Dream Of The Red Chamber Family Tree
The dream of the red chamber is one of china s greatest classical novels written around the middle of the 18th century during the qing dynasty by cao xueqin.
Dream of the red chamber family tree. The basic storyline of a dream of red mansions focuses primarily on the chia family there are two dukes in the family duke ning kuo and duke jung kuo. It is a most complex work a semi autobiographical novel focusing on the saga of the author s own family throwing light on the qing dynasty. Check out the family tree we created to showcase the complicated relationships in this new work. A performance of dream of the red chamber at the cairo opera house in 2010.
What was the historical context in which dream of the red chamber was written. Dream of the red chamber is an 18th century novel written by cao zhan that is generally considered to be the greatest novel of chinese literature. The setting of the story is based on the political social and cultural environment of the ming dynasty 1368 1644 the final stage of the classic chinese civilisation. Each new chapter circulated among family and friends often in exchange for a.
Cao xueqin s dream of the red chamber was written in the mid 1700 s during the qing pronounced ching dynasty 1644 1911 during the qing china was occupied by the manchus semi nomadic invaders from the north skilled in horseback riding and the military arts who overthrew the. Also called the chinese romeo and juliet dream of the red chamber is an epic tale including over 400 main characters. We ve narrowed it down to the characters that appear in our upcoming world premiere and their immediate family. Dream of the red chamber s textual history is involved and complex and has long been a subject of critical scrutiny debate and conjecture.
There is a whole scholarly field redology devoted to the study of the novel. Cao xueqin a member of an eminent family that had served the qing dynasty emperors but whose fortunes had begun to decline began composing dream of the red chamber during the 1740s. Chia fu the elder grandson of duke ning kuo dies young so the second grandson chia ching succeeds to the title after the death of his father chia tai hua. Dream of the red chamber also called the story of the stone composed by cao xueqin is one of china s four great classical novels it was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the qing dynasty long considered a masterpiece of chinese literature the novel is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of chinese fiction.