Ways of Reading the Story of the Stone
Date
2021
Authors
Ren, Luman
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This thesis consists of a series of "how to read" essays (du fa), a genre favoured by traditional readers and commentators of Chinese fiction. Chapter One situates The Story of the Stone in the "The Cultural World of the Bannerman". By focusing on the lives and writings of Cao Xueqin's Bannerman friends, I hope to unveil the cultivated and poetic world which gave birth to Cao Xueqin's magnum opus. The ensuing chapters go beyond the immediate cultural and historical landscape of the mid-Qing and explore some of the broader traditions in Chinese literature and their influence on Stone. Chapter Two "Ink Splashed for Fun" shows how the novel is characterised throughout by a Spirit of Play, which can be traced all the way back to the writings of the philosopher and master storyteller Zhuang Zi. The focus of Chapter Three "The Landscape of Feeling" is on the character Lin Dai-yu and her qing (feeling). Instead of looking at Dai-yu's passionate love for Bao-yu, which is the approach taken by most scholars, I choose to survey another aspect of Dai-yu's qing, namely, her deep feelings for nature and her "empathy for things" which is best expressed through her lyrical poems. Chapter Four "Autumn Dirge" looks at the textual variants and literary allusions in Bao-yu's Elegy for the Hibiscus Spirit. Assuming the role of a traditional commentator, I list all the textual variants, explain the meaning of difficult words and literary allusions, and provide my own interpretation and understanding of the text in the form of textual commentary. In conclusion, the whole thesis is a direct continuation of the traditional commentators' "ways of reading" where the reader assumes the role of the zhi yin, the Perfect Listener, the Understanding Critic.
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