü / BaoyuLin Tai-yü / DaiyuHsüeh Pao-ch’ai / BaochaiWang Hsi-feng / Wang XifengYuan Ch’un / Yuan ChunChia Yü-ts’un / Jia YucunDowager Lady Chia / Grandmother JiaMadame WangChia Cheng / Jia ZhengChia Lien / Jia LianAunt XueCh’in K’o-ch’ing / Qin KeqingHsi Jen / AromaYing Lien / Hsiang-ling / XianglingChen Shih-yinLiu-lao-lao / Granny LiuMiao YüBuddhist BonzeTaoist PriestMonitory Dream FairyYingchunTanchunXichunLi WanJia LanJia SheJia ZhenJia RongXue PanChin Ch’uanHsiao Hung

Locations

Ch'ing Keng PeakGourd TempleGrand View GardenHappy Red Court / I Hung YuanHeng Wu GardenHsiao Hsiang Lodge / Bamboo LodgeHumanity and Purity LaneImperial PalaceKu SuNing MansionRong MansionTa Huang Hills and Wu Ch'i CaveTen Li StreetVisionary Realm of the Great Void

Objects of Note

Baochai’s Gold LockDaiyu’s HandkerchiefsGarden Tablets and InscriptionsImperial LanternsPoemsPrecious Gem of Spiritual PerceptionShih-yin’s Silver and Winter ClothesXifeng’s Keys and Account BooksYuan Ch’un’s Imperial SedanYucun’s Legal Papers

Core Concepts

Beauty Needs Inscription to SurviveDomestic Life Is Political LifeDream and Reality Exchange NamesJade and Gold as Competing ValuesLove as Debt, Memory, and MisrecognitionPreciousness and Uselessness Are Unstable CategoriesSplendor Is Already DeclineWomen’s Inner Lives Are the True Archive

The Author's Pen

The Unchosen StoneA Lifetime of TearsThe Inscribed GemShih Yin AwakensThe Buddhist's DemandWarning Before the LanternsYing Lien Lost at NightThe Temple Fire SpreadsSilver, Clothes, and DepartureThe Stone's HistoryThe Fool and His PagesShame Before WomankindTai Yu Departs In TearsTai Yu Goes AshoreGrandmother's Tearful EmbraceThe Reckless EntranceOld Acquaintances ReunitedThe Jade Dashed DownYing Lien RevealedYü-ts'un's Reassuring LettersPao Chai Wins HeartsThe Confines of VisionThe Principal RecordGold and Jade or Plant and StoneA Clue For A BeginningHsi Jen's Single DevotionThe Jade InscriptionThe Doctor EvadesTears Are of No AvailTwenty Blows With BambooThe Decree for the VisitMadame Wang's Frantic PreparationsProvisional InscriptionsChia Cheng Drives Him OffChoosing Hsio Hsiang KuanNear Each OtherSplendour and ExtravaganceMoving Into the Garden

Plot point 01

The Stone and the Flower

A discarded stone from heaven and a Crimson Pearl flower vow to repay love with a lifetime of tears in the mortal world.

Objects of Note

Precious Gem of Spiritual Perception

A clear inscribed jade carries a rejected stone's old shame into a noble child's life.

The Cast

Lin Tai-yü / Daiyu

Main · Lin family / Jia household

An orphaned girl of sharp feeling and poetic intelligence enters her grandmother’s mansion as both kin and outsider.

You’ve seen 6 cards

There are 108 waiting

for you to explore

Hung Lou Meng, or, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Book I

Cao Xueqin

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 127 classics in the Literah library

The Hung Lou Meng, or, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Book I World, as it plays on your phone

Meet the people. 31 characters, each with a portrait, who they are and what they want.
Walk the places. 14 places, each pictured, and what happens there.
Follow the plot. The turns of the story, in order, so you always know where you are.
Taste the original. 39 key passages in Cao Xueqin’s own words, each with a short reading of what it is doing.
The complete book. Every word, in a reader made for your phone. From any passage, one tap opens the book at that very page.

Step inside Hung Lou Meng, or, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Book I

Free, in your inbox in about a minute: the World and the complete book, on your phone.