Rereading the Stone: Desire and the Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber.

• Author: Idema, Wilt L.
• Position: Review

By ANTHONY C. Yu. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xv + 321. $55.

Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng) is by far the finest novel in traditional Chinese literature. As such it continues to stimulate the finest minds in criticism. Anthony C. Yu, who earlier provided us with a complete rendition of the Journey to the West and published a number of articles devoted to Dream of the Red Chamber, now puts before us the summation of his reading of Cao Xueqin's masterwork. To his reading of the novel he brings his erudite knowledge of Chinese religion and philosophy. The result is an extremely informative and stimulating study. Rereading the Stone may not be the ideal choice as a first introduction to Dream of the Red Chamber, but it certainly is essential reading for any serious student of the novel. As the novel is in many ways an encapsulation of traditional Chinese culture, it is essential reading for any sinologist. It is to be hoped that this monograph also will be widely read outside the field as it has much to teach students of comparative literature.

The book consists of five lengthy chapters. The first, "Reading" (pp. 3-52), discusses earlier approaches to Dream of the Red Chamber. Our author makes the point that any reading can only be partial and historical, but then argues against the pervasive tendency both past and present to read the novel as a historical document, whether it be seen as a topical allegory on Manchu court intrigues, an autobiography of the author, or an encyclopedia of eighteenth-century social history. "For the point at issue is not whether Hongloumeng the novel is reflective of Chinese society - how could it not be, as a work of fiction wrought in a specific moment of history? - but whether the compulsive attempt of the modern reader to go beyond the text and arrive at its real referent, posited as either the larger world of the eighteenth century or the immediate realm of its celebrated author's household, represents in the end a futile undertaking" (p. 19). Yu prefers to read Dream of the Red Chamber as fiction: ". . . the narrative's merit as verbal art lies in its reflexive and innovative insistence, made through myriad occasions and devices, that it is a work of fiction. The novel, in other words, is as much a story about fictive representation as it is about human life" (p. xi).

As "the desire for fiction and the fiction of desire are both dangerous things" (p. 52), Yu devotes his second...