THE STORY OF THE STONE: GOLDEN DAYS VOLUME 1 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Xueqin Cao | 544 pages | 30 Mar 1974 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780140442939 | English | London, United Kingdom The Story of the Stone: Golden Days Volume 1 PDF Book This is said to be one of the most important novels in Chinese history and I don't want to miss out on the rest of it. As Xi-feng drops off to sleep, Qin-shi stops in to visit her. Lists with This Book. Illnesses, loaning money, deaths, construction projects, birthdays, and whatever else is going on in their lives makes up the majority of the activity in this book. Readers have a lot to look forward to this year! Browse all BookRags Study Guides. But over and above the novel hangs the constant reminder that there is another plane of existence — a theme which affirms the Buddhist belief in a supernatural scheme of things. One could say that nothing really happens but the minutiae of human life inhabits every page. On the one hand, much of the story is lighthearted and whimsical in a way that reminds me of nothing more than Western children's literature. Bao-yu's sister Yuan-chun has been raised to become an Imperial Concubine, and features mostly indirectly. Whether this makes him some kind of "proto- feminist" is debatable, but he was certainly a philogynist. There are some characters who are almost the same age but at very different positions in the family, and vice versa. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the rest of the novel trying to figure out who might have been meant by each riddle…for example: When power is lost, rank matters not a jot; when families fall, kinship must not be forgot. Dec 25, J. It just so happens that Bao-yu is the personification of the stone, having been born with the jade in his very own mouth. In fact, through at least half of this first volume, I gave up trying to differentiate characters from one another at all with a few exceptions, so that they all became something like shifting heads on a hydra. In chapter five he falls asleep and has a dream of the Land of Illusion. As a result, it was quite difficult to get my bearings in the early chapters, as I was confronted with a flurry of names, some of which recurred from chapter to chapter and some of which didn't. Language: Mandarin English. Qin Zhong finally hears Bao-yu and begs the spirits to allow him just a moment back in the living world with his friend--the spirits learn the friend is Bao-yu, full of mischief and vibrancy, and who, to boot, is a descendant of the Duke of Rong-guo. In some ways this is an easier read, but in others it's hard to follow. Hawkes, in his introduction to volume one, suggests they were edited by a family member before being used by Gao E. We're in a context vacuum here; I know next to nothing about Chinese literature, Confucianism, upper crust life in the Qing Dynasty, Buddhism. Good News Translation King Nebuchadnezzar had a gold statue made, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and he had it set up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. But, this is only the first volume. This is combined with excruciating details which at times can be beautiful, but overall becomes a heavy forest of words for the reader to slog through. Alternate Versions. His visit, in a dream, to the Land of Illusion is described, where a fairy named Disenchantment reveals the predestined futures of many of his girl-cousins and maids, at the same time gently berating him for being such a lustful creature in his case it is Lust of the Mind. I'm currently on page Don't you want readers to know what they're getting into? As the novel proceeds, however, the girls are scattered, by death, dismissal, marriage, and other misfortunes — and for Bao-yu, and by implication Cao Xueqin, marriage really is a misfortune. Watch the video. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. This stone can speak, write poetry, turns itself into jade, and places itself in the mouth of the baby Bao-yu who is born into the prestigious Wang family of the Jia clan. See 1 question about The Golden Days…. For the Chinese, however, The Story of the Stone is a talisman. Something like 3 stars for enjoyment, bumped up to four for novelty and for my curiosity about where this is all going. It starts with the story of goddess Nu-wa repairing the heavens with various stones, and there is one that is left unused and so it tossed down to earth. I hesitate to give it too strong a recommendation given that I've still got four volumes left to go, but, this book is considered a classic for a reason, right? One event flows into the next, and by the end of the volume nothing much seems to have happened and no one seems to have changed. It depicts gay life in Taipei and discovers a darker side to Taipei, as well as exploring despair, reincarnation and hope. He lectured his subjects on the need to read it five times, while his secretary, Hu Qiaomu, claimed that the Great Helmsman himself had read it 25 times. In any case, I'll definitely be continuing to the second volume of five. The Story of the Stone: Golden Days Volume 1 Writer Shelves: five-star. In fact, through at least half of this first volume, I gave up trying to differentiate characters from one another at all with a few exceptions, so that they all became something like shifting heads on a hydra. He's concerned particularly with the girls of the house who are are all uniquely interesting, intelligent, competent, and refined, yet will never garner the ounce of respect he gets for just having been born lucky. His sister Ying-chun is apathetic and withdrawn from the world. Print Word PDF. In the earlier part of the story, the outside world mostly intrudes in comic "low life" episodes: a schoolboy riot in the clan school, retaliation by Xi-Feng against unwanted advances from a would-be lover, a visit by country bumpkin Grannie Liu, blow-back when an actor Xue Pan takes a fancy for turns out to be a martial-arts expert, and so forth. But there is also viciousness in some characters who seemed angelic before and the result is a rich tapestry, not of caricatures, but of people that truly come alive. Chinese scholars like to compare Cao Xueqin to Shakespeare and have subjected his novel to similarly intense analysis a field known as "Redology" , but a better parallel to The Story of the Stone might be the works of Jane Austen. This Penguin edition provides family trees in the appendix and I am so grateful. World English Bible Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Like I said: this is a time machine and the descriptions are the wiring that make it all work. Most of the other characters are related to Bao-yu, who is a kind of anthropological Ego in the extended Jia kinship network. Events become darker as the story progresses, involving unhappy marriages and problems with the family finances — the Jia rely on rents from their land, but are living beyond their means. It's a lot wittier and a lot more full of life than I expected. Story of the Stone Series: Related Titles. And yet a complete and highly readable English translation has been available in Penguin Classics for nearly 30 years. I just hope I remember most of the plot. Chairman Mao and his last wife, Jiang Qing, were both Stone-aficionados. Xi-feng learns that Jia Rui wishes to talk with her about something. A passage elaborates upon how Bao-yu's upbringing in the female presence has led to an undercurrent of belief that the pure essence of humanity is concentrated in the female, and that the male embodies the dregs and off-scourings, brutes without distinction. However, reading the first two volumes of Proust this book is very different as well. She is learned but unassuming and always a voice of commonsense, reason, and compassion; her perspective provides the reader a stable point of return throughout the novel. As the story progresses, we can follow the main characters and look into the daily life of a fictional Chinese noble family, there are romances, tragedies, family dramas, rivalries, conflicts and so much more in the book, all of them richly written by the author The Story of the Stone, also known as Dreams In the Red Chamber , is probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Chinese classical novels of all time. The main reason I'm reading this book, I guess, is because it's considered one of the four Classic Chinese Novels which is an actual thing. The Story of the Stone: Golden Days Volume 1 Reviews The times may change, but people never will. Bao-yu and Xi-feng pay Qin-shi a visit. Full Cast and Crew. This intertwining of desire and enlightenment, of passion and disenchantment, lies at the heart of the novel. Sign in. He is never able to really figure it out though, for he is effectively trapped in the Jia household with his family and almost never gets out in the world.