Zhiyanzhai

thumb|By resorting to illusions, the supreme expression of love is attained. Nothing can compare to it. Zhiyanzhai (Chinese: 脂硯齋/脂砚斋; literally: "Rouge Inkstone Studio", sometimes translated as Red Inkstone or Rouge Inkstone) was the pseudonym of an early and mysterious commentator of the 18th-century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. Quotes thumb|The Story of the Stone is a book of the deepest feelings and the truest words. Whenever I read this book and occasionally hit on a point, I immediately took note of it. I did not read the book from beginning to end first and then comment on it from its first page onwards; hence occasionally my comments are repetitive. Moreover, the comments of you other gentlemen represent your own views; I, Chih-yen-chai, in making my comments have done so for my own pleasure. Later on, every time I read it again I always jotted down a few words and added them beside the columns of the text; hence there are also remarks bearing cross-references to my earlier and later comments. Comment quoted and translated by Wu Shih-ch'ang in On the Red Chamber Dream (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 21–22, as quoted by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 193–194 八字便是作者一生慚恨。 [Cao Xueqin discharged] all his shame, resentment or regrets in life through the stone. Comment in chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu (甲戌) manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber, as quoted in "Novel Ridens in Ming-Qing Fiction: Pathetic Humor in and of Honglou Meng" by Weihe Wu, Ph.D. thesis (University of Washington, 1999), p. 142, as reported in Wandering Between Two Worlds by Ronald R. Gray (Peter Lang, 2014), footnote on p. 125 開卷一篇立意真，打破歷來小說窠臼 。 The intention [of the author as revealed] in this opening chapter has indeed broken the set pattern of all the other novels written up to the present. Marginal comment in chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu manuscript, as quoted by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 196 thumb|Will the reader, after having reached this point, please close the book and ponder whether there have ever been such sentences in all the previous novels. Extraordinary writings unheard of since time immemorial. 觀者至此請掩卷思想，歷來小說中可曾有此句？千古未聞之奇文。 Will the reader, after having reached this point, please close the book and ponder whether there have ever been such sentences in all the previous novels. Extraordinary writings unheard of since time immemorial. Marginal comment in chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu manuscript, when "the Crimson Flower ([Lin Daiyu], or Black Jade, in an earlier existence) talks about repaying the tender care bestowed upon her by the Divine Stone Page ([Jia Baoyu] in an earlier existence) with her tears", as quoted and reported by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 196 Compare the text being commented upon: 他是甘露之惠，我幷無此水可還。他既下世爲人，我也去下世爲人，但把我一生所有的眼泪還他，也償還得過他了。 I have no sweet dew here that I can repay him with. The only way in which I could perhaps repay him would be with the tears shed during the whole of a mortal lifetime if he and I were ever to be reborn as humans in the world below. Dream of the Red Chamber, as translated by David Hawkes in The Story of the Stone, Vol. 1: 'The Golden Days' (Penguin, 1973), p. 53 雪芹舊有《風月寶鑒》之書，乃其弟棠村序也。今棠村已逝，余睹新懷舊，故仍因之。 "A Mirror for the Romantic" was the name of a book that Xueqin once had. It had a preface by his brother Tangcun. Now that Tangcun is dead, I am reminded of the old when I look at the new. That is why I have continued to use it. Marginal comment in chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber, as translated by David Hawkes in "The Translator, the Mirror and the Dream—Some Observations on a New Theory", published in Classical, Modern, and Humane: Essays in Chinese Literature (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1989), eds. John Minford and ‎Siu-Kit Wong, p. 178 thumb|It says that Xueqin worked on this book and revised it many times. In that case, who wrote all this preliminary section up to here? Evidently this is just the author playing a trick on us. He resorts to this sort of device in many other places besides this one. It's what painters call the "mist and cloud" technique. The reader, if he is wise, will be very careful not to be taken in by it. 若云雪芹披閱增删，然後開卷至此，這一篇楔子又係誰撰？足見作者之筆狡猾之甚。後文如此处者不少。這正是作者用畫家烟雲模糊處，觀者萬不可被作者瞞蔽了去，方是巨眼。 It says that Xueqin worked on this book and revised it many times. In that case, who wrote all this preliminary section up to here? Evidently this is just the author playing a trick on us. He resorts to this sort of device in many other places besides this one. It's what painters call the "mist and cloud" technique. The reader, if he is wise, will be very careful not to be taken in by it. Marginal comment on a passage in the preface to Dream of the Red Chamber, which established Cao Xueqin as the book's author, in chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu manuscript, as quoted in "The Translator, the Mirror, and the Dream—Some Observations on a New Theory" by David Hawkes, published in Renditions 13 (Spring 1980), p. 19, where Hawkes remarks: "In this comment, at any rate, 'the author' and 'Xueqin' are evidently meant to be understood as the same person. It is hard to see how any sense can be made of it if they are not." Persons whom I saw thirty years ago and with whom I was intimate now appear on the page, and this compels me to declare that The Story of the Stone is a book of the deepest feelings and the truest words. Unless, however, one has in fact experienced such events or been deluded by such feelings, reading it is like "chewing wax" absentmindedly, never understanding the miraculous wonders of what one has witnessed. Comment in the 1760 manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber, as quoted by Anthony C. Yu in Rereading the Stone (Princeton University Press, 1997), p. 7 thumb|I have wept so much for Xueqin that I fear I too shall soon run out of tears. 能解者方有辛酸之泪，哭成此書。壬午除夕，書未成，芹爲泪盡而逝。余常哭芹，泪亦待盡。每思覓青埂峰再問石兄，奈不遇癩頭和尚何！悵悵！今而後惟願造化主再出一芹一脂，是書何幸，余二人亦大快遂心於九泉矣。甲午八日泪筆。 Only one who understood the message of this book could have the hot and bitter tears with which to finish it. Xueqin, having run out of tears, departed this life on New Year's Eve of the year ren-wu (12 February 1763) leaving this book unfinished. I have wept so much for Xueqin that I fear I too shall soon run out of tears. I often wish that I could find where that Greensickness Peak is so that I could ask Brother Stone about his story. What a pity there is no scabby-headed monk to take me there! If only the Creator would produce another Xueqin and another Red Inkstone to complete this book, how happy the two of us would be, down there together in the World of Shades! Written in tears, eighth month of jia-wu (September 1774) Interlinear comment in the Nanking manuscript of The Story of the Stone (a copy of the 1754 manuscript), discovered in 1927, next to the lines "Pages full of idle words / Penned with hot and bitter tears", as quoted by David Hawkes in The Story of the Stone: The Golden Days (Penguin, 1973), p. 35, and in The Story of the Stone: The Warning Voice (Penguin, 1980), p. 14; also quoted by Liu Zaifu in Reflections on "Dream of the Red Chamber", trans. Shu Yunzhong (Cambria Press, 2008), p. 197. 知眼泪還債，大都作者一人耳。余亦知此意，但不能說得出。 It is most likely that the author was the only one who owed and paid a debt of tears. I know something about this but not all the details. Marginal comment in chapter 1 of an 1814 version of Dream of the Red Chamber, as quoted by Liu Zaifu in Reflections on "Dream of the Red Chamber", trans. Shu Yunzhong (Cambria Press, 2008), p. 197 By resorting to illusions, the supreme expression of love is attained. Nothing can compare to it. Comment quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 159 看他所寫開卷之第一個女子便用此二語以定終身，則知托言寓意之旨，誰謂獨寄興於一「情」字耶！ When we see how he (the author) uses these two expressions ("ill-fated" and "who will implicate her parents") to pass his verdict upon the first female character introduced in this very first chapter, we know his hidden message. Who says "love" is the author's sole concern? Marginal comment in chapter 1, when a Buddhist monk and a Taoist priest demand that Zhen Shiyin (甄士隱) give up his only daughter Yinglian (甄英蓮, later known as Xiangling 香菱 or Lotus), asking, "Why are you carrying this ill-fated thing who will implicate her parents?", as quoted and reported by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 199 thumb|See how the author uses just these four characters [聰明清秀 (intelligent and refined)] to describe Daiyu. How laughable that recent novels are all filled with such trite expressions as "peerless in the whole world," "matchless throughout history," and so on in describing their heroines. 看他寫黛玉，只用此四字。可笑近來小說中，滿紙「天下無二」「古今無雙」等字。 See how he (the author) uses just these four characters to describe Tai-yü. How laughable that recent novels are all filled with such [trite] expressions as "peerless in the whole world," "matchless throughout history," and so on [in describing their heroines]. Marginal comment in chapter 2, on the author's description of Lin Daiyu "in just four characters—[congming qingxiu] 聰明清秀 (intelligent and refined)", as quoted and reported by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 196 thumb|Objects bring back their memories. You tear my heart! 作者今尚記金魁星之事乎？撫今思昔，腸斷心摧。 Do you still remember about that little gold charm? Objects bring back their memories. You tear my heart! Marginal comment on an episode in Chapter 8 of the Dream of the Red Chamber, trans. David Hawkes in The Story of the Stone, Vol. I (Penguin, 1973), p. 34, quoted by Gideon Shelach-Lavi in "Memory, Amnesia and the Formation of Identity Symbols in China", published in Memory and Agency in Ancient China (Cambridge University Press, 2018) 又是一個有害無益者。作者一生為此所誤，批者一生亦為此所誤，於開卷凡見如此人，世人故為喜，余反抱恨，蓋四字誤人甚矣。被誤者深感此批。 Yet another of these useless, pestilential little creatures! All his life the author has suffered from his susceptibility to this kind of female. The commentator has suffered all his life too from the same weakness. Other people derive pleasure from encountering such characters in their reading, but I, because of the harm they have done me in real life, derive only pain. The susceptible author is extremely grateful for the comment! Interlinear comment on a scene involving Jia Baoyu with the maid Number Four in chapter 21, as reported and quoted by John Minford in Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, ed. Kerry Brown, Vol. III (Berkshire Publishing Group, 2017), p. 1109 自悟則自了，又何用人亦解哉？此正是猶未正覺大悟也。 To be enlightened is to obliterate all self-consciousness [tzu-liao, lit., "finish off oneself"]. What need is there to make others understand? This shows precisely that he has not yet attained real awakening and final enlightenment. Interlinear comment on Jia Baoyu in chapter 22, as quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 221. ……此書之妙皆從詩詞句中翻出者…… The best parts of this book grow out of poems and song lyrics. Interlinear comment on the scene in chapter 25 in which Baoyu meets Hsiao-hung for the second time, as reported and quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), footnote on p. 168 所謂越不聰明越快活。 The less smart you are, the more happily you live. Marginal comment in chapter 25, as quoted by Zuyan Zhou in Daoist Philosophy and Literati Writings in Late Imperial China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2013), 978-9629964979, p. 33 thumb|Baochai and Daiyu are actually one person with two names; this is an illusory technique of writing. 釵玉名雖兩個，人卻一身，此幻筆也。 Baochai and Daiyu are actually one person with two names; this is an illusory technique of writing. Comment in chapter 42, quoted in "Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Hongloumeng" by Qian Cui, in Dream of the Red Chamber: Literary and Translation Perspectives (Routledge, 2023), p. 106 thumb|What I really detest in recent fiction is that a bad character is invariably bad while a good one is good in every respect. How inappropriate and illogical can one be! 尤氏亦可謂有才矣。論有德比阿鳳高十倍，惜乎不能諫夫治家，所謂「人各有當」也。此方是至理至情，最恨近之野史中，惡則無往不惡，美則無一不美，何不近情理之如是耶？ Lady Yu can truly be described as talented, too. Her kindness is ten times that of Feng-chieh. Unfortunately, she is unable to admonish her husband and so govern the house (i.e., the Ning-kuo fu) properly. This is a case of "each one having that in which he excels." This is, then, most logical and appropriate. What I really detest in recent fiction is that a bad character is invariably bad while a good one is good in every respect. How inappropriate and illogical can one be! Interlinear comment in chapter 43, as quoted by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 197 一部大書起是夢，寶玉情是夢，賈瑞淫又是夢，秦之家計長策又是夢……餘今批評亦在夢中…… This grand book narrates a dream, Baoyu's affections are a dream, Jia Rui's lust is a dream, Qin Keqing's family calculations are a dream... What's more these criticisms are written in a dream... Marginal comment in chapter 48, "when Baochai is amused at Caltrop writing poetry in her dream-sleep", as quoted and reported in Men and Women in Qing China: Gender in The Red Chamber by Louise P. Edwards (E.J. Brill, 1994), p. 13; partially quoted in Reading Dream of the Red Chamber: A Companion to Cao Xueqin's Masterpiece by Ronald R. Gray (McFarland, 2022), p. 223. Variant translation: This gigantic work begins with a dream. Baoyu​​'s love is a dream; so are Jia Rui​​'s debauchery and Qin Keqing​​'s household plans and long-range policies. . . . Hence the Dream of the Red Chamber. My present comments are also made in a dream. I am making this great dream especially for those who are in a dream. John C. Y. Wang, "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 200–201 thumb|Only the mandarin-duck swords can kill the mandarin ducks; only people immersed in love can free themselves from the trap of love. 鴛鴦劍能斬鴛鴦，鴛鴦人能破鴛鴦。 Only the mandarin-duck swords can kill the mandarin ducks; only people immersed in love can free themselves from the trap of love. Comment in chapter 66, pointing out a paradox, as quoted by Zuyan Zhou in Daoist Philosophy and Literati Writings in Late Imperial China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2013), p. 56 She composes her verses effortlessly. Different from others, her mindset and talents do not come from book-learning. Comment on Lin Daiyu, as quoted by Zuyan Zhou in Daoist Philosophy and Literati Writings in Late Imperial China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2013), p. 242 Later I came across the following in the "Final Listing [of the Characters' Feelings]": Baoyu is "feeling not-feeling," Daiyu is "feeling feeling." These epithets are naturally assessments of their perversity and obsessiveness. And these summary judgments too are illogical and paradoxical. Superb indeed! Comment quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 210 Wai-yee Li explains the "Final Listing" thus: «According to Red Inkstone, the last chapter of Hung-lou meng [in Cao Xueqin's original conception of the book] includes the "Final Listing of the Characters' Feelings" made up by [the fairy goddess] Disenchantment, in which the major characters of the book are classified and graded according to the depth, scope, and nature of their feelings. This last chapter is unfortunately now lost to us.» (Enchantment and Disenchantment, p. 202) The entire Story of the Stone is plausible and reasonable, and each event or each word is judiciously put down, but this sort of absurd talk now and then appears too. Is the author being deliberately playful and whimsical? Here he is having his good laugh, unlike [authors of] other books in which "ghostly talk" [kuei-hua] is undertaken in all seriousness. Comment quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), footnote on p. 240 Attributed thumb|Words on the paper mix with blood,The extraordinary labor of ten years! 浮生著甚苦奔忙？盛席華筵終散場。悲喜千般同幻渺，古今一夢盡荒唐。 Why such hard running around in this fleeting life of ours?Sumptuous feasts and gorgeous banquets must all dissolve in the end.Sorrow and joy, like a myriad other things, are illusory and unreal;Past and present are but a dream in their complete grotesqueness. Poem appended to the general remarks before chapter 1 of the 1754 jiaxu (甲戌) manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber, as quoted and reported by John C. Y. Wang in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 199; also quoted by Joey Bonner in Wang Kuo-wei: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 86. According to John C. Y. Wang, Hu Shih attributed this poem to Cao Xueqin, but C. Y. Wang (agreeing with Wu Shichang [吳世昌], though not necessarily with his identification of the commentator) takes it to be the work of the commentators in the Zhiyanzhai Commentary 字字看來皆是血，十年辛苦不尋常 。 Words on the paper mix with blood,The extraordinary labor of ten years! Poem in the preface to Dream of the Red Chamber, present in its 1754 jiaxu (甲戌) manuscript; the poem is "generally considered to be written by Cao Xueqin" according to Wong Kwok-pun in Dreaming across Languages and Cultures (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), footnote on p. 71, but Zhou Ruchang attributes it to Zhiyanzhai in "None The Red Chamber Message Hears: Art as Living Philosophy", Tamkang Review, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1–2 (2005), p. 101, and in Between Noble and Humble, trans. Liangmei Bao (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), p. 181; Fan Shengyu also attributes it to Zhiyanzhai in "Collator's Note to the Bilingual Edition of The Story of the Stone" (2012), p. 14 Quotes about Zhiyanzhai thumb|To the commentators in the Zhiyanzhai Commentary, the Dream of the Red Chamber is a story about the illusory nature of life and the painful truth that good times do not last forever. ~ John C. Y. Wang A few words must be said about the Chih Yen Chai comments. Most of these are of no interest to us since they consist largely of exclamations over the author's achievements ("marvellous," "wonderful," "what keen observation," "no one else would have thought of this," and so on). But there are others which confirm beyond any doubt that the Hung Lou Meng has a factual basis in the author's own experience and clarify certain puzzling passages in the novel. Chi-Chen Wang, Dream of the Red Chamber (Anchor Books, 1958), Introduction, p. xviii To the commentators in the Chih-yen-chai Commentary [...] the Dream of the Red Chamber is neither just a love story, let alone a specific love story, nor a political satire. Rather it is a story about the illusory nature of life and the painful truth that good times do not last forever. John C. Y. Wang (王靖宇), in "The Chih-yen-chai Commentary and the Dream of the Red Chamber: A Literary Study", in Chinese Approaches to Literature, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 197–198 [Hu Shi] argued that Zhiyanzhai was none other than the author, Cao Xueqin himself. He based this [...] theory on the notion that Honglou meng is Cao Xueqin's autobiography and Cao himself is represented by Baoyu. Baoyu liked to eat cosmetics [...] and the phrase Zhiyanzhai sounds very similar to the phrase 'eat rouge' (chi yanzhi). Louise P. Edwards, Men & Women in Qing China (University of Hawaii Press, 2001), p. 12 [Zhou Ruchang believes] that the famous commentator and editor of the novel, Zhiyan Zhai 脂砚斋, was Cao Xueqin's cousin and second wife, as well as the prototype for the character Shi Xiang-yun (who Zhou thinks is Bao-yu's true love, not Lin Dai-yu). Ronald R. Gray and Mark S. Ferrara, Editor's Preface to Zhou Ruchang's Between Noble and Humble (Peter Lang, 2009), p. xvi Compare: [Cao Xueqin's] reported comparison of Zhiyan zhai with Baochai and Daiyu eventually led the scholar Zhou Ruchang to identify Zhiyan zhai as a woman—that is, as Shi Xiangyun in the novel and Cao Xueqin's wife in reality. Other scholars have disagreed, since on numerous occasions the Zhiyan zhai commentary speaks with what sounds like a male voice. Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews, and Polygamists (Duke University Press, 1995), p. 188 Though the drift of Red Inkstone's remarks does not amount to a total disavowal of Honglou meng as a work of fiction, Red Inkstone certainly tends to single out certain parts of the novel for praise because 'there was really such a person' or 'this was what actually happened.' The commentary, valuable as it is, thus also serves to convert fiction to history, and the modern student should use it with discretion. Anthony C. Yu, "Cao Xueqin's Hongloumeng", in Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective, ed. Barbara Stoler Miller (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1994), p. 295; as quoted in Wandering Between Two Worlds by Ronald R. Gray (Peter Lang, 2014), footnote on p. xix See also Cao Xueqin Odd Tablet Gao E Dream of the Red Chamber A Dream of Red Mansions External links Commentaries on the Novel at Dream of the Red Chamber: Afterlives – University of Minnesota Category:Authors from China Category:Dream of the Red Chamber