It was not published until nearly three decades after Cao's death, when Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan ( 程偉元), edited the first and second printed editions under the title Dream of the Red Chamber in 1791–92, adding 40 chapters. Copies of his uncompleted manuscript circulated in Cao's social circle, under the title Story of a Stone, in slightly varying versions of eighty chapters. Ĭao apparently began composing it in the 1740s and worked on it until his death in 1763 or 1764.

At a more profound level, the author explores religious and philosophical questions, and the writing style includes echoes of the plays and novels of the late Ming, as well as poetry from earlier periods. Cao depicts the power of the father over the family, but the novel is intended to be a memorial to the women he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. The intricate strands of its plot depict the rise and decline of a family much like Cao's own and, by extension, of the dynasty itself. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for its psychological scope, and its observation of the worldview, aesthetics, lifestyles, and social relations of 18th-century China. ' Dream of the Red Chamber' in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese charactersĭream of the Red Chamber ( Honglou Meng) or The Story of the Stone ( Shitou Ji) is a Chinese novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the mid-18th century.

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