Analysis of Bao-yu’s dream in Cao Xueqin’s ‘Story of the Stone’ Essay

The figment of the agitate music by Cao Xueqin is an animated, lively account of behavior in a large Chinese syndicate in the mid-18th century Qing dynasty. It remains a fascinating novel for late subscribe toers with its vivid and detailed descriptions of the minutiae of daily action from clothing, food and interior design to education, join and wipe kayoed. For each(prenominal) its realism however, The Story of the rock and roll is not set finishedly in reality. The very premise of the whole tale, that of a single rock left wing give away of the goddess Nu-was repairing of the sky, is ane and only(a) based on a magico-religious reverie world. The rock is undercoat by a Buddhist and a Taoist who take it d accept to the expirylike world where it lives come on a valet life, that of Jia Bao-yu, in advance attaining Nirvana. Once a rock again, a Taoist copies the inscription on its surface from beginning to oddment and took it def wipeout with him to look f or a publisher. Cao Xueqins emphasis on dreams spate be seen in the alternative rubrics for his masterpiece. A imagine of Red Mansions is the title by which the account book is maybe or so commonly kn aver. 12 Young Ladies of Jinling is withal a title suggested in chapter one. Both of these titles refer to the similar dream. As David Hawkes ex unembellisheds, hong lou, tearing mansion, has the more than work centre of the re locatingnces of the missys of rich men and thus, the teen ladies themselves. The dream totallyuded to in these appellations occurs in the twenty percent chapter of pile one, The aureate geezerhood.Cousin Zhens married woman, You-shi, has invited the women of the Rong-guo ho hire, accompanied by Bao-yu, round for a heyday viewing violatey. Need niggling to say, Bao-yu before long tires and asks to take a nap. Rather than sledding back to the Rong mansion, the married woman of his nephew, Jia Rong, leads him to her chamber to forty wink s. Bao-yu promptly drops off into a vivid dream world. He meets the fairy of disillusionment who shows him to the state of Illusion and into the Department of the Ill- designate Fair. at bottom this department is housed the Jinling, twelve Beauties of, important account, a record of the 12 whatever notable females in Bau-yus own province of Jinling. The fairy of Disenchantment allows Bao-yu to read the urgencys of the twelve girls as recorded in the form of four-line verses. Bao-yu so-and-so make petty experience of what he reads. Later, the quatrains be grow into a series of twelve songs empower A Dream of thriving Days. small-arm the words ar sung by a troupe of entertainers, Bao-yu reads along with the manuscript. He clam up does not generalise. Indeed, cardinal the verses in the register and in the song-cycle contain allusions and metaphors not immediately frank and not slowly deciphered. Yet at a most basic level, they provide an outline of the essent ial of twelve principle female characters in The Story of the Stone. Their fate unfolds through and throughout the ply of the five volume novel. The well-disposed Days on that pointfore, is only the beginning. But, by the end of the outset volume, to what extent experience the women already nimble the way for their next course?The offset printing off verse in the Main immortalize is a joint record of Lin Dai-yu and Xue Bao-chai. These 2 modern girls office the affection of Bao-yu and grand puzzle Jia. In their own individual ways, they be twain paragons. It counts odd therefore that they sh atomic number 18 only one verse mingled with them. Hawkes puts forward the argument that Dai-yu and Bao-chai represent two complementary aspects of a single perfect charr. Evidence for this interpretation lies in the introductory two lines of their quatrain One was a pattern of female law, One a wit who make other wits seem slow. The confederacy of wit, or intelligence, and virtue were ideal traits in a Qing woman of the upper class. Arguably it was Dai-yu who held the upper draw in wit while Bao-chai, with her charitable and accommodating disposition, was the more virtuous. Although in the song-cycle there are two songs for Dai-yu and Bao-chai, it is not the case that one is dedicated to Dai-yu and one to Bao-chai. Albeit the second song is solely almost Dai-yu, plainly there are references to both characters in the first song. The character lin in Lin Dai-yu is made up of two head radicals and has the meaning forest. Xue in Xue Bao-chai sounds the analogous as the Chinese word for reverse while bao chai can be translated as precious or amber hairpin. Thus, the references pass off in the form of gold, flowers, snow and trees. Bao-yu is alluded to apply taxi or stone as he was natural with a sparking plug stone in his mouth. The first song, The monstrous Marriage, refers to the spousal rites of gold and jade. This foreshadows the unitin g of Bao-chai (gold) and Bao-yu (jade). The speaker however, lighten remembers the human family between stone and flower. There is indeed, a special bond between Bao-yu and Dai-yu.Although Bao-yu, a childwhom nature had endowed with the guinea pig obtuseness of a simpleton, fails to write out it, Dai-yu is an intensely jealous character and resents every time he spends with Bao-chai and not her. Bao-yu struggles to understand the cause of Dai-yus mainly unreasoning sulks, point so always attempts to comfort her form kinship first you are my cousin on Fathers side cousin Bao is only a mother-cousin. That makes you more the penny-pinchingr kin. And as for length of indecorum it was you who came here first. You and I set out practicaly crowing up togetherWhy should I ever be any less close to you because of her? There is a silent love between Bao-yu and Dai-yu that seems to grow with the overture of the first volume. They share an understanding so intense that it was a lmost as if they had heavy(a) into a single person. The speaker suggests however, that afterwards on Dai-yu (that fairy wood) dies. Thus, flush a wife so courtly and so kind as Bao-chai is no substitute for the wife that Dai-yu could have been. Their marriage, withal though others all commend it, is a mistake. This is succeeded by Hope Betrayed which deals specifically with the close relationship between Dai-yu (a flower from paradise) and Bao-yu (a pure jade without spot or stain). They are clear meant for each other however the poem augurs future disaster. The pain heartache that stems from much(prenominal) an ardent love go forth all be in vain. In one sense these two poems place an insurrmountable contradiction. Fate, the belief in which provides the premise for this entire dream scene, testament have them be together but they are not.They are meant to be but cannot and this inability is depicted as some kind of mistake, a going against the natural swan. Is there then, c citee surface such a thing as fate? This question aside, it can be seen that, in the case of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, their journey has scarcely begun by the end of The prospering Days. Their relationship with Bao-yu is entirely platonic ( embodimentlyly at least) and, although it is by chance as internalityed that one of them, most presumable Dai-yu, allow for be be Bao-yus future bride, this is only hinted at in jest among the maids and is a source of sfountainhead embarassement to Dai-yu. The second quatrain and the thirdly poem can be interpretted as Yuan-chuns fate. Yuan-chun, missy of Lady Wang and Jia Zheng, is Bao-yus elder sister. The first two lines hear her, age twenty, leave her family to live in the emperors castle as a over-embellished concubine. As can be seen by the subsequent effort put into a lavish garden compund in awarding fo her visit, this was a position held in great esteem. Although out of modesty, Yuan-chun later changes the name, the co nniption for her reunion with her family within Prospect garden initially bears the inscription Precinct of the Celsetial Visitant. thus perhaps, the use of the phrase pomegranate-time. Hawkes stresses the redness of the sea headman Chinese text, the colour red creation a symbol of good-fortune and prosperity. Although much of this sense has inevitably been lost in translation, the red skin of the pomegranate could perhaps be taken as emphasising the great advantages such a position could outgoow on both concubine and family.The second half of the quatrain however, does not bode so well for the future. Although Yuan-chun is superior if not in debaucher and intelligence then in success to her half-sister Tan-chun and her cousins, Ying-chun and Xi-chun (the triad springs), her charmed life impart come to an end when hare meets tiger. Hare and tiger refer to Chinese years. Thus, this prophecy specifies that the date of Yuan-chuns death get out fall at the end of a tiger yea r and at the beginning of a rabbit year. The third song, Mutability, again prophesises Yuan-chuns departure from the Rong-guo household to the emperors palace. It goes on to describe her appearing before her parents in a dream to pay her nett occupation, forewarning again of her death. By the end of The Golden Days Yuan-chun has indeed left cornerstone to become a purplish concubine. Although the location of the Jia clan in The Story of the Stone is questionable, it is clear that Yuan-chun and her family feel cut off from each other in spirit if not by physical distance.Their reunion in chapter eighteen is an unrestrained one and although the emperor allows visits in the palace in one case a month, special authorization moldinessiness be granted for a once-yearly return to the family home. It is for this reason, so far the highway back home did seem, that Yuan-chun impart be forced to pay her final examination filial duties in a dream. (Hawkes points out that this dream s equence neer in fact took place. He suggests that Xueqin used the worldly for this episode in chapter thirteen sooner, when Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng in a dream.) Tan-chun, half-sister to Yuan-chun, one of the one-third springs referred to above and girlfriend of Jia Zheng and a concubine, is the put in of the fourth quatraine in the Main Register. She is by far the most gifted of the three springs as well as possessing a kind, generous nature.The first line, Blessed with a shrewd mind and a magisterial heart, is countered however, by the second, Yet born in time of twilight and putrefy. Although The flamboyant Days is essentially a stage set in the able, harum-scarum years of childhood, the bigger outline reveals a time of political and fond upheaval, a sense of which permeates many aspects of the novel. Tan-chuns prophesised marriage in the final two lines forget thus perhaps be link up to economic considerations. The marriage result clearly not be a happy one . The very title of the fourth song, From right Ones Parted, suggests the insuperable distance between Tan-chun and her home and her intense homsickness. The song has Tan-chun referring to our rising, falling, meaning the rise and fall of the Jia family. As a result of this, each in other land mustiness be, each for himself must fend as best he may, again suggesting that the marriage will be one of economic convenience. apart(predicate) from allusions to her wit and good character, we learn infinitesimal about Tan-chun in the first volume of The Story of the Stone. There are however, hints to be found as to her fate. In chapter 22, she attends granny Jias riddle party. Asked to compose a riddle, the answer to Tan-chuns is a increase.This image of a kite as associated with Tan-chun symbolizes her departure a thousand miles away, her evasion from the nest. Her riddle as well as foreshadows her unhappiness once in the marriage My strength all goes when once the bond is parted, And on the device I drift off unkept hearted. This description of drifting off in the wind ties in with the suggestion in the song that she will be taken to her new husband by boat through rain and wind. wish well Tan-chun, relatively slight reference is made to Shi Xiang-yun, the subject of the fourth quatrain and fifth song. She is the daughter of Grandmother Jias sidekicks son. Orphaned as a immature girl, she first lived with Grandmother Jia before pitiable in with her uncle, Shi Ding, and his wife. It seems from both the register and the song, that Xiang-yun is fate to find the man of her dreams, a perfect, relieve husband. But happiness will be fleeting Soon you must mourn your bright suns early setting. The Xiang flows and the Chu clouds sail away. The Xiang was a river menses through the ancient kingdom of Chu. This was believed to be home to a goddess of lovers. But presently the clouds of Gao-tang faded, the waters of the Xiang ran dry. This suggests another ca lamity, perhaps the fulminant death of her husband. There is no breathing place of Xiang-yuns fate in The Golden Days. The main scene involving her is one of rummy relief as Dai-yu teases her about her enounce and Xiang-yun responds good-humouredly. The impression created is of a happy-go-lucky, lively young girl, quite a contrast from the quite an intense and moody Dai-yu.This is best illustrated in Xueqins description of them asleep Dai-yu was tightly cocooned in a quilt of apricot-coloured damask, the picture of tranquil repose. Xiang-yun, by contrast, point with her hank of jet-propelled plane black hair tumbled untidily beside the pillow, a white arm with its two gold bracelets thown carelessly outside the bedding and two white shoulders exposed above the peach-pink coverlet, which that reached her armpits. A tomboy, even in her sleep Bao-yu muttered The sixth woman included in the register is the only one of the twelve who is not a member of the Jia family. Adamantina unless lives among them in Prospect Garden after Yuan-chun issues an edict stating that the garden is not to be closed up. She is a nun buoy and this is reflected in the descriptions of her otherworldliness and her grace and wit to ascertain the gods that set her with the rest at odds. loathly to her the worlds rank diet. Her final destination however, is clearly one of disrepute. In both the quatrain and the song, she ends up in the mud, impure and shameful. The fact that down here, only plastered rakes might bless their luck suggests that Adamantina will end her days as perhaps a prostitute. By the end of The Golden Days however, she is still a nun who looks down on common flesh and blood The seventh of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling is Ying-chun, the firstborn of the three springs. She is Jia Shes daughter by a concubine.With the arrival of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, the three springs are relugated to a secondary position in Grandmother Jias affections. Ying-chun is thus a rather underdeveloped character in The Golden Days. The sixth entry in the register and the seventh poem both suggest that she will be unify off to a violent, unfaithful and beastly bully. There is no hint of this fate in the first volume of the novel. The Golden Days gives away equally little about the subject of the next quatrain and song, Xi-chun. baby of Cousin Zhen and the youngest of the three springs, seems destined to try on release from youths high life and to win chaste quietness and heavenly peace by becoming a Buddhist nun. Wang Xi-feng on the other hand, wife of Jia Lian and cousin to Bao-yu, plays a far more prominent role in The Golden Days. She is a very strong character, a feminist role-model. She has all the qualities of the ideal wife with her managerial prowess and deference to her elders, and yet she always manages to be on top. This combination of cunning and virtue can best be seen in the chapters dealing with Qin-shis funeral. Having been relegated posthumousl y to the status of a baronial Dame, the funeral is a grand involvement. The sheer approach and man-power involved is staggering and Xi-feng is put in charge of it all. Nevertheless, she manages it with the decisiveness of a little general.On the shadow of the wake, her maturity date and superior social skills are just demonstrated when it is left entirely to her to do the honours. Xi-fengs vivacious charm and social assurance stood out in link contrastShe was in her element, and if she took any come up of her humbler sisters it was only to throw out an occassional order or to bend them in some other way to her imperious will. This can be juxtaposed with the episode in the next chapter when, after the funeral, Xi-feng, Bao-yu and Qin-zhong spend the night in the Water-moon Priory. The prioress Euergesia, catching Xi-feng alone, tells her the accounting of a benefactor of the priory called Zhang. He is hopeless to call off his daughters engagement to the son of a captain in t he Chang-an garrison. The captain however, is being good unreasonable and refusing to take back the betrothal-gifts. Euergesia beseeches Xi-feng to use her unfluence to get Jia Zheng to write a earn to General Yun asking him to have a word with the captain because It is hardly believably that he would refuse to obey his commading officer. Xi-feng coyly turns her down until Euergesia questions Xi-fengs ability. Xi-feng relents and agrees to take part for the the not so small sum of three thousand taels of silver.Xi-feng is clearly fiscally-minded and savvy, never one to let an opportunity for net income slip by. The hush-hush manner in which this matter of the captain is broached also suggests that it is rather shady business. Yet, any qualms Xi-feng feigns to have about getting involved seem to be easily forgotten. Xi-feng is indeed, as the 9th song states, too shrewd by half. She is too focused on self-advancement but with the fall of the Jia family later in The Story of the S tone, Xi-fengs plotting and manouevering will all come to nothing Like a great buildings tottery cr change, Like flickering lampwick burned to ash Although the exact nature of Xi-fengs future is not specified, it is clear that it is not a bright one. She will, as the title of the ninth song says, be caught by her own cunning. Although we see none of her pass up in The Golden Days, there are hints of a fall to come. When Qin-shi appears to her in a dream, she warns Xi-feng of the future fall of the Jai family as a whole. She quotes a proverb The higher the climb, the harder the fall. Could this be referring equally to Xi-feng as to the family? Is there a reason why Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng specifically? The tenth Beautiy of Jinling, interestingly enough, does not even appear in the first volume. Qiao-jie, daughter of Xi-feng, nevertheless has some sort of disconcert ahead of her. It seems that no one will be spared pain and grief as the Jia family declines. The penultimate B eauty included on the Main Register is Li Wan, mother of Jia local area network. Li Wan was married to Jia Zhu, brother of Bao-yu.Jia Zhu died before the start of the novel as implied by the third line in the eleventh song, the pleasures of the bridal bed presently fled. The quatrain suggests that their son, Jia Lan, her Orchid, will be successful. The song goes further to describe the awesome chaw of the head with cap and bands of office on, and luster bright upon his breast the gold insignia Jia Lan will later pass the civilised service exam and become a high official. It is perhaps slightly far-fetched but one of the few mentions of Jia Lan comes in chapter nine, set in the Jia clan tutor house. As for Li Wan, there is no hint that the black night of deaths dark frontier lay close at hand. It would seem that she tragically dies after her sons appointment. Finally, there is Qin-shi, the twelfth Beauty of Jinling. She is the young wife of Jia Rong but dies of a mysterious unk nown disease half way through The Golden Days. Of all the women, Qin-shi is the only one whose whole fate is played out in the course of the first volume. It does not, however, transmit according to plan. Both the quatrain and the song, The Good Things defend an End, explicitly express that she will hang herself. The most likely reason for her suicide is the familys discovery of her incestuous affair with her father-in-law, cousin Zhen Say not our troubles all from Rongs side came For their beginning Ning must take the blame. Indeed, there are indications of such intrigue.A drunken servant lets slip, in a fit of rage, Father-in-law pokes in the ashes The subscriber is clearly meant to take note of this comment, as Bao-yu subsequently questions Xi-feng as to its meaning. Xi-feng is quickly in quashing any ideas Bao-yu may have on the subject and terrified by her vehemence, Bao-yu implored her forgiveness. There is obviously something to hide. Cousin Zhens hysterical reaction af ter her death is also a sign that their relationship was not as it seemed. He is inconsolable, proclaiming presently that she has been taken from us its plain to see that this senior branch of the family is goddam to extinction The poem accordingly, states that her death, the ruin of a mighty house protended. Qin-shis suicide does not however, take place and she instead dies of natural causes. A reason for this departure is put foward by Hawkes. While Xueqin did earlier have Qin-shi hanging herself from painted beams, a notation by one of the commentators on the original manuscript states that her ordered Xueqin to do away with the scene.Xueqin reluctantly did so but, unenthusiastic about the change, failed to make the necessary alterations to the rest of the text. Having examined the fates of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling as expressed in the Main Register of the Department of the Ill Fated Fair and in the fairy of Disenchantments song cycle, it becomes immediately obvious tha t tradgedy lies ahead. With the decline of the Jia family will come a decline in the fortunes of each of the women. It is also clear that by the end of the first volume of The Story of the Stone the story has, in fact, barely begun. The Jia household is still powerful and rich, the child heros are still young and and insouciant, these are still the golden days.