Did Cao Xueqin finish writing A Dream of Red Mansions?

With the decline of his family and the hardship of his life, his greatest misfortune is that he spent ten years of hard work and painstaking efforts to write a "hundred-odd big book", but the second half of it was scattered, and it only ended in eighty chapters and became a residual draft. If it were a holiday, it would be fine if he didn't have enough time to finish writing this masterpiece, but this is not the case. As early as the 19th year of Qianlong (1754), when Xue Qin was only 3 years old, this manuscript had been "perused (actually written, because its novels were recorded by stones, so it was called) for ten years, added and deleted five times, compiled into a catalogue, and divided into chapters". Apart from the lack of poems in some places, individual chapters must be considered to be separated and added back to the purpose. It is the most unremarkable accidental reason that makes this masterpiece a remnant manuscript, so it is the real misfortune.

We know from the fat review that in the 21st year of Qianlong (that is, Bingzi, 1756, two years after Jiawu), at least 75 times of the re-evaluated draft of A Dream of Red Mansions had been proofread and copied by relatives and friends of Xueqin. All the cases that should be divided into two parts, broken or missing poems are approved one by one. But this time, the manuscript is probably not complete. This can be seen from several comments added when the author died eleven years later (Ding Hai, 1767, thirty-two years of Qianlong) and his relatives and friends re-read the manuscript of this book. One of them said:

Qian Xue didn't present the text until the Temple of Prison. Aron's text is titled "Hua Xiren has a beginning and an end", but I only saw that five or six manuscripts, such as "Prison Temple Comfort Baoyu", were lost by the borrower once. Sigh! Ding Haixia, abnormal.

Another article says:

The Temple of Prison contains a lot of words of Qian Xue and Hong Yu, but it's a pity that it's lost without a manuscript. Sigh! Ding Haixia, abnormal.

Another article says:

Writing the chivalrous essays of Ni Er, Zi Ying, Xiang Lian and Yu Han, all of them have their own pens of facsimile portrayal. I regret that the text of wei ruolan Shooting Garden is lost without a draft, sigh! Ding Haixia, abnormal.

Another one says:

It's hate to sigh that you can't see the words in Baoyu's "Let Go of Your Life". Ding Haixia, abnormal.

in the comment on writing, I said, "There was a time when it was cleared? The borrower lost ",the time should be earlier," lost "should be the author's manuscript. If in the next few years, the manuscript has been copied and read many times, even if this manuscript is lost, that manuscript is still there, and it will not become an irreparable regret. From the comments quoted above, we can also infer the following facts:

1. After the author has basically finalized it by adding and deleting it five times, while Zhi Yanzhai and others are adding and copying it one after another, some relatives and friends are scrambling to borrow it, so we can get a sneak peek. Perhaps there is more than one borrower, and there are also the second half of the manuscript that has not been copied in time, and it is very likely to be lost. Judging from the plot content of the "lost" five or six drafts, these five and six drafts are not connected; Some should be earlier, such as "wei ruolan Shooting Garden", which is probably written by the line led by Jin Qilin, so that Xiangyun can become attached to wei ruolan; Eighty times before learning to shoot, there are already words "as quotations", which can be written immediately after eighty times; Some are late, such as Prison Temple; At the latest, such as "Let Go of Hanging Ya" (Ya, for Yamabu, the same below), it can only be in the last few times, but it is not the last time. The last time is "Police Fantasy List", and there is no comment that it is lost. The earliest contact with the manuscript was red inkstone, who should have read the whole manuscript; I seem to have read most of the manuscripts, so I still remember the contents of the "lost" manuscript, so there are words such as "each has his own pen for fax portrayal" and a certain time is "the text"; Only "Let Go" comes back, and the tone of comment on writing seems to be less than reading before "lost".

Second, these "lost" manuscripts are all from the 198s, and one manuscript is missing here and another manuscript is missing there, and what is missing may also be the plot immediately following the 198s. In this way, too many manuscripts are missing after the 198s, and they are intermittent, so it is impossible to make a clean copy. This is why the manuscripts of A Dream of Red Mansions, which have been handed down from generation to generation, all ended in eighty chapters.

Third, the above comments were all added to the manuscript in the third year after Xue Qin's death. At that time, all the relatives and friends related to the manuscript had "stopped going one after another. Today, there is only one rotten thing left in Ding Haixia", which shows that the original manuscript or the manuscript of A Dream of Red Mansions, as well as the "lost" five after eighty chapters. If there are still thirty chapters after eighty chapters of the original manuscript, there should be twenty-four or five chapters of the residual manuscript. However, some researchers believe that the so-called "last 3 chapters" of Zhi Pi should not take 8 chapters as the dividing line, but should take Jia Fu's failure as the dividing line. Assuming that the failure of writing is about 9 chapters, the book should have 12 chapters, and the number of remaining manuscripts is more. The remaining manuscripts are kept in the abnormal place, which is a reasonable conclusion naturally drawn according to the logic of its comment on writing. Otherwise, I wouldn't just sigh that five or six drafts were "lost" or just hate that I couldn't see the words "Let Go".

four or several years ago, I said that A Dream of Red Mansions was finished before Jiaxu (1754), and' adding and deleting five times' was also before Jiaxu; After Jiaxu, Cao Xueqin never revised the manuscript of A Dream of Red Mansions that he had finished. Therefore, all the copies copied after Jiaxu, such as Ji Mao Ben, Geng Chen Ben, etc., are different from Jiaxu Ben (except that Jiaxu Ben itself has errors and omissions, but he did not miss them), especially those obviously changed words, no matter whether they are heading or text, no matter their advantages or disadvantages, are not attributed to Cao Xueqin himself. (My book "On the Lost Draft of A Dream of Red Mansions", p. 286) At first, this was only the result of a comparative study of the differences between the various texts. At that time, I didn't quite understand: why did Cao Xueqin throw the manuscript that he had basically completed to relatives and friends such as Zhi Yan and Zhen Yu to review and review it, but he didn't do the final repair work himself; It took him only ten years to write this novel, so is it afraid that it will not complete the whole book if it takes another ten years? Why do you want to make the hard-earned "crying" book a remnant draft? Now I understand: the main reason is that "the May 6th draft was lost by the borrower". If the five or six manuscripts were thrown into water or burned in fire, there would be no possibility of recovering them. Cao Xueqin might be heartbroken, but he would force himself to rewrite them. Although rewriting them is a very frustrating thing, there is enough time. Now otherwise, it is "lost", which is caused by the borrower's forgetfulness for a moment, and he can't remember where the manuscript was put or in whose hands. This is a daily - happened thing. Everyone will think: it is always in someone's place, and no one will deliberately hide these fragments of words, maybe they will suddenly be found again one day. So there was some waiting, and Cao Xueqin waited for all the manuscripts handed over to relatives and friends such as Zhi Yan to be approved, copied and collected, so as to make the final revision, including making up the missing poems or making some adjustments and drafts. However, the complete manuscript was never handed in, because the manuscript was incomplete. Cao Xueqin may have been unhappy about this: how could the manuscript not be found? But the result is probably nothing but luck; We can't order those friends and relatives who cooperate with him to get the lost manuscript back within a time limit. Maybe the careless borrower is an elder that the author can't afford to offend. It goes without saying that this careless man did not expect that he had inadvertently become a sinner in the history of China literature. Sadly, Cao Xueqin himself and even Zhi Yanzhai and others did not fully realize the seriousness of this matter at that time, and always thought that there was plenty of time, so it was difficult for the great book A Dream of Red Mansions to be dedicated to the world in the end. Therefore, before the author's death, Zhi Pi never mentioned the lost things in the five or six manuscripts.

Unexpectedly, time flies, and fortune is unpredictable. The only beloved son of Xueqin, who lives in the poor western hills, unfortunately suffered from acne and wounds. He died in Jia Shenchun (after February 2, 1764) after "a disease without a doctor" lasted for several months. Half a year later, Zhi Yanzhai died one after another. "Bai Xuege's dreams are still growing", and A Dream of Red Mansions has become an irretrievable manuscript. After several years, it took me a long time to sigh for the disability of the wonderful book. However, I made a huge mistake myself. Because I cherish the remnants of the 198s, I am afraid that I will be "lost" again, so I will keep them for myself and not show them easily. This is really a mistake! It's even more difficult for a personal manuscript to survive the relentless elimination of the long history than to win the first prize in a lottery. Cao Xueqin's manuscript, except for forged fakes, whether it is words or paintings, has long since disappeared? For future generations, it is hard to find out even who the freak is and when and where he died. Where can we find his Tibetan manuscripts? Thirty years after Cao Xueqin's death, Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E compiled and printed 12 copies of A Dream of Red Mansions, which were supplemented by unknown people for the last forty times. Although at first glance, some plots seem to be basically consistent with the author's original idea, such as the premature death of Daiyu (called "Zheng Qianbian" in the original manuscript), the marriage of Jin Yucheng (Baoyu was sober in the original manuscript, and talked about the old feelings) and Baoyu was a monk (called "hanging his hand" in the original manuscript), etc., those are all things that have been repeatedly suggested in the first eighty chapters. If we carefully compare the comments of Zhi Yanzhai and others who have read the whole manuscript of Xue Qin and always mentioned the plot and words after the eighties, we can see that when the sequel is written, except for the eighty words that have been widely circulated in the world, the residual manuscripts that were preserved by the grotesque are all "lost". The supplements have never seen a word in the last dozens of manuscripts written by Cao Xueqin.

now it's time to talk about the version. I'm not going to talk about the development of the version here, just want to talk about the basic principles of my version selection.

Up to now, most of the printed editions of A Dream of Red Mansions are based on Cheng Gao's engraving. Only the book annotated by the Dream of Red Mansions Institute of Chinese Academy of Art published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1982, the first eighty chapters are based on the manuscript of fat review (Geng Chen edition). According to Liu Shide's brother, a publishing house in the south asked him to proofread a new book, and he also took the manuscript in the first eighty times, which has not been seen yet. As early as the 195s and 196s, Yu Pingbo had compiled The School-based Story of the Dream of Red Mansions and published it in the Humanities Society. Although this book was concerned by Redology researchers, it was still ignored by the general readers, and it was not reprinted after the Cultural Revolution.

Why do the editions of A Dream of Red Mansions mostly take Cheng Gao's block-printed edition as the base? In addition to the fact that the books with several reviews were originally reviewed by Qing people on Cheng Gaoben, I think it is also because Cheng Gaoben has been processed and sorted by later generations, and the whole book has less contradictions and smoother words, which is convenient for ordinary readers to read; However, the manuscripts of Lipid Review only have eighty chapters at most, some of which only have a few chapters or a dozen chapters, with obvious mistakes, some of which are literary or confusing, or inconsistent, especially when combined with the sequels of the last forty chapters, which have obvious contradictions and conflicts. Nevertheless, I still think that the direction of the new proofreading books of Yu Pingbo School-based and Red Research Institute, which take Lipid Review as the first eighty chapters, is absolutely correct.

As we all know, Cheng Gaoben said that there were great changes in the text of the early fat review. If these changes are to correct mistakes and make up for defects, it's fine, but it's not the case. In many cases, Cheng Gaoben just changed the author's original intention arbitrarily or in order to accommodate the plot of the last forty chapters. For example, at the beginning of the novel, the waiter Shen Ying, who wrote about the Red Defect Palace, came down to earth with the stone that he wanted to go through the world. Since Shen Ying was reincarnated as Baoyu, Baoyu was born with jade. Cheng Gaoben's code was changed to stone named Shen Ying waiter, and the two were combined into one. In this way, Jia Baoyu was reborn as a stone. Logically speaking, when the stone returned to the foot of the Qinggeng Peak and wrote his own experience as "The Story of the Stone", Baoyu had to die at the same time. It doesn't make sense to be a monk and still be alive. I think this change is to emphasize the inseparable relationship between Jia Baoyu and psychic jade (in fact, this relationship is better handled in the original conception), so as to meet the needs of the plot of madness due to the loss of jade in the last forty chapters. Another time, Xifeng made fun of Daiyu and said, "Since you have eaten our tea, why don't you be our wife?" They all laughed. Li Gongcai smiled at Baochai and said, "It's true that our second aunt's humor is good." In this regard, the fat review reveals the author's intention: "The spouse of Er Yu is in the Jia family (including Jia Mu and Xi Feng, of course), that is, the viewer and the author are unquestionable, so this inscription is often used. I want to laugh too. " "Great! It's her turn (referring to Li Wan) to praise. " It can be seen that the original intention was to show that Baodai's marriage could not be fulfilled in the future, which was quite unexpected to "everyone". However, in Cheng Gaoben, at last, what Li Wan said was changed to what Baochai said: "Baochai laughed:' Second sister-in-law is humorous, which is really good." "Deliberately create an illusion for readers, as if Baochai was hypocritical and colluded with Xifeng in advance, which is in line with the later 4-year-old writing of the" switch plan ",but it only poisoned Cao Xueqin's words. Another example can be given: in the seventy-eighth cycle, before Jia Zheng ordered Baoyu, Jia Huan and Jia Lan to write Poems, there was a long passage about their talents, saying that Huan and Lan "seemed to be higher than Baoyu if they talked about their careers together"; When it comes to poetry, Baoyu is "not as ethereal and elegant as Baoyu, and every poem is like the method of stereotyped writing, which is rather rigid and boring", but Baoyu is very different in poetry. He also said, "Recently, Jia Zheng is old, and his fame and fortune are grey. However, at first, he was also a man of poetry and wine, because among his sons and nephews, he must follow the right path. Recently, although Baoyu didn't study, he was quite able to understand this. After careful evaluation, it was not very humiliating to his ancestors. Just think about the ancestors, each of them is the same. Although some of them have made great achievements, they have never made a fortune. It seems that this is also the number of good families. In fact, his mother dotes on him, so he is not strong enough to force him to raise his career. " Wait, Cheng Gaoben has completely deleted it, and the intention is obvious: in order to make the plot of the last forty chapters connected with the first eighty chapters, they are not contradictory. If you don't delete the original, Baoyu will be instructed by strict father to study in his home school, turn over a new leaf, and study the eight-part essay by himself. Finally, he will be proficient in the art of career promotion, and to be no.1 won the first world war, ranking far above Jia Lan, who was originally "higher than Baoyu", and so on.

The original is inconsistent with the sequel, so it is not advisable to delete the original to adapt to the sequel in order to be consistent; In Cheng Gaoben, such deletions are too numerous to list. What should be explained here is that not all the changes made to adapt to the plot of the sequel have been made from Cheng Gaoben, and many of them have already existed in Jia Chenben. Therefore, I quite doubt that the finishing and processing of Jia Chenben's copy is the unknown author of the sequel in the last 4 years, while Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E are just mending and processing on the basis of it, just as they said in the preface to the engraving. Cheng Gaoben also has many clever and self-defeating additions, deletions and changes that have nothing to do with the continuation of books, which have been pointed out by many researchers, so I don't need to repeat them here. In a word, we can't help but use Cheng Gaoben as the base book without analysis in order to be more consistent and reduce contradictions, because the price of doing so is to seriously damage Cao Xueqin's original work; We would rather let these objectively existing descriptions of the contradiction between the original and the sequel continue to exist and let the readers judge for themselves, which is much better than providing unreliable words that make the readers fall for it.

Isn't the book with the first 8 words as the background of the early fat review manuscript already published? Why do you want to make another one? The publication of Yu's school-based or Redology Institute's annotated edition has naturally made great contributions to Redology Institute, and I have the honor to take part in the latter. However, in recent years, after repeated comparative studies, I think that we should come up with a truly ideal book.