Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber)
- Editors: Andrew Schonebaum, Tina Lu
- Pages: xi & 515 pp.
- Published: 2012
- ISBN: 9781603291118 (Paperback)
“A truly instructive volume of diverse studies on a range of subjects that does justice to the novel’s own representational diversity and plenitude of culture.”
—Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago
The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber), a Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin and continued by Gao E, tells of an amazing garden, of a young man’s choice between two beautiful women, of his journey toward enlightenment, and of the moral and financial decline of a powerful family. Published in 1792, it depicts virtually every facet of life in eighteenth-century China—and has influenced culture in China ever since.
Part 1 of this volume, “Materials,” provides information and resources that will help teachers and students begin and pursue their study of Stone. The essays that constitute part 2, “Approaches,” introduce major topics to be covered in the classroom: Chinese religion, medicine, history, traditions of poetry, material culture, sexual mores, servants, Stone in film and on television, and the formidable challenges of translation into English that were faced by David Hawkes and then by John Minford.
Maram Epstein
Mary Ellen Friends
Charlotte Furth
Martin Huang
Ling Hon Lam
Dore J. Levy
Christopher Lupke
Keith McMahon
Tobie Meyer-Fong
James A. Millward
John Minford
Susan Naquin
Ni Yibin
Evelyn S. Rawski
Haun Saussy
Mary Scott
Meir Shahar
Shang Wei
Matthew H. Sommer
Xiaojue Wang
I-Hsien Wu
Xueping Zhong
Acknowledgments (xi)
Preface, on Citation and Orthography (1)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Introduction (5)
Materials in the Hawkes and Minford Translation (7)
Editions and Translations
Chinese Texts and Editions (9)
English Translations (14)
Commonly Taught Selections (16)
Naming Practices and Glossary of Names (21)
Chronologies and Maps (25)
Study Questions (34)
The Instructor’s and Students’ Library
Entries in Reference Works (46)
Introductions in Anthologies (47)
Biographical Resources (47)
Critical Studies: Articles and Book Chapters (48)
Historical and Cultural Contexts: Books (50)
Critical Studies on Stone: Books (51)
Selected Web Sites (55)
Film and Television Resources (55)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction (59)
Getting Started
Authorship and The Story of the Stone: Open Questions (70)
Five Questions for a New Reader of The Story of the Stone: A Historian’s Primer for Volume 1 (78)
Readership and Reading Practices: The Story of the Stone in Premodern China (95)
The End of Stone (103)
Historical and Cultural Contexts
The Garden and Garden Culture in The Story of the Stone (115)
Religion in The Story of the Stone (133)
The Banner Story of the Stone (144)
Bao-yu’s Education (159)
Medicine in The Story of the Stone: Four Cases (164)
Scandal in the Garden: The Story of the Stone as a Licentious Novel (186)
A Question of Taste: Material Culture, Connoisseurship, and Character in The Story of the Stone (208)
Three Questions about Stone: Men, Riches, and Religion (218)
Material Culture Matters in The Story of the Stone (226)
Identity and Intertextuality in The Story of the Stone
The Story of the Stone and Its Antecedents (259)
Dreams, Subjectivity, and Identity in Stone (274)
The Capillaries of Power: Hierarchy and Servitude in The Story of the Stone (283)
“Enlightenment through Feelings”: Poetry, Music, and Drama in The Story of the Stone (296)
Making Sense of Bao-yu: Staging Ideology and Aesthetics (317)
Afterlives of The Story of the Stone
Truth and Fiction in the Translating of The Story of the Stone (334)
The Story of the Stone and Its Visual Representations, 1791–1919 (346)
Sequels to Stone: Polygamous Harmony and the Theme of Female Talent (381)
The Stone Phenomenon and Its Transformation from 1791 to 1919 (390)
Stone in Modern China: Literature, Politics, and Culture (413)
The Story of the Stone on Television (427)
Pedagogical Contexts
Bao-yu Goes to High School (442)
Bao-yu’s Multimedia Classroom: Reading, Performance, and the Vicissitudes of the Voice from The Story of the Stone to Its Film Adaptations (454)
The Story of the Stone and World Literature (475)
Notes on Contributors (479)
Works Cited (481)
Index of Chinese Classic Texts (507)
Index of Names (509)
