Some notes on The Story of the Stone, Volume 1: The Golden Days (c. 1760 or maybe 1792) by Cao Xueqin, the first of the five volumes of the Penguin edition of the greatest Chinese novel.
I don’t like writing about a book before I have finished it,
but in a sense I did finish a book, right, so why not. I am keenly aware that the novel has another 94
chapters and two thousand pages to go.
Well, 92 chapters, since I have begun the second volume.
From this text, I would never guess that The Story of the
Stone is the greatest Chinese novel or even guess the grounds on which the
claim could be made. I will expand on
that a bit.
“To hear you talk, it doesn’t sound as if all your years of play-going have taught you much,” said Bao-chai. “This is an excellent play, both from the point of view of the music and of the words.”
“I can’t stand noisy plays,” said Bao-yu. “I never could.”
“If you call this a noisy play,” said Bao-chai, “it proves that you don’t know what you’re talking about… That means, musically speaking, that it is in a vigorous, somewhat staccato style. In fact the musical excellence of this piece goes without saying. But apart form that, the libretto is good, too.” (Ch. 22, 435)
All references are to the landmark 1973 David Hawkes
translation.
The Story of the Stone is, in large part, a teenage
love triangle set in a fairy garden, a so-called Young Adult romantasy. The characters above, magically-born Bao-yu
and the perfect Bao-chai, are two-thirds of the love triangle. Aren’t they adorable, what with their
literary criticism? Tragically, although
Bao-chai loves Bao-Yu, he loves the third side of the triangle.
What is “great”? The
Story of the Stone is written in the vernacular rather than classical
register, and had a significant effect on literary Chinese language, perhaps,
as I take it, like Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1827 / 1842) had
on literary Italian. All of this is
invisible to me.
Visual artists have looted the novel for illustrations. The characters and scenes are famous from
paintings, prints, and film and television adaptations. I assume comic books, too. Potentially visible to me. I should see if there is a book of artistic
responses to the novel. Please recommend
if you know of such a thing. The
Wikipedia entry for The Story of the Stone has many interesting examples, one of which I borrowed, although it depicts a scene from the second
volume of the translation.
Those are two objective reasons, a step removed from the
text, for “great.”
Cao Xueqin’s language, as Hawkes writes it, is vigorous and
somewhat staccato, often plain with lots of dialogue and minimal metaphor and
scenes that would not be written so differently if they were in a play. Descriptions are elaborate but reserved for
clothing, furniture, and an extraordinary garden. Descriptions often resemble, or are, lists. Or inventories:
“Curtains, large and small, in various silks and satins – flowered, dragon-spot, sprigged, tapestry, panelled, ink-splash: one hundred and twenty. – Eighty of those were delivered yesterday. That leaves forty to come. – Blinds: two hundred. – Yes. They all arrived yesterday. But then there are the special ones. – Blinds, scarlet felt: two hundred. Speckled bamboo: one hundred. [skipping more kinds of bamboo] – Chair-covers, table-drapes, valances, tablecloths: one thousand two hundred of each” (17, 333)
Not the sort of prose I call great, yet I read this particular chapter with fascination. But look how long I am running. More tomorrow. The garden, the poetry, and more teenagers in love. “Each night I ask the stars up above / Why must I be a teenager in love?” That is Dion, not Cao Xueqin, although it would make a good epigraph for The Story of the Stone.
I was interested in this post as a few months ago I finished the Japanese Tale of Genji, another enormous tome. I've not read much Chinese literature, so will wait for your next post eagerly.i think I shall look for a copy in the meantime.
ReplyDeleteI feel I am going a long way to say little, but certainly the novel, or this first fifth of it, is interesting enough. I have not read much Chinese literature either, and the largest part of that by far has been poetry, much of it a thousand years older than this novel. One reason I am a bit at sea. I have now learned that I ought to be reading classic Chinese plays. Story of the Stone is giving me a reading list.
ReplyDeleteI hope to get to Genji soon. The central male characters in a world of women is a curious parallel between the two big novels.
I've had a copy of Vol. 1 for many years and felt guilty I'd never given it a shot. Now I don't feel so guilty. Doesn't sound like my kind of thing -- certainly not for five volumes and thousands of pages.
ReplyDeleteSo I spent the past few years promoting Cao Xueqin's book but now Tom has undone it all 😒
ReplyDeleteI am not much of a promoter, that is true.
ReplyDeleteThe Hawkes translation is meant to be readable, and succeeds, but languagehat, and I, really, would like be happier with a more foreignized translation with several hundred pages of notes. Even if we never finished the thing. I may never finish it, who knows, although I likely will. Highly readable.
I will take a break at some point, though, to read one of the antecedent plays. That should be interesting.
On my blog, I did talk about the differences between that translation & the Vietnamese translation. The latter has more tone, I think.
ReplyDelete