Dream of the Red Chamber
Cao Xueqin · 1791
This book is rated Adults 18+. It isn't available on your library card.
The great Qing-dynasty novel of the Jia family: a stone from heaven born as the boy Baoyu with jade in his mouth, his fragile cousin Daiyu, the worldly Baochai and the sharp-tongued Xifeng, and a noble house living its last years of splendour. Volume 1: from the stone's descent to the Imperial Consort's visit home.
For adult readers: grief, desire and death are shown with restraint. Captions and narration are available in English and Chinese.
Characters
Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉
The dreamy, tender-hearted heir of the Jia clan, born with a jade in his mouth, who prefers girls' company to books.
Lin Daiyu 林黛玉
Baoyu's frail, brilliant orphaned cousin, a gifted poet whose sharp tongue hides a deeply sensitive, melancholy heart.
Xue Baochai 薛宝钗
Baoyu's composed, tactful cousin from the wealthy Xue family, admired by all for her good sense and quiet learning.
Wang Xifeng 王熙凤
Jia Lian's dazzling, quick-witted wife who runs the Rong household with charm, iron control and a hidden appetite for silver.
Grandmother Jia 贾母
The beloved, shrewd matriarch of the Jia clan, who dotes on Baoyu and Daiyu and presides over every family feast.
Xiren 袭人
Baoyu's gentle, devoted senior maid, who cares for him tirelessly and gently urges him toward proper conduct.
Jia Zheng 贾政
Baoyu's stern, upright scholar-official father, who despairs of his son's idleness and demands he study for office.
Ping'er 平儿
Xifeng's clever, kind-hearted chief maid, who quietly smooths over her mistress's harshness and keeps her secrets.
Shi Xiangyun 史湘云
Baoyu's lively, open-hearted cousin from the Shi family, a carefree poet who laughs loudly and speaks her mind.
Jia Tanchun 贾探春
Baoyu's capable, decisive half-sister, born to a concubine, whose talent and spirit outshine her humble birth.
Granny Liu 刘姥姥
A shrewd, humorous old countrywoman whose visits to the grand mansion bring rustic laughter and an outsider's eye.
Qingwen 晴雯
Baoyu's beautiful, proud and sharp-tongued maid, fiercely honest and unwilling to bend to anyone.
About the story
Dream of the Red Chamber follows the wealthy Jia clan, whose two great mansions in the capital still look splendid even as their fortunes quietly drain away. At its centre is Jia Baoyu, a sensitive, unconventional heir born with a piece of jade in his mouth. He is surrounded by the young women of the household: his fragile, sharp-witted cousin Lin Daiyu, the tactful and well-liked Xue Baochai, the dazzling manager Wang Xifeng, and many sisters, cousins and maids. The book opens with a myth about a stone left over when the goddess Nüwa mended the sky, and it keeps moving between that dreamlike frame and the everyday life of a grand eighteenth-century Chinese household.
The novel is full of banquets, poetry games, family rivalries, servants' intrigues and quiet heartbreak. Its central themes are love and fate, appearance and reality, and how wealth and pleasure do not last. As the book warns, 'when the false is taken for true, the true becomes false.'
Cao Xueqin's novel circulated in manuscript for decades before it was first printed in 1791. It is widely considered the greatest of China's classic novels. Its large cast of vivid, believable characters, especially its women, and its close picture of one family's world have made it the subject of a whole field of study, known as 'Redology'.
This is a condensed picture-book retelling in 93 illustrated pages with about 32 minutes of synthetic-voice narration, and every picture is an AI illustration made for this edition. The full original novel is long, rich and freely available in the public domain, and it is well worth reading in full.
Adapted from Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin (1791), public domain.
Questions
What is Dream of the Red Chamber about?
It is about the rise and slow decline of the aristocratic Jia family, seen mainly through the young heir Jia Baoyu and his close bond with his cousins Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. A mythical frame story about a magical stone and a fairy flower suggests that their earthly lives were fated from the start.
Who is the main character?
The central figure is Jia Baoyu, a gentle, dreamy young man who prefers the company of the girls around him to studying for the civil-service exams. Lin Daiyu, his orphaned and sensitive cousin, is just as important to the story.
Is this edition suitable for children or teens?
No. This edition is rated 18+. It includes a sensual dream sequence, suggestions of adult relationships, violence such as a murder case, and themes of death and loss.
How long does this edition take to read or listen to?
The narration runs about 32 minutes across 93 illustrated pages.
Is this the full book?
No. This is a heavily condensed retelling of a novel that runs to 120 chapters and well over a thousand pages in most English translations. The complete text is in the public domain and free to read.
Stories
- The Stone Enters the Red Dust93 pp · 40 min
- Petals in the Garden92 pp · 36 min
- The Poetry Club and the Wider World91 pp · 37 min
- Reforms, Tokens and Blades91 pp · 37 min
- The Garden Dispersed94 pp · 39 min
- Return to Greensickness Peak94 pp · 26 min
Read the text version: every page's caption, with its picture, on one page.
